Distance: 14.6 mi.
Elevation Gain: 5500 ft.
I had ascended Mt. Daniel as one of my first hike/climbs in Washington back in 2008. Unfortunately this meant it was before I owned a GPS and that meant there was a gaping hole on my Google Earth where that track should have been. At the time it seemed like a big feat to try to do Mt. Daniel in a day, but now that isn’t such a big deal. I talked Rodrigo into going out because he had expressed interest and hadn’t been there yet.
We made the long drive out to the end of the Cle Elum River Road, along with many others of course and started out hike at about 8:45. We powered up the trail through the initial steep switchbacks and then past Squaw Lake at a lesser incline. We crossed the ridge south of Cathedral Rock at about 10:15 and found a place to stash our ice axes and crampons, since we had talked to some others that said there was no snow on the route…I should have known better. Good training weight.
We then made the slight descent and found the rough spur trail that heads to Peggy’s Pond. The trail is easy to follow but is a bit scrambly in 1 or two places. We arrived at Peggy’s Pond with limited views up the route. There were clouds hanging on the ridge above us but no rain in the forecast.
We followed the obvious trail up the SE ridge of Daniel passing through some brush and then heather meadows and then easy scrambling on the rocky ridge. It was all quite easy until the ridge steepens at 7200′. This is where some people head north off the ridge and take a snow field to bypass the steeper ridge (what I did last time) but we had heard the ridge was alright.
What looked occasionally difficult ended up being pretty easy and only ventured into 3rd class a few times. We reached the notch just south of the east peak of Daniel and elected to go the rest of the way up. It was quite easy but we were completely socked in at this point. We made it up the east peak just after noon.
We made the mistake of dropping off the west ridge of the east peak to go to the main summit. From the little we could see in the fog we thought it would be fine and my gps topo map didn’t look too intimidating. We ended up doing some pretty spicy scrambling with loose rock on hardpan at times but eventually made our way down to the climbers trail. It would have been easier to descend the way we ascended the east peak.
We then easily made our way to the true summit of Daniel (just before 1) and enjoyed a beer while completely socked in. We didn’t spend long since we were getting cold. We followed the path back to the south ridge of the east peak and retraced our steps back to Peggy’s Pond at 2:45. We took a little break here where I tried to fish. I didn’t actually see any fish and quickly gave up. We strolled the rest of the way down the trail and were back at the car at 4:50. A good day out for a day without perfect weather and now I have my GPS track!
(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: Rogue Outta Line IPA
Gear Used:
- Fishing pole
- GPS
- Helmet
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
- Crampons (not used)
- Ice Axe (not used)
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