This trail switchbacks straight up the ridge from Leavenworth until you're high enough to look down on the surrounding ridges, across to Mt. Stuart, and all the way from Glacier Peak to the Columbia River. Amazing views from the top, but getting there was the toughest backpacking trip I've ever encountered. Long, steep in places, hot and dry. The trail itself, however is in fairly decent shape. A man at the trailhead said that his fellow Leavenworth resident spends a lot of time on horseback on the ridge trail, so he went in and cut out all the blowdowns. The trail is mostly flat and even except for a few places where it's eroding down the hillside. When you get to the top of the ridge, the trail sometimes gets a little lost in the soft ash of the burn areas. Some places you really have to watch for footprints to figure out which way the trail heads, because there's no other obvious way to tell. There was still some water between 7 and 8 miles in, melting from some patchy snow into about 3 small trickling streams that were just big enough to filter water from. We hiked within 1/3 mile of the lookout (then pooped out) and decided the views just couldn't get any better. We camped at about the 7-1/2 mile point, where there was decent water and tree-protection from the wind. We didn't see a single other hiker until we were more than half-way back down to the car on Sunday. Amazing--solitude, and views too!

Went up to the lookout after camping at about 5600 feet. We found the last patches of snow (and melted them for water) at our camp. At the 6500 foot level there was minor patches of snow. This is one hot dry trail since the burn, but is beautiful and well worth the trip. There was no logs on the trail.

Took a two day trip to Lake Augusta. Started at the 4th of July Creek trailhead. No snow until we reached the ridge at 6800'. Continuous snow until we dropped into Cabin Creek basin. The trail was completely snow covered and required good route finding skills. Cabin Creek basin is a swamp/bog 1/2 mile wide. Couldn't find the trail until we were about 1 mile from Lake Augusta, even then only small patches were visible. The Lake is at 6800' and was frozen over with a few bare spots to camp. Overnight temps dropped below freezing. Didn't bring a tent and the night sky was clear and full of stars. Next day hiked out via Chatter Creek. Extremely tough route, with excellent routefinding skills required. We never saw the trail until we reached Chatter Creek. Also we stayed high to avoid bushwhacking. Ice axe is needed. Lots of steep exposed snow slopes. In a couple of areas we could have used crampons and a belay. It will be a couple of weeks before this area is accessible for summertime backpacking. Believe we were the first party into this area this season. Saw lots of fresh bear tracks and scat. Hang your food.

What a relief to cross Stevens Pass and find some dry turf. We hike up this trail for 2.5 hours about 4-5 miles and never hit snow. The trail was in great shape. On the upper portion there were quite a few easy blowdowns and some soft shoulders. Lots of flowers in bloom.