Icicle Road Scoping Begins
The Forest Service has begun the public process for restoring access to one of Washington's most-loved and well-traveled forest roads--the Icicle Creek Road out of Leavenworth.
Why is it so well-loved? The Snow Lake Trailhead alone, which accesses the Enchantments, is a one-of-a-kind hiking destination. The Icicle hosts many trailheads and campgrounds in its upper reaches, providing trailhead access to a host of high-country trails and camps in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
Those deeper wilds up the Icicle have been out of reach by car since May 2008. It was that month that a coupling of high snow levels and a rapid increase in early summer heat caused a debris avalanche that blocked the Icicle and flooded the road.
The Icicle Road was under water for months, which seriously degraded the roadbed. Hikers still ventured uproad, climbing over washed-down debris fields, but many family-hikes—including the lovely Icicle Gorge Loop-were out of reach by younger hikers. Even strong hikers had many miles of road-walking to contend with to reach wilderness trailheads like Jack and Chatter Creeks. Fortunately, the Snow Lake Trailhead and Eightmile Road (leading to the Colchuck Lake Trailhead) remained open. But many great opportunities have been lost for two seasons now.
To remedy the situation, the Wenatchee River Ranger District proposes to reconstruct and relocate 1.5 miles of road between Big Slide and Ida Creeks and decommission the old road-bed into a trail. They’re just starting to gather preliminary data and comments—a process known as “scoping”—to refine their plans for the road.
This is not the first time that this section of the Icicle Road has been underwater. Frequent water over the road in flood season has caused resource damage and impaired public safety in the past. Reconstruction on a new alignment could mitigate some of those perennial issues.
Washington Trails Association is excited to see this process start, because the Icicle is such an important part of our recreational road infrastructure. That said, we’ll have questions as the project moves forward. We’re confident that the District will work hard to keep silt out of the water and rehabilitate the floodplain of the Icicle.
But road relocation comes at a significant cost. Beyond the straight cash outlay of rebuilding a road in a new alignment, the agency will have to embark on a long and complex environmental process that carries the risk of challenges by the public. We’ll continue to track the District’s plans for the Icicle and keep you posted.
Get Involved
The Forest Service is asking for your ideas and comments and is eager to answer your questions. To get your voice heard during the scoping phase, contact the Wenatchee River Ranger District at comments_wenatchee_river@fs.fed.us and include “Icicle River” in the subject line. Alternately, you can snail mail the District at Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Wenatchee River Ranger District, 600 Sherbourne, Leavenworth, WA 98826. Finally, contact Project Team Leader Don Youkey at (509) 548-2580 with any questions.
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