Spent 4 hours trying to find the right trail junction in the North Cascades

I was trying to connect the Maple Pass loop to the Lake Ann trail for a longer trip. The map made it look obvious, but the actual junction was completely overgrown and unmarked. I must have walked past it three times before I finally spotted a tiny, faded piece of flagging tape on a branch. What should have been a 10-minute check turned into most of an afternoon. Has anyone else had a junction just disappear on them like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

henrycooper2mo ago

Read a trip report last year where a guy lost the trail completely after a windstorm. Downed trees and new growth just erased a whole section.

cooper.phoenix2mo ago

Did my friend's trail vanish into a meadow that just grew over it last season?

noah_hill792mo ago

Four hours for one junction? That's brutal. I've seen trails get faint, but a whole junction just gone is next level. Makes you wonder how many people walked right by it that same day.