White Chuck, August 29

6 of us, Sketchy and I, Ben, Laura, Denny, and Joanna, wanted to do a short hike scramble before a Point 83 camping trip in the Darrington area.

Most of the elevation gain is on the scenic drive up the good gravel forest service roads (use the Green Trails map or the thicker Washington Road atlas), so White Chuck is easy to fit in a short afternoon.

The trail is mostly flat and easy to follow until a bit of loose talus/heather gully scrambling. There are multiple climbers’ trails and the gentle slope on this side makes getting off route not a big deal (we went a “different” way coming down). The crux was the yellow jacket nest in the woods. I recommend the run and yell technique. Just like you can yell “rock” for any dropped object, you can yell “bees” for any variety of stinging insect.

Cairn

But of course, just because a hike is short it doesn’t mean it’s not rewarding. When we got to the top we were rewarded by emerging above the clouds to blue skies and magnificent views.

View from Summit

And of course almost any hike in the Cascades in the fall comes with edible rewards too.

Huckleberries!

Some of the most prolific bushes were the dark purple huckleberries growing around stumps in the cleared area by the parking lot (Ben and Laura picked a helmet full — another reason to wear/bring your helmet), but the lowbush blueberries carpeting the heather gullies were not to be missed either.

Denny has some more pictures, and a video of us snarfing berries