Journey to the East

At its widest, the Cascades stretch nearly 100 miles from the Twin Sisters Range to the Sinlaheken River Valley in the Okanogan. Over that distance, the terrain changes from glaciated peaks, to dry craggy peaks, to high tundra plateaus. The far eastern extent of the Cascades, in the heart of the vast Pasayten Wilderness, could hardly feel less Cascadian.

I have been drawn to this area in the far east ever since exploring the vast landscapes of the Pasayten with a backpacking trip to Ashnola Meadows in 2017. Inspired by the remote feel of the area, I wanted to someday do a big loop incorporating the Boundary Trail and Cathedral area. I knew it would shine most during larch season, but because of the long miles and drive, I just never got around to it. This year, I decided I should finally get out there.

The obvious route is a 62 mile loop from the Chewuch River to Windy Peak and Horseshoe Basin, and then along the Boundary Trail to Cathedral Lake, and back along the Chewuch Trail. I had hoped that one day I would be in shape to run this entire route in one short autumn day (only 12 hours of daylight), but I am coming to terms that I may never have that fitness. So instead, I planned a two-day fastpack of the route. My birthday weekend arrived with great weather, and I “recruited” Jack to come along with me.

We knocked out the drive Friday evening and got started before dawn on Saturday. After five mostly flat miles along the river, we turned right onto the Cathedral Driveway trail, taking us to the Cathedral Driveway Trailhead. After a stop at the immaculate bathroom (it even had extra TP!), we continued along the road to the Windy Peak Trailhead. Suddenly, it occurred to us that we could have cut at least 10 miles off the route by starting here instead of where we started. But alas, it was too late!

The Windy Peak Trail gradually climbs through the aftermath of the 2006 Tripod Fire. The Pasayten has seen many massive fires in the last few decades, so trips out here are a study in fire ecology, watching how the landscape and forest changes. It can also be a bit of a crapshoot with regards to blowdowns on the trails. Fortunately, we had heard that all these trails were in pretty good shape from our friend Daniel, who was out here earlier this year on a big North Cascades crossing.

As we neared the upper reaches of Windy Peak, we found a gorgeous larch meadow that escaped the upper reaches of the burn. We also found a beautiful spring, which was a key water source.

As we crested the ridge, we were greeted with a cold wind and wide open views of the Eastern Pasayten – beautiful “country”. We could see Remmel, Cathedral, and the high meadows of Horseshoe Basin – our entire route. The scale of the valley was massive.

We took a quick side trip to bag Windy Peak, the eastern-most top-100 peak in the state.

The trail down the north side passed through some larch meadows, then more extensive burn from the Tripod Fire. The trail here had some blowdowns and could occasionally be harder to follow, but it was not too bad overall.

After a few rougher miles, we emerged into famous Horseshoe Basin. I had heard much lore about the sprawling wildflower meadows and high tundra slopes. The flowers were long gone, but I could feel the mystique of the area as I watched the boundless grasses sway in the breeze. Jack said it best – this is the kind of country that makes you just want to sit on a horse.

As we rounded the north side of Rock Mountain, we encountered the first larches since Windy Peak. The 2023 Crater Creek fire had burned up to the trail, but most of the larches remained unscathed.

For the next few miles, we crossed the Crater Creek burn zone. Being such a fresh burn, the ground was charred, along with the trees. Incredibly, the trail was in perfect condition through this zone. In fact, during our entire 20 miles on the Boundary Trail, we encountered not a single blowdown! The Pacific Northwest Trail Association, along with other groups like the Backcountry Horsemen, have done incredible work logging out this remote trails in the Pasayten. Thank you so much to them.

However, the burn zone was rather short, and soon enough, we reentered the standard mixed larch and evergreen forests of the Pasayten. While not the most stunning mile for mile, this section of the Boundary Trail is incredibly smooth. You get nice views of little granite domes and the wide open Chewuch River Valley. The vibes are wonderful.

We were both tiring at over 30 miles for the day. My hamstrings were still wrecked from a 400m repeat workout I did earlier in the week with the high school cross country team I am coaching. Eventually, our shuffling gave way to simply walking. We started to look for a campsite to settle down for the evening when we noticed a mine marked on the map. I recalled hearing about the Tungsten Mine and figured that would probably be a good camp spot.

