Starting with the Thorp Creek Trail, you can assemble various paths into an enjoyable 10 mile loop touring the heights of Kachess Ridge. The scenery is not of the alpine stunner variety-- in fact, Kachess Ridge is not in protected wilderness and clearcuts are visible everywhere-- but the flower show right now is **fabulous** in the many meadows traversed by the route. It's also nice that the trails here tend to be more lightly used compared to the more glamorous wilderness areas. Some skeeters were out, but not enough to make me use repellant.

I started by following the Thorp Creek Trail, which is in good condition although a little overgrown with knee-high brush. I was glad to see signs of recent trail work activity: new signs, cut logs, drain dips, and such. The grade starts out easy, then becomes steep near Thorp Lake, reached via a quarter mile spur which I didn't do. Beyond the lake, the trail rapidly climbed a meadowy slope to a junction. Here I went right onto the Kachess Ridge Trail, whose decent tread took an up-and-down course first on the side of the ridge, then on top of it. There were potentially good views on the ridgeline in spots, although I don't know for sure because clouds and drizzle got in the way.

At the next junction, I went right on to the Red Mountain Trail. This path is also of the up-and-down variety, giving me plenty of exercise while I admired the flower-strewn meadows and the views. There are some confusing spots in places: a poorly marked junction with an unmapped trail and a spot where the trail has been wiped out by a logging road. But if you pay attention and have a map, the route is not difficult to follow. With this trail, oversteep grades and slumped tread suggest that some treadwork and reroutes are in order.

Eventually, the trail crossed one last ridge and plunged down a slope to arrive at Little Joe Lake, a marshy pond in a peaceful wooded basin. At a junction next to the lake, I left the Red Mountain Trail and headed downhill on the Little Joe Lake Trail, which sports some rather steep grades. Rerouting and regrading of this trail would be beneficial. A few logs on the trail need removal.

After one final knee-busting dive to the bottom of the valley, where the trail was doing its best to imitate the Mailbox Peak path, the Little Joe Trail ended at a logging road not far from the Thorp Creek trailhead. A final easy stroll on the road brought me back to my car. Despite Sunday's clouds and showers, the loop hike made for a nice day in the woods.

This loop hike in the Salmon La Sac area includes a seldom traveled ridge where the trail passes through several beautiful meadows and one ugly clearcut. There are some limited snow patches in higher spots. But do leave the gaiters and ice axe at home, they are not needed. Later in the season expect the vegetation in meadow areas to partially obscure the higher portion of this lightly used trail.

Note that the USGS quad does not depict all of this trail. If you would like to see the location of the rest of this trail, I posted a snip from the quad with our gps track. Go to http://mysite.verizon.net/jelfelt and follow the link for maps.

Right now there is water running in every ravine. Even along the ridge part of the trail there were at least two meadow areas where it would be easy to pump water. (These may dry up later.) Not many flowers yet. The best show will likely be around the 3rd week in June.

We had a good look at a bear that didn’t know it was supposed to be black and was brown instead. One of our natural history references indicates this coloring can occur east of the cascades.

The only people we saw were two adventurous horse riders doing the loop in the opposite direction. Them: “Any trees down on the trail?” Us: “Nope.” Later we encountered the only sizeable tree blocking the trail on the entire loop. No problem for hikers but it surely must have been a challenge for the couple on horseback to get past.

Set your trip odometer to 0.0 where you leave the Salmon La Sac Road and follow the signs for the Thorp Lake trailhead. At 4.6 miles turn right onto Road 121 (small sign “Thorp Creek trail). Cross the creek and park. Hike west 1/4 mile on road and then watch for where the trail turns off to the left. The spur trail to Thorp Lake is well signed. After another ~1/3 mile there is a junction at a switchback with the Kachess Ridge trail (weathered sign on ground). Keep right (do not switchback). After about another 1 mile watch for the junction with the Red Mountain trail (2 signs on tree) going east. Follow this trail along the ridge. There a number of interesting looking scramble bumps along the way. As the trail approaches Little Joe Lake it appears to get more use. As you go around the lake you will see the junction (signed) with the trail up Red Mountain. From the lake the trail descends a long way to a spur logging road that leads back to where you parked.

