Climbed Remmel Mountain, and made a loop out of the trip by taking the old Coleman Pass and Fire Creek trails back to the Chewuch on the way down. It was all doable, I lost the Coleman Ridge trail in places, and there were many downed trees along the Fire Creek trail.
Put in Friday afternoon at the Cathedral Driveway Trailhead at the end of Toats Coulee Road. The trail down to the river has been abused by horses - there are noxious weeds along either side of the trail, horse poop throughout, and it has become very dusty and sandy in places where their hooves have chewed up the trail. Heading north up the Chewuch River trail from the junction, I was glad to see it was very free of trees. Mosquitoes were not an issue, but there was no shortage of flies. The Four Point Lake cutoff was also in good shape - it was possible for me to ford the Chewuch without getting my feet wet, and the climb was not too bad. The relatively flat area encompassing Four Point Lake and the unnamed lake above it at 7088 feet elevation has a lot of moisture around it right now, and the accompanying mosquitoes. Spent the night at the unnamed lake, and slept with my head net on.
The next morning I broke camp, hiked up the green spur on the inlet side of the lake and cut through a gully to the ridge where I encountered the trail up to the summit (for a better description of the climb, see http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=737982). Beautiful day, clear skies, and great views. I signed the summit register for Rosie and read my book on top for about an hour.
The descent was quick, but continuing along the trail to the junction with the old Coleman Ridge trail was difficult for me - I lost it and found it a couple times. The map came in handy often. Fortunately, the bush-whacking was not very difficult, and the route was obvious. The Coleman Ridge has amazing views, and, after a prolonged period of side-hilling off trail, I came across some flagging tape and was able to navigate mostly on the old trail. This section could use some more feet to keep the trail alive!
When the Coleman Ridge trail linked up with the Fire Creek trail, the main problem became downed logs from the old fire. Once it started dropping down the creek valley, the trail was simple to follow, but, especially in the mid- and lower-elevation sections of the Fire Creek trail, there was no shortage of fallen snags. At all.
I forded the Chewuch (although you could probably cross on a big log jam just downstream of the crossing without getting wet), hiked back to the driveway trail, and remembered without joy how steep the driveway trail was on my way back to the car.
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