Trip Reports

This one is located up the Taylor River drainage just west of Marten Lake, referenced as Point 5339 on your favorite quad. Drive the infamous MFK road to the bridge over the Taylor then head straight along the Taylor River to road’s end and a closed gate (and another bridge across the Taylor), elevation 1195 ft!

Craig and I had a tremendously unpleasant walk along the Quartz Creek road last June, so this year we did a bit of thinking and brought mountain bikes to break up a bit of the uphill monotony, but mainly in anticipation of a blistering kamikaze speed descent! We set off at a gradual pace with full packs and worked our way up the road to about 1900-ft. Here the road steepened just enough to kick us off the bikes; yet, we continued to push on up with bike in hand to 2350-ft where we left the Quartz Creek road for a less distinct spur to the right and heading uphill. We walked the bikes to the end of the first leg and stashed them here for the rest of the day. Lightened the packs as much as possible and headed out on foot up the road. We must have encountered our first consistent snow stretches at 2500-2600 ft. We managed to walk a few switchbacks of the road to about 3400 ft where the road fades altogether in the snow. From here we left the road and followed the obvious drainage to the NE and gradually trended into a traverse of the rocky ridge running N/S just to the south of Rooster Mtn. We crested the ridge just as it turns to the NW at about 4450 ft. The ridge was slightly corniced, but nothing that wasn’t easy to avoid. The way wasn’t terribly steep, just your typical 6-inch slush fest, we used axes but never needed snowshoes or crampons. We walked NW along the ridge top then NE to the summit. Somewhere around 4800 ft I started feeling the effects of not having hiked but once in the last 5 months, I wanted to rest frequently, but I forced myself upward. I was grateful for the steps Craig kicked in that last 500-ft or so. The last 20-30 vertical feet are more or less up a large rock outcropping. Rumor has it, it’s a class 3 summit block, don’t know if I’d go that far, but it’s definitely not a walk-up type summit. We’d had pretty respectable weather all day (no rain!), but as soon as we scrambled to the top, the clouds moved in (typical MFK stuff!) and did a darn good job of obscuring most of the views. Occasional glimpses of Marten and Mowitch Lakes and of course Garfield and Treen among others. One of the more interesting views was looking down on the confluence of the MFK Snoqualmie and Taylor Rivers from 4000 ft up.

A few thousand feet of glissading and the sporadic brush bash brought us back to the bikes in no time. As we had hoped, the ride back to the valley bottom was well worth the extra sweat of pushing the bikes up that last 500-ft of road. As I sped back to the truck, solely focused on the sharp granite rocks just in front of my tire, I thought of what would happen if I got a flat going this fast. I got that flat five seconds later. Luckily I kept the bike under control before being ejected off the seat and impaling myself with my axe or one of my ski poles, whew!! Even better, Craig had an extra tube and was able to get it mounted onto the rim in no time. We pedaled the remaining section of road in just a few minutes, making it back to the truck around 6 PM. For the day, we stomped out about 4200 ft of gain and 9.5 miles. Awesome trip, and as usual, with great company!

See ya on the trail folks!

Randy

Wanted good weather so I headed to Leavenworth to do the Icicle Ridge Trail. The trail was in good shape with lots of flowers. I did encounter several blowdowns, but none that were too difficult to step over or around. I only saw a few mosquitos and black flies. A previous report mentions snow on the trail starting at 6000 feet, I was measuring my progress with an altimeter and snow starts at about 4600 feet; at this point the trail is very difficult to find so I headed back down.

This is a fabulous area. Thank you to the people who are making the trail usable, thank you to the designer and builders of the stunning bridge (there should be a placque acknowledginng them attached), thank you to Mocchi and Robert Michelson whose reports in WT encouraged us to take this hike. Yes, the road is bumpy, but not impassable. Yes, the trail is muddy where the work crews have not reached yet, but where they have been, the trail is in excellent condition, and the scenery is beautiful--the river fast and wild, the flowers and ferns abundant. We went only as far as the notorious downed tree. It was a lovely day.

The Miller River road is snow-free and clear of blow-downs all the way to Dorothy Lake trailhead. The trail is free of snow up to the bridge at the falls about 3/4 mile in. The river was raging like I've never seen it before. The roar was almost deafening. The bridge itself was shaking and quivering in an unsettling fashion. The deep but intermittent snow starts right after the bridge. I followed the trail more or less for another 1/2 mile before I was forced to turn back due to two factors: I could no longer see any semblance of the trail, and the post-holing was of truly epic proportions. It was more like man-holing. At one point I broke through with both feet and sank in up to my armpits with my feet dangling in the space under the snow. The whole area was rife with rotten snow-bridges and collapsing snow surfaces. It was much too dangerous for a lone hiker of such considerable body mass as myself. Someone in the 100-150 lb range would probably have been ok. Still, this hike is so excellent right from the start that it would be a good choice for a short jaunt just to see the falls. The drive in on Miller River road has numerous scenic spots worth seeing. I finished up early, so I decided to do a little road exploring. The road to East Fork Foss river is snow-free to the trailhead, as is the road to Blanca Lake (F.S.63). There is a large tree blocking this road further up towards the trailhead for Quartz Creek, West Cady Ridge, and North Fork Skykomish. A very nice one-mile road walk would be necessary to access these trails.

Little muddy up to ""hand-hold log"" where we diverted from the main trail to an easier primative trail which heads toward the fire training center. At 2400 feet elevation the trail crosses the main trail and in about 300 ft horizontal travel connects with the west ridge trail. The west ridge trail can also be accessed at 2200 ft from the main trail. The west ridge trail avoids the muddy rooty southwest face trail below 3500 feet. At the base of the rock slide we were confronted with 3 options. 1. Climb the snow-free rocks to the right. 2. Climb the snow-covered rocks straight ahead. 3. Climb the snow-covered trail through the trees to the left. Our group did all three. Some were pleased with their choices - some were not. I found the tree route quite satifactory. Holy-moly twenty five people on top. No problem -lots of room up there. A warm cloudy day. We lazed around for about an hour taking picture of people taking pictures before plunging down to the flat land to enjoy our liquid refreshments awaiting in our cars.

We decided to try Harvey Manning's suggested 19 mile loop (from 100 Hikes in Washington), which combines the high terrain and views of Umtanum Ridge with extended hiking along Jacob Durr Road and down the Roza Creek valley. From the North Trailhead, we headed south down the Durr Road for several miles, then east along the Roza Creek road. We camped among the cottonwoods along Roza Creek. There's lots of water there, with beaver ponds further downstream. The second day, we hiked up Umtanum Ridge (fairly steep climb, but not too bad) and back to the trailhead. The whole trail has fabulous wildflowers; the varied habitats make the loop hike even more interesting. It's an excellent birding trip as well, with many colorful birds, especially in the Roza Creek area. We saw other hikers only once, but rattlers twice. Great spring hike.

Arrived at the trailhead at about 5:30 pm. The rain just quit,but the upper part of Big Four was hidden in clouds. lots of snow on the trail but quite easy to follow the general direction to the ""basin"" and the cave area. We were amazed by the number of trees that have been wiped out just before leaving the forest at the edge of the basin. Wow! Must have been some awesome avalanches there this winter. We kept clear of even going close to the cave location as the amount of snow is amazing . beautiful time listening to avalanches and hearing the water cascading off of the mountain. Out by 7:30.....Next weekend Dickerman !?

Just took the trail to Bridal Veil Falls. Trail in good condition, except for the first stream crossing coming in, which has become muddy. Too many people are creating new paths to detour the mud and the area is becoming a mess.

Always curious about the Mima Mounds, and hoping to put that curiosity behind us, we headed down to see them, about an hour and a half trip from Seattle, at least for me and my pal and our bag of bagels.

From the town of Littlerock we followed the signs to the preserve easily, a turn here, a turn there, and boom, the small parking lot in mounded forest. Alas--gunfire. After a lot of it we mumbled, 'must be a firing range nearby.' There is, adjacent the mounds, but a short walk into the open prairie took us out of the loudest echoing and the situation settled and became tolerable.

A few families wandered the paved interpretive trail and many seemed curious about birds. Shortly we spotted a nice hawk in the distance and up close, some industrious little capuccino-colored moths. Each hill is more or less a unique combination of the native prairie plants. Dark pools of knickknick appeared every now and then lending drama, as did the gray lichen that seemed to grow on the bare dirt. Buttercup and what I think was camas were in flower, although not abundantly. Lupine poked up infant leaves here and there. According to a trailside sign, the flower show will probably pick up as we get into June and July. Some mounds sported a burned over stump, and some of the western part of the odd little reserve is still struggling with invasive scotch broom (which happened to be in flower.) Broom that has been pulled or burned in the restoration efforts (somebody, please help) can be seen lying or standing in browning groups.

Further out on the smaller, unpaved loop trail I really enjoyed the short bluish bunchgrass and wild strawberry rock gardens that covered the mounds there. A blasted Douglas fir stump with old limbs that looked like bull's horns made a nice photo. In the distance are bluish hills and a couple houses, and encroaching fir trees. We wandered back to the car gazing north into intriguing high hills that I now know are part of the Capitol State Forest. Had we a little more time, we would have gone there too.

From I-5, exit 95 south of Olympia and west 4+ miles to Littlerock. Follow signs to both Littlerock and the Mounds. The country roads are also a nice designated bike route.

So what if the trail head parking lot is still half covered with snow?

Snow in the trees was encountered at around switch back number 30, whereupon the track was pounded in and around trees, postholes and the usual obsticles. Some blazes. Once in the meadows, tracks were established and regular, allowing one to attain the summit in good time. Nice weather opened up for those sharing good nature on the summit. Plunge stepping down was fast and furious even with the munge depth right at gaiter top. Snow was well consolodated, but snow travel tools (snowshoes, poles, iceaxes) would be a very good idea.

A nice early-season hike is up to the Snoquera Palisades, above the Camp Shepard Boy Scout Camp on Route 410. There is a nice new parking lot at the trailhead near milepost 53. The trails can be a little confusing leaving the parking lot. You stay left at the Boy Scout amphitheater and go left again on the White River trail, #1199, and go on past the Boy Scout camp. Keep going west past the junction with the Snoquera Falls trail and in about a mile and a half from the trailhead, go right toward the Palisades. The sign says that there are overlooks in 3 and 5 miles.

Soon there is a creek crossing, where the bridge washed out a couple of years ago. There are some timbers that have been thrown in among the boulders, but the crossing can be tricky in high water. After the creek, the trail switchbacks up to a very spectacular falls, which is not named on the map. Also notable were the calypsos orchids along the trail. A wonderful staircase climbs the wall next to the falls, and after a few more switchbacks, the trail moderates through forest. About two and a half miles from the trailhead is a first overlook above the White River valley and in another mile and a half is a second overlook. This is actually the first one mentioned in the tail sign down at the bottom. This is where our group stopped for lunch and then turned around.

The trail does continue, and a loop can be made by linking up with the Ranger Creek trail, for a total hike of 14 or 15 miles. There were only a few spots of snow near the overlook where we had lunch, but there is probably more snow further along the ridge right now.

Headed over to Ingalls Creek trail on Memorial Day with plans to spend the night up there.

The trail was really in pretty good early season condition and was easily hikeable as far as I went nine miles in. The bugs flag refers to ticks, not mosquitoes or blackflies. There were several blowdown, but only two presented even a minor inconvenience. There was plenty of snowmelt coming down all over the place and the upper trail has seen no maintinence so far this year so there was periodically water and mud all over the place. One small creek washed out the trail for a few feet, but it wasn't a big problem. Snowpatches started to appear around Crystal Creek at about 8.5 miles and appeared to gradually increase.

There are a couple campsites about a half mile before the turnoff to the Hardscrabble Creek Trail. I set up my stuff in one of those. I then set off up the gully directly above my campsite with hopes of making it into the Enchantments. Just so you know, there are easier ways to the Enchantments, but if you're a loner like me, this might be appealing. If you do go this way, start in the forest to the right of the avalanche swath to avoid the majority of the brush. Don't go too far right though, stay on the edge of the gully and within earshot of the creek. This is all snowfree already because of the south facing aspect. Use your own judgement as to when the best time to drop into the gully is (I think it was at about 5600 feet, but I'm not really sure). At this point, the routefinding troubles are over and the col is just a long slog up steep slopes. Unfortunately for me, the gully was filled with snow and there was a creek running direcly under it (I could hear it roaring pretty much directly under my feet). At this point, it was also obvious that the weather was taking a turn for the worse, so I decided to bag it and head back down. The descent back to Ingalls Valley was pretty uneventful.

Once I got back to my campsite, it was really obvious that the weather was changing, so I packed up my stuff really quick and hiked out, making for yet another 20 mile day.

North Fork Sky River Road open. Road #63 goes, but has branches hanging low and a couple branches down that we drove over. Nothing that the Blue Blunder Bus couldn't handle - also, a small low-clearance car was at the trailhead when we arrived.

Snow patches on or next to Blanca Lake trail nearly from the beginning, but mostly dirt to 2800 feet. Lots of blown-down branches - my pal and I cleared what we could by hand - the rest will need implements of destruction.

Snow started in earnest at 3,000 feet. We then traveled cross-country, kicking steps on up to Toil Peak (Point 5128). Used trekking poles but not snowshoes, and got out the ice axes for the last part - kinda steepish. Enjoyed Summit Rolos with big views of snow-covered Blanca Lake, Columbia Glacier, and the Monte Cristo peaks.

I love this hike for the mix of ancient forest with big trees, moderate snow-climb with nicely defined ridge, and beautiful summit vista.