The total distance is about 7.5 miles and around 2,200 feet of gain. Be sure to allow enough time. There is some upping and downing along the ridge and some sections of the trail down from Little Joe Lake are steep. The pics show two views of Little Joe Lake.

We took advantage of the new Loop Hikes Washington book to find a day loop hike fairly near Seattle. We ended up with Hike 53, Thorp Mountain. We included the side trips to Thorp Lake and Thorp Mountain lookout along with the loop. It was a bright, very warm, sunny day, and the flies were enjoying the sunshine as much as we were! The trail was in good shape. Thorp Lake was a beautiful gem, and we were really glad we made the quick side trip, especially when we spotted a Hermit Thrush near the lake. The scramble up to Thorp Mountain lookout wasn't bad, and the view of Rainier was spectacular! There is very little water between the junction of Thorp Creek trail and Little Jo lake, so stock up! The section of Red Mountain Trail that is included in this loop says ""Hard to Follow"" and it surely was. The trail is supposed to go right up and over the top of a 5357-foot outcrop, but we ended up flanking it on the south. We stumbled on a dozen elk, including three calves, in one of the small valleys along this section. Little Jo Lake was pretty low and not very appealing. There is water again heading out on Little Jo Lake trail, which you'll need because the trail gets quite dry and dusty before you're done. There were ripe and delicious huckleberries on the way in and on the way out from this loop. A great day overall!!

I hiked the Little Joe-Thorp Creek Loop described by Spring and Manning on a beautiful, clear day. The weather was hot, but most of the steep climb up to Little Joe Lake was shaded by second growth. Wood violets, vanilla leaf, and a few late trilliums were blooming here. I saw nary a soul til I got to the lake, and then only two people. Little Joe is a small, pretty mid-elevation lake with a greenish hue. It is shallow and has a thriving insect population, but they didn't disturb me during lunch.

The Red Mountain trail joins the Little Joe Lake Trail on the east side, continuing around the lake and heading west toward No Name Ridge. A beautiful meadow graces the north end of Little Joe. Glacier lillies abounded among yellow monkeyflower and other damp-loving flowers. It is easy to lose the trail here.

The high meadows between Little Joe and No-Name Ridge had spectacular spreads of phlox. The best wildflowers were near the pass between No-Name and Kachess Ridges. The Red Mountain trail is in very poor condition, with lots of blowdown and several places where the tread disappears suddenly. In one place it led right through a small pond behind a log dam.

I was disheartened to see that the valley between No-Name and Kachess has been heavily logged, right up to the pass, which has been stripped of vegetation and boulders to make way for the end of a logging road.

Once over the pass the trail quickly left the logged area, climbing through forest up Kachess Ridge to join the better-maintained Kachess Ridge Trail, also with blowdown. This follows the east side of the ridge in shade, and there was quite a bit of snow on the trail, soft enough for good tread.

I took the side trip up to the picturesque Thorp Mountain Lookout and it was the highlight of the trip. The way is very steep, but flowers were at their peak and the views from the lookout are first rate. Mount Rainier towers above Kachess Lake. The top of Adams can be seen as well. In the opposite direction looms the Mt. Stuart batholith and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Thorp Lake may also be seen below. I saw the first people since Little Joe Lake, over 4 miles away.

I stopped by Thorp Lake on the way down, but found it less appealing than the view from the lookout. It is low enough to be surrounded by brush, and close enough to the road to be crowded with campers.

The Thorp Creek Trail runs mostly through second growth. The tread is badly damaged for most of the way, but nice stands of columbine and valerian help to compensate. One large stump along the trail has been carved into a throne.

This loop is strenuous and not recommended for children, but the solitude, views, and flowers make it worth the effort.