1980: The Boundary Trail, page 11

Hidden Lakes Shelter.

Day five, Friday
10:33 AM, Hidden Lakes Shelter

As you can see we're still at Hidden Lakes shelter. We spent last night with Ranger Leonard, who set up his bedroll just outside the shelter door. For some reason Micki didn't like him and started to growl every time he would enter the shelter. He used his radio to get the weather report this morning and said showers are forecast for tonight and tomorrow, with the snow level dropping to 4000'.

He told me that he infrequently checks for the weather forecast because, “I have to be out here no matter.” 

4000' … crap!  The rain I can deal with, but since I did not bring my boots and I'm hiking in my sneakers, I do not like that low snow level. Micki and I will for sure spend the day resting here, then we have a couple of options.

First, we can climb up to the Pacific Crest Trail via Frosty Creek. It's 35-miles to Holman Pass that way and consistently above 6000'.  The second option is to follow the West Fork of the Pasaytan River. It's only 22-miles to Holman Pass that way and mostly below 5000'.  I think we will do the latter.

With a full day's rest and relatively easy terrain – as versus the ups and down of the Crest – we could knock off the distance to the Holman Creek trail in one day.  Then I can decide whether to hop up onto the Crest or follow the West Fork trail all the way to Hart's Pass.

If the weather really does turn bad, I can try to hitch out at Hart's Pass to Winthrop or Mazama. If the weather seems okay, I can blitz from Harts Pass to my meet point at Lake Ann in two to three days.  Then I can just set up camp and wait for my pickup party.

Counting from tomorrow, I have 7 1/2 days left to get to Lake Ann, which is just south of the North Cascades Highway at Rainy Pass.  That means I could stay here two more days and try to wait out the weather.