Left (via bike) Basalt Ridge TH around 2. Took an hour to get to the Minnow Crk sign. Seemed longer! Then just went R and down to the road. Several trees down and it's obvious the Minnow Crk trail doesn't get as much use as Basalt Ridge but all went well! Saw part of a coyote cross the road. Better that than a bear. Back to the car around 4:15. Glad I went!

I joined Bob and Kolleen for only my second backpacking trip of the year. The forecast was for sunshine both days. That has not happened often this year. They had day hiked this trail twice in the fall when larch trees are golden high on the ridge. I had never hiked it at all. Always fun to hike a new trail. There is precious little water anywhere on this trail so we were counting on the heavy winter snow pack to give us some snow to melt for water. The only alternative is to descend into a basin for water. We wanted to camp right on the ridge for the best views, especially sunset and sunrise. I was not sure I could take the whole weekend for a trip so I did not agree to go until 8:30 pm on Friday and only then began to pack.

We met at 7:45 am Saturday and headed east on Highway 2. Over Stevens Pass and left to Lake Wenatchee and then to the Chiwawa River Road. A right turn at 9.4 miles and 5.7 miles to the trailhead. There are only two wide spots on the road to park with room for up to 6 cars if care it taken. There was one car there as we packed up and got started at 10:25 am. I was warned that the trail starts out steep. Yes it does. It's 1.4 miles to the junction on the ridge. The route gains 1200' and has some flat spots. There has not yet been any log clearing. We found at least half a dozen big trees down that required going over or around. The overs were not all that easy. It will be much better when they are removed. We took a short break at the junction then headed on.

The first junction is with the trail that climbs over Basalt Peak. We quickly met another junction. The way is all in forest up to here but we soon broke out into the open. The "getting very hot" open. The high was only supposed to be 63 at about 6000' but it was much warmer. We also encountered mosquitoes. Not a black wave but enough to be bothersome all weekend. We climbed up to an open area with some nice views for lunch at noon. The view only improved the higher we went. I have only done one backpack this year and Bob and Kolleen none. The heavier packs, the steep trail, and one of the first hot days of the year really slowed us down. Slow but at least we kept moving.

We worked our way around the first high point and the trail moved onto the ridge top. Some trees, grass, flowers and soon some snow. We met two other nwhikers members, Hit The Trail and Get Out And Go as they were coming down. They hiked up the ridge and descended into the meadow for the night. They also went up to the Entiat Crest. They verified that we would soon be reaching plenty of now on the ridge to allow water if we camped there. Views out to Glacier Peak, and other peaks kept improving. We were also able to see south to Mt. Daniel and Mt. Rainier. Really nice.

As we approached Pt. 6763 we found a pretty good campsite but chose to go on. The trail contours to the left of the point dropping some and climbing back to the ridge. Some flowers here and many more coming. This slope is grassy meadow and gets as lot of sun. Back on the ridge we found another good campsite candidate. We went a little farther but backtracked to that spot. Enough room for two tents with a solid snowbank alongside. Great mountain views from camp. This was at about 6500'. We had thought about climbing up to the Entiat Crest at 7400' to camp but it was already afternoon and too hot to enjoy toting overnight packs up there.

We set up camp and headed on up the ridge. Most all of the ridge still has snow. There were a few bare spots and some spots where you could walk alongside the snow. For the most part we trudged up the snow. Of course as with most ridges there were ups and downs along the way. Garland Peak had been in sight since our campsite and it was a tempting goal. Bob and Kolleen had already been up it so they did not have a burning desire to return. Our pace was glacial up the snowy ridge. High up the narrow ridge broadened into a steeper snowfield and we put on microspikes to improve traction. Nice but not necessary.

At the top the flat ridge was mostly bare. Bare and very windy. The cold was welcome but very cold. I headed over to a high point on the ridge to Garland and Bob and Kolleen soon followed. Their chihuahuas need parkas first. The small dogs did the whole 4000' climb. Great views from our perch. The trees on and below this point were largely larch. Nice late fall color. The precipitous north side of Garland was in site. Unfortunately the map showed a 300' drop and 525' climb to get over there. The late afternoon heat made it seem like not such a good idea. We also had a great view of the Devil's Smokestack. That too would have to await another day. We had a nice stay as the wind and elevation made for less bugs than at camp. At 4:20 we reluctantly headed back to camp.

The trip down was as much fun as the trip up was a slog. I plunge stepped or standing glissaded much of it. Rather than detour onto dirt we went most all the way down on snow. Fast and easy. We arrived back at camp at about 5:00 pm. DEET helped but more clothing helped more. At least we had the snow bank to cool us off. Bob had placed a black garbage sack on the snow with a pile of snow on it. A pot sat on the ground below. It worked great and we had a full put of water for dinner without wasting stove fuel. We stayed up until dark which was much later than in Seattle. I turned in well past 9:00 pm and it was not yet totally dark.

