A four day fall backpacking trip to the heart of the Entiat Mountains.

Day 1: Hiked up the Entiat River Trail until we reached the Ice Creek trail in sunny weather. Both trails were in very good shape, no bugs, plenty of fall color. Snow started on the final stretch to the Ice Lakes. There were only a few inches of loose snow that obscured the rocks underneath so footing was challenging on the steep hill. There was perhaps a foot of snow at ice lakes with much deeper drifts in places. There were lots of golden larches at the lakes. We camped at Lower Ice Lake.

Day 2: After a very cold night, found low clouds that reduced visibility. We spent the day exploring the Ice Lakes and surrounding areas. Got on to the shoulder of Mount Maud, but didn't have the time or visibility to get much higher.

Day 3: Sun again. Spent the morning exploring more of the Ice Lakes and one of the nearby knolls. Found great views of many mountains near and far. We packed up camp in the early afternoon, and headed down the Ice Creek Trail to the Pomas Creek Trail. The trail was clear of snow until about the last mile or so. Dusk caught us at Pomas Pass, so we made camp.

Day 4: Hiked to Larch Lakes from Pomas Pass. This is a high trail with excellent views of the surrounding mountains. It had about 6 inches to a foot of fresh snow, so it posed no problems. Upper Larch Lake is a great lunch spot. After lunch we headed down the Garland Peak Trail toward Cow Creek Meadows. The trail had about a foot of fresh snow. It was easy to follow due to a set of footprints made by someone clearly familiar with the trail. Without the prints it would have been challenging to stay on the trail in places. There were plenty of great views of surrounding mountains. At the first intersection we left the Garland Peak Trail and descended to Cow Creek Meadows, then to Myrtle Lake. Finally we got back on the Entiat River Trail and followed it back to the car.

This was a great fall trip with lots of fall color, including plenty of golden larches, among some very rugged mountains. We saw only two hikers on the first day, nobody on the second and third day, and a few hunters near the trailhead on the fourth day. The nights got very cold. This trip requires a warm sleeping bag.

Started from the Entiat River trailhead at the end of Rd 5100. The first three miles on the Entiat River trail #1400 is very dusty inluding pulverized horse manure. We saw several outfitter guided horse parties saddling up at the trailhead and a busload of not very motivated city youth preparing for some work party camping. We also met several motorbiker parties on the trail. They were polite, pulled over and didn't blow dust and exhaust in our face. There are ripe blueberries along this part of the trail.

We left the river trail at the Myrtle Lake branchoff and then followed the Larch Lakes Hiking Trail #1430.1 from Myrtle Lake to Larch Lakes. IMPORTANT: We believe that there is no foot crossing of the Entiat River (only a stock ford) at the intersection of Trails #1400 and #1430. If this is correct, then it is essential for foot hikers to cross the river using the bridge on Myrtle Lake trail, as we did.

The Larch Lake trail is steep but very nice along a cascade of waterfalls coming from the lakes. It is advisable to apply mosquito repellant well before approaching the lakes. The mosiquitos are vicious, they try to bite even through clothing and deet. The lakes are nice but there arent't many wild flowers right now. We should have done this hike later in September when the larches turn golden.

Apart from the traffic on the main river trail we met only one hiker walking out with a fishing pole and talked to a couple sitting inside of an outfitter provided mosquito tent at the Upper Larch Lake.

October 2-3, 2010

This trip has been on my mind for a year now, ever since reading D. Inscho’s vividly pictorial description of the route to Larch Lake over Deadhorse pass. The weekend was perfect—unseasonably warm weather combined with the fiery colors of autumn.

My route began at the Whitepine Creek Trailhead on Saturday morning where surprisingly only two other cars were parked. The Whitepine trail was in fairly good shape, just a bit brushy in places. I reached the fork with the Wildhorse trail at 2.5 miles in just under an hour. Wildhorse begins to climb away from the creek immediately and puts you up over 4000 ft. in short order. Exactly one hour after the junction I reached the first and only campsite (two sites adjacent) along the way and across from it, just as Inscho described, is the boot track heading east up toward Chiwaukum Ridge. I concur that this is at 5000’ (past the posted 5000’ mark), though I would put the distance from the TH at 5 rather than 6 miles. The campsite is approximately 100’ before a stream crossing.

