Blanca Lake

Location: North Cascades - Highway 2

Length: 10 miles roundtrip

Elevation: Gain/3300 ft. Highest/4600 ft.

Difficulty: Severe

Time: 7 hours

I’m going to start off with directions:

-Head East on HWY 2 until you reach the po-dunk town of Skykomish.

-Take a left on Beckler Rd. which is a mile or less after Skykomish.

-Drive to the very end of Beckler Rd., which is about 15 miles.

 

-The road ends in a cul-de-sac with about 4 other options. Continue on FR 65 which is the SECOND road to the left and heads downward. The first road to the left heads upwards to nowhere. After a couple miles (shortly after crossing a bridge) you’ll see a clearly marked sign for FR 63 and Blanca Lake on the right. A couple more miles takes you to the Blanca Lake trailhead on the left. They are strict about emergency vehicle access and you WILL be ticketed if parked in the road.

I wasted 2 hours figuring this out for your convenience! Hah!

This hike is legit and will take you all day. Don’t plan anything for afterwards because you’ll be ruined. Mentally prepare for the fact that in order reach the prized Blanca Lake, you will descend sharply about 600 ft. your last half mile. This means you’ll have to ascend it on your way back. It’s grueling. But SO worth it. There are no sneak peeks of the awesomeness until it’s in your face. So push, push, push!

These hikes are great tests of mental fortitude. It gets into elevation gain pretty soon after you start. So you’ll be questioning your diet choices and have hurt feelings when you’re being passed by people older and heavier than you. The fatigue and stars will disappear and it doesn’t matter how many breathers or breaks you have to take, just keep going. Just finish! It took us 4 hours to reach the lake.

I can only dream of what waking up to this would be like if I was to backpack it.

Unreal.

Say what you will about how long it is. My Fitbit said 11.5 miles but the WTA site says 7.5 miles. Both are probably full of shit. I'm guessing it's probably more like 10 miles. I'm sorry but 7.5 miles is as the crow flies.

Behind the scenes anecdotes:

Took the FIRST left at the cul-de-sac and wasted about an hour driving up a logging road with sharp chunky rocks. Found the most beautiful pee spot, ever.

The forest ranger helped us find the trailhead after driving all the way back to Skykomish.

Saw a truck with a flat tire at the trailhead--this is like, 20 miles (mostly gravel) from the po-dunk town of Skykomish. Sucky!

We stopped to drink some water and I was going off of how hiking makes you enjoy the simple things: "You see the great thing about hiking and feeling like you're dying, is that it makes water taste like sex!" This is as two guys round the corner. Awkward... Ohhhh!!!!

We were passed by everyone hiking on the way up AND on the way down. Old people. Young people. Inexperienced people. (Humans without anything but the clothes on their back.) Out of shape people.

We were descending and these poor kids were heading up at about 5:30 p.m. They were each carrying items to camp with without backpacking gear. So they're literally hugging tents, sleeping bags, grocery bags, all the way up. Two guys were dragging a cooler. Do this hike. Think of this story. And die laughing. Because that's CRAY!

First view of the lake.
 

If any of you creative types want a great project. Set up a camera at this spot of the hike, where it's the first view you get of the lake, and record everyone's reactions. Hilarious!!! Everyone is like "Oh fuck!" *gassssppppp*

BULLSHIT.