Distance: 27.3 mi.
Elevation Gain: 7500 ft.
My brother scheduled to visit town and I decided to take Friday off as a result. He had a bad skiing accident the previous winter that resulted in some fractured vertebrae in his back and neck. He hadn’t really carried a heavy pack since then but he had been able to run a trail half marathon the week before. Given that, we wanted to do something somewhat ambitious over two days with the option for me to carry almost everything if his back started to hurt.
I had been wanting to get into the Bulls Tooth area for a while. I had previously been to Frosty Pass and was thinking we could link that too. Vanessa wasn’t up for an overnight trip this weekend but wanted to do a day hike with us. We were planning to be in Leavenworth for the rest of the weekend, so it worked out perfectly for us to through hike the trip and exit via Icicle Creek.
We left town at a reasonable hour after making some waffles for breakfast. We easily made our way over Stevens Pass and then turned right at the Nordic center and headed up the Mill Creek road until the Fit couldn’t really go much further. We ended up stopping about 1.5 miles before where the road meets the PCT. A high clearance vehicle could make it further, but the road is really pretty rough and your typical Subaru might even have trouble.
We hiked quickly up the steep road to meet the PCT at about 11 AM. This was a majority of our elevation gain before heading up the Chain Lakes trail. I think it was still worth coming in this way, as it was still fewer miles and elevation gain than starting right at Stevens Pass. From here the trail was easy to follow around Lake Susan Jane and on to where the Icicle Creek trail splits off just above Josephine Lake.
We made good time on the trail down to the outlet of Josephine Lake just after noon where we had lunch. We chatted with a nice gentleman that was fishing. The weather was very pleasant and the bugs were pretty minimal. After lunch Vanessa headed back to the car and Matt and I descended Icicle Creek until the trail split for Chain Lakes trail. This trail goes up very steeply until reaching the first chain lake. It was about 2:30 at this point and we stashed our overnight gear in some trees before heading up the Southeast ridge of Lemool. This ridge was generally pretty easy to follow but we had to switch sides of the ridge to avoid brush.
We had good views of Bulls Tooth and the chain lakes from here, but the views were limited beyond because of clouds. We made our way down and set up camp at the east end of the second chain lake. After setting up camp we started up towards Bulls Tooth at around 4. We traversed around the 3rd chain lake and then up some slabs to the giant talus of the west gully of Bulls Tooth. We tried to stay on heather slopes when possible to avoid loose rock. We aimed for a notch between two sub-summits of the main summit and did a brief 3rd class scramble southward to the summit.
We were socked in at this point and only briefly got views out toward the Enchantments. We headed back down just before 5 and stayed in the gully a bit longer on the way down and then followed the shore of the 3rd chain lake back to camp. We did some fishing before dinner and enjoyed some fun catching 8 or so trout with some other missed opportunities. We ended up keeping two trout in the 9-10 inch range and fried them up in some bacon grease I brought along; a great first course to the Idahoan mashed potatoes and bacon we had brought for dinner.
As it was getting dark things really started to fog in. We couldn’t see more than a few feet by the time we went to sleep and we were pretty continually lightly rained on through the night. We awoke in the same dense fog with everything being pretty well soaked but it started to lighten up as soon as it was getting light. We picked a few blueberries from local bushes to add to our morning oatmeal and pack up our drenched camping gear.
We backtracked a bit and found a place where we could go up talus to the trail that continues on to Doelle Lakes. The trail made its way up and over the pass and down to the upper lake where we followed a ridge to the northeast to get to Doughgob. We dropped our packs at the base of the peak and started up toward the southern point until we traversed the west side to the ridge that heads north toward the true summit. This traverse is not worth it. Going up and over the south summit is easier as we found on our return trip. There was some brief 3rd class scrambling, but the travel was mostly pretty easy.
We backtracked to our packs and then dropped southeastward into the meadows below Doughgob. We weren’t sure if we would find much for a trail but once we reached the bottom the old abandoned trail was quite obvious. We followed the old trail to the east toward Frosty Pass and it was all in good condition until we got to a large meadowy basin north of Frosty Mountain. Here the old trail on the map stays high in traversing the basin, but we were suckered down in to the lower meadows by various climbers trails. There was also some landslides in here that may have taken out some of the trail. We eventually crossed the basin to where my map said we should be again, requiring some more ascent. Sure enough, when we made it to that point the trail was quite obvious again.
We easily made our way to Frosty Pass and continued on down toward Margaret Lake to have some lunch. We did some quick fishing while eating and found a place where we had just enough room to cast into the lake. The fish were going bonkers here. Just getting a fly into the water was guarantee of a bite. Often there were several fish fighting over the fly. In the brief half hour or so we spent fishing we caught 6 or 7 fish and missed countless others, all in the 6-9 inch range. A fun lunch time diversion.
We packed up again and prepared for the long slog out to the Icicle Creek trailhead. We made a few more stops along to way to rest our feet and Matt’s back, but we did pretty well cruising out by about 4 pm. Vanessa showed up shortly after to pick us up so we could enjoy the rest of the weekend in Leavenworth with friends. It was a great trip and great to spend time outside with my brother again!
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Recommended brew: Great Divide 25th Anniversary Big Yeti
Gear Used:
- Backpacking tent
- Fishing pole
- GPS
- Helmet
- Sleeping pad
- Summer sleeping bag
- Stove
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
- Water filter
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