I woke up in time to head outside for photos of the morning sun on the mountains. Sunrise and sunset views and photos from high in the mountains are a real treat. We were packed up and on the trail by 9:00 m and in just under two hours were back at the car. Sunday would be a much warmer day and the relatively cooler morning hiking was much appreciated. Still felt awfully warm to me. This was a great first summer backpacking trip. We saw only two other people, had sunny skies both days, enough water to camp on a soon to be barren ridge, and plenty of exercise. My GPS logged 9.50 miles with 4000' of elevation gain including ups and downs. My first visit to Basalt Ridge but not my last.

I have posted 40 fully annotated photos on my website: http://www.hikingnorthwest.com. Go to "Trips - 2011" on the left margin. Also, this trail is east up the Chiwawa River not "Stevens Pass - West".

So I obviously didn't figure out the stats on this trip correctly before deciding on it because it turned out to be twice as long and at least twice as hard as I thought it was going to be. Rock Creek trail is beautiful and recently worked by trail crews to the Basalt Ridge turn off. We found and took the turn-off from Rock Creek with no problem. However, BE WARNED that the trail from there works its way up to a small bridge crossing and immediately after that small bridge the Rock Creek Tie (#1538) turns off this trail to the right. HOWEVER, that junction looks decommissioned because the trail is covered in blow down debris, while the trail you are on continues, obviously well-used, straight ahead. Unfortunately after about a mile that well-used trail peters out into 8-foot tall vine maple. Does it go through to Basalt Ridge? Maybe. My maps show that it does not, but I don't know for sure because we checked the GPS and realized we were way off-course and turned back to find the real Rock Creek Tie trail well-hidden and obviously unmaintained for years, though two signs were found to be hanging at the junction to label it as the Rock Creek Tie.

Rock Creek Tie trail is at least 35% to up to 45% grade in places straight up a ridge. Definitely my heels were in "four-wheel drive" position most of the way up. Unfortunately, the lack of maintenance for what looks like three years or more has led to the trail being covered most of the way with blown down trees and debris on top of more trees and debris. Also, near the top vine maple and young trees are a significant and annoying challenge. It was twice as hard to navigate and power up this old-school trail as it would have been if well-maintained. Eat your Wheaties!

Once we made Basalt Ridge, it was smooth sailing but NO WATER so tank up before coming up to the Basalt Peak area. Snow was almost totally melted out. Mosquitoes were fierce, but good motivation to keep moving. Others have explained the Basalt Peak area so I'll skip that, except to say it was our "second-lunch" spot. As we made a loop of this trip, we headed down from Basalt Peak on the Basalt Ridge trail again (or is it Minnow Creek trail at that point on that side of the Basalt Peak?) to the south. At about 4600' on the Minnow Creek trail, there is a lovely water source next to the trail to refill water bottles, but that's it for the trip without a lot of ugly bush-whacking so take advantage if you're running low. At around 4400' we took the right hand turn onto the Finner Creek trail (not listed in WTA databases!), which drops directly to Finner Creek campground on the Chiwawa River Road. Others have reported this trail is in bad shape so we were concerned, but we lucked out and trail crews had just finished working on this trail and they were THOROUGH! Trail was in the best shape of any trail I think I've ever been on. :) Good job, crew!

Once we got back to Chiwawa River Road at the Finner Creek CG, we walked back up the road 1.6 miles to the Rock Creek TH where we had left the truck. (FYI, we tried the old trail paralleling the road that might have taken us back to our TH without any road travel but it was stacked with blowdowns and I was too tired to put up with that so we headed back down to the road.) We wanted to stroll back up the road, but mosquitoes made that unbearable so we double-timed instead. All in all I would recommend taking the Minnow Creek trail to Basalt Peak if you are looking for a simple, pleasant day-hike, but if you are interested in a challenge or training route, this loop fit the bill.

I hiked from the Finner Creek campground (N 47.95085 W 120.76828) towards Basalt Peak on Sunday. This trail has the potential to be great, but it needs a little attention.

At lower elevations, maples are growing into the trail. They're soft, so if you're wearing sunglasses you can walk through them without too much difficulty. Hiking poles are helpful for pushing some of the bigger branches out of the way.

There are also a lot of blowdowns on this trail. Some of them can be stepped over, but many require acrobatics. Hiking poles are very useful for this. None of them alone are deal-killers, but they certainly slow down your pace. There were also a bunch of mosquitos on the trail that would bite you while you were slowly navigating the blowdowns.

If you can deal with those nuisances, the trail is quite nice. The trail is laterally relatively horizontal, which is easy on the ankles. It's also well graded. As you ascend, the trail begins switchbacking in and out of forest, giving you views at every other switchback. It's also a great place to go for solitude. I didn't see a single other person on the trail.

I had lunch at a nice rocky outcropping and then turned around early. The blowdowns ate up a lot of time. I estimate that I made it to 4200 feet. The trail at that point was really flattening out and heading back into the woods toward the Minnow Creek trail. There was a little bit of patchy snow at my turn-around point, but nothing before that.