Little Joe Lake, New approach route — Wednesday, Jul. 23, 2008

Little Joe Lake in the Salmon La Sac area is melted out along with most of the surrounding woods. I do not have any info on the official trail since I used a different approach. (The bridge over Thorp Creek to the official trailhead was washed out in 2006 but the creek can be crossed in low water.) Prior to this recent trip, the last time I did the Little Joe Lake loop was 2005. At that time I stood in one of the saddles between Thorp Mtn and Little Joe Lake and pondered if there might be a game/fisherman trail accessing that saddle from logging roads not too far down on the north side of the ridge. This recent trip was for the purpose of answering that question. The saddle that intrigued me is the one just east of point 5,357 and has an elevation of 5,000 ft. The Polallie Ridge 1989 7.5"" topo map shows a spur of the Stave Creek logging road only 400 ft below this saddle. Now isn’t that interesting.... If there is going to be a shortcut game/fisherman trail up to the ridge, it is likely to come from that road up to this saddle. The short story is that it is an easy scramble of just over 400 feet of gain to get to the saddle. From there one can scramble point 5,357 and/or drop down a bit a pick up the trail to Little Joe Lake. I did both. I also generally wandered around in the meadows southeast of 5,357. Hmmmm...looks like a decent berry picking area. If you head south from the east-west trail you will likely find the rock promontories that offer a sweeping view to the south. Directions: Mile 0.0 Bridge over Cle Elum River for road to Cooper Pass and points beyond. Mile 3.6 Turn left onto road #4613 (there is a sign). This road goes up the Stave Creek drainage, but see note below. Mile 6.8 Road forks - keep left Mile 7.7 ~4,575'. Small stream (good for stashing cold drinks). Wide spot on left to park. Just over 400' of gain to get to the saddle. NOTE - There is a significant washout on the Stave Creek Rd. I stopped and studied it and then decided that I could just get our Subaru Legacy across. I did so - but just barely. Other than this washout and a couple other spots, this road is in remarkably good shape. But if you head up this road then I highly recommend you only do so in a 4-wheel drive rig. It would also be a very good idea to carry work gloves and a shovel - just in case. Higher up I stopped twice to move rocks out of the way. After parking I took a quick look at both sides of the small stream for any obvious (or not so obvious) signs of a trail. I saw none and since the woods looked friendlier ~200 feet uphill from the stream, that is where I entered the forest. No more than a couple dozen steps later I was standing on the trail. My sense is that this is primarily a game trail. There is just enough tread to make it out. The trail soon enters some small meadows. Along the way I passed a few snow patches, but most of the area is snow-free. When this faint game trail seems to disappear - look to your right. It enters a runoff gully and continues along the bottom of the gully. You can hike the bottom of the gully. Eventually I lost this trail. And as the topo map indicates, the terrain becomes steeper as you near the saddle. I scrambled up a narrow steep meadow while using the occasional bush belay. Along the way here I found a couple remnants of flagging tape. On the way down I scouted for trail sign a bit further to the east - no joy. I expect I may do this again and when I do I’ll look further west for trail sign. I am going to defer posting a GPS map until I get better data. After poking around point 5,357' I cruised over to Little Joe Lake. The several little drainages along the way are bone dry. Over at the lake though the inlet stream is running nicely. I followed that upstream and saw where one fork begins at a spring. I continued up for another ~200 ft of gain to check out the basins shown on the topo. These basin areas are nice meadows that have only recently melted out. It was easy to continue traversing south till I intersected the trail - no need to drop back down to the lake. Hmmm...now I wonder if there is a reasonable scramble route to do Red Mtn from the ridge directly north of the lake...? Guess I’ll have to come back. More pics at http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7968700