Sasse Ridge, Corral Creek & Hex Mountain — Sunday, Jun. 25, 2000

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

Green Trails Kachess Lake Ugh. Some trips are memorable for other reasons than sheer fun and beauty! This day left me sort of feeling that way. The easiest way to a trail up Hex Mountain, up road #116 to trail 1343, is looking more and more like it isn’t a valid option any longer. It was solidly gated 100’ from the road. This was also the case last summer, so it’s looking bleak for the survival of trail #1343 unless one hikes 2-3 miles up road 116 first. Maybe there is again this year active logging up there being closed off, and the gate will open in years ahead again for access...but why gate a road closed that's actively being logged since no workers can get in/out either. Even if it were open I’d fear of never getting out later in the day. So option A turned into option B, and my backup plans to access the region from the Sasse Mountain trailhead made me feel pretty smart. A nice three-mile smooth road 4305 takes you there…but not this day! One mile up just past the junction with road #113, surprise: 8’ high mountain of dirt and rocks in the road, with a huge track-hoe working busily on the other side. Guess a new culvert was going in. Sigh…the DISadvantages of hiking weekdays. Ok, option C now goes in effect, so my easy fast three mile drive turned into a seven mile adventure on road 113 and other various roads in the area to finally get to what ended up a completely unmarked trailhead, but I was finally at the 1340.1 Sasse Mountain trailhead at 2900’. I hate it when I lose an hour of precious hiking time like this! I actually wandered down a “wrong” path at first, and it turned out to be the most flower-filled area I hit on the day. An ORV track heading right down through a small side creek, then up is a trail that must head to the West Fork Teanaway River area. It isn’t on my maps, but it passes over rocky ledges loaded with flowers this day, and then drops into very pleasant forest. After about 30 minutes, I decided to go back to the actual Sasse Mountain trail. This trail goes up very steeply from the road to a 3800’ open bluff. The heat today nearly killed my stamina trying to go up the path. What made it so difficult were the steepness and the loose crushed rock in the trail from the torn up effect of the bikes. After struggling for 20 minutes, I finally left the trail and went off on my own up the ridge, which was a marvelous experience! I was never more than a couple hundred yards from the trail, but was discovering so much more. I did this up and down across the ridge much of the way, except where the way became more forested (and flatter) in the dips down between high points. Hex Mountain is a fine place to park one’s behind, and the views were tremendous – across the West Fork Teanaway valley looking at Elbow Peak, Yellow Hill, then up to Jolly Mountain, and across the Cle Elum River valley at all of Kachess Ridge’s peaks. Of course, Mount Rainier was looming large to the southwest. A grueling trip back to the rig, and I decided to finish my day with the unpleasant action of leaving my long loved hiking staff of seven years leaning against my rear wheel. I pulled away and drove home, only to realize in the evening that my staff is laying in the grass at the Sasse Mountain trailhead. I hope the finder of it gives it some good love rather than use it as a fireplace poker.