Directions: Drive the Mountain loop Highway 17.1 miles past the Verlot Ranger Station. Turn right onto forest service road 4065. Drive about 2 miles to the trailhead. If you have driven to Barlow pass you have gone about 2 miles too far.
Trail notes: What a hike, I have to say there is a strenuous + category that I have been holding out on populating for some time and this is the closest hike yet to go in that category! Bill wants a 'thigh burner' category, and though I am not going to create one :-( I have to agree this is a thigh burner! Bring treking poles if you have them!
We started off today headed from Green Mountain (thanks for the tip Laura!), but we found out en route that the Mountain Loop Highway was closed. Thus, we stopped at the Verlot ranger station and were turned onto the Vesper Peak hike. From the looks of it you wouldn't necessarily think this hike to be too difficult... The hike itself starts off in a nice stand of old growth. On this day the surroundings were wet and the roots which make up the majority of the beginning section of the trail were slippery, and the trail itself was fairly primitive with loose rock on quite a bit of it.
After hiking for about a 20 minutes or so one comes to the first of three stream crossings (though one is the Stillaguamish River). The ranger at Verlot had warned us that this might be tricky to cross because of the flow of the water. We'll the water itself wasn't running too wildly and I wasn't required to put on my water crossing footwear, but the third of these crossings (the Stillaguamish river) is a bit sketchy on the return since after hopping across you have to climb this steep embankment. Not too bad going, but on the way back, when you are tired, well this could be tricky (take your time).After about 45 minutes the trails level easy going demeanor turns into a roughshod series of switch backs with quite a bit of loose rock on them. Keep in mind, the trail never gets any better than this... The switchbacks aren't too bad; in fact if you look up from the parking lot you can see them on the open slope to the south.
Once you have made your way up the switchbacks you are rewarded with a nice reprieve in the upper basin. Most the trees here are deciduous and interspersed in with them are bunches of blueberries! After a couple minutes the trail again steepens as you make your way up the western side of the drainage. The trees give way to open slopes of talus and you become keenly aware of the steepness of the geography you are surrounded by. There was a bunch of low hanging clouds when we were there so some of the grandure was lost on the approach.
Make your way across the talus you can see the headwall, and think how the trail is going to make it over that - it's not. Just as you approach the headwall you will see a chute to the west. The chute is a series of pretty steep switchbacks making their way to the Headlee pass. The switchbacks are pretty remarkable from an engineering perspective; even so you should mind those up the chute from you since rock fall/roll/slide seems to happen with regularity
Once you make the Headlee pass (which is only about 5 feet across) you begin the descent to another traverse around the southern side of Sperry Peak. You get a nice view of the valley to the southeast which appears to be undisturbed.Crossing the talus takes a bit of time, and is steep in one section about half way to the cirque lake. After the steep section of the trail below Sperry Peak you get to enjoy another nice bit of level goings. Gradually, you will begin to hear the sound of flowing water, the outflow of the cirque lake between Vesper and Sperry Peak. The water here is nice, just ask Sandy! We'll the lake provides a nice stop to have a little food and consider whether one with climb Sperry Peak, Vesper Peak, both, or neither.
I was interested in Vesper since it seemed a little more doable than Sperry and we didn't really have the time to do both, or honestly the energy. However, one guy I met on the trail said that doing both added only two hours to traverse from one to the other, so if you are into that sort of think plan a little more time! Also, it looked to me like climbing Sperry would require some technical gear since it is more sheer than Vesper.
We started off up a side trail, which is found at the outflow of the cirque lake - so immediately when you enter the basin take the trail to the west. The trail wastes little time showing you what you are in for. After about 10 minutes or so you hit the first steep section going through some trees which appear to have a difficult go of it. Making your way up from this point, there isn't much that is eventful until you reach a nice plateau where you can see that the remaining section of the climb is in the open and up boulders and slabs. You could see this from below, but still it is a nice sight, I was certainly happy to trade the talus in for slabs.
In any event the rest of the way up to Vesper Peak is marked be cairns which seem to dot the landscape just about everywhere. There are essentially two choices to make; 1) head for the saddle to the south of Vesper peak and make your way up the spine northward to the top, or 2) head directly for the summit of Vesper Peak itself. We opted to head straight for Vesper Peak, and if you are without a dog I would definitely prefer this to option 1). The one thing to remember is that there is one section almost immediately below the saddle which is steeper than the rest, so you will probably want to avoid this area - go north a littleThe direct approach to Vesper is not bad, kinda fun actually, and the rock is quite sticky to the sole of ones boot. Eventually you will make your way to the top! On this day we were lucky since it had been cloudy up to the point about half way up to Vesper Peak from the cirque lake. It all blew off!
Once you make the top there is a summit register and a nice area to sun yourself and enjoy the views. The surrounding views are 360 degrees and included, but are not limited to: Mt. Rainer, Glacier Peak, Dickerman, Sloan, Pugh, Sperry, Little Chief Peak, Spada Lake, Copper Lake and Big4 (whose southwestern side is oxidized red). The views are spectacular!!I was happy about parts of the return, and not so happy with others. The hike down Vesper Peak to the cirque lake was better than expected and I didn't have any difficulties. From the cirque lake to the Headlee pass was also uneventful but the down traverse gave me a some indication my knees were having issues - and I realized somehow my anti-inflammatory meds were separated from my first aid kit – Yikes! We'll the sore abused knees did ultimatly deliver us back to the car, around 7:45.
If you knees are up to it, and you want something to put Granite Mountain or Dickerman to shame take a crack at Vesper and/or Sperry Peak. Just outstanding!
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