I almost checked out this exact run this past weekend. Are you up in this area often? There is supposed to be some Ice Caves somewhere over in there that would be cool to check out.
The ice caves are
awesome in the summer time! It's a short (1 mile) hike from the parking lot to the caves, and when it's warm the caves shoot out cold air like a massive air conditioner. I don't think I have ever hiked to them in the winter time though, but the road is closed at the pass - so I think you have to there from the Verlot side on Mountain Loop Highway.
I rolled up that way yesterday from the Darrington side. There's a handful of NF roads and unmarked trails to wheel on off of MLH. There are a couple of trails in particular that I have been dying to check out, but I was solo and didn't want to go without a second vehicle to winch to just in case.
I also went out towards Sulphur Creek campground late yesterday - hoping to get a view of Glacier Mountain (subsequently the most dangerous active stratavolcano on the weat coast) before it for completely dark out. This was the first time I had been out that way - after the first 2 miles, there were no other vehicles on the road, which I consoder a win! The road ends at the remote campground ~23 miles from the turn off from SR530. It's not a great wheeing road, lot's of potholes and some washboard stretches, but there are numerous side roads that I want to explore soon. I got withon 3 miles of the end of the road / campground, and I was greeted by a tree in the road:
I wasn't up to wheeling over it being out there on my own that night, I was super tired and even though I had my little gas powered Stihl chainsaw - it would have been pitch dark by the timr I cleared the road.
One other crazy weird thing that happened on that road - I pulled over ~10 miles in and stopped to take a leak. I could hear a woman's voice talking, but it was really faint and I couldn't make out anything that she was saying. I tend to increase my OPSEC awareness when I'm out there deep like that on my own (tweakers, shady rednecks, big felines, etc), but her tone of voice seemed upbeat and it didn't at all sound like she was anything that I should be concerned with.
I drove another 100 yards and then I come across this sign:
That gave me a little shiver!
Anyways, if you or anyone else in WA wants to roll out that way let me know! I have another week or two of free time and I'm usually game for weekends as well. I would like to hike out to Kennedy Hot Springs off the PCT near Glacier Peak - that area is epic from what I have been told, I would probably just want to do a day hike out there for the first trip, but I have some
serious ultralight camping gear as well for a longer outing that I need to plan in that region!
