I was looking for an easy peak to climb this weekend.  I originally thought of doing Sahale Mountain but the prospect of a 5th class section in a cast made me think otherwise.  So, I opted for what looked to be a fairly easy peak:  Ruby Mountain off of Diablo Lake.  I wanted to do an overnight so I could potentially get some good sunrise or sunset photos of the north Cascades.  So, I headed out early afternoon on Saturday.  Not long after hopping on I-5 I ran into an aggravating traffic jam.  It went on forever so I jumped off and skirted in and out of backroads trying to avoid traffic.  I got back on the highway past Everett and probably didn’t save that much time, but at least I wasn’t in stop-and-go-traffic.  Anyway, I arrived at the Ranger Station in Marblemount to get a permit for camping there.  I told the ranger of the route I was thinking about.  It was the same route that was notated in 75 Scrambles in Washington and he informed me that that route was quite bad, that the author didn’t even hike it, and that the 2nd edition of the book would most likely drop that route.  So, I took his suggestion and opted for one of the other ways to climb the mountain – parking at the Colonial Creek campground and hiking down Thunder Creek, and crossing on to the Panther Creek trail on the south side of the mountain and taking an old climbers trail up the south ridge. 

Starting in the campground, there were loads of campers and trailers out with people cooking out and hanging around.  I didn’t prepare very well for food on this trip so I tried not to let the smells get to me.  The Thunder Creek trail headed southeast along Thunder Creek to a large bridge.  Crossing the bridge over to the east side of the lake, it continued along through very thick brush and Devil’s Club.  If it weren’t for this trail, I don’t know how you’d even get through terrain like that.  Anyway, after a few minutes the Panther Creek trail branched off to the right.  This was where the steep climbing up to the campsite at 3500 feet began.  So, I started my trudge up what seemed like thousands of switchbacks by the end of the day tomorrow.  Finally after maybe two hours and fifteen minutes, I arrived at the campsites.  I was surprised that there were at least three other parties already up here.  Since I still had a couple hours of daylight I decided to scout ahead and look for the elusive trail leading north up the mountain.  I went for thirty minutes and never found it, so I turned around and came back.  Along the way, I spotted a nice campsite above “Panther Potholes” which is a set of clear ponds under some cliffs.  However, I decided to return to the standard campsites and maybe I could talk to someone who knew where this trail was. 

I met up with a guy pumping water near the campsite.  I asked him about the trail and found out he and his partner were looking for it too.  They invited me to come along with them, so I decided this would be a good idea.  Three sets of eyes are usually better than one.  This turned out to be true.  Anyway, we decided to meet up around 6 am.  The mosquitoes were pretty bad up here (no surprise, these were the North Cascades), so I jumped in my bivy sack and did some reading in the cramped quarters.  I was really tired and went to bed shortly thereafter.  Even though I had the mosquito netting drawn across my bivy sack, I recall hearing mosquitos frequently during the night.  Could I hear them that far away (more than a foot) or was there one stuck inside my bivy?  If the latter was the case, I never found him and I don’t believe he bit me.  I awoke just before my alarm went off at 5:30 and jumped up right away.  I had a little bit of water and tried taking some pictures, finding it was too dark still, when Dan and Dan appeared behind me ready to go.  So we headed out.

We retraced my steps back along the trail leading towards the Potholes and the Pass looking for the trail.  The pass, by the way, is not much of a pass at all, in fact it’s quite hard to tell when you’re truly on it since you’re in forest the whole time.  We passed the Potholes and stopped occasionally to check out potential spots.  Nothing still.  Finally, at one of the spots, One of the Dans spotted what looked like a faint trail about twenty feet off of the main trail.  We followed this a while and after a minute found the “This trail has been abandoned” sign, which was what the ranger said to look for once you found the trail.  The big trick of course is finding the trail.  I think we stumbled on it by luck but there is an easy trick to it:  After you pass the Potholes, look for a long bridge (relative to the others) that you cross after leaving the campsites.  As soon as you see this bridge, which is maybe 30 feet long, head left off the trail and scour the nearby area for a very faint trail.  This is the key!

We followed the trail which improved after a couple hundred feet.  The trail passes on the right hand side of another pond that is not notated on the topo map.  A while after this, the trail becomes very faint.  We eventually lost it and ended up bushwhacking for quite a while.  The trail is continuous though; we followed it the entire way back.  So, if you happen to lose the trail, take the time to backtrack and find it again.  We bushwhacked across a short gully and began heading up.  I was pretty sure that the trail was above us (which it was) but just to be sure, we ascended more slowly.  After taking a few bearings, we opted to bear more to the left (west) and ended up hooking back up with the trail at a relatively clear area where a cairn was.  After this, we didn’t lose the trail anymore, though it did become faint now and then. 

After a while, we crested the ridge and had good views south down through Thunder Creek and could see several of the big peaks:  Snowfield Peak, Primus Peak, Forbidden Peak, Mount Buckner, and Mount Logan to name a few.  At this point the trailed stayed on the west side of the mountain until gaining the ridge again just below the summit.  The trail traversed at a fairly gentle level until breaking out into wide meadows where we had views of the Picket Range peaks.  The trail then faded completely and we wound back and forth up the steep slopes passing through a few snowfields before finally gaining the ridge.  The ridge was a gentle wide grassy slope with thick snow still left on the northeastern side.  After a short false summit we arrived on the true summit, sharing the top spot with a weather station and small tower.  Oh well, at least the views were awesome.  To the north, the north and south Hozomeen summits looked awesome rising so close to Ross Lake.

After several pictures from the top and some food, we headed down.  It was a long way back down to our camp but we stayed on the trail the whole way.  It was very hot today and we opted for a short swim in one of the Panther Potholes.  After all the effort to keep my cast dry.  I inadvertently dunked it in the water just as I was getting out.  Oh well, only a week or so remaining (supposedly).  I was completely out of water and parched by the time we got back to camp so I pumped water for everyone using a super filter that Dan had and drank to my thirst was quenched.  We then packed everything up and headed down.  My toes really started hurting on the way down.  I was using a pair of boots I hadn’t used in a while (guess I won’t use them any more) and my toes were absolutely jamming up.  I tried tying my boots differently, even removing my soles for a while.  There was no perfect solution.  So, I painfully made my way down and was very thankful when we arrived at the Thunder Creek trail – no more descending!  Arriving back at the trailhead wasn’t bad at all.  It was way hot down here too; all I could do was imagine how refreshing the swim felt.  We exchanged our info for future hikes and headed out. 

This trip, including my trail search excursion was 20 miles and 6700 feet of elevation.  However, without that, the trip is almost 18 miles and 6400 feet of elevation, still a significant hike!  FYI, this is an easy Cascade Peak.