Irving Pass #1545,Bryant Peak #1544,Poe Mountain #1520,Poet's Ridge (Wenatchee Ridge)

Wow - what a nice weekend. I talked a couple of friends into heading out to Poets Ridge. There are two ways to approach Poe Mtn both on trail. One is to do the Poe Mtn trail (3 miles & 3000' gain one-way) or from Irving Pass (3.5 miles & 2200' gain one-way). We took the easy way up which is via Irving Pass. Drive Hwy 2 to Coles Corner & the Lake Wenatchee turnoff. Continue on Wenatchee River Rd almost 10 miles then turn off on FS 6504. You'll go almost 6.5 miles by the time you reach the trailhead at the end of the road (at 4200'). It was nearly 10am on Saturday morning when we hit the trail. The 1/2 mile trail to Irving Pass starts out on an old roadbed and then changes to a nice trail in dense trees as it climbs the 700' to the pass. At the pass the trail turns to the north (left) and is a pleasant ridge walk in trees almost 2/3 of the way to Poe. From the pass it is about 3 miles to Poe Mtn. We were blessed with wonderful weather on this trip and Rainier made and appearance for us as we sat atop the mtn. From Poe we continued north on the Poet's (Wenatchee) Ridge about 1 mile and made camp at about 6200'. Just before reaching camp two F-16 (I think) buzzed by overhead. Was it a routine training flight or something else' It's hard to say considering world events the past two weeks.

After making camp and lightening our packs the three of us continued north on the ridge. Our plan was to pick up Longfellow Mtn and Bryant Peak along the way. However, due to our late (this becomes important a bit later) start we decided to drop Longfellow and only go for Bryant. Note: THERE IS VERY LITTLE WATER ON THE RIDGE. The only spot near the ridge that we found some water was just below Longfellow in a small pond at about 6000' on the west side of the ridge. The pond was about 15 minutes past a nice camp spot. If you do this trip plan to carry lots of water. The trail to Poe is pretty well maintained. Once past Poe it becomes a bit more faint. Past Longfellow it almost disappears. Just past that camp spot we crossed a small basin/boulder field. It was now about 3:15pm and it was here that Laura decided to head back to camp. Paul and I continued to traverse the side of the ridge eventually crossing over to it's east side and then back over to the west just below the summit. We traversed the ridge at about 6100' and then when we were about due west of the summit just decided to head up. It's steep but isn't too bad. We reached the summit at 5:30pm. So, we actually approached the summit from the north. Bryant has awesome views of Whittier, Poe, Longfellow, Glacier Peak and so much more. We only gave ourselves the luxury of 15 minutes rest on the summit because it was getting quite late. We were back to the pond at about 7pm where we filtered about 4 quarts of water. Because of the time I even collected on bottle of unfiltered water to use for cooking. By 7:30 we were back at the boulder field and by now it was getting pretty dark so out came the head lamp. The last hour was spent hiking back to camp in the dark. Thank goodness for halogen bulbs!

Sunday found us packing up camp to head back out. Instead of heading straight for Irving Pass we decided to drop our packs just south of Poe at about 5600'. We followed a faint boot path northeast toward peak 5898 and the small lake just east of it. It doesn't look like too many people make the trip there. I'd hate to say it's a shame. It is a gorgeous little lake and it was nice to have it all to ourselves. We took out time eating lunch and picking berries. Then at about 1:30 we headed back the 1 mile to where we dropped the packs. Then it was back to Irving Pass and down to the car.

Ended up the day with a trip to Zekes for a cheeseburger basket and cherry shake.

Stats: about 18 miles and roughly 3500' gain (don't hold me to this though).

Note: the trip to Bryant would make a pretty awesome leg for a loop trip. It would be nice to get back here sometime and head in along Poet's ridge toward Bryant. From Bryant head toward Meander Meadow to pick up the PCT and head out Cady Ridge.