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Trip Report

Marten Creek — Friday, Nov. 30, 2012

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Trip Report By

50

Type of Hike

Day hike

Trails Hiked

A few weeks ago we headed back out the Mountain Loop Highway to the Marten Creek Trail #713, an all-but-forgotten mining road that once connected Silverton with Darrington over Granite Pass. We expected to find a trail leading out to an old mine, but instead we were confronted with a bit more route-finding and bushwhacking than we anticipated. If you’re looking for a training hike or a quiet snowshoe without a lot of company, the Marten Creek trail is an excellent choice. Although there is not much in the way of a destination, the first two miles of this trail offer forested trails, a roaring creek, some views and more than a little history. Much beyond this point most folks are unlikely to enjoy the hike, at least until the trail gets some serious trail maintenance. Because of this, we recommend you save this one for snowshoe season, as it makes a great alternative to the more popular routes along the Mountain Loop Highway. For the full report, check out: http://www.hikingwithmybrother.com/2012/11/marten-creek-trail-713.html Nathan & Jer
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Comments

Marten Creek

I read the history on your website. Very interesting, especially about the experimental forest. I wonder what has been learned since 1915.

Posted by:


Dave Frederick on Dec 03, 2012 09:19 PM

Marten Creek Experimental Forest

The study is still ongoing, but there are some things that have been gleaned over the last 90+ years. The point was to try and optimize replanting forests after they have been logged. So they were looking for disease resistance, speed of growth, and predictability of certain traits. They found that trees grown from parents at a certain elevation tend to do better at that elevation, but that the degree of "better" was not that significant. They also found that seedling size or seed size gave no indication of how big or fast a tree would grow. Another finding was that the parents of a tree had much more influence on how a tree would grow as opposed to the local weather conditions.

Hope that helps!

Posted by:


hikingwithmybrother on Dec 03, 2012 09:19 PM