Hidden Lake Peaks - 9.27.2017
From Hwy 20, turn onto the Cascade River Road and drive 9.7 miles and turn left onto FS-1540... then drive 4.7 miles to the trailhead (~3520') for Hidden Lake... our trip was 7.4 miles roundtrip, gaining 3697 feet of elevation.
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After hiking the trail for approximately one mile, we have crossed the east fork of Sibley Creek and can see Sibley Peak above... with Sibley Pass to the right of the peak.
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On the trail... switchbacking our way up toward Sibley Pass... Sibley Peak is to the left of the pass.
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After hiking a total of 1.9 miles we have left the main trail at ~5370 feet and are following a faint path of sorts up toward Sibley Pass.
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On our way to Sibley Pass... much steeper than it looks here... unbeknownst to us, we are off route and should have stayed on the main trail for another 50 yards or so... where we would have found a much more obvious path leading up to the pass.
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At ~5920 feet we realized our route error and started working our way south across a gully and over to the correct route... Sibley Peak is behind us.
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On the correct side of the drainage now... just below Sibley Pass... looking down the drainage for the east fork of Sibley Creek.
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After hiking a total of 2.3 miles we have reached Sibley Pass (~6060')... Sibley Peak is in the left foreground... a good path leads from the pass up to the summit... which we will do on another day... The Triad is on the right.
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Looking south from Sibley Pass... we can see Hidden Lake Peaks on the horizon just to the left of the bump in the foreground.
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This is the second of two bumps that we had to cross over on our way to Hidden Lake Peaks from Sibley Pass.
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Looking back across Sibley Pass to some really nice looking terrain as we continue along the north ridge of Hidden Lake Peaks... the red line shows the approximate obvious path that leads up to Sibley Peak.
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Let the boulder hopping begin... and there will plenty of them on the way to the summit.
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BarbE and Shona working the boulders along the north ridge of Hidden Lake Peaks.
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BarbE takes a break on the north ridge of Hidden Lake Peaks.
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Continuing up along the north ridge of Hidden Lake Peaks.
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Some peak identification north of us.
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Snowdog deals with a couple of snow patches that we found along the north ridge of Hidden Lake Peaks.
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More boulders.
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Finally... we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
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Looking back to the north as we near the summit block of Hidden Lake Peaks.
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BarbE is almost on the summit.
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A selfie from the summit (7088') of Hidden Lake Peaks... BarbE, Snowdog, me and Shona... on the far right the Quien Sabe Glacier sits just below the the summits of Boston Peak and Sahale Mountain.
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In the right-center of the photo Eldorado Peak dwarfs The Triad... Early Morning Spire and the Dorado Needle Group are left-center.
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Forbidden Peak is left-center... with Boston Peak and Sahale Mountain above the glacier in the right-center.
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Peak identification looking SE and south from the summit of Hidden Lake Peaks.
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BarbE splits Mt. Baker (left) and Mt. Shuksan... the snowy ones on the horizon.
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We have left the summit... working our way down the SW ridge of Hidden Lake Peaks in search of the main trail.
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Hiking down along the SW ridge of Hidden Lake Peaks.
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Looks like we have found a dance floor on the SW ridge of Hidden Lake Peaks.
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Leaving the dance floor and continuing down.
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Looking back at the summit of Hidden Lake Peaks... with Forgotten, Boston and Sahale on the right.
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Snowdog found a very narrow ramp on the SW ridge of Hidden Lake Peaks.
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We have found the trail... here we are looking up at the Hidden Lake Lookout which is up there on top of the rock formation in the center of the photo.
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More peak identification as we hike the trail back to the car.
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On the trail... traversing underneath Hidden Lake Peaks... Sibley Peak is above on the right... we have almost closed the loop portion of our trip... leaving a two mile hike to get back to the car.
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