If you had 4 to 10 days to hike anywhere in Washington State, where would you go?

The more specific you can be, the better.

I've done the section of the PCT from Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass. (Alpine Lakes area.) That's it for me in WA.

The four areas that most intrigue me are
* the North Cascades;
* the Wonderland Trail;
* Goat Rocks; and
* the Olympic Peninsula

but, by no means should you limit your recommendations to just those places.

Comfortable with rugged terrain, isolation, some x-country.

- Elizabeth

Boundary Trail, Pasayten Wilderness
Chelan Summit Trail
Spider Meadow/Image Lake/Buck Creek Pass loop

For more ideas, check out trip reports on http://www.nwhikers.net/

Edited by hikinggranny on 10/13/2010 15:32:47 MDT.

Wonderland trail, if you can reserve camping spaces --- this isn't a trail that you just go and do on an impulse. Find out when they start taking reservations and get in your "bid" on the first day possible. It's popular. The upside to that is that there aren't so many people swarming around when you do hike it. My wife and I took 10 days, and that seemed good to me. Lots of up and down, no need to rush that trail, it's pretty much constantly beautiful.

Goat Rocks area is nice, but only "lasts" so long. Along the PCT, I was quite impressed with the Glacier Peak area in Northern WA.

For longer distance hikes, there's a book that has some hikes in it that intrigue me called "Trekking Washington", by Mike Woodmansee. You might see if you can get that from the public library system.

+1 on the Pasayten Wilderness. Really big, really lonely.

Thank you.

Besides "Trekking Washington," what are your favorite books with good, long backpacking itineraries in Washington?

- Elizabeth

Backpacking Washington, by Doug Lorain, 2007 edition. There is also a series of guidebooks from the Mountaineers, but most of those are day hikes. With the aid of maps, you can, of course, put a bunch of day hikes together.

Note, though, that guidebooks are already out-of-date by the time they get to the bookstore shelves. It's vital to get the latest information on current conditions. It's also a good idea to have a "Plan B" in case of last-minute fire, flood, etc. That happened to me in Wyoming in 2008.

There is also a lot of online info, often with lots of photos--here are some sites:

The aforementioned Seattle-area hikers' website: http://www.nwhikers.net/

Washington Trails Association
http://www.wta.org/

For southwest Washington info:
http://www.portlandhikers.org/
This site has a Field Guide with lots of good info.

So many choices...

The PCT north of Hwy 2 (Stevens Pass) is very nice, and I've done a couple of trips in the Sawtooth Wilderness area just east of Lake Chelan that were exceptionally good. You can connect trails to hike from around Dagger Lake in the north to the Oval Lakes in the middle, to Cooney Lake in the south (outside the wilderness area but just as scenic).

Now or next summer? The North Cascades statistics show some of the least use for National Parks (more solitude).

The Olympics were the first thing that came to mind, with several loops to hike. Things are getting wet on the west side this time of year.

This would be for next summer...not this season, anyway.

Ditton on Mary and Brian's recommendations. "Trekking Washington" is the best big-trip book in my opinion. Can't go wrong with anything between Glacier Peak and the Canadian border as far as isolated, big, wild, Wilderness. Plan late, though. If the La Nina predictions hold much of that high country will still be under snow into August for sure. Some of it might not melt out at all.

"Ditton on Mary and Brian's recommendations. "Trekking Washington" is the best big-trip book in my opinion. Can't go wrong with anything between Glacier Peak and the Canadian border as far as isolated, big, wild, Wilderness."

+1

"Ditton on Mary and Brian's recommendations. "Trekking Washington" is the best big-trip book in my opinion. Can't go wrong with anything between Glacier Peak and the Canadian border as far as isolated, big, wild, Wilderness."

+2 The view of Glacier Peak from Flower Dome is mind numbing.