Left the winery (Vin du Lac) after the music ended Saturday night. Hit the Safeway in Chelan for my last three essentials (beer, hotdogs and bear claws). Then stopped at the house and threw as much stuff as I could think of into the 4-runner, before heading for the road to Summer Blossom trailhead. The road begins at the Echo Valley ski area about 10 miles northwest of Chelan. (Take Boyd Road off of the Chelan-Manson Hwy, then follow the signs to Echo Valley. Once there, follow the signs to South Navarre Campground.)

It’s about 30 miles on dirt roads to the trailhead, and takes more than two hours. (No cars! You need truck tires and a truck frame to handle the rough, rocky road.) It is a gorgeous drive, with scenic views all the way, and incredibly large, dense fields of intensely blue lupine frequently lining the road. I only had an hour of daylight, so a couple miles past Cooper Mountain I pulled into a grassy woodcutter’s camp for the night. It was nicely treed, had a big firepit, and views of the 25 Mile Creek area of Lake Chelan. The lights of the cabins on the distant lake twinkled at me as the long summer twilight slowly faded.

I built a quick fire for company and light as I arranged my bed for the evening, then cooked a hotdog and had it with a bottle of Fat Tire (Yum!) This wino’s got nothing against a cold beer on a warm evening.

I dozed off easily, then awoke about 2:30 to a loud, rasping, gnawing sound. Jean- Claude, my exuberant and always hungry flat-coated retriever had found a deer leg skeleton and was happily working it over.

I got out to look around and was treated to an amazing sky full of brilliant stars. Life has kept me out of the mountains too long. I’d forgotten how many stars there are.

I awoke with the first sky-blue orange hints of daylight, and after feeding Claude we were on the road again by 5:00. After about 45 minutes of driving I came upon a large blowdown across the road. I didn’t have a chainsaw, so was stuck. But I’d passed a side road to the right a few hundred yard earlier, so I backed up to give it a try. Fortunately it did bypass the blocked portion of road, but it was a bit dicey, as the “shortcut” was basically vertical. I stood on the brake and we bounced our way down to the main road.

About 2 miles before the trailhead I was stopped again, this time by two large snow drifts across the road. I was tempted to try running over them, but figured I was too close to bother taking a chance getting stuck. I loaded up my pack and off we headed down the road. The two mile decline on the dirt road was a nice warm-up for my ever-achy joints.

The trail head is at about 6,300’. There is a nice parking area in the shade there. The forecast was for 100+ degrees all throughout Eastern Washington, but at that elevation at 6:30 a.m. it was a pleasant 62 degrees.

The trail lopes easily at first through black timber, crossing a few snow melt streams – but nothing you can’t hop easily. In the more shaded areas there were humps of snow here and there, but again nothing to worry about. Just set your heels and don’t step on the clear ice at the edges of the snow.

Then the trail turns south as you climb steeply up and around the eastern and southern flank of an unnamed, conical peak, with views again back down to the big lake. This portion of the hike is also forested, though more open, so you’re hiking in cool, mixed shade.

I was carrying my big backpack, but had no overnight gear (I love a light pack!) so we were really flying up the trail. Claude was putting in about four miles for every mile I covered.

Once you gain some elevation, the forest diminishes and the trail gets rockier. The last stretch is over talus and granite rubble. The ridge is open and dotted with brilliant pink low-growing tufts of wildflowers. In a small, white, cupped daisy I found a little red beetle, like a lady bug, only longer.

It took one hour exactly from the trailhead to reach the ridge that runs between North and South Navarre peaks. Once you’re up on the ridge, there is only sparse timber, so the views are 360 degrees. The far (west) side of the ridge looks into the deep Safety Harbor drainage, which was burnt to a crisp a few years ago. You can look ahead to the series of ridges to the west that the continuing trail traverses. I hope to hike the trail further later this summer, but today a single peak was all I had time for.

We quickly bagged the North peak (it’s the easiest, but also the highest at 7,963’.) I circumnavigated it to make sure I’d seen all there was to see. Then I had a quick lunch – one of the bear claws with a bottle of frappucino. Claude cooled off rolling in a snow drift.

There were a few bugs, but they weren’t biting me for some reason. If you are susceptible to bites, bring spray, but I found the bugs only a minor nuisance.

After an hour of goofing off, we headed back down the trail. It took 55 minutes to get down. Walking down talus and snow-humps is always more tricky than going up, I find.

Then it was a brisk 25 minute hike up the road back to the car. It was 72 degrees when we got back to the 4-runner.

Total time on the road/trail was 3 hours plus one hour of loafing. Elevation gain was about 1,600’. On the drive back we turned down forest road 4330, which drops you into the Methow Valley, hitting pavement after about 75 minutes – a big improvement over the haul from the Chelan Valley, although not nearly as scenic. It was 93 when we hit the Valley floor. In another 20 minutes we were in Pateros on the Columbia River, where a stop at the Sweetriver Bakery for sandwiches and pastries and an iced latte are highly recommended.

This is a great day hike, as long as you have plenty of time to drive. There are lots of great unofficial campsites along the road, so coming up the night before makes for a relaxed, cool morning hike.

An amazing trail that should be experienced at least once by every Northwest hiker. Alan Bauer and I set out on a long and bumpy road to research this trail for an upcoming book. The drive is over 40 miles from Chelan and will take you about 2 and a quarter hours. The 30 miles of gravel are in pretty good shape, only a few rough spots- pick-up ideal, subaru yes, prius no. The Summer Blossom Trail is a heaven sent hikers only path in a roadless area opened to motorcycles. The trail is in excellent shape. The views from North Navarre are stupendous-especially down to Chelan and out across the jagged Sawtooth Range. Larches just starting to change. Spruce grouse out doing their stuff. Songbirds feasting on larch cones. We had fun on the drive back avoiding rattlesnakes sunning on the road.

Westside weather concerns forced us east of Lake Chelan. 45 miles and 2 hours N of Chelan on road 82 we reached Summer Blossom trailhead. This little used trail begins in forest but soon its all views. We camped night 1 at east fork Prince Creek, very green with great sunsets. Day 2 we hiked up Angel Staircase to over 8000'. From there the trail contours the shoulder overlooking Cooney Lake. We then dropped to Merchants Basin and on to Sunrise Lake where we spent night 2. Day 3 we took a shortcut over the pass S of the lake to rejoin the Summer Blossom trail saving 5 miles back to the car. Total trip about 20 miles and 4000'.