“Well, that was some hike we had today”, said one of my hiking buddies, Jim, when we sat down to dinner after our hike. There were 3 of us and a dog that hoped to find a little sunshine and great views on this hike. Well, that was not to be. Instead, we encountered some unexpected surprises. The trail is very steep for the first two miles, no switchbacks. Just before we crossed Scatter Creek for the last time, we took a break to have some snacks and check the map. As we were getting ready to leave, I realized I was being swarmed by bees, so was the dog – we each ended up with multiple stings. Jim ended up with one on his nose. We marked the trail hoping to avoid that experience on the return. Once we crossed the creek for the last time, what had been a good trail, turned into little more than a game trail. We persisted following cairns and a few good patches of trail to the serious blow down that we scrambled over. The trail continued to go through brush and grass and mostly an ankle-turner of a trail. At some point, we spotted another major bee home in the ground right next to the trail. We finally decided that with the clouds descending, the rain starting and the trail continuing to be so obscure it was time to turn back; not to mention that the bee stings were bothering 2 of the 3 of us. We were probably about 0.5 miles from whatever the end point was supposed to be. On the way back, the other hiker, evened out the total experience by slipping into to the creek getting pretty soaked. The other unpleasant part of the hike as how much gunfire we heard. I have never heard such constant and rapid-fire shooting on a hike before. I am curious if this is actually legal, for people to just shoot off guns in the forest. Ugh! Since the last trip report was sometime in 2014, before the hike, I called the Cle Elum Ranger Station. The person who answered said there had been some maintenance on that trail this year, but that it was “typical backcountry conditions”; no mention of all the route-finding that was needed for this hike. Oh well, now we know. We are glad we went out but I am unlikely to return there. I am sure if it had been a gorgeous day and we could see the peaks around us, my attitude may have been quite different. By the way, the first part of the road after staying right at the Salmon La Sac campground was very bumpy like a washboard, but then became a very nice and well-maintained road.

I will save you the time of reading the entire report by telling you that the trail has been completely obliterated and is impassable due to a huge avalanche at around 5000 feet elevation. Here's some additional information in case you're still interested in hiking this trail. The trailhead is well marked and the sign is easily visible form the road. The first part of the trail, up to the junction with trail 1226.2 is in excellent condition and all the blowdown looked like it had been recently cut with fresh sawdust on the ground. After the junction, the trail crosses Scatter Creek and now the real fun begins. The trail is brushy, muddy in spots and there is a fair amount of blowdown. After climbing over some avalanche debris at around 4800 feet, we crossed a small meadow and re entered the woods when we came upon a huge field of avalanche debris. There we're hundreds of downed trees completely covering the valley in front of us. It appeared to be at least a couple of hundred feet wide with no visible way to go through it or around it. This was our turn around point and we headed back to the car.

To reach Scatter Creek Pass, our hike was supposed to go from 3350' to 6400', but we made it only to 5000' before encountering a huge swath of downed trees completely blocking the trail as far as we could see. The sides of the valley around Scatter Creek were scarred with wide areas of trees downed by avalanches. One place, avalanches came down both sides and the demolished trees in the middle were knit together like fingers. Recent rains brought colorful mushrooms up thru the forest floor. Several late blooming wildflowers. Sign at trailhead warns of potential aggressive mountain goat encounters. Around 4800', we saw several hoof marks in the mud, but no sightings. There are no real switchbacks on this trail (#1328). It meanders up on the south side of Scatter Creek. The USGS topo map suggested it's trail #1394, which is south of this one, that has the switchbacks.

The trailhead is located .2 miles BEFORE the concrete-lined vehicle ford - not "just before" the concrete-lined vehicle ford. There were many large trees covering the trail, a lot of time crawling over them or finding a way around them. We had to assist our very able dog several times over and under fallen trees. There is a creek crossing not mentioned in the description of the hike. It occurs before reaching the "2.3" mile trail intersection. You can see the crossing on the Nat Geo map, but I don't think it shows on the Green Trails Map. We encountered a few patches of snow on the trail after reaching the 2.3 mile intersection mentioned in the description of the hike. When we reached the creek crossing mentioned in the description, we didn't feel it was safe to cross with the dog. We turned around at that point. The description says "gentle switchbacks". We thought that meant switchbacks that made the hill climb easier. But there are very view true switchbacks - it's mostly straight up with a few 5' switchbacks here-and-there.

Three hikers and one dog set out to hike the Scatter Creek trail today, but could not, for the life of them, find it. Instead, we did North Scatter Creek, 1328.1. I am happy to report that famously terrible FS 4330 has been scraped and graveled and is a dream to drive compared to last summer. Here are the directions as given above: Go right at the Y to stay on the main road (rather than entering the campground), and continue up the Cle Elum Valley Road (FS 4330) another 9.5 scenic miles through beautiful meadows to the trailhead on the right,just before the concrete-lined vehicle ford at Scatter Creek. Just to note, there are two vehicle fords. The first seems newer (more complete) and is in good shape; we did not see any sign of trail signage for Scatter Creek, so we continued to a sign that said Scatter Creek with a second vehicle ford head ahead. One of our party walked back down the road, but still no sign of the Scatter Creek trailhead. However, on the other side of the second ford there was a very large N. Scatter Creek 1328 trailhead sign, and so we thought that perhaps we should start there. The two of us with maps might have pulled them out, and we would have noticed we were actually starting up the thigh-burning North Scatter Creek trail (1328.1) instead. We figured this out on a break a bit later in the day. No matter. It was great conditioning with some lovely views and an owl hooting above the treeline. Here's what you need to know about the North Scatter Creek Trail: There is much deadfall over the trail and little signage, other than at the Alpine Lakes boundary. The trail has had log out attention in past years, and it needs it again now. If you're going, I'd advise extra attention to the route as hikers move around all the downed trees. It makes a break from all the elevation gain. Up above the treeline the deadfall becomes less of an issue, but lingering snow remains that somewhat obscures the trail. These patches were great for our long-suffering dog, who earned a merit badge in log climbing today. Flowers are blooming: there was white and purple spreading phlox, trillium, and the odd bit of lupine lower on the trail, and avalanche lilies and springbeauty in plenty higher up. We were the only people on the North Scatter Creek trail all day - no signs of cars parked anywhere for the main Scatter Creek Trail 1328. I imagine if we had spent a bit more time probing the underbrush the hike we might have found our way. Another day, perhaps. Scatter Creek itself is the only water source along the North trail, and you walk away from that quickly. Come prepared, particularly as it warms up.