Marmot pass

It was rather late int he season, but Angela and Jane were off on a cabin trip - so Sara and I decided to get one last backpacking trip in for the year. We decided to head to a place called Marmot Pass - which is close to home (about an hour and a half) and where we had heard good things about the views. We took off relatively early Saturday morning (9a departure) and got to the trailhead around 10:30a.

The original plan was to make for Camp Mystery and then just do a day hike up to the pass - but after looking at the map at the trail head we set a stretch goal (if we were feeling good) of making it to boulder shelter. We had no idea what was in store for us!

2025-10-18

The first several miles of the trail were wooded, beautiful, and very energetic. It had been a few months since we had gone backpacking, just long enough that we were excited and missing the experience, but not so long that it was intimidating. Sara was off like a shot - I kept having to slow her down and pace herself. The distance wasn’t great ~5 miles to camp mystery and 7.5 to boulder shelter - nowhere near as long as we had done in the past - but the elevation was something new. It was a 3500 foot climb to Marmot Pass - which was not something that Sara had experience with.

Sara, as always, passed the time with idle chatter. This time, it was a make your own dragons game. I learned all about the different dragon colors and what they meant, the dragon classes and their powers, and which dragons played well together. Here’s a quick snippet - this lasted for hours…

Every hour, we stopped for a break - usually around 15 min. Our first break, Sara was sampling all the snacks and very excited about it. Here is the moment before disaster - the trail mix fell and knocked over the dried bananas and all was lost… Not all, we did collect back up some of it, but most of the peanuts, raisins, and chocolates were gonzo - right into the deep moss between the logs. :( Thankfully, I over-pack on food for these things so we were going to be fine.

A little later, we passed by Shelter Rock Camp, which was pretty small but it looked like some comfortable campsites. We found this very interesting tree cave - some kids must have been busy pulling the punky bark out of this old tree… Sara, of course, hopped right inside.

Not long after the shelter rock camp, we popped above the trees and we got our first view of the pass. We had already gained 2000 feet, so it wasn’t actually that much more to climb to get to the pass. We were feeling pretty good and the weather was holding nicely - chilly with a light mist of rain, but nothing serious.

Another 1000 feet of elevation, and we arrived at Camp Mystery. About this same time, we started to see snow. The snow looked pretty old and it was mostly melted, but it was a bit startling to see. I guess it is October… We were both still feeling good, so we decided to make for Boulder Shelter. The melting snow also made Camp Mystery very muddy/wet and, if Boulder Shelter really was a shelter, then it would probably be a lot drier…

The last 500 feet (or so) of elevation up to the pass was no problem, although it was over a very short distance so this was a climb. This section was also very open, so we got some great views of the pass, the surrounding mountains, and back down the valley that we were hiking up. The mist had gotten a bit thicker and there was a bit more of a drizzle as we climbed so we threw on our rain gear. A hiker we ran into earlier mentioned that the forecast was for rain, but it’s the PNW - You will never make it anywhere if you let the rain stop you.

At long last, we made it to the top of the pass. This last climb had taken it out of Sara - but we had made it. 5.5 miles and 3500 feet of elevation - I was proud of the little lady, her biggest (in my opinion) hike yet.

As we continued on, the trail passed along the face of the pass - which made for a very precarious hiking trail - constantly sliding down the hill slightly. We were careful though and we did just fine.

With most of our previous backpacking trips being flat, she didn’t realize the power of downhill. We knocked out the last 1.7 miles in no time.

As we round the last spur, we see a tiny hut poking through the trees - It was raining in earnest now and I had built up the idea of the shelter in my mind so I probably would have been disappointed had it not been a real shelter. This was going to be a much more comfortable night with the addition of the shelter.

A total of 7.4 miles and most of them quite pleasant - with the exception with the last mile or so of up. Sara was quite the trooper - rockstar actually.

The shelter was a historic (renovated in the 90s to be historic - or so the sign said) shelter from the early 1900s. It had a fairly well put together roof and 3 walls. It did a pretty good (although not great) job of keeping the wind out but it did a great job of keeping the rain out - which we were pleased with. I setup the tent in the corner and started to make dinner. When dinner was ready, Sara had to come out to the bench and eat outside the tent…

And then, of course, there was Oakley. She was wet and dirty. Very wet and dirty. I knew we had to get her into the tent, but it was not going to be pleasant. I brushed her off the best I could, but… the tent will need a through cleaning after this.

Later in the afternoon, I took some pictures of the view from our tent. We went to bed fairly early, it was still raining in earnest and I was thankful for the shelter.

2025-10-19

The following morning, the view was very different. It had snowed basically all night. I had to get up in the middle of the night and I saw that it had started to snow but it didn’t look like it was going to stick - but wow did it stick. There was about 4 inches of snow right outside the shelter and I could see that it was thicker higher up.

After probably an hour of hiding in our sleeping bags, we had to get up and get about the day. It was cold, we had to put on all the clothes we owned to get out and start hiking. Neither of us brought gloves, but Sara had some big fuzzy socks and she was very happy with her discovery!

Climbing back up to the pass from Boulder shelter was about 1000 feet over vertical over 1.7 mi - which was to be the hardest part of our trip. The snow did indeed get deeper as we climbed - all the way to about 6 inches deep right before we emerged from the trees. I led the way for most of this climb, breaking track and giving Sara and easier path to follow.

As we emerged above the treeline, it was a different story. We were getting hit with substantial (10-15 mph) winds, although intermittently, and the wind blown snow was thinner. Hiking ended up being quite a bit easier, but the wind made things a lot harder. When the wind first picked up, I turned and wrapped Sara up to try to protect her from the icy wind hitting her in the face. After it subsided, I expected tears but when I asked her how she was doing - she was laughing… “That was fun daddy!”. There were tears later on, but she certainly surprised me with this one…

The wind had died down a little by the time we made it to the steep sideways slope from the day before - I was a little worried about this part, but it ended up being a bit easier than the day before because the soft snow had accumulated on the trail and held your feet in place pretty well. I went first again and put down tracks and Sara held my backpack and followed - pretty easy going.

As we approached the pass, Sara spied a hill across the valley and asked me who had been skiing there - it really looked like ski tracks, but made by the wind carving the snow obviously.

The last bit of the hike up was pretty uneventful - deeper and deeper snow but pretty protected by the trees. This was the hardest part for Sara - she didn’t eat a lot for breakfast and it was cold and hard to stop for snacks.

At long last, we made it to the pass - very different picture than from the day before!

We made it through the pass and then dropped down for a half mile to Camp Mystery and took a long break - we were still above the snow line, but there were some logs we could clear off and it was warm enough to stop for a bit. We spent about 15 min here - coaxing Sara to eat as much as possible before we got too cold. This was all she needed - off to her singing, story making, inquisitive self for the rest of the trip…

About a mile after Camp Mystery, we left the snow behind and, after a short section with some slippery mud, we were back on solid dirt.

We even found some huckleberries about a mile before we made it back to the car - Sara can’t help herself, so we picked a few dozen before continuing.

This is mushroom season, I took pictures of two of them for identification later - as far as I can tell this is Chicken of the woods and Pheasant back mushrooms - both edible. I am not, however, confident enough either at the time or now to actually eat them based on that identification… :)

The soggy crew - it was a tough one, but we made it. As Sara informed me on the way home - “That was really hard, but those are the best adventures”.