Fortune Creek-Van Epps, Lake Ann — Friday, Jul. 15, 2022

This was a loop hike from the Cle Elum River road.  We parked a bit up road 170, or perhaps it is road 160 (maps differ, and it is unmarked), from the Cle Elum River road.  The intersection is 3/4 of a mile past the crossing of Fortune Creek.  We did not like the looks of road 170 or 160 and so decided to walk it.

After about 2.5 miles we reached a signed junction with the trail to Van Epps Pass.  We took this trail, which starts on a jeep road then branches left.  This piece of trail seems hardly used--moss was growing on it, and it was faint at times.  We got our feet wet at the crossing of the North Fork Fortune Creek.  The trail was steep, gaining about 2000 feet in two miles.  Never saw the supposed junction with a trail shown on the map heading northwest toward Scatter Peak and Scatter Creek.

At Van Epps Pass there was a jumble of jeep tracks, an old sign mentioning the "County Line Trail," and peekaboo views into Jack Creek valley.  The County Line Trail was an old trail along the Chelan-Kittitas county line.  It ran from Blewett Pass in the east to, well, I'm not really sure where.  Trico Mountain, maybe?  Anyway it's fragmented today, parts obliterated by logging in the east and other parts allowed to vanish over time.  If you ever climb Iron Bear or Miller Peaks you will walk on parts of this trail.

The trail from Van Epps Pass to Lake Ann is a piece of the old County Line trail.  This is an excellent walk, through subalpine fir and flowery meadows, with views west toward the Dutch Miller Gap peaks, and Mts. Hinman and Daniel.  There were a few patches of snow to cross here.  Lake Ann was unfrozen, located at treeline under Ingalls Peak, with some larches.  After a break, we continued on the trail over the divide to the south, catching some views of Glacier Peak, and reaching the upper Esmerelda Basin.

We turned right on the Esmeralda Basin trail, crossed a divide back into the Fortune Creek drainage, and descended steep switchbacks to the jeep road along the South Fork of Fortune Creek.  Hawkins Mountain was in view the entire time.  The intersection with the jeep road is about a mile north of Gallagher Head Lake.  We turned right and walked about five miles down the road back to the car.

This is a good early season hike.  We reached 6500 feet without encountering any serious snow.  It felt like we were in the heart of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness even though we were outside the capital-W Wilderness the whole way.  There were rugged snow-covered peaks in every direction.  We met only one other party, a family in the Esmeralda Basin who had walked from the end of the Teanaway River road.