One of my favorite hikes for communing with nature and not seeing people on the trail. There was only one other car at the trailhead, and its owner and I never crossed paths until I returned to the trailhead at the end of the hike.
From the trailhead the trail heads south a short distance to a very sturdy bridge across Granite Creek. The builder's plate on the bridge says it was designed for a load of 10,000 pounds.
On the other side of Granite Creek the trail heads north a short distance to a trail junction with the Chancellor Trail, which is the one I took. If one doesn't turn here, the trail dead-ends in a short distance where a footbridge is missing across Canyon Creek.
3.5 miles along the Chancellor Trail one comes to a log crossing across Boulder Creek. Since the handrail is no longer there, I very slowly walked across the log, taking small steps. Withing a quarter mile the trail crosses a slightly sketchy location where the trail is pretty narrow for a short distance, but doable.
The trail gradually climbs along the side slope of the hill, occasionally dropping down a little to cross a drainage stream (all were either dry or very low water, and easy to cross. At 4.8 miles from the trailhead reach the trail junction for the Boulder Pass trail #729. Continuing on the trail over the next mile drops to a broken road bridge across Mill Creek, and then climbs to a junction with the Mill Creek trail. See photo of diamond sign at this junction.
I hiked about 1/2 mile on the Mill Creek trail #755 until my turn around time. Then returned to the trailhead the way I came. Someone must love this trail because every year the trees that fall across the trail are removed. I estimate there were about 10 trees across the trail on this day. All the trees were easy to cross or go-around.
There were also about a few locations where trees had fallen over from the side of the trail with their root ball going with the tree, creating some damage to the trail tread. Easy to pass these areas too (for me).
Comments
Apologies, I did not visit and clear trail #754 this year, I spent my time in the eastern Pasayten on #505, #537, and #360. I’ll visit Chancellor early next year, and I still have #738.1, Cascade Creek up and over Anacortes Crossing, on my wish-list. With a 4:1 block and tackle I can now move the big beefy logs on this route.
I found a 1938 map of the CCT at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair yesterday, scanned it, and posted it on nwhikers.net:
https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1262&start=90
The map shows the ancient squiggle route from the junction with #755 Mill Creek up to Cady Point that CP has been exploring, and many other old paths.
Posted by:
Christian Gustafson on Oct 27, 2024 09:53 PM
My last TR shows my cool 4:1 and what it can do:
https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report-2024-09-02.162959933446
Posted by:
Christian Gustafson on Oct 27, 2024 10:04 PM