We even lucked out with the weather - made it back to the cars before the rain started. Nice summit - way to go, team! -Dox

A desire to get some good trail miles in and avoid the crowds for the Memorial Day weekend found us departing early Friday for the Quinault drainage and the Enchanted Valley.

We arrived at the end of the road and our jumping-off point at about 11:30 on Friday morning. Note that the road is gated closed here at the North Fork Bridge due to a washout about a mile up the road. A mountain bike ride delivered us to the ""trailhead"", which also is closed due to a closure of the Graves Creek footbridge. This necessitates a crossing of Graves Creek at the stock ford. At the time of our crossing the creek was running clear and knee to mid-thigh deep. The ""closed"", but apparently solid footbridge may be a safer option -- just don't tell the Park engineers.

Overall, the trail is in pretty good shape given the lack of use. We encountered many blow-downs, some significant, between the Pony Bridge and our first camp at Pyrites Creek (Appx. Trail Mile 10). Wildlife is plentiful in this lush valley and our first day exposed us to many elk, birds, one smallish cat (bobcat perhaps?), and plenty of scat from all of the above and what appeared to be a healthy scattering of bears.

The final three miles to the Enchanted Valley chalet were slow due to many large blowdowns, some 5 or 6 feet tall laying down and necessitating long detours. There are short patches of snow on the trail here also. The suspension bridge just prior to the valley is also out, so a fording of the Quinault River is required. We used the stock ford, walked to the upper end of the gravel bar and then crossed the main stem of the river to the trail. Water here was very cold, moderately swift, and mid-calf to just over knee-deep.

Once in the valley we were advised by hikers headed out that bears were active in the area surrounding the Chalet. We confirmed this with Ranger ""Liz"" upon our arrival and attentively set-up camp up-valley from the chalet meadows. With the exception of the Ranger, we had the place to ourselves for the afteroon -- exactly as we had hoped!

For those that have not been here for a while, the decision by mother nature to rearrange the valley floor with the power of avalanche blasts from the cliffs above in recent years will come as a great surprise. The chalet stands however and still seems oddly out of place.

Soon after securing camp and settling in for a game of cribbage, we spotted our first black bear of the trip across the river below a snowfield. Within the next hour, two additional bears (both quite large) appeared out of the slide alder and brush on the same hillside. We watched for another hour or so as one of the larger bears appeared to be chasing off a somewhat smaller bear -- perhaps a mother sending her grown child our onto its own? A trip by the author to the privy revealed a fourth smaller bear and quite possibly marking the most memorable bathroom trip ever! With a confirmed bear to human ratio of 4:3 within less than a 1/8 mile radius, and countless waterfalls crashing to the valley floor around us, we took time to appreciate how enchanting this place really is. Another party did arrive just before dark and camped below us in the valley near where bear #4 had grazed all afternoon and was quickly introduced to the bears.

With the exception of another smaller bear wandering into camp as we enjoyed a dinner of basil pasta, our evening was uneventful. The intense glow of a full moon rising behind the snow covered peak in the east capped a near perfect day in the Olympics!

We had planned a quick day trip Sunday up toward Anderson Pass and the Big Hemlock but were quickly turned around by an encouter with a mother bear and her yearling cub bedded down just feet from the trail. The cub quickly scampered up a tree while mom made it clear that she would stand her ground. We declined the challenge and began our trek down-valley. We soon met one of the larger bears from the day before grazing near the chalet where he provided a good photo opportunity and politely ignored us.

We made good time down-valler as Ranger ""Liz"" had already been hard at work attempting to clear the smaller blowdowns. Our evening was spent at an enjoyable camp near Fire Creek where we added a Marbled Murrelet and a Hairy Woodpecker to the pair of Harlequin Ducks already on our wildlife list for the day.

We completed our trek early Monday morning with a short three mile hike and the return 5 mile bike ride. By all accounts it was truly a Memorable Weekend!

- Donald Larkin Trail Team (5/24-5/27,2002) ""May your legs remain strong and your food be well hung!""

Spent Memorial Day hiking to Cave Ridge via Commonwealth creek.

Parked near small ski area on Alpental Road north of the turnoff for Commonwealth Creek campground. Traveled north of Commonwealth Creek crossing creek basin from Guye Peak/Cave Ridge. Followed small ridge on east side of creek basin to steep area. Crossed to the west and climbed NW on ridge between two basins to a saddle north of Guye Peak. Followed ridge north and then NE to Cave Ridge. Nice views of peaks all around Pass area.

Followed same general route on descent but stayed north and west of creek basins. Somewhat steeper descending from saddle but no major problems.

Encountered rain in North Bend driving to and from Snoqualime Pass but no rain while hiking. Had some sun breaks and we saw no one else all day long.

Encountered snow entire trip but did not need snowshoes.

Drizzle as Eastgate had me questioning this idea.

Additional drizzle at North Bend had me more seriously questioning this idea.

But it did not seem to deter others as I was in the second tier of parking (more later) at around 8am.

Trail is fine. Not much of anything out of the ordinary to report. There is a bit of snow at the basin. Oh, yeah, while it did drip on me somewhere during the first mile, the sun was adequate and I stretched out on the bench at the saddle by the Haystack climb.

Down was fine but there seemed an inordinate number of people. More than that.

Back to the parking lot. It was overflowing with cars who added two additional tiers of parking stalls on the west end of the parking aisles. And also parked on both sides of the driveway for at least a block or two in both directions.

And speaking of overflow, the Little Si (or old trail) Parking lot and the new lot had folks and there were cars parked all the way back to the road to North Bend by the Espresso Stand. Oh, well, it was a memorable Memorial Day.

Normally, I would avoid the entire Sand Point region over Memorial Day weekend, but if one heads far enough north, a degree of solitude can be achieved at any time of the year. Hiked in to north of the Ozette river to set up camp, and then spent the later half of the next day exploring what has to be one of the most scenic stretches of coastline that exists. With low tide at 7:30p, I had to wait until ~3:00 before crossing the first headland past the river, with easy hiking on hard packed sand up to Seafield creek. After this point, a wonderful jumble of large boulders soon arrives, making for a fun, but tiring, rock hopping romp with about ten or so harbor seals in audience below me. Beyond this, the impassable Will Point comes into play and an interesting jaunt into the woods becomes necessary, with stately Sitka, sporting huge burls, standing sentinal. The grandest part of the hike comes when one finds themself standing atop a high saddle bluff, with sublime views of the myriad of seastacks and spires that mark the entrance to the Point of the Arches and Shi Shi beach. This makes for a good turnaround if the tides are turning, but if you have time, a steep descent thats more akin to rappelling than to scrambling allows access to the amazing rock formations below. Of note, all ropes for the overland trails (Alava to Shi Shi) are in place and in good shape. The short path to the archilogical site by the Makah station, however, is becoming swallowed up by stinging nettles, and makes for a less than pleasant walk to a very interesting site.

We attempted to follow the route up Wedge Mountain described in the Scramble book. Firstly, as she described accurately, finding the ""trailhead"" is the first chore. The area spur roads are not well marked on the ground or in the route description. After taking spur 400, take a left on spur 410, which ends swiftly at a small landslide. Large trucks were driving over it, but I later called the USFS and recommended they close it to prevent more damage... Anyway, we walked the road for a while, never really found the ""end of the road"", or the trail to the campsite or cabin. This is one of the areas burned a few years back; there are now LOTS of downed logs and general debris, blocking the road/trail. Eventually, we reached the spot where the road appeared to end and, running into snow, decided to head directly up the slope. This was easier said than done because of rotten snow and down logs. Much later, we reached the ridge line where we enjoyed fine views of the Stuart Range and Snow and Nada lakes. Up there as well, we found some foot prints in the snow, so with the late hour, followed them away from the summit, north along the ridge. At some point, they and we turned down the slope. When snow petered away and we lost the tracks, we just continued down, over more logs than I can count. While the views were great, it was not a fun trip, that is except for the great company who made it all completely bearable!

OK, this is a bit late, but a great trip to Snow Lake over Memorial Day Weekend was had. Granted, the trail is completely covered in snow, and Source Lake and Snow Lake are frozen over, but an ice axe and gaiters are all that are required to beat the summer hordes before they descend.

We took the western approach from the end of Alpental Road, past 1/4 mile of dog poop, and over a well packed snow trail. At the end of the valley, a timely and close avalanche from the Tooth convinced us to cross to safer terrain in the trees on the eastern side of the valley. Then it was a steep but fairly short slog up to the ridge overlooking the big lake. Our axes came in handy for balance and security.

The scenery was great and only saw three hikers the whole way in.

We descended quickly via the eastern side of the valley, but decided to cross the river by a sketchy snow bridge not far from the parking lot. A x-c skier went over with no worries, but we jumped over anticipating a cold dip. That avoided, it was a short walk back to the car.

Overall, a short but fun trip. I just wish my boots were more water proof.

I've been on the hike to Wenas Point twice, and it's an excellent dayhike. To make it a longer hike, we tried to follow the loop-trip instructions from the May 18 trail report from this region. We didn't succeed in finding the loop, but did end up with a much longer hike than we anticipated because we had to backtrack up to the original ridgetop to find our way back out again!

If you want to find this loop, I would suggest starting in the canyon, then going up to the point from there when you find the boot tracks up the canyon wall. Otherwise, you'll end up like we did: stopped by shear drop-offs, we hiked around the edges of two of the ridges, then backtracked towards the original ridge having to climb up and over the lateral ridges, which are a lot higher than they look from above!

Despite the failed loop-attempt, we had an excellent day. Tons of wildlife: three individual groups of deer, one gopher snake, one rattlesnake blocking the trail for a moment, and one unidentified gray/brown snake about 2-1/2 feet long (thought maybe some kind of constricter), plus a tiny horny lizard only 1-1/2 inches long, and a porcupine hiding in one of the treed draws.

Here's your chance to push the backcountry before the bugs and hoards of hikers arrive.

Due to the weather forecast and the holiday weekend we chose to head out into the Teanaway area. The plan was to see how far into the backcountry we could get for an overnight trip. We were able to park the car about 1 mile from the Esmeralda Basin trailhead (TH also leads to Ingalls Pass and Headlight Basin). The lower stretches of the trail are covered in patchy snow and it isn't too long before the snow became solidly consistent. But it was well consolidated so the travel went easily. We traversed the upper side of the basin gaining elevation as we went. Our route had us passing the slower slopes of Fortune (Pk 7382) as we headed for the pass at the far side of the basin (elev 6000'). From here we set up camp. After setting up camp my companions decided to day trip up to Fortune Pk leaving around 3:45pm and returning back to camp around 7:30. I watched through a monocular as the slowly kicked steps up the SW slopes of the peak. Sunday evening found up in awe of the beautiful sunset over Glacier Peak and the moonrise over the Stuart Range. Monday morning had us up early and we headed off toward Gallagher Head Lake (unseen beneath all the snow) and Hawkins Mtn. The best route to the Lake is to drop down low fron the pass and traverse over toward the gap where the lake is. From the lake we headed up to about 6200' and traversed around to the southern ridgeline. Our plan was to head up the ridge and see if we could find our way up to the summit. None of us having been up the peak before...we could see from the map that there could be a couple of tricky steep sections. My 'willie factor' kicked in at about 6900' so I found a nice protected spot to watch Mt Stuart from as my companions headed up toward the summit. They picked on route to the west of the ridge we were on and about 10 mins later I could hear them headed back down. They had met up with a short stretch that needed an off balance move and neither was willing to give it a go. After coming back down to my perch they then decided to try heading to the east side of the ridge. They were gone about an hour and then I could hear them coming back down. I was surprised when they said neither had made the summit. It appears there was one short steep section and both bailed on going for the summit. After meeting up with me the three of us headed back down the SW slopes of Hawkins. If you are a gliscade fanatic there is one great ridge down this side. It was so nice we each rode it down 3 times! The run is about 250 vertical feet and the last is steep but there is an excellent run-off area. About 100' from the bottom of the run you can actually go airborne if that's to your liking. After having our gliscade-fix for the day we headed back down to Gallagher Head Lake area, traversed down low near the South Fork of Fortune Creek and then headed back up to the pass where we were camped. After packing up all our gear we dropped straight down into Esmeralda Basin and were careful to stay to the north and east of the creek that runs through the basin. It's apparent snowmobilers have been in the area recently but with the snow melting out so fast and snowbridges collapsing it appears they aren't able to reach the upper areas of the basin near where we camped. Also, it appears the snow is melting out about 1/4 mile of the road a day since we had a long walk back on bare road to the car. My guess is that with continued good weather the parking lot at the trailhead will be accessible possibly as early as this coming weekend.

This report is for the North Fork Tieton, May 26, 2002. My hiking party and I started from the trailhead at the end of road 1207, and quickly ran into many downed trees covering the trail. At close to 3 miles in, the snow on the ground became heavy and difficult to walk in. We turned around at the incline to Tieton Pass because of the snow and because the trail was hard to follow. Simply put, this trail (and, it appears, others near it, such as 1128 on the Green Trails map for the area) is in need of maintenance. * Further note -- for those using the Pacific Northwest Hiking book for directions to this trail, please note this mistake -- replace ""east"" with ""west"" regarding orientation to Clear Lake.

I love Squak mountain. It is the only basically urban hiking area that I can routinely get lost. I did the Bullet access road, Phil's creek trail, Eastside trail loop with a couple ""uh.. now which way"" side trips resulting in a couple, unanticipated, extra miles. I saw only two other people, and there were no other cars at the trail head - amazing for an early Sunday afternoon.

