No friends. No car drop. Siyeh Pass the hard way.

Original posted 7/21/21

Talk about one very long day. There were indeed many miles to go before I slept on this one. Thanks for nothing Mr. Frost.

I did the Siyeh Pass trail the hard way because didn’t have a car drop. So instead of a 10 mile semi loop with about 2300 feet of gain, it became a 16.2 mile full loop with 3800 feet of gain.

Yeah, kind of magical what an automobile can do for you. My total hiking time was right at eight hours. Nothing but constant motion the entire time. Ouch.

The worst part was the start. Hiking thru dense forest from the Jackson Glacier Overlook trailhead to the Siyeh Bend trailhead. A section of trail you’d skip with a car drop. And for good reason. It’s extra miles uphill with no views. But once you start following Siyeh creek, the country turns really beautiful for many miles.

I don’t think I have done Siyeh Pass for at least 15 years. Mainly because I didn’t recall the switchbacks near the saddle going westbound. Or maybe my body chose not to remember. Wasn’t that bad, just not what I expected. Spent most of the climb up to the pass checking out the sides of Mt Siyeh, which I hope to get to in the next week or two. A peak too long to do during a weekday, and I don’t want to be rushed, so will save it for a ‘weekend.’

Met a trail crew at the pass. Which I can only define as 8 guys under 30 with full beards who looked liked they were on release from a medium security federal facility. But where deemed too high risk to just pick up trash on the side of the highway.

I could only tell they were a trail crew because they were too angry to talk to anyone and carried shovels instead of trekking poles. Which I really didn’t get, because that trail is in great shape.

I did the entire thing and could see no signs of their work except for a couple large rocks rolled out of the trail that had been there for decades not bothering anyone.

The descent down the other side was beautiful as always; nice that recent forest fire didn’t take the entire area out. The glorious waterfalls coming off Sexton Glacier clinging to the side of Matahpi Peak was just too inviting. I passed up the goat trail to leading to Sexton many times. What’s another two miles RT when you are already into it for fifteen plus?

As you can see it was great and well worth the effort. After sneaking past a few mountain sheep who were eating the sparse vegetation like a a buzz saw, I crossed several snowfields to get to the center of the complex.

Sexton Glacier was really cool. Did a little commentary while standing just off the moraine (as far I could go safely).

I also found out where the trail crew was staying. They had a communal tarp shelter set up and a few scattered tents. Reminded me of a Seattle homeless camp, just not as clean.

Great spot to illegally stealth camp in the park. Would be a amazing to wake up there with some morning coffee at the tent door.

Once back on the mail trail, the descent to Sunrift Gorge was a lot of down but on the whole pretty pleasant going. Great views in this huge big classic u-shape valley.

The second worst part of the hike was coming out of the trail at Sunrift George. Generally I would have a car parked here and be done. Instead I had to deal with a gaggle of moo moo clad tourist eating fudge bars on a stick. Then I had to pass another 500 of them on the last 4.5 miles leg to the trailhead I had parked the car. I found out this was the most popular stretch of trail for car tourists on the east side. I’m thinking because it is completely flat and takes zero effort.

This section of trail also has about four easy access waterfalls for me to check out along the way back to the car. I was going to stop at all of them because a couple I have never visited. But each was swarmed with tourist. Just to close to the road. At each one I was distracted by the teeming hoards either jumping into them or washing their hair. Just because you are in nature doesn’t mean it’s natural. Too many people standing in the middle of the trail taking selfies, that get annoy when you ask to squeeze by. Between the anger and dehydration and just wanting to be back at the car, I was thinking Covid failed to live up to it’s expectation. But that’s must be why Jaclyn put so many Lady GaGa songs on my forever locked vintage 3rd gen iPod shuffle. All those years in the past she knew that Future Dave would need to sing ‘Poker Face’ under his breath to fight thru these hard hiking times to come.

If time permits this summer I’d like to do an 8 mile in and out trip and visit all of those waterfalls. In the early AM before the tourist wake up. The trail runs right along the banks of Upper St Mary lake, and I scouted out some nice spots to sit down with a camp chair. You know, just enjoy a relaxing down day. St Mary Lake is really beautiful in the right light sans people, and could be so enjoyed if one took their time and fully appreciated it.

All and all a really good day, just got a little long towards the end. Although most of my photos will be common to anyone who has hiked this pass, you seldom see mountain sheep (ewes) up there. Those gals were ripping the hell out of that alpine meadow like stoners with a bag of Cheetos. Yeah, I can’t walk on those fragile plants but nomadic ungulates have free reign to turn those beautiful little flowers into pellets. Anyway, enjoy.