Cady Ridge, Meander Meadow - Dishpan Gap - Cady Ridge Loop — Friday, Jul. 3, 2015

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - East

My friend Andy and I headed out Friday morning to run the Cady Ridge – Meander Meadows – Little Wenatchee River loop. About five cars in the parking lot when we got there in the morning. We were warned buy the ranger trip report at the trailhead marker and by all three other people we saw there that the trail through Meander Meadow was pretty much completely overgrown and unhikable. So we switched our route up and decided to head up Cady Ridge, go west for 3 miles on the PCT, and come back down Cady Creek. The Cady Ridge Trail is in great shape, after some nice switchbacks it gets very very steep. It levels off some towards the top but continues up and up through some gorgeous meadows. We stopped each one to take in the big views and look for wildlife; saw plenty of the former but none of the latter. Cady Ridge Trail stays nice all the way up until connection the PCT. We took a left and a quick dip in the small and already snow-free SallyAnn Lake. The PCT was pretty nice up along the ridge, but they did get a little bit brushy as we started heading down. I suspect that will change once the thru-hikers start coming through. We turned off on Cady Creek for the last leg of our journey. Here's where the trail got what Andy called “rough.” There were some severely overgrown sections, but they not as long as we were worried about and you could always find the trail under the plants. The northern 3-4 miles of the trail were just pretty rugged and rough. It was 90 when we got back to the car so I took a little dip in the Little Wenatchee River. It, just like SallyAnn, was really not too cold. All in all a great trip with nice big views up top. The climb up Cady Ridge is a heavy dose of steepness. And we were very thankful not to have to bushwhack through miles of brush on the other trails.