The trails are in great shape. There are just a few blow downs that don't really obstruct passage, the mudslide near the boyscout bench on the Eastside trail and the nettles are starting to get ankle high - ouch. I heard atleast one raven 'squaking' away, saw a whole bunch of funky purple beetles (are those the ""bad"" kind of beetles?) and a cute like brown tree frog. On one of the side trips I walked past a collection of huge boulders that were pretty neat.

To top off the afternoon I heard on the radio coming home that the Talis development is 'donating' 400 acres of land between Squak and Cougar mountains. Yes, I'm sure it's in exchange for some zoning exception or something, but I'll take what I can get - I'm sure that the beetles and tree frogs there will be happy.

I'd previously written a trail report for Miller Peak stating that it could probably be done as early as Memorial Day in an average snow year. 2002 wasn't so far above average as to not give the claim a test, plus give my somewhat rusty snow travel skills a refresher on a trail I was familiar with.

Miller Peak is the easternmost peak of the Teanaway and has good weather, melting out a little bit quicker than even Stafford Creek/Navajo pass, the next drainage over. My conclusion with this trail before was that it made an excellent easy scramble or a difficult hike, good for training or for working out the spider webs. That conclusion stands after this hike. As a bonus the trail has been closed to motorcycles recently.

At the trail head there were just a couple of very small snow patches so I knew I was going to have a bit of snow and a full creek. I kept the Tevas on for the first two crossings, in the first 3/4 mile or so. This worked well. Snow began in earnest by mile 2 and was continous by the time you switchback out of the valley on a north facing slope. I was able to follow the trail climbing the ridge at a good pace. Near the 5700 foot level the trail crosses the ridge, to the south side, a segment from which you can scramble the final section of the climb sans snow.

I did however miss this section of the trail, right at the edge of the topo quad, and ended up just above the County Line ridge top.

Rather than redo the Miller peak climb I decided to attempt a traverse of this abandoned route, which I'll dub the forgotten traverse. It is possible to follow the ridge top all the way to Stafford pass, about four miles. I didn't have an ice axe or crampons, but I did have mid-heavy weight boots and trekking poles, and the snow was not too soft or too hard.

I traversed about 2 miles of the ridge, 3/4 on snow, with a couple of rocky ridge traverses that required an occasional hand to stabilize.

There are small cornices but the route I took never approached them. Larger cornices exist on the 2nd two mile stretch and the route finding looked more complex, though it became cloud obscured as I got near.

At the divide between the Miller creek drainage and the Stafford creek drainage I immediately dropped down. This route worked well, as would dropping down on the unnamed peak between this divide and Navaho peak.

I angled down and gaining the ridge dividing two creeks fairly quickly in the steep snow of this lightly forested slope. Gaining the ridge creating the next creek up the Stafford drainage I followed the crest down to a rocky promotory and then dropped into the next creek. This dropped down to some open gullys, remants of old glacial paths now the tail end of avalanch shoots dropping of aforementioned unnamed peak. At this point in the season crossing them was easy and I walked down the chute for climbing up on the old moraine at the end of the collected snow. At other times of the year this could be hazardous due avalanche danger or snow bridge collapse into the creek below.

The Stafford creek trail was joined after about 50 yards of what is probably brushy after melt, at the base of the moraine. I imagine the moraine is a scramble route up the peak.

The Stafford trail had snow at this point, probably just a bit past mile 3. It cleared up fairly quickly. At the road I hiked back up to the Miller Peak trailhead, about .9 of a mile, for an approximate 10-12 mile loop, 2/3 on snow.

I'm in good, but not great shape and a rock jock could do the entire forgotten traverse loop in a day - though perhaps most enjoyable would be to spend a night on the ridge, travelling lightly, and while snow still existed for water.

I have no idea what this traverse would like later, as all possibly brushy areas were adequately covered in snow.

All in all a great hike, and an even better introduction to early season scrambling than Miller peak alone.

Able to drive road towards Ashland Lakes to a point about 2500'. From there the snow started about 18 inches and over the next two miles to the Ashaland Lakes trailhead the depth increased to 3'plus. I would guess 2-4 weeks before an easy drive to the trail head. Proceeded towards the lakes on the old road grade, encountering up to 4 feet of snow. Bridge was free of snow but you need to climb down 4 or 5 feet of snow to reach the actual bridge. 1/2 mile past the bridge we ran out of time & heade back. Drifts of snow to 6 feet at 2800'. Good day of exercise but disappointed that snow will around into the summer.

Trail is very muddy, with standing water in places. Blowdowns have been removed to just beyond the second lake, where there is a minor one just past the fifth footbridge. Snow cover reportedly begins about 1/2 mile beyond the second lake. Water level is rather high in the lakes and river, due to snowmelt runoff. Trilliums are in bloom. This is a popular trail, so don't expect solitude.

Ran up icicle ridge trail to the first view at about 3000'. Trail in good shape. No snakes that I could see, but lots of lizards were out. Make sure to do the jog to the right at the top of the ridge for a great view of the Leavenworth valley. Also lots of birds on the ridge including bluebirds, thrushes and grouse.

Continued on up east to see how close I could get to 4th of July creek. Made it about 3 more miles. Dozens of trees down across the trail, but none that are hard to get around. Hit solid snow at somewhere around 6000' and lost where the trail was supposed to go in about a 1/2 mile. The blazes on the trees are pretty old. It will likely be a few more weeks before this part is snow free and easy to navigate.

I enjoyed the nice wildflowers and mushrooms (morels, I think) on the way down. Blackflies are just starting, but not a problem if you keep moving. No rain to speak of and nice temperature for a jog. All in all, a very good day.

The Denny Creek Road is blocked by a foot of snow 0.1 miles northeast of the entrance to Denny Creek campground. The road and trail are mostly snow covered from that point (2010 feet elevation) with the trail becoming completely snow covered above 2600 feet. There is two to four feet of snow along the banks of Denny Creek at the waterslides. Skunk cabbage was seen. Sky was overcast with moderate temperatures.

The Annette Lake Trail has many small trees across it. The John Wayne Trail has a few small snow patches. The Snoqualmie Railroad Tunnel is open to traffic. Trillium were seen. Sky was overcast with moderate temperatures.

Also, took a brief side trip up the abandoned road that crosses the Annette Lake Trail 0.4 miles from the trailhead. The road climbs on an easy grade to the powerline where there are excellent views of Granite Mountain.

Lake Serene is a favorite Spring hike of mine. It is a beautiful sight to see the walls of Mt Index rising nearly vertically above the lake. Bridal Veil falls is also at it's best when fed by melting snow. This trip was with the Mountaineers. Even with threatening skies we had eleven intrepid hikers show up. After a long trip on the Tiger Mountain Trail the day before I was looking forward to a fairly easy trip. I saw the new bridge within the first quarter mile. It requires a muddy and slippery maneuver to get to. On the way out I tried it. On the way back I found it much easier to just run through the creek. With our moderately early 9:10 start we were among the first hikers for the day. By the time we came down in the afternoon it was the usual zoo. The old road which makes up the first 1 1/2 miles is easily graded and goes by very fast. At the falls intersection we chose to head up. It's best to see the falls on the way in as the thought of a steep half mile climb is less palatable after climbing all those stairs going to the lake. There was no disappointment as Bridal Veil falls was flowing wide and fast. If you do not have the energy to make it to the lake the falls is a worthwhile destination in it's own right. Even the smaller falls passed on the way up were quite nice. We dropped back down to the junction and headed over to the base of the lower falls. A little rock hopping is required here but it was possible to cross with dry feet.

Now that we were on the left side of the creek the real climbing began. The trail has more stairs and steps than any other trial I have ever seen. On the positive side, most of the steps are of a reasonable height. Most trails seem to have steps which a 7 foot tall person would find to be high. I can only imagine how short people handle these. This trail was built with real people in mind. Smaller steps are nice on the ascent but just as important on the descent. There is nothing like 2000' of knee pounding to make a hike memorable. I was surprised to see that my legs felt fine on the climb. I was worried that it might take more than 18 hours to recover from the day before. Part way up we came upon a man and two small boys. He was teaching them the fine art of using a beige cotton pillow as a pad to cut through switchbacks. The deep ruts and piles of dirt on the trail are testament to this lesson. Some people just don't seem to have a clue. A few minutes later we met others with beige cotton pillows. These folks seems determined to do as much trail damage as humanly possible. When the lead group stopped to rest I took over the lead and continued heading higher. I stopped where the snow began and put on my gaiters. The rest of the group caught up shortly and we decided to go on ahead on the snow. This was a ""hike"" not a scramble and not everyone was comfortable on the snow. It is still OK to cross but is thin enough to show large holes. Some of them could lead to fairly large drops and possible injury. Use extreme caution when crossing.

By the time I reached the difficult creek crossing some of the group was out of their element. Six of them were happy with getting this far and four others wanted to try for the lake. Dotty, our leader, decided to stay with the former and I received the OK to lead the others on to the lake. The creek crossing is not for casual hikers. A slip could be fatal. It is more of a waterfall than a level creek just below. The others took off after crossing while I went to get the OK to go on. By the time I caught up they were climbing well above the summer trail. This route took us to a spot high above the lake. We had a nice view of Mt Index and the lake. We were only about 1/3 of a mile beyond where the others turned around. After a nice lunch we headed back and reached the group just off the last of the snow. Let me reiterate that a hiker comfortable with traversing snow slopes and testing weak areas before crossing can reach the lake with relative safety. Average summer trail hikers should not go on beyond their comfort level. The current conditions can lead to serious injuries. Many of the groups heading up when we descended had no business trying for the lake. Please do not take your 5 year old children in sneakers across weak snow slopes. Now that I have that out of my system....

The rest of the way down was very nice. As much as I love to go on solo trips there are times when a group can be lots of fun. As mentioned earlier we passed dozens and dozens of hikers coming up. Tennis shoes, blue jeans, fishing poles, and more. This trail draws a little bit of everyone and everything. When we reached the parking lot I was not surprised to see that nearly every space was filled. The weather came through as we had only a few sprinkles near the lake. This turned out to be a great trip. The totals with the side trip to the falls were 8 miles and about 2500' gained.

I now have photos up at: http://www.kuresman.com Look under ""Trip Reports 2002"".

It was a pleasant day for a hike. No rain, and overcast. The trail is extremely muddy and a couple of sections have water running down them. Use caution on the log bridges when crossing, they are slippery and slimy. The waterfall was awesome!!!!!!!!!! Lots of water coming down. River is running high and swift. Only a couple of blow-downs across the trail and those can be easily gotten under. Looks like somebody had been there not that long ago with a saw. Only saw a few trillium along the trail as far as flowers ago. All in all a good day, suprisingly not crowded for a weekend.

These two peaks lie to the east of Baring but are in opposite counties with Eagle Rock being in King County and Flapjack lying in Snohomish County. It is the first time I have ever glissaded from one county into another and it was the highlight of the outing. Take US 2 east until about five miles past the town of Baring. Turn left onto the Beckler River road which also is paved. After one mile turn left onto FS Road 2632. After another two miles take the left fork in the road which is FS Road 2779, the Eagle Creek Road. We were able to drive a Subaru Outback along this road until meeting snow at about 2,350' elevation. Shortly after this the road is blocked by significant landslides and large rocks so for the indefinite future the road is impassible. You need to hike along the road for about 2 more miles until it crosses Eagle Creek at a sturdy iron and concrete bridge. The creek itself is swollen from snowmelt and it is not a safe bet to ford at this time. One can see the saddle between Eagle Peak and Flapjack Point which is where the hiker needs to go. Fording the stream will save about 1 1/2 miles of hiking but we took the safe route on the bridge. The route up Eagle Rock cannot be seen from the road. Hike up to the saddle between Eagle Rock and Flapjack Point. It is reached at 4,200' Hike NE upslope from the saddle through oldgrowth forest. This will bring you to open slopes on the North side of Eagle Rock. It is on this snowslope (heather,talus in summer)where the easy ascent is made. We did quick butt-glissades off the summit over our upclimb steps to bring us back toward the saddle. Flapjack Point is an easy 1,000' gain due north of the saddle. This minor peak was probably given its name as on the way up one passes an entire slope of unusual talus rocks. They are all flat, of varying diameters, and about two inches thick. They looked like large pancakes to me. Car to car took eight hours. Total elevation gain about 4,300 feet. Views of Townsend were particularly impressive. The Monte Cristo peaks, Spire, and Evergreen came into view later on in the day when the cloud cover lifted briefly.

The last bit of the road to the trailhead is still blocked by snow. Someone with a big 4-wheel drive (and a lot of courage) might make it through. Or four or five good souls with shovels could open this up. Or wait a week. We hiked Mt. Zion.

I took my son Ben over to Vantage to check out the Ginko petrified forest. Still a few wildflowers, though starting to fade. We strolled along the Columbia at Wampaneum State Park first, then headed up to Ginko State Park.

The visitor center has more specimens of petrified wood than the interpretive trail, and is worth checking out. There are also some petroglyphs relocated from the river before the dam was built.

The interpretive trail starts 2 miles away at a charming CCC-built ranger residence. At 1.5 miles, the interpretive trail is longer than most, and climbs through the desert past specimens of petrified wood with protective stone walls, again CCC-built. Meadowlarks were singing on our hike, and we found a small lizard.

A hiking trail connected to the interpretive trail is a bit longer, about 2 miles. Ben's little legs were giving out, so we didn't try it.

A great hike for kids in April and May.

As of Memorial day weekend, the trail was snow-free for the first two miles in, but there was much free water running below the snow in the exposed meadows higher up. Blow down was minimal, though there were a couple of large trees across the route. Snow conditions on Reynolds Peak were soft, though slide activity was minimal, mostly smaller point releases from the rocks. There was evidence of a major slide this winter off Reynolds Peak that snapped off 16-inch diameter trees 10 feet above the ground. No other humans in the drainage all weekend. Great skiing. Beautiful mountain.

