I have recovered trail #537, Little Andrews Creek, the section that branches south from trail #505, Coleman Ridge, just past Meadow Lake. This work enables safe access to Reed Peak, Coleman Peak, and the vast subalpine areas of the Coleman Peak USGS quad.
I logged and brushed the path of #537 through the extensive 2003 burn above Meadow Lake. There are cairns, and I have flagged the entire trail to its end in the high meadows at the 7200' level. I brushed the upper switchbacks of this trail; the middle section of the trail still needs brushing and has a couple of minor blowdowns.
I rebuilt the signpost at the intersection of #505 and #537, salvaging a fallen tree with an existing sign, plus a loose trail sign that had been arranged in a cairn. I backed out the giant zinc-coated nails from this second sign, straightened them, and used them to tack the sign to the stump post. A curious lynx watched me work on this project; I caught a glimpse of him scampering up the ridge as I finished and stood it up for duty.
Trail #537 is plainly evident from the intersection, and easy to follow. While there are a few trees remaining on the path, some step-overs, and a few walk-arounds (beefy "project trees"), the trail is clear, and there are no adventurous detours.
Let us leave the extensive flagging in place until the trail is reinforced from visitors' boots. There are many ambiguous places on the climb up Reed Peak. What makes this trail so enjoyable is how elegantly it solves the problem of ascending Reed through a very narrow defile. It can be quite dangerous to lose the way, I know this from personal experience (cf. July 2023 TR).
Exiting the switchbacks at 7200', the old trail is lost across the grassy meadows, but it can be picked up again into the basin below Coleman Peak from cairns on the ~7500' summit ridge of Reed Peak. If you gain the ridge, please note the relative location of trail #537 -- it's not a bad idea to take a GPS mark -- because bands of trees just off the top may block visibility down and across these meadows.
So trail #537 is back! Try it out, let me know what you think. Fred Beckey is not wrong when he says re Coleman Peak in 3rd vol Cascade Alpine Guide:
ROUTE: Meadow Lake Trail (see Andrews Creek Trail*) extends to above 7100 ft on the S slope of the peak (take southern trail branch).
Hikers, peak-baggers, sportsmen, have at it.
Comments
Christian Gustafson on Andrews Creek, Coleman Ridge
I’m interested in how many turn up at Meadow Lake for the High Buck Hunt mid-month, and your opinion re how #537 turned out. The next step is to log the ridge north of the lake and secure the route to Fire Creek.
Posted by:
Christian Gustafson on Sep 04, 2024 06:38 PM
e2holmes on Andrews Creek, Coleman Ridge
Thanks for all your work on this trail! We went up end of Sept to do the 18 mile Little Andrews Cr, Coleman Ridge, Andrews Cr loop. https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report-2024-09-30.171809660006. At Meadows Lake, there had been a horse party at the camp. We didn't see them but saw where the horses where camped/tied and there was lots of horse tracks on the #505 trail. The Little Andrews Cr trail through the blowdowns to south of Kaye Peak was pretty awful. We saw your work and 3 cut blazes in many places, but still lost the trail quite a bit. Still a grand adventure.
Posted by:
e2holmes on Sep 30, 2024 05:35 PM
Christian Gustafson on Andrews Creek, Coleman Ridge
I'll look for your blazes this May. They were always on-route, yes? Our impact lasts for decades, so never cut a thing unless you're certain. When I first crossed the upper burn, I stowed my saw, because I was purely going XC and did not want to make any claims at all about my whereabouts.
Posted by:
Christian Gustafson on Sep 30, 2024 07:23 PM
Christian Gustafson on Andrews Creek, Coleman Ridge
I'm sorry, sloppy me, I read that you had made 3-cut blazes like the ones I made. But you said no such thing. I am very, very careful to only cut things in the right places.
Posted by:
Christian Gustafson on Sep 30, 2024 08:13 PM
e2holmes on Andrews Creek, Coleman Ridge
We left no blazes, cairns nor flags. Only foot-prints.
Posted by:
e2holmes on Oct 03, 2024 04:51 PM
Christian Gustafson on Andrews Creek, Coleman Ridge
My goal for May is to get #537 in such good shape and to solve its remaining problems, that many more parties do it as a loop, that their boots hammer the route into a trail again. A new/old classic, where you’re quickly dropped into the wilds, so close to your car, without even a nasty gravel logging road.
Posted by:
Christian Gustafson on Oct 03, 2024 05:46 PM
Christian Gustafson on Andrews Creek, Coleman Ridge
You can see the trail sign still attached to its parent tree in a photo from a 2022 trip:
https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2022-09-07.4432611966
After much work, this area looks very different today.
Posted by:
Christian Gustafson on Sep 18, 2024 07:59 AM
cheesehe4d on Andrews Creek, Coleman Ridge
Can't wait to get up there and see how it looks! So cool that you saw a lynx, reminds me of the first time I saw a moose in the wild in WA, at Meadow Lake in 2022. Northern WA really is one of the most incredible places on the planet. Hats off to you for all that work, hopefully you get as much enjoyment from your work as the rest of us do.
Posted by:
cheesehe4d on Nov 25, 2024 05:02 PM