Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

September 28, 2025

2116m

Rainy Pass / North Cascades Highway, WA

“Crooked Bum” is the unofficial name of a forested bump in the immediate vicinity of Rainy Pass but despite the lowly status, it actually boasts over 200 m prominence. My first time hearing about this objective was from Simon’s trip report on the old ClubTread forum back in 2015, in which he undressed and showed the white bum on “Crooked Bum”. Almost exactly 10 years later I finally pulled the trigger. My original thinking was to introduce Clair to the fall colours in Washington but my second thought was to reserve it as an add-on objective on the way to Corteo Peak. I consulted with the maps and wondered why not combining both thoughts into one batch of grab. Clair would have no chance in tagging Corteo Peak but she could either hike back to the parking lot alone, or wait for me at Maple Pass.

This was actually our second attempt in entering U.S. as we got turned back by not having the Eviss registered about two weeks prior. Unfortunately Clair holds that infamous Chinese passport so everything would be difficult when comes to travelling (except for China). We had the online documents sorted out this time but the border crossing was still no joke. Clair still needed to enroll in that I-84 or whatever and that must be done in person, so we got turned in with a yellow paper. I expected that, but then their computer system had been down for almost 2 hours and then they were short staffed. There was no estimated time of fixing so I even asked if we could simply be turned back to Canada. The answer was negative. Basically in situation like this, the individuals would have to wait in the secondary inspection room until the system sorts itself out, with no freedom whatsoever for however long it takes. It could be hours or even days. This was downright ridiculous. One officer came and explained that the reason we were here was to acquire permission and the longest time for someone to get permitted in entering U.S. was 93 days. I didn’t know if that person ended up having to spend the entire period of 3 months in that room (which doesn’t make any sense). I honestly don’t care and I wouldn’t bother to research, but if anyone comes with an article about that story then feel free to email me. I also don’t know if being rude is required for working in the customs and border stations because if there’s one thing common in those guys, it has to be their attitude. By 11:45 pm we finally got the paper work sorted out so Clair was able to enter U.S. for the first time. We stopped in Exit 262 for gas then pushed all the way to Rainy Pass in one go. The actual trail-head was closed so we simply parked on the side of the road, and it was 2 am when we finally went to bed.

I was too spent to bother with an “alpine start” so we leisurely woke up at 7:30 am and then did the morning routine. We eventually started hiking at around 8:30 am. There were already tens of hikers ahead of us on the Maple Pass Loop so we wouldn’t be alone. Clair hadn’t exercised for five months so I had little clue about her current fitness level, so the decision was for Clair to lead the pace upfront. To my surprise the pace was full on right off the bat. I sure was carrying most of our stuffs but I had to work quite hard to even keep up with Clair’s pace. That was quite impressive. We ended up passing all of the hikers ahead and made to Heather Pass in less than an hour.

We didn’t plod all the way to Heather Pass and instead, we went for a short-cut and got ourselves onto the broad SW Ridge of “Crooked Bum” earlier than expected. I was anticipating an unofficial trail on this ridge but there was actually none. I thought for sure a path had been developed but this route was still almost entirely “off trail travel”. Clair doesn’t have a lot of experience in off-trail scrambling nor bushwhacking so the going was nowhere as quick as earlier on the trail. There was actually a few bushy sections in addition to a couple steep stretches. This ridge was definitely longer than I thought. For scramblers there’s nothing worth noting but this could be quite a challenge for the casual hikers. Overall I think Clair did the job well and we got to the summit in 1 hour 40 minutes from the trail-head.

Unfortunately the smoke had obscured most of the views but on the bright side, the larches were starting to turn yellow. The fall colours were nowhere at the “peak” but for Clair’s first trip in Washington this was more than good enough. On the descent I also didn’t manage to pick the easiest path for Clair so we did more bushwhacking and scrambling, but that’s okay. This time we plodded all the way down to Heather Pass and then ascended 150 m to Maple Pass. The final decision was made for Clair to complete the loop on her own so that she could go back to the vehicle to work on her thesis or whatever. I would resume my way towards Corteo Peak which was the main objective in this trip.