A pleasant day hike up Robinson Creek, the walk is more varied than I had expected in terms of views, vegetation, and especially rock types. We made it to the second bridge over the creek, which is at 4 miles up the trail and about 4,000 feet elevation - the snow began across the bridge. There's a fairly nice campsite there. A few minor blowdowns but almost no snow on the trail to this point.

The washout on the Hamma Hamma road is quite large and is not passable with any type of vehicle. Putvin #813 is in good shape. Snow begins on the Putvin Primative trail just below the meadow below the headwall, with patches at about 3800', deep snow above the headwall. The higher we climbed, the softer the snow. We were postholing to mid-calf near the summit. Summit pyramid a challenge with some small areas of ice. Lake of the Angels naturally frozen over. We saw only 6 dayhikers and no overnighters. Trail well marked with boottracks and/or flags.

A glorious day for a hike up Umtanum Canyon to Umtanum Ridge. Treats were views of resonant red cliffs, a bighorn sheep high in the scree and a peregrine falcon swooping to fend birds from its nest, scents of sweet sage and, once up on Umtanum Ridge, undulating clusters of wildflowers in yellow, blue, pink, white and purple below an immense sky of rolling clouds. Obstacles included rattlesnakes (eight blocked our way, in addition to two bull snakes) and an unmaintained trail obscured on both sides by thick brush, making route-finding tricky on several occasions. The one true negative was a group of men shooting semi-automatic rifles from a cliff above our heads as the trail neared the Durr Road juncture. P-P-POW-POW-POW-POW-POW as we scrambled down-valley, leaping blow-downs. We escaped unscathed, and I would recommend this trail in late winter, when the snakes and rednecks are back in their dark holes.

Trail in good shape through snow level reached jst below first avalanche chute in upper swithbacks. Recent and other current reports are still on target. Trail past first chute is heavily snow covered: best decision is to head due north staying on west side of avalanche basin. There is also a nice broad band of boulders starting about 700' below summit, west of basin, easy to spot, to move into.

I led a group of 15 hikers/leaders on scramble west of 2,700' level into tall timber where snow was firmer for kick stepping. Went straight up to middle of bowl mentioned above, then let them glissade down through chute. There is a glissade path coming down from a wys higher, which is tempting, but not recommended unless you're proficient with ice axe. rock outcropings toward bottom are getting exposed and dangerous.

Watched a young man go down without ice axe: he looked like a rag doll bounding down out of control going about 50mph. His head got turned around heading downhill, and missed a concealed rock by about 3'. As he headed back up to do it again, I don't believe he even realized how close he had come to a skull fracture. And, its been said life/death can be a matter of inches. For him, it was real close as measured in feet.

Cornices at top on NE side of summit above where trail is buried, are still fragile to break off.

Overall, great views and day as witnessed by looks on people's faces!!

Three to four feet of snow in the trees on the north side of the river. Four to five feet on the south side, including the south end of the bridge making it tough going beyond there. I predict it will be at least a week, maybe 4 weeks, until the trail is snow-free. Avalanches on the mountain were few, but once they started, they continued booming for at least a minute. We started at the picnic area and heard some booming (guns) from the direction of the trailhead parking lot, but for the most part, very peaceful.

The cloudy skies and spotty showers that greeted me across North Cascades highway gave way to breaks in the clouds east of Washington Pass. The Methow Valley was so green and it seemed like there was deer everywhere, including dead ones on the side of the road. I arrived at the trailhead to find no other cars. As I left the Robinsom Cr. trailhead at 8:00 AM the sun was starting to poke through the holes in the ceiling. The Methow was really running with some volume. The trail was snow-free and clear of any major blow-downs all the way to Beauty Creek. I was spotting deer everywhere and probably saw over a dozen in the first 3 miles. A nice wood bridge crosses Beauty creek and shortly thereafter find the obvious route up Beauty cr. The route is well beaten in and in very good shape for not being an official trail. There are a lot of maintained trails that are in worse shape than this one. The Beauty Creek route starts out in a series of steep gradient switchbacks to get above a series of Beauty-ful waterfalls. At aaround 4300 ft the trails starts it countour into the valley, staying around 100-200 ft above the creek. Snow was encountered at around 4500 ft and covered the trail around 80% of the time. At around 5000 ft the snow became continuous. Cross the creek at around 5200 ft and breifly hiked upward on dirt for 300 - 400 ft until snow was encountered again. The snow was just right, soft enough for easy kicking steps but not so soft as to make the going unpleasant. At 6200 ft reach the lip of the basin and gentler terrain. From here the creek disappered under the snow. At around 6430 ft I found a spot where the creek could be seen through the snow. I decided to set up camp here due to the easy access to water. By now the sky had clouded over and it had started to rain. I retreated to my bivy for a nap hoping the weather would get better quick. As I layed there I could hear the rumble of small avalanches and rocks falling down the cliffs that surrounded the basin. After a couple hours the weather did start to clear so I gathered my day pack and headed for the summit. When I reached the head of the basin I could see the wreckage of small avalavches everywhere. None of them were very big and they appeared to be from cornices that were breaking loose on the ridges. Like a small dog, the bark was worse than the bite. As I traversed upward towards the ridge the snow got very soft. In spots I sunk well over my knees, the going got very slow. Keeping an eye on the cornices above me I reached the ridge at 8,000 ft, out of danger and into bare rock of the south slope. From here I entered the realm of the clouds and the wind steadily increased as I traveled higher and higher. I reached the first false summit,the wind was howling close to storm force and had a bite that cut and started to freeze my face. Little pellets of snow started to fly sideways and felt like needles piercing my face, adding insult to injury. As I approached the final false summit the wind mysteriously vanished. An erie calm and silience swept over the ridge as I could barely make out the outline of the final false summit. The peak looked very steep and seemed to drop off into nothingness, almost like it was just floating up in the clouds. Intimidated, I had to gather my nerve before setting out on the final leg. I scrambled down through some steep wet rock and reached the base of a snow filled gully. I took this up for a ways until I felt it was better to get on the rib. It was all steep and very slippery. From the false summit the little knife-edged ridge I had to cross to the main summit appeared before me. Again it floated above a bottomless plane of clouds, again I had to gather my nerve. I delicately made my way across the very slippery rocks and made the final scramble to the summit. No views today ! After a brief stay I head back down knowing going up is the easy part. I make it across the knife- edged ridge unscathed. On my way down the final false summit though I take a little bit of a slip and bang my knee on a rock which cuts me pretty good. Shaken up and in a little pain I slowly make my way down to the notch. By the time I get there the knee of my light gray long underwear has turned red. I break out the first aid kit, patch myself up and limp back down the ridge towards basecamp.Once below 8,000 ft I get below the clouds again and can see blue skies and the sun shinning brightly out in the Methow Valley. Back at camp the clouds start to clear out and the sourrounding mountains come into view. I can feel the temperature dropping fast and the throbbing of my knee. The next morning I wake to clear skies, a sore throat, a fever and an aching body. THE FLU. I really would have liked to have gone back up to the summit for the views but I knew I was sick and should head down. Anyway, the memories of the adventure in clouds far outweigh any long distance views I could possibly have had. To truely experience the moutains one must experience evrything the moutains can throw it us.

The Chatter Cr trail is open for a couple thousand feet. Snow becomes solid soon after the creek crossing. We intended to try Grindstone Mt, but started too late. So we changed plans and wandered up the ridge to the right to go find some sun. Halfway up, we look at the map and discover a peak dubbed ""Frigid Mt"" (7377'). Ah, peakbaggers delight, plus it's no. 24 on Jeff Howbert's ""Backcourt"" list. It's a straightforward trip to the summit, albeit with some rotten snow, and with great views!

This report concerns the southern most section of the Sasse ridge trail climbing Hex Mountain.

Sasse ridge is above Cle Elum Lake and there are great views of same from several points on the trail. Access is from the forest road just before Wish Poosh campground and the trail head is signed from that road.

My original intent was follow this same forest road into the upper sections of the West Fork Teanaway Valley continuing on the eastern end of the Teanaway. Contrary to several maps I have, some older, this route has been blocked. Access TO the West Fork Teanaway is possible but NOT recomended. The road is muddy and has large ruts as you drive down to the creek - I was able to negotiate it successfully in my high clearance compact truck LUCKILY, all the more so on the climb back up.

Hex Mountain is a short hike (2+ miles, 1300 foot gain?) and could be accomplished on a Friday afternoon without leaving a Seattle area workplace TOO early. It would also be nice on a full moon or with a group of friends and family camping in the Salmon La Sac area. The climax segment, approaching the 5000 foot peak, is above timberline and is very nice. 360 degree views ensue, including most of Cle Elum Lake, Mt. Stuart, and Rainier.

The approach is enjoyable and educational, but not a prime wilderness experience. This is logging and motorcycle country and three cuts are crossed. They are of varying ages, the first hardly being noticeable the most frequent probably about 5-10 years ago. Wildflowers are many in the cuts, many of the areas being very meadow like.

On this trip, a slightly above average snow year there were a few snow patches, only one being of any size, and none of any real consequence.

All in all a good case study of intensive forest management.

The remainder of the trail north, including Sasse and Jolly Mountains, still remains under snow cover and is probably better accessed from other routes.

MLH is open all the way to Barlow Pass now, so after we decided not to go to Vesper due to the access road being snowed in, we chose Dickerman.

After 2 attempts this winter, it was nice to be able to drive to the TH, instead of snowshoeeing for 4 miles on flat ground while being passed by snowmobilers.

The parking lot is still snowed in so there is spots for about 5 cars plus the side of the road.

Left the TH at 830am. Immediately we encountered downed trees all over the place. This was the worst I have ever encountered. Snow is encountered periodically but not until mile 1.75 or so is dominant on the trail. After wrestling with all these trees (wta please help this trail!) and having to cut switchbacks (I felt bad), we finally encountered the open meadows and the half dozen false summits. It rained the whole time, but never a downpour so it was tolerable.

Reached the summit at 1130am and had lunch. No views, wind and rain blew. We descended and got below the clouds for an almost uneventful trip. The glissading was real nice as the snow was perfect. I wish people would remember not to kick steps in the glissade path on the way up.

Be careful when passing the avalanche gulches, as I slipped at the second one on the return and started slidding down towards the waterfall cliff but was able to stop quickly.

Got down rather quickly even though the downed trees slowed us significantly.

Full report soon @ www.nwog.org

The road is clear to the trailhead (finally). There are a few snow patches on the trail beginning at 2800 feet elevation. The trail becomes mostly snow-covered above 3050 feet and completely snow-covered above 3150 feet. Talapus Lake is 90% snow-covered and there is four feet of snow at the outlet. Trillium and skunk cabbage were seen. The sky was overcast with moderate temperatures.

Our group of 12 headed up the Taylor River trail to Lipsy Lake. The trail is an old road that is now over grown into a trail. You could once drive with in 2 miles of Snoqualmie Lake, but is now gated at the Taylor River bridge trail head. At one time this road was planned as a short cut to Highway 2 and Stevens Pass from Seattle. Fortunately for us all, it never got built by Snoqualmie and Lake Dorothy.

The first big creek crossing is an old log bridge at 3 miles over Marten Creek. We stopped for water and snacks, plus photos of the roaring water. In another mile and quarter is Otter Creek which empties out of Lipsy Lake. There was some snow on the trail as we continued 3/4 of a mile onto Big Creek Falls. This is a big creek with a nice water fall coming down granite slabs. Lots of snow melt coming from the mountains above the valley.

After some more water fall photos, we headed back to Otter Creek and the short trail up hill to Lipsy Lake. Otter Falls drops 500 feet into the lake down a steep granite face. This was our lunch spot and of course some more photos. Check out these water falls if you have not seen them before, 10 miles round trip and a fairly easy hike.

Ok, encountered snow covering the trail at about 3000ft covering the trail. most people including us cut straight up the mountain via a snow field. the snow at the lower chutes heading up was pretty chewed up but once it opened into the larger face the snow was solid enough to chop step up, for those who don't like walking snow much there is enough open patches that you can minimize your snow walking.

Over the last 20 years I have hiked every part of the Tiger Mountain Trail (TMT). What I had not done was to hike all of it in one day. Gary and I had planned on going east for a snow scramble but with gray skies and possible rain on both sides of the mountains we chose instead to stay close to home. We left my car at High Point and drove Gary's around to the South trailhead. It rained on the drive South but was had stopped by the time we started. We made good time for the first 4 miles, going around South Tiger Mountain and crossing the West Side Road. The next section on an old railroad grade is one of my favorites. The TMT is never steep but has many small ups and downs. Over a long distance they add up. We planned to throw in a few side trips and our first one was the trail up Middle Tiger. This is about half a mile and gains 500'. We had a little food and water on top and headed back down. I was glad to see that the South end of the TMT has been getting maintenance. A number of new culverts have been placed and logs cut. There were several logs across the trail that will need cutting. None were difficult to get over or around. With Middle Tiger taken care of we had covered about 6 miles and gained 2000'. That is the equivalent of going up and down the popular Tiger 3 trail but we still had 10 miles to go.

