This is a little write up from a visit to Boulder Butte via Purple Pass above Stehekin, WA in October of 2021. For more information about the hike itself, visit Washington Trails Association.
This was my 9th trek to Stehekin and 2nd during the fall and I have decided I love fall best! Timing it with the Apple Harvest Festival and one of the last weekends for the bakery makes it all the more magical.
We took the boat in on Friday and this time paid the extra to stow our bikes from home. Just two days of riding bikes makes it a better deal than renting in town with much more flexibility.
Like last year Purple Point Campground was our home base, mostly because we had Boulder Butte in our sights and the Purple Creek Trail’s proximity to the campground made it ideal for an early start. I love site #5 for its view of the lake and surrounding mountains but this year was a bit louder than last because whoever was staying in the yellow house across the road was super vocal until the wee hours. Even through ear plugs. Next year I’ll choose something further uplake.
Anyway, we spent Friday eating bakery treats, exploring the Harlequin campground and riding our bikes up to High Bridge and watching the kokanee swirl in the Stehekin River. We picked half a box of apples in the orchard and hauled them back for the bear box! The restaurant closed on Labor Day but we spent the evening on the landing with beverages from the store and some snacks brought from home. There were a few thru hikers enjoying their zeros/neros but it was so much quieter than your normal Friday evening. The weather was sunny enough for t-shirts and shorts most of the day.
Saturday we rose at 5am and headed up the Imus Creek Trail right from camp with headlamps on. Around the viewpoint it was clear there had been a slide and I could see a large downed tree had been cut up having narrowly missed the wooden bench.
Imus is quick and we began the never-ending switchbacks of Purple Creek around 5:45am. If you read my report from last year, you know I attempted the trail but turned around when the skies opened up around a mile up. Today promised no rain but I brought a jacket anyway because who wants to jinx it? I had read about the water sources so I stopped to drink water and fill up at bottle at 1.75 miles up (all mileage will be from the Purple Creek Trail junction, add .5 mile if coming from the PP camp). Despite how much noise the creek seems to make lower down, the crossing is little more than a trickle right now. I was glad to have more than a liter as the trail does take a lot out of you.
By 7am the surrounding mountains were glowing with the pink of sunrise and we could see up and down the lake. There was a nice viewpoint right after the creek crossing but we stopped at 3000ft and 2.25 miles up for breakfast and coffee. McGregor was snow-free but Buckner was tipped with white as we appreciated the new day. We had already shed our layers to t-shirts at this point but each stop would have us adding them on again.
Back to more switchbacks and gain! The trail was in good shape overall as we climbed the south side of the Purple Creek drainage, there was ripe elderberry overhead, rosy thimbleberry leaves and fiery huckleberry foliage. Burning bush, anyone? The snowbrush was obnoxious in places, I was glad to have pants on and my arms complained as I walked past trying to stay on the trail and not erode the outslope. Nothing that will draw blood so if you are a shorts-or-die person you will be okay. If you are really desperate for water, there are a few places around 4 miles and 4400ft in where you can tell Hazard Creek would be reachable at a switchback if you had to.
At 5600ft and 5.75 miles, we rounded the ridge and took the final push to Purple Pass. Here is not only where we glimpsed our first golden larch but where it was clear that Caltopo is WAY off on the mileage (says its only 5.8 from Imus to junction with Juanita). I did know WTA says its longer but there was a SMALL part of me still hoping for the Caltopo version up until this point. Having spent the last 3 months mostly bike riding, the round trip on this baby was going to hurt.
The trail is really lit up here with fall colors and we knew were in for a treat. The larches increased as the white granite did, making the amber hues pop. I would say the larches were in the middle, a few still had green at the branches and some had turned towards tangerine. The previous burn meant the views were expansive here but we knew we had the 360s at Boulder to look forward to.
We arrived at Purple Pass at 11am, 6900ft and 7.3 miles in. I enjoyed a snack while the hub scrambled up a bit to check out the views into the Juanita Lake drainage. It felt cold enough to snow despite the sun so the jacket was back on!
At the junction for Juanita Lake and Boulder Butte we talked about which one we wanted to do first. We opted for the butte first for the momentum but within a few hundred yards when we could see down at the lake I mentally decided a view from above would be good enough. Save that for another backpacking trip.
It was a golden larch fest from the junction to the top of Boulder (8 miles, 7360ft) which turned out to be just a walk up, no scramble involved. The slog of switchbacks was worth it, the views here are everything and more. We had the top to ourselves for awhile, pondering the lookout remnants (mostly broken glass) and eating lunch. We were joined by the only other person we would see ALL day, Maggie who works at the lodge and took the day to hike after being here since April.
We left the top to Maggie around 1pm and headed back down. My husband had the goal to see if he could make it back to the landing before the store closed at 4:30pm, he made it in two hours. I, on the other hand, took closer to 4 hours as I babied my knees. It was t-shirt weather all the way down and I stopped to pick a few elderberries, too. The round trip from the Imus junction to Boulder Butte was 15.9 miles so it was about a 17 mile trip from PP campground. I literally fell into my tent and was never more glad I did not have a drive home!
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