There's More Than one Hike on Sourdough Mountain  by Eric Sandbo
   Sourdough, just above the town of Diablo, seems to have a reputation.  Something to do with steep, hot, dry, endless switchbacks, I guess.  The fact is, the switchbacks can be rendered bearable, the views are spectacular, and there's more variety than you'd expect from just reading the guidebook.  You just have to be willing to explore and push yourself.
The Classic:
   This is the trail that Sourdough's reputation is built on.  Yes, it's steep, and the switchbacks are uncountable.  It's 5 _ miles to the top, with a 5,100' elevation gain.  I've heard people say it's too long to do in a day, and it's not worth carrying camping gear for an overnighter.  There are a couple of things you can do to make it bearable, even enjoyable.
1.:     Get out of bed early.  The first 3,000' of elevation gain is on a SW-facing slope.  You start this one at 11:00 a.m. on a hot July day, and you'll want to swear off hiking forever.  Do a little arithmetic when you plan for this one: How early do you have to start to finish that 3,000' by, say, 9:30?
2.:     Travel light.  If you carry camping gear, it will take you all day to reach the summit, and of course you'll have to camp.  Carry a light day pack (with lots of water), and start early, and you can reach the top early enough to enjoy the views, and easily enough to enjoy the hike.
   Here's how you start: drive Hwy. 20 until you find yourself beside Gorge Lake.  Where the highway turns right to cross the lake, you stay left and drive into the town of Diablo.  The town has an indoor swimming pool right at the base of Sourdough.  The trail begins right behind the building (about 900' elev.).  You should probably drive past the pool to the tourist parking lot near the powerhouse.
   Walk back to the pool, go around the left end of the building, and you're on your way.  Don't expect your heels to touch the ground for a while.  At 3,800' the trail crosses the ridge crest eastward, heading for a crossing of Sourdough Creek.  Don't go that way in early season; avalanches down that valley have swept all the way down to Diablo Lake, rearranging the resort cabins on the shore.  A safer choice is to leave the trail at 3,800', following an unmarked trail straight up the ridge crest northward.  You'll miss the lookout, but get all the views.  In mid-summer and later, you can stay on the trail across the gully and up to the lookout (5,985').
   The upper sections of the trail gave you hints of the scenery, with views of Diablo Lake, Ruby Mtn., Colonial Peak, and Davis peak.  (Look in Beckey's guidebook to see which SAC member did the first ascent of Davis' NE face, the only place in Washington where the terrain drops more than a vertical mile in less than one horizontal mile.)  When you top out, the views expand to include Ross Lake, Jack Mtn., the Picketts, and more.  Sit around, take pictures, eat lunch, go down.
€ USGS maps Diablo Dam and Ross Dam
€ 100 Hikes in the North Cascades, The Mountaineers
Alternative 1: Continue North
   Sourdough is not some simple hump of a peak; it's a ridge, and we've just touched the southern tip of it, so far.  Remember back at 3,800', where we had that choice of avoiding the Sourdough Creek gully by going straight up the spur ridge? Do that.  You'll hit the crest at the same elevation as the lookout, but over a mile NW of it.  From there you can wander rocky, open meadows NW for about 3 _ miles before you drop below 6,000' again.
   The views are astonishing and endless.  So are the choices of perfect, level, protected campsites, if you brought a filter pump for purifying snowmelt.
   Years ago, when the mountains were even higher, Mike Woodmansee dragged John Semrau & I on a killer day hike along Sourdough Ridge.  We left Diablo about 5 a.m. Sunday, hiked up and along the ridge, dropped west to a pass at 4,920'+, and picked our way up between the cliffs to the summit of Elephant Butte, 7,380'.  Then we went back.  Racing daylight along the crest of Sourdough, our only concern was that we find the trail before dark.  I think it was past sunset when we found it, but there it was, and we knew we were fine.  We followed it down by headlamp, and reached the car about 1:00 Monday morning.  I was kind of tuckered at work that day.
   Mike sat down with the maps afterward and counted every contour line we'd crossed.  He says we gained 11,000' that day.  Lost that much, too, of course.  I haven't counted.  That route is one of the approaches into the Southern Picketts.  It's hard, but so are all the other approaches.
€  USGS maps Diablo Dam and Mount Prophet
Alternative 2: Continue East
   From the lookout, look down to the ridge that extends E.  That's where the Forest Service wants you to camp up here, and there are some nice sites.  Again, be prepared to purify snowmelt.
