FR 5100 was blocked 4-5 miles before the end of the road, just after the Entiat Falls pullout, and before the junction with FR 5608.

This was the infamous annual larch trip. The gang included Blissman, Phlemy, K.Gazelle, Cascade Dreams, Cisko Kid, Cathy and Cedar. The trip was iffy from the start with a few people bailing due to poor weather predictions including snow and cold. None of us were optimistic and expectations were low, but we were determined. Driving highway 2 over Stevens Pass in the rain wasn't the best of starts. However, somewhere in the Tumwater Canyon, the sun came out and stayed. We started up the Duncan Hill trail in sun, but cold temperatures. The road to the trailhead is bumpy and dusty, but gets you there with minimal damage to your car. The trail starts out with an easy grade and stays that way through open forest until the first views approximately two miles in. Things gradually open up until you are in grassy meadows and then wide open tundra like meadows to the junction with the Duncan Hill trail. Then up a short 1/4 mile to the site of the former lookout and present antenna (7819') with views out to Pyramid Peak, Sawtooths, Maude, Glacier Peak, and especially interesting to us, last year's larch trip of Garland Peak, Rampart, and Fifth of July Mts. We were in the donut hole with snow storms all around us, but sunshine in our corner of the Entiat. From here is the plunge down to the junction with the Anthem Creek trail 5900'. Then, we headed up to the pass between Anthem and Choral Creeks. The plan was to camp in the upper basin of Anthem Creek. According to Mary Sutliff's "Entiat Country" and Bob Dreisbach's "Seattle Outdoors", we would be able to find a faint, but followable trail into the basin at about 6500'. We didn't find it, and with only about an hour's worth of sunlight left, we needed to make camp soon. At the 6500' point of the Anthem Creek trail, and just below the pass, was an area with a very small stream and grassy area where we could make camp. It was rough, but had a great view of larch filled cliffs. This was home for a couple of nights and was affectionately dubbed, "lumpy camp" because of the slanted, bumpy ground. The next day found us tromping on up to the Anthem Creek Basin with possible scrambles of Choral and Fern Lake Pt. We searched around for the tread that was mentioned in my guidebooks, but none was to be found so we negotiated brush, small cliff bands, and gullys to get to the upper basin. What a gorgeous place! This is a very high larch filed basin with pumice fields and several levels, each with it's own character. It's perched just below the ridge of Choral Peak and Fern Pt. with the lower basin falling away below, which gives fantastic views of the peaks of the western Entiat and Chiwawa areas. I especially enjoyed not seeing any traces of way trails or even footprints other than ours. This would be a wonderful place to camp, but it's a long haul on the trail and then a tiring cross country trek to get there. I don't think I'd want to do it in one day. At least from the Duncan Hill trail. The gang split up and did a variety of explorations including the basin, Choral, and Fern Pt. depending on our interests. I really just wanted to wander among the larches which were golden and gorgeous! We took a little different way back descending a bit lower in the basin searching for the "mystery trail" that we didn't find the previous day. We finally found definite trail and an old fire ring at around 6400', but we kept losing it in the blow down. For those wanting to visit upper Anthem Creek Basin, it's probably better to forget about following trail and just head up as best you can. Travel seems to be a bit easier if you stay to the south side, although you will still have gullys to negotiate. On the north side of the gully, you will have talus fields and more cliffs to deal with. We had a mixture of sun and snow flurries on the second day and very cold temps, but no accumulation. We all stayed warm and slept well. Sunday morning was our day out and sunny skies. We saw no other parties on this trip except for a group of three on our way out who appeared to be headed for Duncan Hill for the day. We saw tracks from a motor bike who had probably been on the trail on Saturday. The trail has definitely suffered from motorbike use in the past as there are many nasty ruts and cut switchbacks. We saw some bear scat, but no wild life other than picas and grouse. It seemed too cold for any living thing but us crazies trying to get the last bit of backpacking out of the season!