The Tungsten Mine started around the turn of the 20th century. While it has been inactive since the 1940s, there were periods when dozens of men worked in this remote location, even year round. There are two structures remaining – a larger mess hall and a smaller cabin.

There are plenty of campsites and running water nearby, so we called it a day after 38 miles. The sunset was muted, but we enjoyed the view of Apex Mountain, the same view miners would have had 100 years ago.

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High clouds stayed overnight and into the next morning. We were treated to some nice alpenglow on Apex before we got moving.

Heading west on the Boundary Trail, we entered more larches around the next pass. Here the trail really got stunning, with expansive views of Remmel, Amphitheater, and Cathedral. We stopped and just waited for the light to bathe Cathedral.

This is a beautiful landscape of larches and granite, an autumn cathedral. It might be a long way in, but this section of trail is as beautiful as it gets.

From Cathedral Pass, we left the trail and ascended towards Cathedral Peak. The scramble was actually very interesting, with fun route finding and a handful of tricky little moves.

When we got to the famous “leap of faith”, we decided it seemed a bit unnecessarily risky, so we scrambled exposed 3rd class around it easily. The jump didn’t seem too hard, but if you mess up, you fall into a deep chasm, so we felt no reason to risk it.

Despite being on the far eastern edge of the range, Cathedral Peak has excellent summit views. We could see all the way to Mt. Baker and Glacier Peak. Fresh snow coated Jack Mountain, the giant of the western Pasayten. All around us, we saw endless mountains and plateaus. Once again, the scale of the Pasayten is simply stunning.

We dropped back down to the trail and continued to Cathedral Lake. The lake was perfectly calm and deserted, even on this gorgeous “Larch Madness” weekend. In fact, we only saw 2 people all trip!

From this point, we had 20 miles back to the car. The first few miles around Amphitheater were beautiful, with great views of Remmel.

When we entered the 2017 Diamond Creek Fire, the trail took a turn downhill (literally). There were blowdowns and overgrown brush. But the worst part was the rocky soil. It seems that much of the soil has washed away after the burn, leaving the terrain much more rugged. We traveled through a 1 year old burn and 20 year old burn earlier in the trip, but this 7 year old burn was definitely the worst!

After a few miles, we abruptly returned to a more mature Lodgepole Pine forest and the trail was suddenly perfect – almost wide enough to drive a car. The Lodgepoles were uniform in size, suggesting that they all had the same age. Lodgepoles require fire to reproduce, so it was interesting to observe the rebirth of forests throughout the trip.

We were feeling fatigued with nearly 60 miles over two days on our legs, but managed to shuffle ~15 min miles most of the way out. Through the last few miles, we wandered through some gorgeous aspen groves, twinkling in the breeze.

The last few miles hurt, but we jogged it in. We covered 65 miles over the two days with overnight gear – and still had plenty of daylight to start the long drive home. I don’t fastpack often, but this felt like the perfect application of it!

The Windy Cathedral Loop has been many years in the making. For a long time, I have stared at the map, envisioning the high plateaus of the Pasayten, and the golden larches against the dark granite of Cathedral and Amphitheater. This corner of the Cascades isn’t the most stunning, or even the hardest to get to. But it holds a unique vibe that makes it special. Like many places, the Pasayten Wilderness isn’t just about what you see, but also about what you feel.

Notes:

• Our route was 65 miles and 12k gain. Most of that gain is in the first 20 or so miles.
• You could save 10 miles by starting at the Cathedral Driveway Trailhead. The drive might be a bit longer for most westsiders, however. You can save even more mileage, and avoid a few miles of road running, by taking the Windy Creek Trail, which starts from the Cathedral Driveway Trailhead. If I was trying to run this in a day, I would do one of these shorter options.
• Overall, the terrain was quite runnable. The section from Windy Peak to Sunny Pass wasn’t always great, and the burn from the Diamond Creek Fire along the Chewuch Trail was annoying. The Boundary Trail was incredible to run.
• We generally found plentiful water. There was only once source between Cathedral Driveway and Windy Peak though – a small spring in the high larch meadow.
• There are typically good camping options every few miles along the Boundary Trail.
• While the Chewuch Trail wasn’t awful, there were a few miles of unpleasant, rocky burn. If you want to avoid this, you could reverse course and descend the Tungsten Mine Trail. None of this terrain has burned recently, so the trail is likely much better.