Labyrinth Mountain

Well today's hike starting a little later than we had anticipated. We got to the trailhead and started hiking at 11:00 am (typically I like to be on my way down by this time of day, but it all worked out.) The four of us starting climbing the steep trail and quickly my legs could feel the pain of the previous days' climb of Mt. Mastiff. The trail is shaded as you hike up through the thick tree coverage gaining lots of elevation very quick: about 1500 feet in .8 miles. After the initial steepness, the trail's incline eases off a little bit as you exit the thick tree coverage and you climb the rest of the way to Minotaur Lake. The lake was beautiful with Labyrinth Mountain standing directly behind it, asking to be climbed.

From the lake we made our way to the east side of the lake toward the ridge where you can look down upon Theseus Lake. We continued upward along the ridge toward Labyrinth. We made our way into some tree coverage again for a quick time and exited up onto some rock. From here there is a great view of Minotaur Lake which you just left. Very beautiful with the fall colors changing. We continued up following a faint boot path up to the peak of Labyrinth Mountain, there are several peaks and it may be hard to tell just by looking which is the actual highest point. But we determined it was the most east point that is the highest point, and that is where we found the summit registry and benchmark identifying Labyrinth Mountain.

At the peak we rested and ate some lunch, took in the views, signed the registry, relaxed and took some pictures. While we were at the peak a jet fighter flew right by us! It was flying low through the valleys and took a sharp banking turn right next to us, couldn't have been more than a few hundred yards away. It was really dang cool! After that excitement we made our way back down the mountain, on our way down we met a couple guys going up to Labyrinth and we tried pointing the route we took to help them out, but as we looked back a few minutes later they had gone to the wrong peak. Don't know if they every made it to the true peak. But I'm sure they had great views nonetheless.

We made our way back down rather quickly and were able to get done and home at a really reasonable hour considering how late we got started. I will be honest, at the start of the day I was not in the best mood and wasn't too excited about climbing today due to sore legs, a wicked headache and the lateness of the start that we had. But I'm definitely glad I did end up going, my headache went away, it was an absolutely beautiful day, the views were amazing and I had great company once again. Certainly a worthwhile trip. Good times once again (I've found its hard to have a miserable day in the mountains.)

Region: Central Cascades, Stevens Pass East
Distance: 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 2800 ft
Peak Elevation: 6350 ft
Difficulty: S2, T1
Pass Requirement: Yes, Northwest Forest Pass

As always check out all the photos of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.