From the Middle Tiger Trail to Fifteen Mile Gap is a long distance. The trail goes up and down and in and out of a number of valleys. In a straight line it is 2 miles from Middle Tiger to Tiger 2. On the ground it is nearly 3 times as long. Our luck held out as the rain stayed away. Usually if Gary and I both carry umbrellas they can ward off the rain. Today was no exception. Now if we leave them in the car expect a down pour. We crossed the Charles Custer bridge and continued on. Finally we reached Fifteen Mile Gap and stopped for more food. We were now beyond the mid point and nearing the high point on the TMT. We encountered more of the bizarre ""Tiger Mountain Broken Tree Syndrome"". These trees were broken in half and appeared on the Middle Tiger Trail, beyond Fifteen Mile Gap, beyond the Tiger 2 to 3 trail, and in several other places. These are on ridges, in deep forest, on North slopes, West slopes, and South slopes. I have no clue as to what caused it. Our next side trip was up Tiger 2. The trail is near the 2600' high point on the TMT and we only needed to gain 200' to get on top. With just the 2 of us on top, there were 24 less people than on a Wednesday evening hike a month ago. I was a little surprised to see two people before Middle Tiger and three runners coming down Middle Tiger. On top of Tiger 2 we saw to hikers and 2 runners. The runners were finishing hitting all 6 summits in both directions. And I thought our little 17 mile trip was impressive... The easy way down Tiger 2 is to drop down the North side and reconnect with the TMT. We were, however determined to follow the whole trail so we backtracked on the West side. On top of Tiger 2 I finished the last of my food but still had enough water left to last to the bottom. 12 miles down and only 5 to go now.

The TMT is very nice going around Tiger 2 and dropping to the West Tiger RR Grade. The trail was good but I was starting to feel it soon. At miles 14.5 we found a sign listing the distance of 2.5 miles to go. After crossing High Point Creek the trail starts to ascend again. I new this was coming but could not remember how much climbing there was. Now I know. It was 400' up hill before the trail relented. I'm not used to climbing after logging nearly 15 miles. It was not much fun. The rest of the way was fine. The last mile I was out of gas. My legs were fine but the tank was empty and I came in on fumes. The TMT is a great trail. I'm glad to have finally done all of it in one day. The totals were 17 miles and 3500' gained. Now that I have finished this report it's time to turn in and get some sleep before tomorrow's hike.

This was my first time up on this trail. It's pretty easy to find but the road is very rough, lots of potholes for 12 miles. The trail was in great condition although the forest was starting to retake the trail in areas. Right when we got to the falls we found patches of snow. The falls were great - running pretty fast. Around 500 ft from the lake the whole trail was snow covered. The Loch was still frozen over and very beautiful. We saw plenty of bear scat, and some paw prints in the snow. On the way back down we came across very fresh bear droppings that weren't there on the way up. We could hear the bear in the woods, but he was heading the other way. Not a soul on this trail, a very isolated easy hike.

Mountain loop highway opened to Barlow Pass today. Big four lower parking lot has been plowed, and picnic area is mostly snow-free. The trail is clear for a couple of hundred yards. Trail is easy to follow over the snow to the foor bridge over the river. Trail is closed by the forest service at the far end of the footbridge due to heavy snowpack, debris, and avalanche danger. The avalanches are spectacular to watch from the parking lot, and are well worth the drive. Also noticed a large population of biting insects in both the parking lot and on the trail through the swamp. I spoke to the ranger there, and they have no anticipated date for opening the trail to the ice caves basin.

We wanted to do Dome Peak, but the the word from the weather scientists, who are never wrong, called for a wet Memorial Week-end. Instead, three of us decided to zip over to climb the Brothers. From Green Lake to the trailhead via the Edmonds ferry was only 2 hours and 20 minutes. The trail up to Lena Lake and then through the Valley of the Silent Men was snow free and in perfect condition. Snow does obscure the trail just before the junction with the creek draining the south side of the Brothers. We met two guys who missed the cut-off and spent an unproductive hour thrashing through partially snow-covered brush. The way becomes more obvious further up the valley. We camped on a rare flat spot just west of a huge avalanche swath full of shattered trees and tons of snow. The easy climb up a snow chute extends almost all the way to the summit. We were on top at 7:00pm and had glorious views in all directions. The 3000' glissade on the way back to camp took 40 minutes because of several breaks to stop laughing and to regain our composure. Go soon, the snow is melting fast.

We took the day off from work and headed East for better weather - and we got it - not a cloud in the sky! At 12 miles round trip and 4,800' of elevation gain, this hike is a bit intimidating on paper. It was certainly a great workout, but the many switchbacks and later meandering trail tends to moderate the grade, making the elevation gain manageable. Lots of great views of the Stewart range and Mt. Cashmere on the way up prevent the numourous switchbacks from becoming monotonous and provide for a very enjoyable hike. At about 5,400' there is some snow covering the trail. The tempation is to head up to the right where it is more open and snow-free, but the trail actually bears to the left. We followed the footsteps through the snow and in a few minutes the trail emerged. A bit later, we entered what would normally be meadows. However, fire must have swept through this aread in the last year or two. There were lots of burned trees, though the underbrush and smaller plants have started to grow again so tread carefully. At about 6,300' we lost the trail in the snow again. No problem, however, as the slope was open and we were in sight of Icicle Ridge's crest just 500' higher. So, we scrambled up through the snow (no ice axes needed) to the ridge crest and headed toward the rock outcrop/summit we thought was where the old lookout cabin was. On the way, we found the trail sign where the 4th Of July Creek trial meets the Icicle Ridge trail and knew we were going the right way. We ascended the remaining 200' and found signs of the old lookout. Total ascent time was about 3 hours and 45 minutes. Finding a perfect rock, we kicked back, ate some lunch and took a little snooze in the sun. At just over 7,000', the views from the top (also availabe from the ridge crest) were stunning! Mt. Stuart and Mt. Cashmere to the South, and Mt. Baker and the entire North Cascades range to the North. The views were some of the best we have ever had hiking. The long descent was a thigh-burner! At first it went by pretty quickly, but once we got to a certain level of fatigue, it seemed to take forever. It was broken up by some bird-watching: grouse, stellars jays, a downy wookpecker, and small soft blue and light beige bird we still haven't been able to identify. In all, about a 2 hour and 45 minute descent back to the car. A tough workout, but this is a great trail with stunning views. Highly recommended.

Paved portion of Mtn. Loop Hwy.(2.3 miles) open to Barlow Pass. FS Road 4065 still has 1-1.5ft. of snow starting about .3 miles in so not passable just yet. There are couple of trees down over road. Trail #707 has about 2-2.5 ft. of snow covering nearly all of trail. There didn't appear to be alot of down timber across trail either. Our party followed trail direction to S. Fork of Stilly River where trail crosses( the one log bridge appeared ok for travel)From there our journey took us up East side of River to NW Ridge below Lewis Peak. Beautiful outing, great views to Del Campo, Morningstar, Vesper, and Sperry, and snow pretty well consolidated with only a few small loose snow avalanches experienced.

Clear skies, perfect spring weather. Started at 6:30am at Marble Mountain sno park after sleeping in the car. Still snow on the Worm Flows trail right from the parking lot.

Just followed the signs and hiked up to timberline, no snowshoes needed. Passed a few tents... must've been a great night! Followed some tracks, just go up staying generally leftward of the pretty obvious ""worm flow"". Had to do a little rock scrambling to cross some ridges. Snow near the ridges are melting so be careful you don't punch through all of a sudden.

Made it to the rim in 6 hours going at a very easy pace. Didn't need an ice axe or crampons at all... but remember it was picture perfect spring weather with little wind.

Friends glissaded down about half the distance and it took them 3.5 hours to get down for a round trip of 9.5 miles. I skied and it was great spring conditions although around 6000 feet it started to get messy but was still able to ski all the way to the parking lot. Great outing.

Hiked into Barclay Lake Thurs. evening to try out my new 2-person tent. Just after the tent was up I noticed a Black bear and two cubs grazing below the clifts on Mt. Baring. Glad I brought my binoculars. They stayed in sight for 2-hours. Woke up at 7:30am and followed the climbers path up to Eagle Lake. Climbed NE to the ridge leading to Townsend Mtn.(used crampons). It was a great ridge hike on a beautiful day(snow free). Summited at 11:30 and was the second person to sign-in this year. Enjoyed a 2-hour lunch. The ridge hike back down was even more AWSOME. Had a Great 1300ft. butt slide back down to Eagle Lake. Checked out the cabin and lake for a while and made my way back down to Barclay Lake. Enjoyed the sunshine and view of Mt. Baring(the bears were also in sight). Packed up and hiked out by 6pm. The new tent was great and so was this climb!!!!!!WOW..

The White Chuck River Road 23 is driveable to Mile Post 9, then is snow covered part of the way the last mile to the trail head. It also has a couple of trees down across the road. So I parked just before MP-9. Once at the trail itself, the first 50 yards had snow, then bare trail in the forest. The trail has a few places before getting to the river where snow is a foot or two deep. After leaving the river and switchbacking up hill over a ridge, the trail is bare again. Going back downhill, the snow comes back, getting deeper as I headed toward Kennedy Hot Springs. Since I didn't bring my snowshoes, I turned around about 3/4 mile from the junction in the trail to the springs. One large old growth Doug Fir had fallen across the trail, so you needed the crawl under it.

Met some climbers who has come out from Wisconson and up from California to climb Glacier Peak, then on to Baker and Shuksan. Also met one young guy who was backbacking with his dog. He had the right gear, except for boots. He was wearing only tennis shoes with no socks, since his shoes were soaking wet from the snow. He said he didn't think there would be snow on the trail. Must be new to the area.

What a great workout! The day was beautiful and Rainier was out and in all her glory. The trail started out muddy in spots and continued to be that way until you left the trees. We opted to go up the snow patch and then the rest of the way the trail is clear. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the top,signed in and began our trip down. Just as we were to the top of the snow,we met a gentleman who stepped over a bit to pass and he immediatiely fell through the snow into a BIG hole. Hiker2 went to help and found himself also in a big hole. Once getting out, he helped the gentleman also get out and no one was worse for the ware. Be careful though ~ the snow is melting out and bridges are giving way! We all laughed and went on our way. Back to the car in an six hour evolution and a great day!

Picked up a friend and his 7 year old son from SeaTac and headed for the coast (4 hr drive) for a three night stay. We camped at a nearly deserted Cape Alava the first night and listened to the seals jawing at each other all night. The tides, however, were somewhat inconvenient, lows occurring at 5:45a and 5:30p.

Passage (water just below knees) across the Ozette River was no problem at 2 hours before low with no rain in the previous 48 hours. The travel between Seafield and Alava is mostly on dense sand. Passage above Seafield to Point of the Arches should be closely timed with low tide because there are many headlands and tangles of logs. The boulders we encountered are probably a factor no matter how low the tide.

Due to our lazy breakfast we missed the lowest tide and didn't get to The Point of the Arches; instead spending 4 hours on Siesta Rock watching the surf, being watched by seals, journaling, and pondering images until we could retreat with happy spirits; even the young-un had a swell time of discovery. Our second night at Seafield was spent on the beach with the highest tide (8.4 and no wind)of the month with no problem.

We saw large anemones, green and white, sea otters, and a large Orca on the prowl about a half mile out. Racoons were not a problem the whole trip. It was a great trip with charmed weather and company.

We encountered enough snow on the road at the five mile mark that we had to hike from there, though most of the road is clear beyond that short stretch. The hike up to the summit was wondeful, amid passing clouds and just a light wind. The snow was perfect for kicking steps in most places... we encountered just a few places where we sank significantly. As we got the top the clouds passed by and broke open to blue skies all around. We enjoyed the view for a few minutes then skied down via the NE chute. There was a melt layer on top that would slide a bit but the skiing was awesome!! I'm guessing the road will be passable to within a mile of the trailhead within a week.

Great first trip of the year. Camped at Big Log for two nights, and day tripped upstream. There was snow a bit after eight stream so I only walked another half mile through it in my hiking sneakers and turned back. A very visable elk herd was roaming near Camp Pleasant all day. I got to observe them three times on both side of the river. Very cool!

About two-thirds of the lake is still iced over and several feet of snow remain on the shore, but the hike is manageable. Crews are working on the lower portion of the trail and it is very, very muddy in spots. In places, you can sink in mud up beyond your ankles. Higher up, you'll run into snow for the final mile. One of the little stream crossings is a little tricky, but the hike is much easier than it was a couple weeks ago. Trekking poles will help on the way down, but the hike really is manageable even without them.

Did a new, for me, loop route on Tiger Mountain today. We parked at the high school trailhead and went up to the Poo Poo Point Trail. That trail is in excellent condition all the way up to the railroad grade. Then took the one view trail, and while I can report that this trail is also in good condition, we found that the ""one"" view is now appears to be even less. This took us to the Tiger Mountain Trail at Fifteen Mile Pass.

We headed north toward Tiger 2. While the trail has been cleared of logs, there are several places shortly after the pass that are in need of some real engineering to take care of the mud problems. After about a half a mile, the trail starts to head up again and there are no more mud problems.

We headed up to Tiger 2 on the Seattle View Trail and had lunch. Our return trip took us over Tiger 3 and down the Section Line Trail to return to our car. The total distance is about 9 miles. It appears to be a relatively lonesome route to approach Tiger 2 and 3 from the South.

Awesome Hike, Spectacular views from several locations on the way, I could even see the Tacoma Dome from the trail just before the summit. Lots of snow on the trail after the 3200-ft level and most of the way after that. In most places the snow was 6 to 10 ft deep on the trail. It also started snowing serial times on the way up but cleared up on way down. There are also some areas that have trees down over the trial from heavy snow (from 3100 to 3800 ft) so bring a small hand saw. I would not attempt this hike with out a GOOD! map as the trail is not marked and the snow has hidden allot of the trail's footpaths. Bring warm clothing and waterproof boots. I did see some wild life on the way, 2 deer and 1 elk near the great wall area, lots of birds and what looked like a rat near the Owls nest. Happy Hiking.

