Most Remote Point in Alpine Lakes Wilderness By Packraft

Most Remote Point in Alpine Lakes Wilderness By Packraft

Eric and Matthew Gilbertson

Oct 22-24, 2021

35 miles (30 hiking, 5 packrafting)

Matthew was visiting for the weekend and our goal was to packraft in some remote lakes and go fishing. The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is hard to beat for remote lakes and proximity to Seattle. I’ve been seeking out the most remote points in wilderness areas recently, and it turns out the most remote point in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness is at 5,500ft on a promontory above treeline looking over Lake Rowena, near Mt Hinman.

This point is defined as the point farthest from the edge of a wilderness boundary, so farthest from a place where a road could legally be constructed. I was surprised it was in such an interesting location instead of in the middle of a viewless patch of forest somewhere.

I looked for information about this area and it appears it is not visited too frequently. There are no trails to Lake Rowena, and one of the few reports I found of the area (from Kat on nwhikers) mentioned some sketchy cliffy traversing around Shovel Lake en route. That sounded like perfect terrain for a packraft! Packrafting across Shovel Lake would be an easy and fun way to avoid cliffs on the side. In fact, it looked like we could packraft across multiple lakes en route to increase fun and avoid traversing around the sides.

The weather didn’t look great, but most of the route would be below treeline so wasn’t too weather dependent. Matthew arrived Friday afternoon and we were soon hiking up from the Salmon le Sac trailhead along the Waptus River trail. The rain held off and we made quick progress on the gradual climb. By 9:30pm we reached the southeast shore of Waptus Lake and pitched our tent for the night.

Saturday morning at 8:30am we inflated our packrafts and started paddling across the lake. Waptus Lake is great for paddling because it is so long that several trail miles can be switched for water miles. We tried dropping a line in but for some reason the fish weren’t biting that morning. At the head of a lake we found a nice slabby takeout and packed up our boats just as it started raining. From there we met up

with the Waptus River trail and hiked to just before the Waptus River bridge on the PCT.

I had read there was an unofficial trail leading up shovel creek from there. We started on a small trail to a campsite, but then it disappeared. We bushwhacked from there and soon stumbled across a high-quality trail. It had horse poop on it so it looks like packers use it. The trail goes to a nice campsite around 3200ft where the terrain steepens. From there the trail quality deterioriates but it is still followable.

Eventually we emerged from the trees in a talus field in Shovel Gorge. The Gorge has impressive slabby cliffs on the west on Bears Breast Mountain and steep walls on the right. The trail disappears in the gorge, but navigation is easy across the talus. We had to be careful, though, since the rocks were quite slippery and loose.

We reached a waterfall at 4000ft and went up on the right, emerging at the edge of Shovel Lake. I noticed the left side indeed had a cliff that would be tricky to get around on foot, though the right side looked doable. But we had the packrafts and decided to paddle. We inflated the boats and made a quick paddle over to a flat

grassy beach on the north side. A little ways up the beach we came across an awesome campsite nestled inside a grove of enormous old-growth cedar trees. There was a fire ring and even a carving on a tree that said “Troop 282 8-3-55”. I think that’s older than the oldest summit register I’ve found in Washington (1965 on The Needles).

We decided to take advantage of the excellent campsite and camp there for the night. So we ditched our overnight gear and continued moving faster and lighter. The woods above camp were generally open with knee-high blueberry bushes. If it weren’t for the rain I would say the bushwhacking was relatively easy. We hiked up to the confluence

of two streams, then crossed over to the right side of the outlet of Lake Rebecca.

Matthew led the way bushwhacking up until we reached Lake Rebecca. There would be some excellent camping on the edge of that lake, though not as sheltered as our spot down lower. It didn’t make sense to paddle across that lake, so we continued on the right side. We scrambled up the right side of a smaller waterfall and were soon at the edge of Lake Rowena.

I could see the remote point just on the other side of the lake, on a flattish top of a cliff just above a grove of trees. It was just barely below snowline and also barely below cloud line, so it appeared we might get a good view from the top. Matthew had decided to leave his boat at camp, but I still had my packraft. The talus on the side of the lake looked tricky, but Matthew proposed we have a race to the other end. He would scramble the talus and I would take the packraft. He had the advantage that he could start immediately while I had to unpack and inflate the boat. But his progress was slowed by the difficult terrain.

I quickly inflated the boat and started paddling directly across. I saw Matthew stop to take a picture at a huge snow arch, but it looked like we would be close. The finish line was a boulder we’d picked out directly beneath the remote point. I paddled harder as Matthew started jogging on easier ground. I definitely hit zone 5 exertion, which I don’t think I’ve ever done paddling. Somehow we reached the boulder within 5 seconds of each other (I was slightly ahead). It’s hard to say the packraft increased speed when we were that close, but I’d still argue it increased fun to not have to scramble the wet talus field.

I moored the boat on the shore, then we started hiking. We scrambled up the right edge of the cliff band, then cut left across the top and reached the remote point by 4pm. It was actually a very scenic location. It was on a boulder on a flat area above the cliff band with great views of Lake Rowena below. We could see the cliffs of Mt Hinman above us, and I bet the summit would have been visible if not for the clouds. There was a half inch of snow on the boulders and it started actively snowing shortly after we reached the point.

I built a small cairn and Matthew built a small snowman and we took a few pictures. Unfortunately the weather was a bit too nasty to warrant staying long, so we soon descended. Back at the boat I paddled to an impressive snowfield on the edge of the lake and we took some pictures at a snow arch. We took our time getting back, and I packed the boat back up at the outlet.

From there we retraced our route bushwhacking back to camp by 5:30pm. We were both soaked from the snow and rain and bushwhacking through wet bushes. In the remaining daylight we set up a big tarp, put our gear and the tent under it, and gathered firewood.

Matthew got a big fire started with the help of some leftover dynamic systems paper lab handouts, and it felt great to warm up and dry off. I suspect that campsite doesn’t see too much activity given the plentiful supply of good firewood nearby. It was all soaked from the rain, but we found enough dry wood under overhanging trees to get the fire going.

After a few hours we finally dried out our drenched clothes and went to bed.

Sunday morning we were woken up at sunrise by intense wind, which I think was from the bomb cyclone offshore. Even with the shelter of the monster cedar trees I was still a bit nervous about the tent blowing over. We carefully broke down camp in the morning, inflated our boats, and started off across the lake around 8am. We’d hoped to fish, and expected better luck since we’d actually seen some trout in the lake, but the wind and rain made that not appealing.

We quickly paddled across the windy lake and took out on the other side in the rain. From there we retraced our route down Shovel Gorge and back along the secret unofficial trail. This time we followed the trail all the way to the PCT. It turns out the secret trail starts at the sharp right angle turn a quarter mile northbound on the PCT from the Waptus River bridge. It’s easy to miss, and I didn’t even see it hiking in Saturday morning.

We hiked back down to Waptus Lake and put in at the same slabby boat launch. By then it started raining really hard. I had regrettably

forgotten my rain pants and left my spray skirt at home to save weight, and regretted those decisions sitting in the cold rain in the boat. We tried fishing again but again got no bites, despite seeing a few fish surfacing.

This time we paddled all the way to the outlet and paddled down the Waptus River until the trail crossing. It looked like it would have been fun to continue paddling farther out, but we hadn’t researched the river and were worried about tough rapids. I think it would probably be better in the spring anyway with a bit more flow, since it was getting pretty shallow even for the packrafts then.

The hike out was easy but wet. We did see two other people on the trail, the only ones all weekend, and made it back to the car by 3:30pm.

 

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