For an airy experience, it's hard to top the hike to Three Fingers lookout

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October 9, 1997

For an airy experience, it's hard to top the hike to Three Fingers lookout

By KAREN SYKES
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

You'll have to hurry if you want to visit Three Fingers before the snow flies. With luck, the trail to this beloved lookout cabin may be open until the end of October. The sooner you go the better. Sometimes bad conditions can turn a hike into a climb. Once snow ices up the final portions, this strenuous hike can't be done without ice ax and climbing skills.

Even when it's "just" a hike, it can be intimidating. According to local history, one lookout was so stricken by vertigo he had to be rescued.

The views down from the lookout are so sheer you might get dizzy, but you won't get that far if airy views are not to your liking. The final portion of the climb to the lookout involves climbing ladders lashed to the rock -- if you look down you'll see nothing but air.

But rest assured, the ladders are safe ... unless they are iced.

In order to build the lookout back in the 1930s, the Forest Service had to dynamite a platform on the summit. Nowadays, volunteers keep the cabin in good condition.

If you don't want to face the challenge of reaching the lookout, go back to Goat Flats and enjoy the last of the huckleberries.

Goat Flats is a more reasonable destination for most hikers. There are views all around and open meadows sprinkled with tarns. Strong hikers can trek on to Tin Can Gap but should stop when they reach snow, which can be dangerous in late summer/early autumn.

We watched friends pick a dangerous route across the ice on their way to Tin Can Gap from the glacier below. A fall could have been fatal. They had to cut steps in the ice to ascend the treacherous slope.

There are usually a couple of snow patches to cross on your way to Three Fingers, but we got lucky and never needed our ice axes. We took advantage of a moat -- a separation between the rock and the snowfield -- and it was as safe as walking along a sidewalk. We signed the summit register and returned on a climbers' path running along the top of the ridge, but some years this trail does not melt out.

The lookout is not recommended for children, so families should stop at Goat Flats. The trail beyond is rough and sometimes muddy, always steep, and beyond Tin Can Gap it can be dangerous. Settle for a sunset at Goat Flats -- you won't feel cheated.

You can spend the night in the lookout, but don't count on it -- it's first-come, first-served.

Getting there
Drive the Mountain Loop Highway 6-1/2 miles east of Granite Falls and turn left (north) on Forest Service Road No. 41. At the junction where the pavement ends, keep left. Along the way you'll pass several side roads and, at 18 miles from the Mountain Loop, turn right. In less than a quarter of a mile will be the trailhead at 2,900-foot Tupso Pass. Call the Darrington Ranger Station for current road information, 360-436-1155.

Trail detail
For the first two miles the trail climbs through the forest to Saddle Lake. The trail to the right leads to campsites. Take the left fork to Goat Flats. The trail climbs steep slopes and passes through meadows. At about 2-1/2 miles from Saddle Lake you'll reach Goat Flats and the remains of a patrol cabin with campsites nearby, but it would be better to camp along the ridge before the flats. The meadows have been over-used.

Enjoy views of Three Fingers, Mount Pilchuck, Whitehorse Mountain, Mount Baker and, to the west, Puget Sound and the Olympics. The trail continues on to 6,400-foot Tin Can Gap -- most hikers will stop here. From this point a climbers' route meanders along the top of the ridge to the foot of the South Peak of Three Fingers (6,854 feet) and the lookout.

Trail data
Round trip to Goat Flats is 9 miles with an elevation gain of 2,000 feet. For more information, refer to "100 Hikes in the Glacier Peak Region" by Ira Spring/Harvey Manning (The Mountaineers, 238 pages, $14.95).