Bosterson went hiking September 22, 2011 25.5 miles 6,500 feet gained
This turned out to be kind of a monster. Left Portland around 6:15am and drove 2.5 hrs to the Norway Pass trailhead. Hiked up towards Mt. Margaret, then turned onto the Whittier trail (which is apparently open for business now, complete with new signage). We crossed the Whittier ridge and met up with the Lakes trail, then descended towards Coldwater Lake, losing all our elevation. At the lake we turned onto the Coldwater trail and climbed back up towards the peak, then traversed past Coldwater, the Dome, and Mt. Margaret, completing the loop and heading back down to the car.
Weather was mostly cloudy (probably a good thing to keep us from melting). Huckleberries are very ripe right now. There's still some snow up there, and you sometimes have to walk across patches of it, but it's no biggie.
I'd used the WH mapping tool to check this route out and it spat out 15 miles. Turns out it's more like 25-26 miles. D'oh. We started at 9am and went for 11 hrs and finished by headlamp in the dark. Then the 2.5 hr drive home...
