Andrews CreekRecent Trip Reports
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trip reports for this hike.
Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Blowdowns | Bridge out | Overgrown | Mudholes | Water on trail | Snow on trail | Bugs
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With lingering snow still covering most of Cascades we decided to head to the Pasayten for some snow free travel....
With lingering snow still covering most of Cascades we decided to head to the Pasayten for some snow free travel. For the most part we made a wise choice.
Tuesday we parked and hiked in the Andrews Creek trail off the Chewuch River Road. Thankfully it was cloudy and cool when we stared because this is a dusty horse trail. Nothing remarkable as we hiked through through the burn and up to Spanish Creek Camp. After Spanish Creek we jumped on the Boundary Trail and views and terrain were much improved. We encountred patches of snow but nothing that posed a problem. After dodging showers while walking on the ridge we descended to Ashanola Creek. We had put in about 23 miles since 9am we were happy to come upon a shelter before the river crossing. The small shelter had 4 rickety bunks that gave us a refuge from the on again off again showers. We slept like crap, but stayed dry, and rose to a clear chilly morning. Day 2 started climbing steadily to Pevee Pass and then up and over Bunker Hill. We had an awesome morning of hiking as we enjoyed the high country of the Boundary Trail under incresingy sunny skies. Again we skirted around patches of snow and crossed one decent snowfield, but it was nothing we couldn't follow. The trails were soggy. Our feet were rarely dry on this trip. Bunker Hill is a pretty long and slow climb. We enjoyed a quick lunch stop up top and discussed the likelihood that if we continued on the Bounday Trail we'd eventually face a sketchy crossing of the Pasayten River. We decided to follow unmaintained trail #456 and approach Tatoosh Buttes via Hidden Lakes. The descent was tough. It amounted to 4 miles of trying to pick up an overgrown trail through a burn over what seemed like hundreds of blow downs. My knees and legs are still knicked up. Finally we made it to the Hidden Lakes trail and hiked a what seemed like a long 2 miles. Hidden Lakes was hot and buggy. We missed trail #485 as we walked to the end of the lakes and then had to backtrack and find the trail. It was not signed and we trounced through waist high brush. Finally we were on a real trail again and we ascended to Tatoosh Buttes on the steady switchbacks. We hit a few decent snowfields as we topped out at 7100 ft. The views were awesome but a brisk chilly wind prevented us from staying. As dusk approached we descended through the burn down the Pasayten River. After a long day this seemed to take forever and was hard on tired legs. We finally made it to the creek where found the camp that no longer was and had do a really chilly creek crossing. It was getting dark and we briskly walked up trail #478 along the Paayten River looking for somewhere to camp. We found a spot flat enough to put down a tarp tent and a bivy. The bugs were present but tolerable and overall it was a good find given out predicament. We had hiked over 30+ rugged miles for the day. Rain/drizzle woke us up and we broke camp pretty quickly. We had a soggy start up this pretty level trail along the river. After a mile or two we started to see plenty of decent campsites. We passed two Outward Bound groups, the only other hikers we saw the whole trip. A pretty quick 13 miles got us to the junction between the the trail to Hart's Pass and the Robinson Creek trail. As much as we wanted to continue to the PCT we realized there was significantly more snow on the approaching ridges. We settled for Robinson Pass which was a sunny snow free destination. After a quick lunch we pushed on down the trail. This is a beautiful trail as it lowers from pass level into an impressive river gorge over 9 enjoyable miles. After 22 miles for the day we reached the Robinson Creek trailhead a long ways away from our car on the Chewuch. We walked down Harts Pass road thumbing later learning that we should have been "little-bitting" it to get a ride. After about 5 miles of road walking we caught a ride to the Mazama Store, just in time call a friend in Twisp to come get us and drive us to our car. I didn't want this hike to end and when it was time to leave I wanted to go back out and hike more of the Pasayten. For the most part it was snow free, a little wet, not too buggy, and pretty much was as spectacular as everybody says it is. We figure we hiked over 80 miles on this 3 day trek.
Andrews Creek
— Jun 04, 2010
— toadlicker
Overnight
Issues:
Blowdowns | Water on trail
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10 minutes into the hike is a ford of Little Andrews Creek. It was knee deep, but with the...
10 minutes into the hike is a ford of Little Andrews Creek. It was knee deep, but with the basketball-sized rocks under the frothy whitewater it made for a tricky ford. I couldn't see the rocks underwater, so I had to be carefull with my foot placement. Once safely across, I promptly fell when a boulder rolled underfoot.
The trail is in pretty bad shape, with lots and lots of fallen trees across the trail, and water just runs down the trail in several places. I hit snow at about 5,800 feet, and it was a long and slow slog through snow to reach the pass, and even more snow on the other side. I've never post-holed so bad, it took 2 hours to go 3/4 mile.
Andrews Creek #504
— Aug 28, 2007
— par
Day hike
Issues:
Mudholes
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A few days ago I had the stranage experience of hiking for about 13 continuous miles of the Andrews Creek...
A few days ago I had the stranage experience of hiking for about 13 continuous miles of the Andrews Creek Trail through a burned out forest. In places the burned out area reminded me of the destruction at Mt. St. Helens.
Andrews Creek #504
— Aug 28, 2007
— par
Day hike
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A few days ago I had the stranage experience of hiking for about 13 continuous miles of the Andrews Creek...
A few days ago I had the stranage experience of hiking for about 13 continuous miles of the Andrews Creek Trail through a burned out forest. In places the burned out area reminded me of the destruction at Mt. St. Helens.
Andrews Creek #504
— Sep 02, 2001
— The Evans Family
Day hike
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There are many trails closed in the Paysaten! At the Andrews Creek trailhead, the West Chewuch road is closed...
There are many trails closed in the Paysaten! At the Andrews Creek trailhead, the West Chewuch road is closed with signs letting you know it is illegal to venture up the road and many trails in the area. The ranger I talked to said that many dead trees and loose rocks are falling down the scorched hills. This area will not reopen this year. Call the Methow Visitors Center for full disclosure. |
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