It was a great day for a hike to Marmot Pass. There is several areas of blowdown along the first two miles. One tree is about four to five feet in diameter. The rest of the trail that was not under ten feet of snow was in good shape. The culverts need cleaning for proper drainage. The trail surface is generally in good shape, just some seasonal trail corridor clearing is required.

What you need to do is, you need to get Mr. Fox on the day after he does Mt. Index - 'cause once he's been Index'd, he's just a skosh tired (just a skosh). As a result, he was only too glad to introduce me to the mines of Silver Creek and the abandoned Troublesome Creek trail, both flat and easy hikes.

It is sad to know that the beautiful Troublesome Creek trail is slowly disappearing and may some day be unknown to most people, as it goes through some of the most impressive old growth forest around, and runs alongside one of the most beautiful creeks. The color of the water is aqua, sometimes more green, sometimes more blue, like that of Blanca Lake, its source.

It begins as an accessible loop trail whose head is at the Troublesome Creek CG on Index-Galena Road. Go counter-clockwise at the beginning (large bridge) and walk to the smaller footbridge. Just before the smaller footbridge, look to your left, and you will easily find the old trail. It is not very to follow, thanks to some vigilante trail maintainers out there, and some faithful Troublesome trail trodders over the years.

At the beginning of the accessible trail you will find in the creek huge mounds of rounded and worn bedrock, elongated, grooved and hollowed out by the force of the water of Troublesome Creek. They look like huge psychedelic melted and tormented marshmallows, if you can imagine such a thing (and I think some of you can). The scenery on the abandoned trail varies; for instance, there's a huge washout where the Creek took out a large portion of the mountainside to marvel at; an old puncheon bridge that's so overgrown with moss it'd be easy to miss, lots of huge downed old logs to walk on, shimmy over, and crawl under, but none difficult or irritating. The size of the Doug Fir and cedar in this area is impressive, and we stood in awe of them for several silent moments.

At the huge grove of thick salmonberry and old growth devils club (Mr. Fox counted 666 of them) at about 3ish miles is the place sane and normal people turn around and head out. We bashed through and couldn't find the trail on the other side, and since it was getting late we bashed back and hiked back to the rig where we began our quest for Food.

This is a trail I will certainly visit time and time again - it's a great rainy day trail!

There's a little memorial for a 4 year old girl at the trailhead of Troublesome Creek. There's no mention of her on the other Troublesome trip reports, so I think it's a recent event. Anyone having information on her, please email me at rybackrules@juno.com.

Hiked up the Icicle Ridge trail today past the 3000' level. Trail had received some attention in clearing trees on trail and no snow was in sight. Lots of flowers were out.

Very nice hike, not allot of foot traffic today. Spotted a very large woodpecker, two chipmunks and several birds. Was a bit disappointed as I reached the summit some clouds had moved in and blocked the view, but no rain! I also met the Mount Si volunteer trail keeper and helped clear some downed trees. On the way down he suggested I take the Creek trail, it's new and has much less traffic and is the same distance as the old trail. Happy Hiking!!

The road bridge crossing Snoqualmie R has a big pile of snow & dirt in front of. Better to park here as encountered consistent snow not far in. About 3 ft of snow at TH but is compact enough walk on. After crossing the freeway overhead, trail is hard to see, but if stay to left and not too far off Denny Creek, will eventually see wooden bridge crossing at Slippery Slab. Careful approaching start of bridge as it was covered a bit with a corniced snow slab that's hollow underneath.

Snow pack is 5 ft+ along the whole Denny Creek valley but compact enough to not require snoshoes. This is a high avalanche area but snow looks quite compact now. Just above Snoshoe Falls, do not follow snow-covered creek but stay to left in trees and head up valley. Stayed low and eventually reached Hemlock Pass & down to Melakwa Lake. Lake was 98% snow covered.

This is a great trail to marvel at old growth trees, early spring flowers and listen to the White River.

The trail is level with lots of signs explaining the flora. A great get away from the city and a super way to see a real Evergeen State forest un-touched by Weyerhaeuser or other loggers.

The trail is dry, broad and easy to follow. There are even historical notes on the old Naches Pass Trail over the Cascades.

Great walk out of the city.

The plan was to climb three high peaks in the upper enchantments this weekend, Dragontail East Ridge, Colchuck Peak, and Witches Tower.

Friday May 17th Craig met me on Friday night at 8 mile bridge campground. I got there early and got us a spot, then hiked across the road and found an easy sport route for us to climb on. We did a couple of climbs, and then returned to camp when it got dark. Sergio and Agata then arrived around 830pm (finally got to meet her!) and we sorted gear and read up on the climb we were most excited about - Witches Tower. A simple 5.5 3 pitch climb in the Upper Enchantments that is about .2 miles east of Dragontail. We divied up pro, and packed our bags.

Saturday May 18th 5am (beep, beep, beep, beep!) The road to the trailhead is snowfree, and snow is not encountered entirely untill the Stuart Lake/Colchuck Lake junction (2.5 miles in). From here it is tiring, as the trail that is blazed is pretty direct, snowshoes required at this point.

We postholed, we grunted, and we swore as we ascended dirty slopes, branch belays, and hard stemming routes on branches and trees....all with heavy packs. Sergio and Agata really enjoyed having snowboards on their packs as they planned on boarding the Colchuck Glacier on the descent down. I was going to bring my skis. We encountered rain, and were unhappy with it's presence. Craig and I kept a positive attitude about it all though, reciting ""This is not happeneing"" Especially since Friday was absolutely beautiful, with blue skies. The snow was thick, and sticky - I hated it. But we all trudged on.

We finally arrived at the lake only to find more rain. It was warm, real warm.

We set up camp on the south end of the lake below Colchuck Col. We also found a large boulder the size of a 2 car garage that served as our gathering area, with a roof and all the pleasantries of home. Sergio and I then took off to gain the Colchuck Col via the Colchuck Glacier. We arrived at the Upper Basin and then took off the snowshoes and donned our crampons as they snow was pretty solid, and started to get a little steeper. The visibility was next to nothing heading up to the Col (elev 7800') and at about we saw Chirs, Dave, & Tom camped out in their bivys at about 7000'. Tom joined Sergio and I as we ascended the last few hundred feet to the col. It was pretty steep on the right side, but we wanted to stay out of the debris path as it was a prime angle for more debris to come down (even though avy danger was very low). We hit the col and turned around immediately. Sergio got on his board and arrived at camp in about 5 minutes while Tom and I took our sweet time , and then I glissaded back to camp once we arrived at their high camp. I was wet and tired at this point. My shoes were soaked, and my ass was wet as well. I shivered in my bag in the tent for awhile, not too excited about how the night would be since I left my down jacket in the car, and only had my 20 degree bag with me. We had dinner, and then watched the alpenglow hit the surrounding peaks. I actually slept quite warm that night.

Sunday May 19th 530am I awoke to yucky weather again , and no one else wanted to wake up so I went back to bed.

730am We awoke, put out tails between our legs and took off on one awful descent. Postholing, falling, faceplants, and more. I was sick and tired at this point. Once we got near the dirt trail, Craig and I started to book, running at spots with our full packs. We got back quite quickly, with the last of the party getting back to the TH 1.5 hours after we did. We got to relax in cotton and drink cold sodas.

Now the fun was going to begin! Burgers at Gustovs, and sport climbing in Leavenworth, but that's another report!

Images available at www.nwog.org

Our group of 4 hiked the Thunder Creek trail to near Park Creek Pass (19 miles). We camped at Skagit Queen Mine Camp, 13 miles in. Some snow at this point but the snow really starts around 3700 feet above the switchbacks near camp. On day two, we snowshoed into Thunder Basin into the open avalanche slopes. At this point, we climbed left up a timbered rib to get onto Mt. Logan's upper slopes. The snow was soft and the snowshoeing tough going. The weather deteriorated throughout the day with more clouds and snow falling each hour. By the time we reached the Fremont Glacier, we were wiped out. Still determined to summit, we roped up and traversed up the glacier to the base of the summit ridge rocks. Most of this was done in a complete whiteout. Getting up on the summit ridge was a bit sketchy on wet rock but once I got up I belayed the other 2. Did I mention that one of the 4 people in our group gave up on the hike into basecamp? He ditched his climbing gear on the way in and was now sleeping in camp while we fought the elements. Anyway, on the ridge, we could see nothing. We made a decision to turn back at that point. I really couldn't tell if we were on a cornice or how the route continued. It was also 4pm and we had a long way back to camp. Very disappointed, we rappelled off the ridge and walked down the glacier. A 4500 foot drop got us back down to Thunder Basin. Then a slow snowshoe hike back to camp by 8pm. We sat at the campfire satisfied with our accomplishment and anger at our weather forcasters. Sunday's hike out was long but as scenic as a valley hike can be. Trail crews have been as far as McMillan Camps. Not too many trees down beyond that.

I joined Steve, Janet, and Debbie for a Sunday attempt on Mt. Index (main peak) via the Persis-Index Traverse route. My partners were Mt. Persis veterans, with eight or so ascents between them, whereas I was a virgin to this area. I hoped they would be gentle with me. Debbie had climbed Mt. Index via Lake Serene last year, but none of us were familiar with the traverse from Mt. Persis to Mt. Index.

A few raindrops hit my windshield as I drove through Bellevue Sunday morning, but there were no drops to be seen in Monroe, our meeting spot, at 6:30 a.m. Quickly consolidating into Debbie's trusty Bronco (nicknamed ""Squirrel,"" presumably in reference to its handling characteristics), we drove east on US-2 and then about 3 miles up FR-62. Our vehicular progress was suddenly halted at elevation 1900 feet by a landslide that recently wiped out the roadway. After witnessing a brief demonstration of Squirrel's turning radius and parking prowess, we began hiking directly up the landslide channel, which has sliced through several upper switchbacks of this same roadway. We reached the headscarp at 2900 feet and observed that the landslide was a classic mudflow-type earth failure originating on the downhill edge of the highest roadway switchback, where runoff water ponds during rainfall and snowmelt periods.

About 50 feet north of the headscarp, a duck marks the beginning of a well-defined hiker's path that ascends the west shoulder of Mt. Persis. Bare ground gave way to continuous snowcover near 4200 feet, and soon thereafter, a steep field of icy snow prompted us to don crampons. The remaining gain to the top of Mt. Persis was on mellow slopes through pleasant open forest. Overcast skies with occasional sunbreaks added some moodiness to our day and kept temperatures comfortable. From the summit (5452 feet), we could see the impressively scalloped and corniced ridge that curves over to Mt. Index (5991 feet). This distance is 2 miles as the crow flies (assuming a very goal-oriented crow) but at least 3 miles by ridgecrest. Whatever difficulties lay ahead were not apparent from our vantage.

We left Mt. Persis's summit at noon and descended southward into a snowy bowl, then climbed to a spur at 5200 feet. Steve ran up an adjacent point to evaluate the route ahead, while I scouted below the point. We soon realized that we had ascended too high and actually needed to drop into a small cirque below. Here, Janet decided she was satisfied with her progress and elected to stay put while the rest of us pushed on. I picked a downward spiraling route around a rock buttress, across the cirque floor, then back up to a 5200-foot saddle. Steve and Debbie followed closely behind. A gentle up-and-down traverse led us to steep, sparsely wooded slopes on the southern side of the ridge. Debbie assessed the slopes ahead and indicated that her personal fun meter was approaching the redline. She encouraged Steve and me to continue while she relaxed on more sensible terrain.

Rocky horns above and cliffs below confined our feasible route to a long contour across the south-facing slopes. I elected to wear crampons and carry self-arrest poles, whereas Steve opted for bare bootsoles and an ice axe. Soft snow conditions made for tiresome trailbreaking and questionable stability, but only the upper 2 to 4 inches seemed eager to slough. What followed for the next several hours was a seemingly endless traverse across numerous snow ribs and gullies, with gradients ranging from moderately steep to quite steep. Frequently, we would climb up and follow along the ridgecrest for a short distance, only to encounter a notch or saddle a hundred feet lower! Each time, we would carefully pick out a safe descent route into the offending depression, continue contouring until the ridgecrest again looked promising, ascend to the crest, and follow it until encountering another notch or saddle. This continual process was not only physically and mentally fatiguing but also time consuming. While precious minutes and hours ticked by, the summit never seemed to get much closer. I felt our chance of success fading and I think Steve felt it too.

At 3:00 p.m., we rounded a ridge horn and came upon yet another saddle, except this one was even lower (4900 feet) than the previous ones. Beyond, a long, smooth ridge led cleanly to a snow dome near the summit uplift. Some sort of gap separated these latter two features, but it was impossible to say how deep or steep it was. We conferred briefly to evaluate our time available, the distance and elevation gain to the summit, our energy levels, and the possible impatience of our waiting comrades. The summit's proximity (so far, yet so close) weighed heavily in our evaluation, and we decided to push on at a pace as fast as possible for another 15 minutes, then re-evaluate our rate of progress. Off we scurried, dropping into the saddle, kick-stepping up slopes, plowing through mush, crossing back and forth along the smooth ridge. I put myself on auto-pilot, ignoring my wailing legs. Without ever vocalizing it, Steve and I both had mentally established 4:00 as an absolute turn-around time.

Finally surmounting the snow dome, I looked at my watch: it was now 3:30. Steve, fearing a possible impass ahead, called out from below, ""Is it a dead end?"" I called back ""NO!"" When he joined me on the dome, we looked across the benign gap and up at the summit, then realized how close and reachable it really was. There would be no turning back now---we would merely have to make up time during the descent! A swig of gatorade, a handful of gorp, one last steep slope, and a flurry of step-kicking later found us planted on the airy summit at 3:55. We were quietly overcome with delight and relief. Recent-looking footsteps in the snow and an entry in the summit register told of an ascent the previous day (via Lake Serene), the first ascent of 2002. Steve also found Debbie's sign-in from her 2001 climb.

