Willstein - -
An area that has multiple hikes with whitewater rafting options nearby
is the North Cascades range between Seattle and Lake Chelan. I’m
going to suggest several resources for further research and one
specific trip - - from the Suiattle River to Lake Chelan.
The hike would start on the Forest Service road along the Suiattle
River (north of Darrington, WA) and crosses Suiattle and Cloudy
passes, past Lyman Lake and on to Lake Chelan. One-way the trip is
29.5 miles and includes an altitude gain of 5,000’. Once on Lake
Chelan your hikers can catch a bus from Holden to Lucerne where they
can catch the ‘Lady of the Lake,’ a boat which does the length of the
lake several times each day to Chelan, WA:
Lady of the Lake
http://www.ladyofthelake.com/
From Chelan, the group could go on to Leavenworth, WA and raft the
Wenatchee River, which has some challenging white water, particularly
earlier in the spring. A return trip from Leavenworth to Seattle is
easy on U.S. Highway 2, about 3 hours:
River Riders
"Schedules: Rivers and Routes"
http://www.riverrider.com/schedules.html
You’ll note that the ‘Lady of the Lake’ page has a reference to
shorter hikes in this area. Many are the start of longer hikes. Some
excellent resources for finding hikes in this area are:
"100 Hikes in Washington’s North Cascades: Glacier Peak Region"
Ira Spring & Harvey Manning, The Mountaineers, 1988
The suggested route is hike #13 in the 1988 version of their book.
Several other hikes in their guide would also fit your criteria,
including a hike around Glacier Peak itself. (Glacier Peak is one of
four dormant volcanoes in the Seattle area and rises to 10.560’.)
There are three other books in this Mountaineers series which you may
find interesting if you want to explore alternate trips:
"100 Hikes in Washington’s Alpine Lakes," hikes in the area south of
U.S. Highway 2.
"100 Hikes in Washington’s North Cascades National Park Region," hikes
in the area around Mt. Baker
"Hikes in Washington’s South Cascades and Olympics"
For a look at terrain and trails, the DeLorme atlases are excellent:
"Washington Atlas & Gazetteer," DeLorme Mapping Co., Freeport, ME,
1995 and more current.
More detailed trail maps are available from Green Trails Maps:
http://www.greentrails.com/washmap.shtml
This Forest Service page has ordering capabilities for most of the
material mentioned above, as well as other information:
U.S. Forest Service
Mt. Baker – Snoqualmie National Forest
"Northwest Interpretive Association"
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/maps/nwia.shtml
If you’re looking for graphically depicted options for an overview (as
opposed to the detailed trail maps), I might suggest ordering the
Pargeter’s Pictorial Maps. They are 2’x3’ pictorials with a
3-dimensional quality. They show roads and trails in a fashion that’s
easier to understand. They’d also be excellent for showing the route
to the teens and parents involved. The area covered by the Suiattle
River to Lake Chelan hike described are in the Pargeter’s North
Central Cascades map and the North Cascades East map.
This particular route crosses the Pacific Crest Trail west of Lake
Chelan:
Pacific Crest Trail Association
http://www.pcta.org/
I’ve done portions of the hike, particularly around Glacier Peak and
Kennedy Hot Springs. I’ve also rafted several of the rivers in the
Cascades, including the Nooksack and the Wenatchee. The outfitter
linked (River Riders) is one that we've used (though we have no
financial interest in them). The options for rafting in the Cascades
are much better than around the Olympic Mountains.
Google search strategy:
"river rafting" + Washington
"Mt. Baker" + Snoqaulmie + "national forest"
. . . and an excellent library of trail resources
If any part of this answer is unclear, please request a clarification
before rating this question.
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA
Mukilteo, WA |
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