Windy Creek, Windy Peak, Basin Creek, Chewuch River Trail & Cathedral Driveway — Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025

The primary goal for this trip was data collection for Hiking Guide descriptions of the Basin Creek and Windy Creek trails. Rather than do each separately this was done as a 15.9 mile loop starting up the Windy Creek trail, north on the Windy Peak Trail, southwest on the Basin Creek Trail, south on the Chewuch River Trail and east on the Cathedral Driveway Trail. My adult son and I opted on this direction from a mid-day heat and hydration planning standpoint.

The Windy Creek Trail has not been logged out. There are 13 logs over the trail that are not difficult for hikers to get over/around. There are a few flowers still blooming: yarrow, asters, fireweed. Windy Creek is still flowing and a good source for water at the crossings. The steep 600ft climb in the last 0.4 mile is made a bit more difficult by the sandy trail. This is offset by the beauty of the subalpine white pine forest and the views.

The Windy Peak Trail is clear from the Windy Creek Trail to the Basin Creek Trail. There is no water along the trail. It is a nice transition from white pine to larch forest as the trail starts the descent toward Windy Lake.

The Basin Creek trail has been made hikeable by Christian Gustafson clearing at least 500 logs over the last two seasons of work. Yes, there are about 100 logs still left, but almost all are easy step-overs. A few are more difficult to get over, but doable for hikers. The first 0.8 mile was a pleasant stroll through the subalpine forest of larch and white pine. Once into the 2006 Tripod Fire area, it became a very stark hike through a silver forest, but with expansive views. Once around to the west of Topaz Mt., there were more young pines and other vegetation including willow. That explained the moose tracks and scat along the trail for about 1.5 miles. Eventually, the trail dropped into the "pine canyons", 10-12ft walls of young pines on both sides of the trail - the forest is coming back. These continued off and on until reaching the Chewuch River Trail. Note that water is accessible at 5600ft.

The Chewuch River Trail was its usual highway of tracks both human and animal. We saw a snowshoe hare in the trail, which just stared at us as we approached. Later, we saw bear scat and tracks which were only a few hours old.

The Cathedral Driveway trail was clear of obstacles. Thats about all we saw, since this part was hiked after dark by headlamp. I can't say it was easy to hike the 1200ft climb at the end of a long day. We were both glad to see the back of the trailhead sign, indicating the end of the journey.