This track is easy to follow and appears to get a fair amount of traffic, as further evidenced by the established camp in a meadow about 20 minutes up. The camp includes fire pits with abandoned tin cans and other unfortunate evidence of equestrian visitors. Upon reaching the meadow, turn right to find a faint track at the SW edge which crosses a stream and then heads sharply up and south. This track comes to an open area full of low huckleberry and peters out entirely. From here I wandered up this valley and then began the steep climb up toward the ridge. It is worth making careful notes here about where the trail enters this open valley, as it is difficult to find (as in, I did not) coming back down. I did come across a small rivulet here—enough for my four-legged companion to get a drink. I could find no sign of a trail up this slope, so I simply began climbing, traversing slightly south to a gentler grade in the slope. This route popped me up and over a ridge and I found myself looking down upon the mystical golden meadow Inscho described and dubbed “Deadhorse Meadow”. It is indeed an enchanting place, quite a bit larger than I had envisioned. The views from this ridge are astounding—Glacier, Baker, Rainier… I could see the attraction to camping here, though the only water source is a patch of snow up the slope at the eastern edge.

I could find no cairn or other sign of a trail heading up to Deadhorse Pass, so I switchbacked haphazardly, aiming for the lowest spot on the pass, which also seemed to have the gentlest grade. Once at the pass I was able finally to look down upon Cup and Larch Lakes. The views from here were absolutely breathtaking in both directions. With my destination now finally in sight, I looked for a way down to Cup Lake. The slope on this east side is even steeper. My first choice was a ridiculously steep gully, but fortunately my canine flat out refused to follow me (smart dog), so I returned to the ridge and traversed north until I came to a much more inviting route down. Max was much happier with this choice and I was grateful to be following the tracks of “bigfoot” as I dubbed him. Extraordinarily large boot prints with very well defined tread that guided me both down and back up this slope. By the time we reached Cup Lake we were both parched and had we not lost time on the ridge, would possibly have arrived in time for a quick dip. Cup Lake is a treeless bowl of milky blue glacial run-off, in stark contrast to its lower neighbor, surrounded by golden yellow larches. Larch Lake and its many tiny neighbors form a picture-perfect image of autumn, resplendent with larches and surrounded by bright red and orange huckleberries. The west side of the lake was occupied, so I continued along the shore to the north end and found a spot to camp perched up on top of a granite shelf. This end of the lake is a veritable network of ponds and rivulets, no doubt a mosquito paradise in the summer. While the peculiarly warm weather allowed a few hardy buggers to linger, it was not enough to be a nuisance. I slept under a glorious canopy of stars, saw at least 5 shooting stars before drifting off to sleep and later awakening to the feeling of light sprinkle on my face. I quickly erected my tent and Max and I crawled back to blissful slumber without any further precipitation that night or the next day.

I regained Deadhorse in the morning in 1 hr 20 mins, though it seemed longer and again I thanked my bigfooted friend for sparing me the route finding. Descended to “Deadhorse Meadow” and then on down the slope to the no-name valley. This is where I got messed up and wished I had done a better job of noting my entry point. I did not succeed in finding the track I came up on, but rather launched down something I thought was the track, only to find myself in a wood I didn’t recognize at all. I came upon the stream but erroneously believed I was still upstream of the meadow camp and continued down along it. The going was tough here as I did battle with vine maples and other brushy encumbrances, until I finally bludgeoned my way north away from the stream and gratefully stumbled back onto the boot track leading down to Wildhorse. The error cost me an hour; it was now 1:00 p.m.

I had hoped to make it to Lake Grace, but time was running short, so I headed south on the trail for one hour, which brought me to the stream which I believe flows from Lake Grace. As the trail to the lake is not on my Green Trails map and I had only a TR to go by, I decided to call it quits for the day and began the long, 7-8 miles back to the car. Sections of this trail between the campsite and the stream are annoyingly brushy and/or muddy. In general it was not my favorite, though I do hope to include Lake Grace next time. At about 1.5 miles past the aforementioned campsite, there is a fork in the trail and a yellow temporary sign indicating Wildhorse to the right. I am wondering where the upper trail leads; my curiosity was piqued but I didn’t have time left to investigate. Does anyone know?

Although this route involves steep ascents and descents, it is well worth the effort. The views along the way are astounding and Larch Lake this time of year is hard to beat. There were at least two other parties camped at the lake, but given that it was a weekend with incredibly autumn weather, this was to be expected.

With a so-so forecast, and talk of lots of snow in the mountains, we headed over to the Entiat for the long weekend. Super smooth tread to Myrtle Lake, some bugs out-but not too bad. Followed trail 1430.1 to the Larch Lake Trail. One creek to wade. Good climb up the Larch Lake Trail to the lower lake. Trail is in good shape with no blow downs and tread in good shape. The lake was melted out and about one foot of snow at the lower lake, although going fast. The upper lake had several feet of snow. Sunday hiked towards Fifth of July Mountain and Pomas Pass for good views. On the return, headed down Larch Lake trail with hopes of crossing the Entiat River, but the river was flowing fast, so backtracked to the 1430.1 trail.