Arrived at North Fork Tieton River trail head about 1:00 PM, July 4th. Promptly applied bug deterrent, as the worst spot on this trip is always the parking lot. Checked in at registration box (plenty of permits for a change) and headed across the foot bridge, into the Goat Rocks Wilderness, and up the trail. Trail follows old road bed for about 100 yards to intersection of Tieton Meadows (#1128) trail. Hang a right. Tieton Meadows trail proceeds about 50 yards and dead ends in the Tieton River, which is flowing with much vigor and no apparent reasonable crossing short of a cold and dangerous swim. Trail from there on is a ""typical"" Cascade forest ecosystem - dry enough not to have much underbrush, but wet enough for moss, lichen, flowers, cedars and lots of small stream crossings and waterfalls. Trail is in good condition, without much evidence of horse traffic (if you know what I mean). At about 1.5 miles, trail # 1117 diverges to the right. Don't go there. Hidden Springs trail is a horrible, brutal, senseless track straight up the side of the steepest flank of the mountain for two miles of unrelenting Hell. Don't take this trail. Go straight, please. The Hidden Springs trail is ill - advised at any time, not only due to it's brutality, but its sheer senselessness. It's doesn't go anywhere special, and chooses the meanest way possible to get there. If you HAVE to take this trail someday, do it from above as a quick route off the PCT, or as part of a loop. NEVER go up it, I beg of you... ANYWAY...1118 (North Fork Tieton River Trail)continues past this junction for another 3.5 miles or so, meeting up with the PCT at Tieton Pass. As of the 4th of July, there was only one significant blow down - a 2.5 foot diameter log just above the switch backs. This log, and the heavy snow - lack of forage - has kept the usual hoards of horse people at bay so far ( not for long - when the grass greens up, this area gets real horsey for a month or so)... I turned left ( south) on the PCT and got into deep snow real quickly. The trail was hard/impossible to follow. None of it showed through the snow cover and only my memory guided me to Lutz Lake, which was under 4-5 feet of snow. By the looks of it, there will be two to three more weeks go by before it's reasonably dry through that section of the PCT (trail #2000)and Early - mid August before much of the higher sections are passable (in my humble opinion). After a brief stint getting lost in the snow, I made it back to the truck & home. 12 miles RT - aprox 6 hrs.

I hiked up the N. Fork Tieton trail one mile to the Shoe Lake Trail. After intersecting the PCT, I headed north to visit Shoe Lake. I hit snow over the trail on the way to Shoe Lake and turned around. It wouldn't be hard to route find over the snow but I didn't want to expend the energy at that point. I traveled the PCT south until I intersected the North Fork Tie again. Bottom Line: Some snow on the trail around 5600 feet. Many, many, many blow downs on all three trails but it was especially bad on the North Fork trail. There will have to be significant trail work before horses can get through. It is a nice forest walk, didn't see a soul on the trail all day.

The coyote is a wanderer. He currently lives in the Columbia Basin and has come to love its harshness. It is, however, the Cascades where he feels at home. The coyote has read other trip reports of the North Fork of the Tieton trail towards Tieton Pass, the Crest Trail, and beyond. What they say is true; the valley is heavily forested with few views. The tread is sometimes dusty, and always has the evidence of heavy horse use. The coyote doesn’t care about the lack of views; he values the quiet whistle of the wind and the squeak as the trees sway back and forth. The horse droppings don’t bother him either, for he views the horse and its human companions as kindred spirits, fellow travelers in the wilderness. He has no patience for those who complain and only contempt for those hikers who don't even exhibit basic civility. The coyote and his mate left the North Fork trailhead at exactly 2:05 PM. The forest was dark and quiet, just the peaceful whistle of the wind in the treetops and the call of birds. Several times during the day, we heard the sound of a large animal thrashing around, but never saw the source of the commotion. The afternoon passed quickly, as we climbed slowly towards Tieton Pass. We caught a few brief glimpses of the Goat Rocks towering above, but never a clear view. This is old growth forest and is choked with excess downed timber, brush and so forth. Without a doubt, someday it will fall victim to fire. We reached the pass about 5:15 or so and stopped for a bite to eat. The coyotes mate fretted a bit about the time, not wanting to spend the night sitting alongside the trail. Coyote has no fear of this, however, and the two continued towards McCall Basin. The trail climbs out of the pass and winds its way from the west side of the ridge to the east and finally climbs to a saddle. At the spur trail into McCall Basin, we stopped. The trip back was long and uneventful. Night gradually fell upon the forest and we reached the car at about 9:10 PM.

North Fork Tieton River Trail #1118 Before we started this hike one of my friends going on this hike asked me if I had ever been on a hike that had been a bust. I said no not really - every hike has been great - and I have been hiking a lot of years. WELL........I can now say this hike was a huge disappointment. It was rated a ""9"" in the Pacific NW Hiking book. It was also listed in 55 Best Hikes of the PCT - So we did have high expectations. It was hot and dusty - which we expected, but we were in the trees the whole time. The book described ""alpine heather meadows and rock-lined wildflower patches."" We didn't see them, altho the flowers were past their peak which was OK. We did have a tiny view of the Goat Rocks, which were obscured by heavy smoke from a fire by Panther Creek, but even if had been clear - it was just one place in the trail on the way up. Nothing after, or before. Usually there is always somewhere where the forest is ""unique"" or creeks or views or something special. We ended up making a loop out of it and came down Hidden Springs Trail. That was a tough down - we were really glad we had not come up that way. There is a great view just below Hidden Springs. It was a 11 1/2 mile hike all in all. We passed some WTA crew people working on a section of trail - and they were working hard! Great job! We debated between this trail and Bluff Lake. Wish we had done Bluff Lake. But.....we were outside on a beautiful day, in the Wilderness which you can't beat - with great friends, so can't really complain too much. I think I am just spoiled with so many beautiful places to go, that I hate to miss not seeing everything. My advice tho - is skip this one - unless of course you are riding horses.

Last time I had been to McCall Basin was in 1977, so decided to take the family. Trail 1118 is one of the nicest trails that I have hiked in the Cascades. Took about 3 1/2 hours to Tieton Pass with few bugs, but dusty trail. Stayed on PCT until McCall Basin trail branched left. Once we reached the meadows just below the basin it became clear that this was horse country. Did find one nice camp along river. Next morning moved into McCall Basis proper. Only one horse camp and plenty of spots for hikers. McCall was still nice, lots of water and few bugs. Climbed up to PCT on crest of Goat Rocks. Lots of nice flowers. USFS needs to maintain the old Army trail shown on maps for hikers and keep horses on 1118 and out of the basin proper. I realize it's wilderness, but a corral needs to be built in the meadow area to contain where horses can roam once they have made it to there. It's a nice area that needs management to keep it that way for all.