My first choice for a hike was the twenty mile round trip bicycle ride to the Sulphur Mtn trail head, plus the 5ish mile hike to the summit then back. But with the forecast heat i decided it was not reasonable. So i chose to explore Kelley Creek, knowing there is an extension from the Iron Goat mid construction to this trail. I knew there would be blow-downs but speculated they were greatly exaggerated.
Anyway when i drove by the Martin Creek trail head of the Iron Goat the parking lot was overflowing. A short distance up the road the Kelley Creek trail head was empty. There's almost enough room for two cars.
The beginning of the trail is located on an abandoned road bed. It's chocked with brush and unappealing to walk through. It does eventually open up near the Wilderness Boundary. At this point i found the trail in decent shape, considering its minimally maintained. Looks like the lower 2 miles was logged out recently...but tread is faint at times. Route finding required. 2 miles in is where every thing changes. On the contrary to my speculation that the blow-downs being exaggerated...i found it greatly understated! The swath of blow downs is 3/4 of a mile wide! There must be 1000's of them. It only lets up shorty gaining the meadows on the North side of Captian Point. Once in the meadows the going is pretty easy. Headed toward Scorpion Mountain i had some serous thoughts of heading out via Johnson ridge and out Beckler river road and hitch hike back. This would have required an an over night bivy.....as i have other obligations for Sunday. I decided to make the return trip a mile short of Scorpion Mtn.

Kelley Creek trail has deteriorated a lot since we last hiked it in Dec 2008. Then it was winter and the vegetation and bugs were already down. Today was not only the height of summer but many more blowdowns clogged the trail. O'Rogers was not exaggerating in his report July 24 about the massive logjam. It is truly impassible.

To get there, take the Old Cascade Highway off Highway 2 at milepost 55. At the junction, take FS 6710. There is a sign there for the Iron Goat Trail (which is a much better maintained and popular trail than Kelley Creek). Go past the outhouse for another mile and a half to a junction to your left that goes down and over a small bridge. The "trailhead" is a one stall spur to the left just over the bridge.

The first mile of the Kelley Creek trail is an abandoned road choked with vegetation in some places and victim to an avalanche of blowdown and debris about 500 yards in. Once in the trees the trail threads its way up the slope, hindered by several large blowdowns and messy blowdown patches (several trees down with lots of branches). Barbella and I cleared as much as our little pruning saw, time and energy, allowed but there is much more to be done. The trail is faint, creeping downhill, with mudholes and the last vestiges of rotting puncheons in places. WTA did fix the stream crossings and the ravine rope has been replaced with a nice tread.

At 3 miles, there is a gynormous blowdown of large logs which does indeed appear to be a quarter mile across. It is impassible. We tried to bushwhack directly upslope on the near side of the blowdown field but after a valiant effort and several hundred foot gain straight up, our progress was blocked again by more downed logs and underbrush. We and a hiker we met up there came to the prudent decision simultaneously that further effort would yield no rewards, so we turned around.

Rumor has it that a new trail is planned from the Iron Goat trailhead at the outhouse to Kelley Creek. This would be okay if it cut directly across the Martin Creek valley and completely avoided old overgrown road that now constitutes the first mile of Kelley Creek. However, until the big log jam is cleared, Kelley Creek will still be a hike to nowhere.

Set off for a day hike to Kelley Creek with pup and 2 friends. First mile of hike is on an abandoned logging road - nice walking and beautiful surroundings. Wildflowers blooming. After about 1 mile you enter on to the old trail. The hike is mostly uphill, not very steep, but a constant, dependable way to get the breathing rate up.
At about 2ish miles encountered a very large section of blowdowns, about 1/4 mile wide at least. Lost the trail immediately but decided to give it a shot, climbing over large trees and branches. Had a couple, "oops, could have broken a leg" moments. Pup gave up just a little way in and we decided best not to push her too hard as carrying her out would have been near impossible had she hurt herself jumping up or under or over any number of obstacles. Recommended as we did not encounter any other hikers on the trail - but bring a sense of adventure and route finding skills if you plan to do the whole hike. Our guess is the blowdown section happened this past winter as there is no mention of it in past reports.

