Hiked to the Thorp Mt. Lookout via French Cabin Creek and the Kachess Ridge trail.

We started from FS road 4308 to access the French Cabin Creek trail. There is a side road leading to the trailhead in about 1/2 mile, but I wouldn't recommend trying to drive it. You could go a short ways, but then it becomes brushy and quite narrow in places.

We found the trail starting in a cleared area on the left of the road. The trail was in pretty good shape except for the upper part, which was quite brushy. The section of the Kachess Ridge trail from the junction with French Cabin Creek north to the high point was also very brushy.

Then the ups and down started, but the trail was in good condition. We saw no one until we came to the junction with the Knox Creek trail. Lots of people coming that way. There was a nice young Ranger lady and her dog staffing the fire lookout. No fire watching that day as it was foggy and cold, so she had lots of time to visit.

This one sure turned out to be a longer and harder trip than I'd planned based on the route in my TOPO software! We left Seattle not knowing exactly which trail we'd end up on. The plan was to see where the clouds stopped and go there but crossing over the pass we found only high whispy clouds everywhere. Off we went to Thorp mountain. Since we had the whole day I wanted to go via French Cabin creek trail rather than the shorter Knox creek route. Little did we know exactly how much gain we'd be in for.

The road in was very good shape with only a few bouncy sections, any car could make it. We parked at a sign pointing to the trail, unsure if that was the trailhead or if we could keep driving. Immediately we were set upon by the attacking insect blood patrol. Before stepping out the car I had a bite. Following an old, rough, overgrown road for about half a mile we finally started onto real trail. Quickly it became steep, not letting off for a few hundred vertical feet before entering the forest. From then on it alternated between steep, slightly eroded, and hot. Views of Rainier were great and we also spotted a large buck heading up the trail ahead of us. The bugs also were less of a menace now.

We crested the highpoint and here is where the TOPO route is incorrect. In TOPO it looks like a slight descent, then a fairly level traverse to the ridge junction with Knox. We ended up descending hundreds of feet before skirting around the next highpoint on a narrow, eroded section of trail. There were surprisingly a few steep patches of snow still hanging on here but all were easily crossed. Off we went, again going up and down yet another high point. Far off in the distance we could see the tower and I was contemplating taking Knox Creek back and walking the road to avoid the regain.

But before we knew it we were on the final ascent up to the lookout itself. The flower show here was very good. Plentiful lupine, paintbrush, alpine aster, blue bells, parsnip, and many others I cant identify. High puffy clouds and blue sky made for a great scene. We were starting to really suck wind on the final bit, the whole route being longer than we'd anticipated. The tower was a welcome sight.

The door was unlocked so we went inside for a look. A well equipped and functional tower with a stove/oven, sleeping cot, and a fire-finder. There were fresh vegetables and lots of canned food inside. We met the lookout tender and her dog, as well as a uniformed ranger who had packed in extra supplies for her. We left them to their work and sat outside in the sun for more than an hour, enjoying the views and the many water-skiers on the lake far below.

The descent was thankfully much easier than we'd thought. We made good time for the most part but regaining, then relosing, then re-regaining the final bit was irritating. All told gain for the day was 3800 ft, a far cry from the 2800 ft I'd envisioned! The final downhill stretch was a very welcome sight, as rough and eroded as it was. We took turns sliding in the gravel before Karen became the first to go down, pirouetting and landing hard on her knee. The last mile was very slow and we were both thankful to see the car.

This is a great little peak and a nice tower! Right now the French Creek trail is very pretty with all the flowers but if your only destination is the lookout it is much more easily reached via Knox Creek, or possibly Thorp Lake. But it was still a great trip with great views and weather!

Full trip photos @ http://www.pbase.com/billcat/thorpmtn

We attempted to to the French Cabin Creek area via the Lake Kachess side - road 4818 from Easton to road 4824. About 8 miles from the paved highway road 4824 was partially blocked by trees and was getting very rough. The bushes are growing in from the sides of the road and are unavoidable in places. We turned around at that point and chose a different hike on Trail 1315 up Silver Creek.