Nason RidgeRecent Trip Reports
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Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming | Ripe berries
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The Hike-of-the-Week Club sampled the beginning of the old Nason Ridge trail that starts at the crest of the Smithbrook...
The Hike-of-the-Week Club sampled the beginning of the old Nason Ridge trail that starts at the crest of the Smithbrook road where it crosses over to Rainy Creek. The trail does not show up on Green Trails, and had been abandoned for decades until it was resurrected several years ago. The grade and routing is classic 1920's Forest Service -- designed for 20-something men in a hurry to fight a fire. The first mile has had some improvements to the tread (but no reduction in grade), but the Hike-of-the-Week Club elected to turn back when the tread improvements stopped due to the narrowness of the tread , the covering of loose needles and the steepness of the hillside dropping down to the Stevens Pass Highway, 1/2 vertical mile below. Great wild flowers, although beginning to fade, and great views to Lichtenberg, Jim Hill Mt. and the Chiwaukum Range.
Day hike
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If you think geocaching is fun, enjoy the puzzle aspect of navigating by tree blazes or would like to walk...
If you think geocaching is fun, enjoy the puzzle aspect of navigating by tree blazes or would like to walk a trail that feels like it hasn't been traversed in 10 or 20 years this is for you.
Take a GPS with the end points marked (sorry i only marked the Smithbrook end). We are both strong hikers and it took us 2.5 hours from Snowy Creek to Smithbrook, due to time required to navigate and probably a half an hour spent carefully negotiating patches of snow on the north facing mile of the trail. Trailhead is at Rainy Pass on Smithbrook Rd (FS 6700) 4 Miles North of RT 2. Right on the pass +/- .75 mile uphill from the Smithbrook Trailhead for Lake Valhalla. The trail sign is adjacent to the little bug breeding tarn. This is the historic western end of the Nason Ridge Trail. The Trail runs approximately 4.5 miles north to the intersection with with Snowy Creek trail. The trail starts at elev 4600' climbs immediately to 5200' and then bounces back forth between 5200' and 5700' before finally descending 1200' to meet the Snowy Lake Trail. There are occasional views to the south over RT2 to the Enchantments, to the north to Glacier Peak and the the south to Rock Mountain. It is a trail that doesn't really go anywhere that isn't accessible from an alternative route, but on our way back from Rock Mountain we decided to have a go and see where it would lead us. We had a 3rd who drove from the Snowy Lake Trail head back up and met us on Smithbrook. This trail should be classified as a total navigation adventure. The trail has brand new signs on either end, but is not on any of the maps. As the crow flies it is 2.7 miles, but as my hiking partner said along the way "that distance only applies to crows". The tread is so lightly used that it frequently disappears. There are many many blazes on the tree's which is a good thing. Even with the frequent blazes we completely lost the trail two or three times, without them we would have never made it. There were modest snow patches which added challenge. Would we recommend this trail? well it all depends on what you are looking for. We tagged it onto a Snowy Creek ascent of Rock Mountain ( http://www.wta.org/[…]/trip_report.2011-08-04.2403925011 ), we had already experienced views, wildflower and a successful Mtn climb. It provided a completely different kind of challenge and 4.5 more miles for my Hike-a-thon goal. Plan ahead and enjoy the step back in time and the navigation adventure.
Nason Ridge
— Aug 25, 2010
— eatwxman
Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
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Hiked old Nason Ridge trail from Snowy Cr. trail to Rainy Pass. Trail junction is marked by a...
Hiked old Nason Ridge trail from Snowy Cr. trail to Rainy Pass. Trail junction is marked by a sign. Trail up to saddle is the faintest part of this section with some low brush over trail and a few spots where trail fades a bit going thru open areas but there are red flags to help and old blazes. From the top of the saddle above Snowy Cr. around to Rainy Pass, the trail is much easier to follow. Some work has been done closer to Rainy Pass but trail is sidling in places. Some good views north and down over Stevens Pass highway and probably a good bet to get away from the thundering herd headed for Rock Mt. Hardly any bugs but the berry crop here is poor this year.