   There's also a trail along the ridge known as Sourdough Lookout Pack Trail, or Pierce Mountain Way, after the 4,973' lump at the E. terminus of the ridge.  The trail stays on the crest for about _ mile from the lookout, then switchbacks down the south side to connect with a little sub-ridge at 4,000'.  That slope burned back in the Eighties, and new undergrowth was beginning to obscure the trail when I hiked it.  Find out if the trail's still being maintained.  The trail descends ENE at a knee-friendly pace to a junction with the West Bank Ross Lake Trail at 2,100', near Cougar Island.  Unfortunately, by this time you are long out of water, and the lake is still 500' below.
   Turn right, and follow the trail south and west 2 _ miles before you reach the lakeshore.  I usually avoid drinking from lakes with a lot of campgrounds and powerboats on them but this was an exception.  I dunked, I guzzled, and I filled my bottle.
   You're only a few hundred feet from Ross Dam.  Go there.  From the N. end of the dam there appears to be a trail heading W.  Don't.  I tried it, and it dead-ends.  Cross the dam, then follow the road to the right.  A trail leads _ mile and 500' uphill to Hwy. 20 and a big parking lot.  If you had two cars, this would end the trip, but you'd miss out on a great secret.
   Skip that trail, and continue down the road to the powerhouse.  There's a dock on the river there, and a foot suspension bridge across the water.  It doesn't look complete on the map, but a good trail climbs to the level of the highway, but on the N. side of Diablo Lake.  It offers spectacular views of the gorge and easy, level walking all the way to Diablo Dam.  Follow the road past the dam ­ don't cross it ­ to near the top of the incline railway, where you'll find a trail down to the picnic tables and your car in Diablo.
   The whole loop is 19 miles, I think.  I did it in just over 12 hours with a fanny pack, tennis shoes, and not enough water.  That last stretch, from Ross dam to Diablo, could be a good lowland winter hike.  Don't bring little kids, though.  Parts of the trail are very exposed, high above the lake.
€  USGS maps Diablo Dam, Ross Dam, and Pumpkin Mtn.
Alternative 3: Winter
   Take a good look at Alternative 1 on the maps, and you'll see that it's one of the least avalanche-prone routes in the North Cascades.  We once tried a 3-day snowshoe ascent of Elephant Butte over New Years weekend.  We make it onto Sourdough Ridge and set up camp with a terrific view of ­ well, everything.  Remember that advice about travelling light?  Forget it.  This was back in the Wool Age.
   I brought a thermometer.  It reached -22°F outside that night, but it was four degrees warmer inside the tent.  I did OK with a hot water bottle inside my duck down bag, a wool balaclava over my face, and my sleeping bag cinched to about a 4-inch opening.  I did have a problem with my breath forming frost on my eyelashes.  Once every few minutes a crystal would drop into the puddle of water over an eye, and a drop of icewater would roll down that side of my head.
   Everybody else hunkered deep into their sleeping bags.  Moisture in their breath degraded their insulation, and by morning they were too cold to consider spending another night up there.  We had a good hike down.  I would have enjoyed snowshoeing along the ridge, but there's no way I could have made it to Elephant Butte & back, even from our camp.  That ridge cries out for skis.
Alternative 4: Stay Low
   Say you don't have time to hike up a vertical mile.  You're driving across the Cascades with non-hiker family or friends and just want to give them a little close-up sample of deep forest to complement the grand views from the drive.  Pull into Diablo, find the northernmost street, and park.  Walk across 100 feet of lawn between two houses, and you're on the Stetattle Creek trail.  The creek beside you is cold, fast, and astonishingly clear, even by North Cascades standards.  Thick moss hangs from vine maple overhead.
   In just a few hundred feet the trail leaves the creek to climb to dry pine and salal forest on the side of Sourdough.  It goes for miles up the valley.  I haven't hiked it all, but I can tell you parts of it offer good jogging, and that there's an avalanche gully that fairly reeks of educational opportunity.  I found almost no views of that NE face of Davis, but there may be more, further up the trail.
   But that's the story of hiking, isn't it?  There's always more further up the trail.
The trail mileages above are simple eyeball estimates from the maps.  Don't blame me if a section I said was 3 _ miles turns out to be 3 5/8.   
-Eric