Basin Creek, Cathedral Driveway & Chewuch River Trail — Saturday, Jun. 14, 2025

Basin Creek trail #360 is now clear from the Chewuch River to the 6550' level.  The ridge traverse from Topaz Mountain is ~6800', so we are almost there.  

Once I saw that there were plenty of logs down on the trail at this elevation, I abandoned my plans to continue the loop over and down Windy Creek trail #362, returning to the Chewuch TH.  I could not guarantee that I could cut my way through the unknown, so instead of risking getting stuck out on the ridge, descending Windy Creek by headlamp, etc, I descended all the way back to the Chewuch River, out Cathedral Driveway, for the long drive back to Seattle.

Basin Creek trail has been cleared enough now that it no longer makes sense to work it from below.  On my next outing, I'll try to carve out a few more days and work from a high base camp at Windy Lake, north of Windy Peak.  Then it's a simple matter of daily trips across the ridge to connect both ends, finishing this project, leaving a clear line of retreat back to camp at the lake.