All too soon, we started our long traverse back to Mt. Persis. The steep descents went very quickly, but the numerous uphill portions were exhausting. In our weary state, we weren't really able to make up time as we had hoped. A blur of contouring, ascending, and descending finally brought us to the snowy basin below Mt. Persis. I glanced up and saw two figures silhouetted on a high ridgeline. Janet and Debbie, no doubt. They waved enthusiastically and I returned the gesture. After one last ascent, I topped out on the windy ridge and stopped for food and clothing. Steve soon joined me, then we proceeded only a short distance before coming upon our ""base camp"" partners. They were genuinely excited about our summit success and extremely gracious about having to wait longer than expected for our return. We related our adventure to them while plunging down the snowfields, trails, landslides, and roads of our up-route. At 9:15, we stumbled onto the patiently waiting Squirrel, just as darkness closed in and a light rain began. We couldn't have cut it any closer!

Stats: 15miles, 7500 feet, 8.5 hours up, 5 hours down.

Mt. Loop Hwy was open this weekend but the road to the Perry Creek trailhead was snowed in. We parked at the Hwy. The road has as much as 3 feet of snow in places and plenty of trees across it for the first two-thirds of the way including a snowslide across the road near the end of this section. Past the slide, the last third has mainly just trees across the road and then from the last corner to the trailhead the road is strangely snow and tree free. The trail itself has many blowdowns in the first section through the trees. Snow is patchy until you get out of the trees and begin to walk across giant slides. We continued to about the area where I believe the second creek crossing is (approx. halfway to the falls?) and turned around to go watch avalanches at the Big Four picnic area. Speaking of avalanches, the ridge across the valley from the Perry Creek trail has seen three or four of them that have taken huge sections of trees out from nearly the top (as far as you can tell from the height of the trail) all the way down to the creek. A pretty amazing site, some of the waterfalls will be much more visible this year.

Awful trail. You gain 1000 feet and then drop 900 feet! What is up with that? Major avalanche directly across from Stillwell creek. We are talking major avalanche here. Trail is probably buried 30 feet under snow right now. Looks like the avalanche went up Stillwell creek for about 200 yards. Trail is pretty brushy. Worst trail I have been on in the North Cascades. No views of mountains.

oh my gosh....I'm so tired and sooooooo sore. Pitch-lip had wanted to do the Persis/Index traverse and managed to talk Animal and I into it. Serves me right I guess for telling her to put pitch on her lip last weekend but then that's a whole different story. After meeting in Monroe at 6:30am and driving up FS62 and at 7:30-ish we parked the car at the edge of the slide/washout at about 1850'. From here your best bet is to just head straight up the gully to the top of the slide area. This adds about 1 mile and 1000' to the normally tame Persis trip. At the top of the slide head left up the road for about 50 feet and you'll see the climbers path headed into the brush. We reached this 'trailhead' after huffing and puffing and just about blowing outself up at about 8:30am. From here the path follows the ridge crest. Not sure what time we summited Persis since I was too busy sucking wind and eating my turkey and swiss sammich. The we headed off for Index. As the crow flies (as Dude & Animal said) Index lies 2 miles from Persis, but as the hiker hikes the ridge-line it's more like 4 miles. I bailed from the trip at about 1:30 at about 5 miles in on a nice rock ledge with fantastic views about 1/2 way to Index. The Pitch-lip, Dude, and Animal continued on toward Index. Pitch-lip said later that she bailed about 1/2 mile from me. Dude and Animal continued on their quest to do Index or as Pitch-lip says...let Index do them. They said they summited about 3:45PM. Meanwhile, Debbie ate a nice lunch and soaked in the views just like me on my perch...only I was getting some sleep too which was occasionally broken by the chatter of a camprobber. About 2 1/4 hours after the group 'abandoned' me I could see Debbie making her way back to my perch. We met up and headed off to Persis hoping to get a leg up on the trip out. It was about 6:30PM when way, way, way in the distance we could see Dude and Animal working their way across a snowfield. By 7:30PM we allowed them to meet up with us below the summit of Persis. Upon reaching the 'trailhead' we chose to follow the road instead of the gully because it was getting dark and that's one pretty steep gully. We were back at the car by 9:15PM and with perfect timing it started to rain. Even Animal (aka Rubberlegs) said he was thrashed and trashed on this trip. For once I believed him. My stats were somewhere around 10 miles and 5000' gain, Dude and Animal were about 14 miles, 7500' gain, and 13.75 hours.

I went to Baker Lake with the boy scouts so Fleetfoot went climbing with Dave. On Sun. Dick and I took some boys on a hike on trail 606 (Baker River). It starts out of the parking lot at the end of the Baker River road-about 25 miles from hwy.20.The trail is about 2.4 miles. Within the first 1/4 mile you reach a junction with the new Baker Lake trail (610). Here there is a new suppension bridge that is quite nice.High,wide and long.Shortly after this you will notice the trail is being re-routed. Some mud but very little compared to what there could be.There is just a little up and down on this trail as it stays close to the river.A few blow downs to go over or under but no problem. We stopped at Sulphide camp for a short break and headed back.Nice trail for a short walk,especially with kids. I drove road no.1152 to junction 014 and was able to go only three tents of a mile due on 014 due to snow. The road is in good shape to this point. The trailhead for Shannon Ridge is a little over a mile from here. There were two cars parked here.I also drove across the dam and turned left onto road 3721 which takes you to the trailhead for Anderson Butte,Watson Lakes area.I also got only 4.5 miles on this raod due to snow. As I recall it is about 10 miles to the traihead.It will probably be a few more weeks before you can drive to this trailhead.The lake is low but all the campgrounds should be open next weekend.

So I wanted to check out this trail before I bring a group of new Mountaineer members here next week. As I was driving from Tacoma it started to rain. But by the time I reached the trailhead an hour later the sun was peeking out from the clouds.

The trail is an easy 2 miles to the lakes. There were a couple of trees down, but easy enough for this short gal to step over. The trail gets pretty muddy the last 1/2 to 1 mile before the lakes. I love walking along the rushing water and all the rapids made by the rocks and fallen trees. I brought my fishing pole last year. Not to catch fish, but just to have that Mayberry, USA experience. You know...walking to the fishing hole...sitting in the sun...casting out my line.

It was my first hike alone in a few years and I was a little paranoid. As I sat at the first lake (I like this one better than the second lake), I kept thinking a wild animal was sneaking up behind me. A friend (and a stranger on the trail last year) told me that this trail has cougers (or was it coyotes? Or lions, tigers and bears). On my way back to the car a couple of wild, beastly animals turned the corner and jump out at me. Ok...they were two golden retrievers, but they scared the *#^& out of me.

The hike was a nice, quick walk through the woods...just what I needed.

And on my drive home it started pouring. What timing :-) This is a good hike for kids too.

The trail lived up to its reputation as a nice late spring option. The trail is in good condition for so early in the season, but it's definitely a steady climb and rather exposed. (I would not want to do this hike in any kind of warmth or sun.)

We found somewhat spotty, but substantial snow that obscured the trail at approx 3.5 miles. Footprints in the snow told us that others had scrambled a route from there nearly directly to the summit, but we found a nice downed tree with a view to sit, eat, and enjoy.

One final note... descending this trail takes nearly as long as ascending.

Bluff Lake is about 1 and half miles in on trail 65 which runs all the way and along Coal Creek Mtn. Bluff lake is at 3800 feet, the trail gains 100o feet from the trailhead to the lake. I was hoping to find a little early season fishing action, the small lake has some nice cutts and my friends the brookies, but it is under about 8 feet of snow still! Interesting walk, but it kind of put a damper on fishing.

The Mountain Loop Highway was opened on May 17th, so over the weekend of May 18th and 19th a buddy and I went skiing in Glacier Basin. There was about three feet of snow at Barlow Pass, so we set off on skis toward Monte Cristo on skis, but soon put them on our packs because we got tired of taking them on and off. We had started late on Saturday afternoon and stumbled into the Monte Cristo townsite at about dinner time so we decided to camp there, in the company of an overly friendly mouse.

The weather was cloudy on Sunday, but enough snow filtered through the clouds that the peaks were actively shedding snow from the rock faces all day long -- and some of the avalanches were quite impressive. We skinned up and over the hump guarding Glacier Basin, and then climbed the headwall to the col between Monte Cristo and the Cadets. The snow was fully saturated and although it was very skiable, small avalanches ran all around us as we took the run down from the col, and the ride was very slow. We took a second run on the slopes below the Willman's spires, and headed back to the car. Skis were more useful on the trip out from Monte Cristo than they had been on the trip in.

On saturday I went up to green water lakes and wta crews were working along the way. Today on my hike back, their improvments were tremendous. Their efforts will go a a long way.

The Deadfall trail might best be described as the more challenging option up Mount Zion. In short, this sucker's steep. My partner and I hiked the the Deadfall trail to its junction with the Snow Creek trail, followed the latter downhill to its remote trailhead (I'm unsure of how to reach this TH by vehicle), then returned back up to the junction and huffed it on up to the summit. In the over 2,000 feet of elevation gain (not including the Snow Creek sidetrip) between the Deadfall trailhead and Mount Zion's summit, there is nary a switchback. There was indeed some literal deadfall on Deadfall, but nothing of any great significance. There are a few lingering snowpatches across the trail near the top of the mountain. The tread is actually quite good, though deteriorates gradually as one gets closer to the summit. Rhodies are crowding the trail a bit near the top. The view from the old lookout site was sublime, with the maze of waterways stretching to the San Juans and Mt. Baker. I feel like I'm getting my summer legs back.

Wanted to take a Swiss foreign exchange student somewhere with decent views but only a half a day so it was lake Serene. The trail was in decent shape with a little bit of mud and some water below the falls but nothing serious. Once you finish the switch backs and get out of the trees, about the last 1/3 mile, you traverse on snow. There is one exposed creek crossing here, we watched an older lady have some problems with this, but again it was nothing serious. The lake was still snow covered. You could see where someone walked across the west side of the lake. I would not recommend doing that. The highlight of the trip was watching one avalanche come out of a gully, and a mysterious water fall on mt. index that would stop and start. The foreign exchange student being a rock climber was impressed with the walls of index.

Dirty Harry's Balcony (Exit 38/Olallie State Park) - Even though this hike is listed in ""55 Hikes Near Snoqualmie Pass,"" it does not seem to be that well known. There is virtually no parking at the trailhead, so park wherever you can find a wide space on the road nearby.

This is a nice, easy early-season leg stretcher, with a vertical gain of just over 1,000 vertical feet in 1.4 miles. Along the way, enjoy the quiet, cool forest. The real reward is at the top, when you reach a rock promontory with expansive views in three directions, especially towards Mt. McClellan across the valley. The weather was great, and the ""payoff"" for doing this hike on a weekday was seeing only one other couple the entire trip.

My criteria for this hike were 1) Big, old trees to quiet my craziness, 2) Solitude, 3) A good view of the world around me, 4) A good workout to clean the poison out of me, and 5) Sunshine. I got 1-4. #5 was replaced by overcast, then low clouds, mist,rain,fog, a shaft of sunlight in the distance, more rain. Oh well. It was a great trip. I started out parking on Hwy 410 at the west trailhead. After about 30 steps I ran into a lovely ancient fir tree. I knew I was in the right place. The trail sneaks upward, through the rocky defences of the Pallisades, passing many more wise old trees, mossy rock formations, and a couple nice waterfalls. Then comes the stairway. What a nice touch. After about 1.5 mi I was at the top walking along the cliff tops. I stopped at the first viewpoint and soaked in the view across to Suntop. Another 1/2 hour brought me to another fine viewpoint, with clouds lowering enclosing me in a misty bubble. Crossed Snoquera creek and the adventure began. I looked upward thru the mist and saw snow up on the clearcut areas. I knew the trail was up on top of the ridge ( from previous summer hikes) so I slapped on the snowshoes and made a beeline up the clearcut to the ridge. There was 1-2 feet of snow thru here. At the top I found a few pieces of flagging to confirm that I was on the trail. I followed the ridge (elev 5200') to the cabin at the junction with the Ranger Creek trail. There was hard frozen snow all the way, so I kept the 'shoes on, not knowing what I would face going down Ranger Creek. It was trouble right from the start. 10' from the shelter I had lost the trail, so I blazed down along the creek hoping to get below snow level and find the trail. With map, compass, and altimeter I was able to find it after 1 1/2 hours of some pretty serious scrambling. I set a compass course that I thought should intercept the trail after clambering up and down several very steep ridges. I could not see any likely trail route. I found pieces of an ancient trail, pieces of a deer trail, and then joy of joys. I found the trail at about 3400'. The walking was so easy, I didn't have a care in the world. Got to the junction with the trail along Hwy 410 and saw my first human of the day. I wandered along the trail, past Camp Sheppard to my trusy Jeep. All in all a fine adventure.

The Little Si parking lot was full as usual, but just up the road, it looks like the new parking area is getting pretty close to being finished! I took the trail leading from the new lot - I had not been this way before. Clearly a bunch of work has gone into this trail - hats off to the builders. It is quite picturesque, imediately starting out with a lovely view of the valley just a minute or two into the walk.

Work has been done on the rest of the original trail since I had been there last. There aren't any logs you have to climb over anymore and the trail condition is quite good. At the top the view is as nice as always and the weather was clear enough to see quite some distance.

