With my brother visiting, decided to head up to Crescent Hill Trailhead for the first time with the intention of doing a loop to Angle Peak. However we ran into large snow drifts on Shady Pass Road on a northern aspect below Junior Point Campground, about 2 miles from the trailhead. I was expecting to encounter some snow, but didn't think there would be this much. Looked to be a couple of weeks until it will be passable, and there was a downed tree up past the snow as well.
We hiked up the road to the trailhead, and then hiked about 2 miles along Devil's Backbone to East Point before turning back. They were large sections without any snow, and the trail is in good shape - not muddy at all. Some sections were completely covered in snow, and for the most part we were able to walk on top of the snow as it looked like its been compacted from snowmobiles over the winter. However, farther up we were postholing quite a bit and opted to bushwhack along the ridge where there wasn't any snow.
On the way back we walked up to Junior Point campground to take a look, and there is quite the view from the remnants of an old fire lookout. Looking up lake I noticed some smoke, which was odd as the burn ban went into effect June 1st. It was down by the lake and not much smoke, so I didn't think much of it given its only June - thought maybe they were cleaning up at one of the boat-in campgrounds. On Sunday we learned it was the Pioneer Fire, with someone having first reported it about an hour before we saw it. Note to self to report any signs of smoke in the mountains once back in cell phone service...
We encountered a couple of mountain bikers on the walk back to the car, they had come up from Entiat, as well as three motorbikers trying to make their way through the snow on Shady Pass Road, otherwise a pretty quiet day in the mountains above Lake Chelan.
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