The Darrington Mystery Trail

NorthCascades

Two weeks ago, a good friend and I hiked a trail together that she had picked out. It went (too steeply!) up the side of a mountain through second growth rainforest. Very beautiful, and we got some peak-a-boo views at the end where we enjoyed lunch.

Another trail that branched off from the one we hiked; there was a sign at the fork identifying our trail, but not the other one. We were both curious where it went, so at home we looked around. It's not on the map.

We were too intrigued to let it go. So we went back yesterday to find out where the Darrington Mystery Trail goes. It goes a few miles, and dead ends at a creek. We could see we were tantalizingly close to the base of Whitehorse Mountain, so we headed into the brush. Before long we found a dry creek bed, it was so much easier than bushwacking. We came out to a dramatic view of the mountain with waterfalls, a glacier, and meadows hanging above us. Our side of the creek was cliffed out, and there wasn’t a good crossing, so this was the end of the road for me. Mary had brought a change of shoes and socks, so she waded through the icy water – it had literally just melted –and up the creek for a while.

On the way back we stopped to check out a cave we had seen, it turns out it was an old mine. The entrance was flooded, and again I wanted to keep my shoes dry. She wanted to see how deep it is, I gave her my flashlight and watched the light disappear completely not long after she went around a corner. A few minutes later she came back telling me about how it branched. Mary got chilled on the way back – yes in June – from the cold water on a cool day. But all’s well that ends well, and this felt like more of an adventure than most hikes do because of the element of mystery, having to do our own route finding, and “discovering” a beautiful view.

I need to go back with a fancy camera and do the place justice.