Trappers Peak

If at first you don’t succeed, try again. And maybe again. That was the situation for me with Trappers Peak in North Cascades National Park. This amazing spot took me three times to finally summit, but in the end, it was worth it!

A small creek below my turnaround point, just below the park boundary.

Trappers is a bit of a hidden gem in the North Cascades. Lots of people are pretty content to drive past it and head up to Diablo Lake, or head further east out of the park to the Rainy and Washington Pass area. But Trappers is interesting in its own right as it is on the wet, west side of the park, and as such the landscape here looks quite different. Additionally, the drive is pretty straightforward, with just a short dirt road to drive from Highway 20. I think the reason more people don’t come here (aside from it being relatively unknown) is that the trail is pretty steep in spots, but it isn’t any worse than other trails in the area.

This trail actually has several different destinations. The trail proper attains a pass and then descends (steeply of course) to Lower Thornton Lake, which is an interesting destination in its own right. A couple of campsites can be found at the outlet of the lake. Above this lake are Middle and Upper Thornton Lakes, which require a bit of bushwhacking. Instead of descending to the lake, one can climb to Trappers Peak, which is a bit of a “scramble” although there is a trail the whole way. Additionally, there is access from here to X Mountain and a few of the other peaks in the area. Further explorations are possible to climb Mt. Triumph. Of these, I think Trappers has the best bang for the buck, at least for most hikers.

My first attempt on Trappers was back in 2016. I had read the trip reports and understood that the first two miles of the hike was on an old forest road that is often overgrown with Devil’s Club. Hiking this trail in the morning or after any type of rain means slogging the two miles through wet brush. So, I thought I would get ahead of the game and bring rain pants on the day I went to keep myself dry. I set off on the road, got to the steep part, and headed up. I had just crossed into the park boundary when I realized I had left my camera on a sling hanging down on my side, and it was soaked. So much so that I managed to get a handful of pictures and then it died. With no working camera, and with the weather deteriorating a bit from the forecast, I decided to call it a day and head home to dry my gear. Thankfully my camera eventually dried out and started working again!

I didn’t make another attempt on Trappers until 5 years later, but this year I decided to give it another go. From my first experience, I knew that protecting my gear was paramount (isn’t it always?!?) and also that the rain pants strategy was solid. I also knew that weather would be a big part of any successful attempt. Clear skies would work of course, but since the trail starts reasonably low and climbs to around 6,000 feet, it’s also possible that on days where there is fog or a marine layer to climb above the clouds. It was on one of those kind of days that I made my second attempt. It was actually raining when I started walking, but I was in rain gear and had also brought my awesome clip-on hiking umbrella, so I was nice and dry. I had my camera in a Hyperlite Camera Pod, so it was protected. As I worked my way up, the forest got foggier and foggier, which made for some amazing scenes. I love shooting the forest in the fog!

Despite the beautiful forest scenes, the situation was pretty grim at the pass. The clouds were thicker than down low, and it was raining harder. I stopped for lunch and ran into a hiker that had gone up Trappers and reported it socked in. Another hiker was going to go up and wait it out, but I did a quick check of the weather and confirmed that it wasn’t supposed to clear. So, I reluctantly packed it up and headed back down, determined to try another day.

A few weeks later, the weather opened for a 3rd attempt. This time, the challenge wasn’t rain or clouds, but fires. In the weeks before, numerous lightning storms had passed through the area, and a few new wildfires had started. I hate hiking in smoke, so I did a lot of studying of the forecast, and was confident that everything would be good on the day I went up. But on the drive up, when I got to Marblemount, I noticed I was completely socked in with smoke. I pulled over to study the forecast, after some research, decided that it was probably going to be okay on Trappers, so I decided to make an attempt.

When I got to the parking lot and got out of my car, I immediately smelled smoke. “Oh no!” I thought. But, I had driven all the way here, and the smoke wasn’t that bad, so I decided to press on. I figured that maybe the smoke was hanging down in the valley, and that by climbing higher I’d get above it. I made quick work of the road section and then moved quickly up the steep part too. From time to time I could smell smoke, but it seemed to be getting better. Eventually, as I crossed the park boundary and neared the pass, the smell disappeared altogether, and I found myself under blue skies. After reaching the pass, I made my way up Trappers, and finally about 45 minutes later, I was standing on the summit. And what a summit it is - the views from here are stupendous. Mt. Triumph looms large over the lake basin. Mt. Despair and the Pickets also are stars. 360 degree views in all directions. Just awesome.

The view from the summit of Trappers.

Mt. Triumph

Mt. Despair

A panorama I took from the summit. Upper Thornton Lake is at left. Triumph and Despair at middle left. The Pickets are in the distance at right.

Smoke and haze in the valley below.

A trailside bear I spotted on the way down.

More smoke and haze.

It was a super stunning place, and it was hard to leave. The weather and light wasn’t all that great for photography, but I didn’t really care, as the setting was lovely and it felt good to finally summit the peak after my previous attempts. I made my way down and enjoyed the satisfaction of finishing as I walked through the woods. Just below the pass, that satisfaction was partially interrupted by a noise in the woods - turns out it was a bear! I love bears and love seeing them in the woods. This bear was only about 30 yards away, happily feeding on berries. I watched him for a while by myself, and eventually another party came up on me. I didn’t get very many good pictures of him due to the position he was in, but I didn’t care as it was just nice to see the bear!

Trappers is a great spot, and despite having to visit three times to summit, it was fun to see it in different conditions, and maybe that’s why I had so much fun with it. I like to explore new places, but I also like to visit the same places over and over and see how they change. It provides a great chance to see things that I didn’t notice before, and maybe see the same thing in new light. It’s a strategy I highly recommend!