The wolf creek trail is clear of blow downs all the way to Gardner Meadows. Infact the trail is in great shape. Day 1 - This was a great first backpack to get the legs under us. 11 miles of gradual up through pine forest and then the last 4-5 miles or so through an old burn. The regrowth has been quick and the wild flowers are in full bloom. If the wind blows the trees whistle. It sounds like screeming - pretty bizarre. When we got to the end of the meadow there were some great camp sites near some spruce trees that made it through the fire. We set up camp and went to bed early for a day hike up Gardner Mountain - another 3000+ elevation gain. Day 2 - Views from the top were spectacular. Easy climb. Weather came in so we quickly down to hunker in until the rain passed. Spent the rest of day sleeping. That night timber wolves or maybe they were coyotes were howling. Our malamute was singing back to them. They kept up the dialogue going for about an hour. It was amazing. Day 3 - Beautiful morning watching the sunrise, drinking coffee and just taking in the glorious meadow. Then headed out to grab some pub grub & brewskys at the Winthrop Brewery. But when we arrived we were disappointed to find a sign that said ""Closed for Remodel"". Augg.... ice cream was the next best thing.

Another new trail for us. Didn't have time to do much more than scope out the terrain. Downloaded this hike off of the Okanogan NF website. Printed off the trail description and kept our fingers crossed we'd get there. We needed our Gazeteer to find the trailhead in the end, because the road names and turns didn't match the access description.

You do drive S. out of Winthrop crossing the Methow River on a bridge, but the road you turn right on is Twin Lakes Rd. Go about 1.5 mi. and turn right on Wolf Creek Rd. and then stay left on Left Fork Wolf Creek Rd., which, if I recall correctly turns into FSR 5505, which climbs up over the ridge and ends at the trailhead well above Wolf Creek.

Several horse trailers at the trailhead, one couple leaving as we arrived, but an otherwise empty parking lot!! First part of the trail is a pleasant down, down, down to the creek, then up and down from there, staying mostly above the creek for the few miles we managed before turning around. There was a pile of what looked like bear scat (berry pile) on the trail, saw some Clark's Nutcrackers, heard and saw many squirrels, and nary a bug in sight. Hurrah! Dusty, dry trail right now. Not a soul seen in 3 hours on the trail, which earns it a Toady boop, boop.

Left the Wolf Creek trailhead on Sunday about noon for Gardener Meadows and a climb of the Gardners. Note: the trailhead was moved some time ago and the altitude is 3,000 ft not the 2,400 ft in Beckey's Red Book. There are many blowdowns....but not so many to ruin the hike/approach, though packing skis would be a pain. Our party did the 10+ miles in about five hrs including 30 mins for lunch. I'd say the blowdowns added 20-30 minutes to the trip. The only snow on the whole trail was between 4,400 and 4,800 ft when the trail is in a narrowish spot covered by dense trees. The only bridge (over a Wolf Creek tributary) is a little ""slumping"" but easy enough to cross.

We had about 2"" of wet snow Sunday night. The weather improved as we had hoped for a summit bid on Monday. Following Beckey's ""loose"" description we made our way along the SE ridge from our camp at about 5,300ft. We ended up conducting a very in-depth recon of the whole SE ridge gaining and losing hundred's of feet everytime we ran into a big slash/couloir. We climbed a lot of steep snow and the rock slabs/talus/scree that might be a joy in July were covered with 2-4"" of snow making the ridge traverse very tiring and time-consuming. We got at high as 8,700 ft and to other high breaks in the ridge several times but did not reach Gardener. (Further research at home shows we should have started further up valley at a 5,700 ft camp. When we descended snow fingers and snow fields back to camp this was confirmed). So instead of calling this trip a failure or worse yet, an ""almost summit"", we have decided to call it a recon and a conditioning trip.

One interesting thing to note is that about 80% of Gardener Meadows was badly burned some years ago. There are thousands of large standing snags. When the wind blows at varying velocities the trees ""scream"" or ""shriek"". We had never really heard anything like it.

We hiked out on Tuesday, under bald skies and warm temperatures. The going out went very quickly, four hrs not including lunch. We will be back!

If there were a theme for this trip, it would be heat. Or from my partner Katie's perspective, full immersion backpacking (she hasn't done very much). First off, I fell into a creek. At any other time of the trip that would have been refreshing, but we started in the evening and just hiked in a couple miles, and it was almost dark when I became completely soaked up to my chest, so not really the best timing. The creek in question is the one about two miles in, near the only camp spots along the whole route to Gardner Meadows. The creek was running very high and is impossible to cross (at least late in the day) without getting feet wet. I tried to jump for it on the way in, but definetely regretted it. Just take your shoes off and walk through, it's only to the lower calf. Fortunately, the warm weather allowed only my pride to be hurt. The next day we hiked up to the meadows, taking a very extended break to wait out the heat next to the creek just prior to the long open areas leading to Gardner Meadows. Finally, yesterday, we woke up at 4:30 in the morning to get a good view of our survey area by 6:00 We spotted several goats, but they were gone by the time the helicopter came, so we were pretty much useless on this trip.

While we were waiting for the helicopter, I got restless and began climbing up Gardner Mountain. I've climbed North Gardner before, but this one was a first. The route is very straightforward and quite easy, except with quite a bit of elevation gain. Just hike up the meadows until they end and then more or less scramble up scree, talus, and some easy rock under the left skyline of the peak to the summit area. The true summit is set back and to the right a little bit.

Arriving back at camp, I wasn't too exahsted, so we hiked out yesterday as well, reaching the car at about 8:30.

Absolutely no snow (including on the peak). Quite a few downed trees, but nothing too terrible. This is a good hike overall, but is pretty boring up until Gardner Meadows. There's a reason this trail isn't more heavily used. Bugs were present but mostly tolerable.