Mosquitos in full form for most of the hike - couldn't take any downtime.

The remnant of the abandoned Kelley Creek Trail can successfully be hiked to Scorpion Mtn. without route-finding difficulties, provided you are moderately adept at locating flagging. Really, the amount of flagging is amazing! Too much solitude? I encountered no one else this day, but this trail needs to be used. Skeeters were present, but I would rate their nuisance factor as moderate and certainly tolerable with a little bug spray.
The trail is accessed from road FS 6710 via an abandoned logging spur ( spur 230 on maps). This .8 mile access has received annual maintenance now for several consecutive years from WTA and others and is in very good shape. The way is level, through a cut-over area with a canopy of alders and small firs and occasional views across the Martin Creek valley to Windy Mtn. Where the logging road peters out, you enter old growth forest and immediately encounter the old tread. The trail begins to ascend the flank of Captain Point, with noisy Kelley Creek on your immediate left. The first half mile of the old tread has received trail maintenance and is in decent shape. There are a few muck holes and at least one segment of original puncheon ( badly deteriorated). Near the half mile point, a new re-route branches off, heading downslope to a ford over Kelly Creek. ( Spoiler alert: a trail re-route is under construction leading downslope on the west side of Kelley Creek, presumably to run downstream along the north bank of Martin Creek for 2 miles to the Horseshoe Tunnel spur of the Iron Goat Trail that is also currently under construction.) Stay on the old trail if you’re heading for Scorpion Mtn. Soon after the re-route spot, the last maintained tread occurs. The slope increases and tread width deteriorates, with lots of sloughage onto the tread, but the route is easy to follow. Occasionally, there is a downed log across the trail, but all are easily navigated. Switchbacks begin to occur with regularity, often marked with flagging. There is something about the quality of light here that resonates with me; the long sightlines and understory brightness typical of Henry M. Jackson Wilderness old growth is so special; I love this forest!
Eventually, after gaining 2000 ft of elevation in less than 2 miles, you crest a ridge behind Captain Point. Before you is a meadow; follow the flagging down about 200 yards; at the last flag is a sort-of rock cairn with a log across it. Turn left and head in the direction the log points. If you look hard, you’ll see the next flag on the side of the ridge
Extensive flagging will guide you for the next 1.4 miles as you traverse the ridge running from Captain Point to Scorpion Mtn. If you lose sight of the tread and can’t see the next flag, don’t panic. Refocus your eyesight and look again. And again. In almost all cases, there is a flag. The route will begin to alternate between wooded and meadow areas. At meadows, the next flag often will be on the far side of the meadow; look hard for the flagging, it’s there!
Extensive meadows cover the flanks of Scorpion; valerian and heather were blooming. Views of surrounding peaks appear, although on this day visibility was impaired by marine-air clouds and B.C./Eastern WA forest fire haze. The route intersects the Johnson Ridge trail at that trail’s spur to Joan Lake. To visit Joan Lake, go right, losing 500 ft of elevation. To climb Scorpion, head left on the nicely maintained trail! At the junction with the main Johnson Ridge trail, follow the tread to the right and ascend the huge meadow towards the peak of Scorpion, 400+ feet above.
I was pleased by the ease with which I was able to follow the old trail to Scorpion; a big shout-out to the folks who placed all the flagging!

The start of this trail has been brushed out so it appears that there is some interest in opening this trail. Unfortunately, the brushing out didn't last long and within a 1/2 mile we were trailfinding. There are many blowdowns on this trail but none too difficult to get over or around. Also, there are some routefinding challanges in a few places but if you stop and look around it is easy to stay on the trail. It has also been flagged in many places. We hiked up to the meadow just below Captain's Point and had lunch in a great view spot. Black flies were a little annoying but we still spent an hour at the top enjoying the view. If you keep going from here you can follow an old trail to Scorpion Mt. We logged a 2600 elevation gain and 7 miles round trip. The road to the trailhead is in good shape.