Howson Creek — Sunday, Jun. 16, 2002

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

Mountain. What a concept to hike in the mountains! After eight straight months of hiking in the high desert lands of Washington, I've called it a break for the summer heat and it felt great to be back in the mountains! For my first return to hiking in the green-overdose of trees I headed up the Cle Elum valley to hike up the little used Howson Creek Trail with Michael Fagin and his friend Dennis. Starting at 2300' the first mile passed through refreshing forest and was easy to move along with only a few hundred feet elevation gain to the crossing of Howson Creek. Here a great log crosses the creek, which is pretty full of water still. Being a bit unsteady of a hiker with a larger pack on the back and a heavy chest harness on my frontside for my camera gear, I tend to try avoiding these types of crossing under the circumstances. I did find a place to make a long-legged stretch jump from 6"" of water into 6"" of water and make it across the rushing 3' of waters in the middle while keeping my feet dry--the blessings of having long legs! The other two guys couldn't believe my feet were still dry. Suddenly the trail gets into thigh-burning serious business to make it up to 5100' in the next two miles. There is an old clear-cut for 1/3 mile after crossing the creek that is beautiful to hike through even while the trail is steep. Views were abundant westward toward Thorp Mountain and others, and the wildflowers of lupines, paintbrush, and penstomens were grand! We continued on between small rainshowers (never enough to get us wet) and managed to work our way through a couple of areas where the trail gets pretty faint. It always shows up strong enough within 100' or so that continuing on was never a problem. Some areas the trail is very excellent grade, others it is very uneven and shows hardly any traffic. Game trails abound, but never really confusing to me anyhow (they could to some novice hikers however, so you need to always look if the ""straight"" trail is really the trail or of that turn-back is really the official trail and switchback to hike up!). We passed along the huge boulder field and the elevation gain from 4200'-4900' was intense. This was the hardest part of the hike and also easier to get off trail a tiny bit under the thick trees--just head uphill if in doubt and you'll hit the trail again. When we got to the boulder field at 5100' the trail passes over it very nicely and views were grand toward Lemah Mountain, Mount Daniels, and all of the Kachess Ridge chain of peaks. We headed up the boulder field here to a prominent area and enjoyed a cool lunch in the sky watching the rainshadow do it's work: dark clouds west of Easton just always hung on there and never took stronghold over our location! We packed up once some more sprinkles headed in, and pounded on down the almost 3000' elevation to the trailhead. The carpets of vanilla-leaf were particularly photographic on this terrific day! Re-crossing Howson Creek again was a success for all of us--those log crossers, and myself, the galloping creek-leapin' fool! Onward into a great summer of mountain hiking!