Twenty years ago I hiked in to Upper Cathedral as part of a 2 day forced march round trip (leave school, catch a ferry, drive to the Methow Valley, hit the trail head at 7 pm Friday night, hike until 11 pm, camp, get up hike until Upper Cathedral Lake, strip, jump in, jump out, turn around, loop by lower cathedral, head back toward the trailhead, camp, get up, hike out, drive home, go to sleep, get up and go to school. I think that it was a 55 mile round trip once the side loop to lower cathedral was factored in.) The first morning I got up and hit the trail at first light, only to be passed by a hunter on a horse with a pack horse complete with cast iron skillets bouncing off of its flanks. At the time I cursed the packer and the horses (and the gifts they were leaving on the trail for me), but when I caught up with them at about 10 am (at some lake who's name I do not remember), the hunter proffered up a breakfast of fresh caught trout dipped in flour and fried in butter in one of those cast iron skillets. He said that it had only taken him 15' to catch his breakfast (and mine.) As I continued on to Upper Cathedral with a full belly, my appreciation for horse packing changed.
I guess that I would third (of fourth) the recommendation of the Pasayten Wilderness as a beautiful area in this state to spend a few days, especially if you get up to the high alpine regions close to the border. If I remember correctly, some of the high alpine regions actually meet the technical definition of tundra (or some other category that is more common to more northerly environs and not otherwise found in WA,) so it is quite unique to this state. The open terrain (as mentioned previously) means that you can pick a point and hike to it, without a trail, nor constant fear of losing ones way in the woods, or running in to impenetrable blow downs, steep cliffs etc. I was sans rod, so can't really testify to the fishing beyond that trout breakfast, but the Boundary Trail has remained on my list of To Do's ever since (I'm still waiting on acquiring the pack horses to facilitate it...) Tight lines, Andy PS For you Columbia Basin types, I saw callibaetis on several E WA lakes this last weekend and seined out two water scorpions, one of which survived the trip home and is residing in the bug tank in the basement. If anyone is interested, drop me an e-mail and I will send some pics. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ronald Dion Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2005 1:38 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: looking for trip ideas I've been there more than once. A raft is required to really get the best fishing at these lakes, esp. Hidden Lakes. Middle Hidden, by far the best, had rainbows in the 20 - 23 inch range, smaller 'bows as well and some brookies. These lakes are not really in alpine settings, but sit in a valley. If alpine setting is desired, I'd recommend going to the Cathedral lakes area and going to Tungsten lake, which is off the beaten-path. Another option would be to go past the Hidden Lakes on up to Tatoosh Buttes where you'll find White Lakes, Ptarmigan Lake, and Dot Lake, with Dot Lake having the most/largest fish (up to 16"). Not many folks get to Dot Lake!!! Hiking this Butte is off-trail but it is WIDE OPEN alpine country. You can walk just about anywhere! It's beautiful up there! Ron On Thursday, April 7, 2005, at 09:41 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Cougar and Hidden Lakes.