There were quite a few other folks on the trail but all were friendly, (I was kindly offered to share one group's gorp.) Several different languages were represented - it was pretty neat to hear German (I think it was German..) coming from up the trail, and French from behind me as I climbed the last few hundred yards to the top.

Little Si is not a big challenge, but I think it's a great early season jaunt to get the cob webs out of the body.

Did this hike last year in May and was turned away just above the 6000ft level due to snow. Almost made it that far this year.

I chose this hike to see the fire damage that occured last year. It proved to be very interesting. It appears lots of work has been done to maintain this trail since then.

The ground was quite unstable the further up we went though. Between the layer of ash and lack of vegetation, things felt dry and unstable. Once we reached the snow pack on top of this stuff, it seemed like a good place to turn around (approx. 5800ft).

TRAIL REPORT - INGALLS CREEK 5-20-02

Ingalls is not a creek, it's a river. The trail was in good condition with 3 or 4 minor logs to step over. No mud. 130 miles each way from my north Seattle home to hike a flowery river trail with No Snow! Was it worth it? You bet. NO SNOW. True wilderness, with the trail being the only sign of man's works. Quiet, with the river roaring and the birds singing. Beautiful.

Ingalls starts low (2000 ft) and climbs gently up a dry climate eastern Cascade valley. So, early snow melt (less to melt than west side trails), early flowers, early warmth.

Our original destination was the Iron/Bear trail from the Iron creek trailhead just off US -97 on Blewett pass, however that trail had considerable snow right from the parking area. So we went 20 miles further, north over Blewett to Ingalls creek.

Started up at 1030 back at the trailhead at 330 after a liesurely hike. Incredible flower display of Glacier lily, Trillium, Orange Paintbrush, and Calypso Orchids. Vast sweeps of bold yellow Arnica in the forest clearings alongside the the access road and up the 1st mile of trail. And 10 other species. Lupine and False Solomons Seal should be in full bloom within a week or two. The forest in this valley is very open with a mix of Cedar, Ponderosa Pine, and Douglas Fir. Some of the old Ponderosa show severe forest fire damage. The river is dramatic with continual white water, rapids and small falls. The water volume was very high just below flood stage. There were many fine campsites along the way and we used a great one right on the river bank for lunch. Met 4 or 5 small parties, so 98 % solitude all day.

7 miles 1000 ft. elevation gain.

Directions: I-90 to CleElum then SR-970 north about 10 miles to US-97 then go north over Blewett pass on 97 and down to the Ingalls creek road (about 12 miles more where the hiway straightens out), left on Ingalls Creek road (paved) about 1 mile to road end trailhead. Mostly in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, wilderness rules apply. Call Leavenworth ranger station for more info.

Robert Michelson Mountaineers/WTA

Mount Snoqualmie 6,278? May 18, 2002

Mike Tanner, Doerte, and Mike left the WAC cabin parking area at 8 am after visiting a bit with Pat O?Brien and Dave Brown. We headed up in the snow, keeping to the left on Sahale Ski Hill. It felt good to be out, even if the weather was overcast and cool.

Commonwealth Basin is such a beautiful area. I especially like it when it is alive with melting snow and flowing water. It is about a mile up the creek before the turn to the Guye-Snoqulamie Saddle. From Cave Ridge we climbed the South Shoulder, kicking steps. The snow was very soft and was starting to slide. The cornice along the east side of South Shoulder was beautiful, and everyone stayed well away from the edge.

We were the fourth party of the day on the summit, and had occasional views of the Tooth, The Chair, Lundin, Red, Kendall, and Thompson. The Mountaineers arrived a little later, but were a bit shy about enjoying the summit with us. The Wac groups were off on The Tooth and Lundin. May is a perfect time of year to do Mt. Snoqualmie. It snowed a little while we were on the summit, but it felt warmer than below.

While coming down Cave Ridge the snow was like sugar and a small avalanche came down on Mike Tanner, knocking him over, and causing him to tumble a few times before it stopped. We didn?t expect this, and should have paid closer attention.

We were back at the cabin at 4 pm. We had a leisurely 8-hour day. 3,100? elevation gain, and about 7 miles.

Made the hike up to otter falls encountering some snow just before the falls. The trail was a little muddy and some creeks needed to be crossed, but nothing too deep. It looks like there is much more snow beyond the falls on the trail. The one campsite at the falls was clear of snow and could accomodate two medium size tents. There were a couple small halfway level spots in the woods near by that some of our group used to pitch smaller tents. The one site we saw on the trail was half covered with snow but could be used. There looks like a lot of beaver activity over the winter around the lake at the bottom of the falls, but we we never saw him.

Jerry, the 2 girls (dogs) & I arrived at the Packwood Lake trailhead at about 8:15 a.m. on Saturday morning. The parking lot was free of snow as was the trail #78 as far as we could see. The pipeline road below was snowfree from what we could see also. We chose to take the pipeline road in to the lake as I had been told that the trail #78 had quite a bit of snow on it. The day was overcast with sun breaks and a few sprinkles. The pipeline road/trail was snow free, no problems for about 3/4 of the way, maybe a little less. We had about 5-6 trees that we had to climb over or go around but not bad. We ended up having about 1 mile, guessing of continuous snow going in and coming out, about from 1-2' but not bad. It was compacted enough that it was not to hard to walk on. We did not use snowshoes. Bicycles, Motorcycles and ATV's cannot get in to the lake at this time because of the snow.

Arriving at the lake, there was no snow at all, the lake beautiful with Johnson Peak in full view and snow on the ridges, so beautiful. There was only one other campsite taken when we arrived, and we were able to go to our favorite spot.

We set up camp, got a nice small fire going, and just enjoyed the day, hanging out in camp and reading and taking a small hike up towards the lake inlet on the Upper Lake Creek trail, #81. That part of the trail is snowfree also, as far as I went, which was about 3/4s of the way to the end of the lake. There are 2 trees down across the trail, but you can get over them ok, they are together and someone has chopped a place out to get over. Lots of branches on the trail in places, I kicked them out of the way, and picked up some of them. Of course I had wished I had my WTA tools to do some work, but alas had to be satisfied with just looking. There is sloughing, brushing needed done on the trail, but pretty good shape.

We were able to listen and see a couple of Loons, a Bald Eagle, fish jumping, a Barrows Goldeneye, not sure on that one, but black head, white belly, with black wings with white stripes, so pretty. The sunset was beautiful!

Heading out from camp on Sunday the 19th, we discovered there were about 20 people camping around the lake, so quiet you did not know they were there. Some people had brought there rubber rafts and were fishing. We were thinking about taking the upper trail, #78 back out, but decided not to because of having snow on the trail. We could see patches up the trail, and a couple of tiny patches near the Ranger cabin.

We arrived at the car at about 11:30 a.m., loaded up our stuff and headed back to civilization. Of course we had to stop at Ma & Pa's Burgers and have one of their great Ma Bugers loaded with everything. Ok, not the best for you, but oh so good.

All in all a great weekend.

Still lots of snow at Peak above last chair lift. Evidence of many loose snow avalanches in upper bowls, which are easy to avoid if careful. We summited the south peak of Denny with como tower, which is dicey getting up to. Good little challenge for scramblers. Warm weather and rain is warming/melting summit block, so we found creating steps was difficult amongst rocks where air pockets have formed. Snow at top and minor cornices are firm, where we had great lunch and views seranaded by Rick on his harmonica. Go Rick!! Would definately take ice axe, otherwise you might find yourself back down in parking lot.

When we returned to upper chair lift station, a funny thing happened while we're all yakking and catching the rays: the chair started moving!! and, operations are shut down. Then a minute later, it stoped. Just goes to show you, avoid lunching/sleeping on one, for you never can tell.

Saturday's weather did not start off as it ended but it wasn't raining so we decided to go anyway. We did have some glimpses of sun off and on however. We got on the trail early and encountered snow about 1/2 way up to the top, went left from Longmire not on the wonderland trail. Did not have any trouble without snowshoes but if it was warmer I think we may have. I would estimate about 3-4 feet of snow on the ridge. We did get all the way to the rocky viewpoint and the mountain was not there to greet us unfortunately. It started to sprinkle as we sat on the snow eating our lunch. We did see a 100 ft waterfall over on Eagle peak and when we looked again it was gone. I guess it was melting snow/avalanche coming down. I haven't seen it there in the summer before. Interesting to see. Didn't look like anyone has done the loop yet as the continuing trail down to the wonderland trail was virgin snow. We will go back when the snow is gone and we can relax in the sun for awhile at the viewpoint. The trail is in pretty good condition with some windfall and a few trees down but no difficulties encountered. Did not see another soul on the trail.

The trail is in good shape for the first couple of miles due to the wonderful WTA maintenance crew. After that, the mud begins in earnest for the next mile or so. Be sure to wear proper hiking footwear and gators if you go on this trail. Otherwise you may find yourself stuck in the mud. The fallen tree is still blocking at about 3 miles. It has fallen along the trail and you must climb up on top of the tree and walk across the tree trunk for about 20 feet or so. It's not difficult, it just requires some agility and good balance. After this point, the trail improves quite a bit with only a couple of easily avoidable blow downs. Only went as far as the horse bridge (at about 5 1/2 miles) on this trail, so can't say anything about the condition of the trail past that point. The falls and forest are beautiful and well-worth the trek.

Someone new to the Quincy area would never guess as to the treasures awaiting them just miles from the quiet farming community. Lichen-covered basalt cliffs, small lakes and wet lands, complex canyons and coulees, wide open sky views, birdsong, snakes and an assortment of strange plants and flowers.

I had the delight of introducing a small group of Mountaineers to Ancient Lakes. The lower way into the lakes is via an old jeep road and is used by mountain bikes and horses, as well as hikers. In the spring the area doesn't have the solitude as suggested by the 15-year-old prose of the Central Washington hiking guide, but there's still room for the usually mellow groups who choose to camp there.

We camped on the low ridge between two of the lakes and then went for a hike up through the stepped coulee slopes. Various boot beaten trails follow the line of cliffs between Ancient and Dusty Lakes. You can scramble down to Dusty over moderately steep talus and continue on a hike around the upper lakes, tiny hidden valleys and wetlands. It is possible to make some long loops, combining the upper trails and roads past the fishing camps with the trails descending to either Ancient or Dusty Lakes. Territorial views can be had by climbing up around behind some of the cliffs. Just be aware that the rock is a combination of unstable shale and weathered basalt.

We saw a beaver family swimming around in the larger Ancient lake and observed the swooping flight of swallows, raptors, and other birds. The soothing hoots of an owl and the buzzy song of crickets lingered well into the calm night.

On Sunday, there was a rattlesnake near the trail on the way out, who after buzzing a warning, quickly retreated under a rock.

The flower season is advancing into early summer with the advent of Thelypodium, purple sage and an assortment of yellow, white and violet daisies. Arrowleaf balsamroot, larkspur, buckwheat, wild onion, brodiaea, elderberry and alumroot were still blooming in the more protected talus and lithosol soils. The serviceberry was setting fruit and the wild roses were beginning to bloom.

We caught a heavy rainshower on Saturday as a front moved through, but Sunday was warm and pleasant with high thin clouds. The rain had dampened the dust slightly and freshened the air. It was an enjoyable, easy paced trip to begin the backpacking season.

All the water in the lakes and streams comes from the surrounding agricultural area and must be either boiled and/or filtered. There are lots of fish in Dusty Lake for the anglers among us.

Camp Muir AKA The Trench. Quite busy here, probably 500 people or more on the trail throughtout the day including all the summit crews, dayhikers and liftservice-deprived boarders such as myself. The Trench is actually a bit less defined than in times past, perhaps because the snow so far has stayed pretty crusty and hard for most of the season, so it is possible to occasionally 'lose' the cut steps for a little while, especially since visibility was mostly poor on way up, including some light snow. Fortunately clouds lifted in time for the descent. The snow on the way down was a mix of windblown hard crust/ice with pockets of fresh snow collected in the low spots til about 9000', then approached corniness from about 9000-6500, so that was about 3500' vertical of acceptably good snow, not bad numbers for a windswept overtraveled snowfield in the middle of May. Lower (Pan Point and below) the snow was heavy and terrible as expected, as were the crowds.

A wonderful trail to take people from out of town. The parking lot was not as busy as I have seen it in the past. Still there were a fair number of families out for a nice hike. Even with the recent rain the trail was mostly dry. The falls were running very full because of the spring thaw. Amazing how much difference a year makes. A great early season hike.

The old Trout Creek road is reached by driving about 6 miles from US-2, along the North Fork Skykomish road past Index. After crossing the small marked bridge, take the first right on a rough dirt road, keeping left initially. This road is rough and a high clearance 4WD is needed to reach the Sunset Mine area, about 1.5 miles.

We took the Sunset Mine 'tour' and followed the waytrails around the area for about an hour looking at the old workings and awesome collapses that happened in the 1930's. After this, we hiked up the road in the light rain that was developing. The road gets progressively rougher, until a large slide/washout is reached 1 mile past Sunset Mine, no vehicles are getting past this point. The road is now pleasant, consisting of a soft bed of pine needles among the overhanging canopy. Along the way we examined other workings, old road beds, and pondered the mysteries of large cables wrapped around old stumps. Lots of history in this area.

We stopped for lunch at the last large tributary crossing the 'road' before the road-end, just shy of 2 miles past Sunset mine. This stream crossing looked more involved, as the watercourse was a rocky gorge. There was a small campsite here, overlooking the gorge and views into the upper valley. We were uninspired by the now constant downpour, so after eating we headed back down the road to the truck.

I spent three days at five mile camp, beautiful as usual, no bugs, very few people, trail is in very good shape, dry, a couple of tree's down, rocky, but overall easy hiking. this trail maintenance crew has done a fine job