Day hike
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I passed by a decrepit old trail on Saturday while hiking the Nason Ridge Trail. After looking at a map...
I passed by a decrepit old trail on Saturday while hiking the Nason Ridge Trail. After looking at a map I decided that it had to be the trail up Mastiff. I left Merrit Lake Trail trailhead at 9 AM. The trail is a steady gain for 2 miles to NRT. Turning left (west) here you quickly see a drop is use of the trail. Another mile along at a soft lefthand bend in the trail is the faint trail to mastiff.
Upon closer inspection I noticed nails in an old snag that clearly had been from an old forest service trail sign. The trail runs up the spine of the south ridge of Mastiff. It has lots of windfall and disappears into the grass from time to time. Never-the-less it stays true to the ridge with great views towards Lake Wenatchee and the eatern end of Nason Ridge. After 1/2 an hour on the ridge is a great bench (2-3 acres?) on the east side. This would make a great place to graze the horses or let the kids run about. The ridge line becomes more and more narrow. A stretch of horizontal ridgeline needs to be bypassed lower down on the east side. It is easy enough but loose and exposed. This stretch would not be suitable for horses or children. A tumble would be ugly. The ridge eases off again for the last ~500' of gain. Talus, heather and krumholtz are all around. My day was windswept and cold. Visibility was <150'. Many hikers noted that they had traversed over from Howard Mountain. On the map this looked good, without visibility not so good. Round trip from the car 5 hours. Day hike
Features:
Ripe berries
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At over 20 miles this is perhaps not a "day-trip" by most people's standards. I wanted to hike the ridge...
At over 20 miles this is perhaps not a "day-trip" by most people's standards. I wanted to hike the ridge but my partner only wanted a part of it. She was kind enough to promise to pick me up at the other end later in the day.
Snowy Creek's trailhead is an easy 2 hours from Seattle. We slept at the trailhead (quiet, with water and no trailhead parking pass required) and got an early morning start. A King Bolete that greeted us just 10' up the trail quickly joined the larder for dinner. Snowy creek trail is wonderfully well maintained. After a great meadow or two the trail turns to business going up Rock mountain. I by passed the Rock Mountain turn off and continued forth on the Nson Ridge trail. The weat end of NRT is little visited in comparison to the eastern end. Wet meadows and rolling hills. Rock lake, Crescent lake are way points. Both gorgeous and worthy of an overnight. I met a few travelers going west in search of a turn off for Howard Peak (the high point on Nason Ridge). About a mile before you reach the Merrit lake trail juncture there is a faint trail off to the left. A semi-fallen snag still sports four nails from a long since lost trail sign to Mastiff. I followed this trail the following day to Mastiff's summit (see trip reports for 8-22-10). Once reaching the Merrit Lake trail junction the trail becomes noticably dryer, rockier and more heavily used. Merrit Lake shows the signs of heavy usage and it's tangle of lakeshore/camping trails provides the days only real challenge to route finding. The ridge now is decidedly Eastern Washington. The grassy meadows are gone and dust kicks up easily. Alpine Blady (a.k.a. Alpine Look Out) is a worthwhile side trip adding ~1 mile to the trip. The views are good but haze and cloud cover take a lot out of it. A short mile past the Look Out is Nine Mile Saddle. This marks the legal boundary of motorcycle travel. Although evidence of recent motorcycle travel was scarce, I only saw one set of tracks, the long term damage has been done. The further one travels eastward the drier and more chewed up the trail becomes. The ranger assured me that the bottom few miles were atrocious. Deciding that I'd seen enough I bailed off the ridge at the Round Mountain trail junction. One and one half quick miles had me to the trialhead. Cell phone receptionis available virtually everywhere along the ridge that I tried it. This was great making my "day away" not so far away that I couldn't take care of things at home and arrange for a timely pickup at the trail's end. There were a moderate amount of blueberries on the west end of the ridge between 5000'-6000'. |
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