The high route from Prince Creek to the Stehekin bakery is snow free but for a handy snow bridge across the upper Boulder Creek. There is no bridge at the first Prince Creek crossing, and no trail sign after dropping into the Fish Creek drainage, staying right at the first fork will take you to a precipitous pass (Fish Creek Pass?). The entire way is just amazing, and lonesome, only two couples on the trail in two days. And the sun dried tomato croissants at the end of the trail make the perfect capper to an incredible 4th of July adventure.

Scenic and enjoyable, if dusty, 3 day walk as done by a 60 year old father & 21 year old son in decent shape but not frequent hikers. Starting about noon Wednesday, we walked from the Crater Creek trail parking area up to Eagle Lake, steady ascent for 6 or 7 miles. Trail is dusty, and there is no water for most of the way, so if you do this be sure to hydrate early and bring plenty of containers. (We were a little short the first day until we got to a stream after about 5 miles.) A sign says trails are maintained by local motorcycle club so they're wide and flat but we saw no bikers today. Trail signs are not optimal and can cause occasional hikers (like us) to become confused -- we wound up backtracking a mile or more to check our bearings at one point, making the hike a little more demanding. Upper Eagle Lake (about 7100 ft) is stunning, ringed by rocky slopes. It was a little buggy but far less than what I had expected. The slopes and lake caught the changing light as the sun disappeared behind the ridge. Next morning we went over Horsehead Pass catching the great view of Boiling Lake, then back down to the lake. Again unmarked trails and our unfamiliarity with the country led us to take a mile or two diversion from our planned route. (A few more signs would be so helpful to us amateurs on these trails.) We did encounter one motorcyclist. Early afternoon on the Summit trail lovely fields of Lupin nearly everywhere perfuming the dusty path. There were several streams to replenish water supplies -- I'm a big fan of keeping well hydrated especially where much of the hike is around 7000'. Mid afternoon we came to Angel's Staircase, aptly named, fabulous views all along the steep ascent to about 8000', the trail demanding but well maintained over the rocks. From the top we could see Mt. Rainier just peeking over the North Cascades. A short walk to the pass over lovely Cooney Lake, another fabulous viewpoint, and then we did the very abrupt descent down to the lake where we spent the night. A few bugs about sundown but again fewer than I expected. Cooney Lake seems to have something of a reputation as a horse camp but we shared the area with only one other backpacking group, no horses at all. Our second wrong turn added several miles to this hike which wound up being over 10 miles, over several passes. I was quite done in by the end of the day and pretty much just dropped at the campsite. Luckily my son is a hardy guy and took care of dinner. Final day, hike out, passing near Martin Lake and back down. Fairly long, gently descent, less lovely than the previous day's hike through flowered meadows. Trail is again very dusty. We met a tour guide leading several horses to Martin Lake to bring a group of pack-in campers out. (There were also quite a few pack-in campers at Boiling Lake as we passed by on Tuesday). If I had it to do over again I'd plan to come out via the Foggy Dew trail (reputedly prettier), but we would have had to solve the car logistics in advance because it wouldn't be quite a loop, but the Foggy Dew trailhead doesn't seem very far from the Crater Creek trailhead where we started. Or, if we had a little more time it would have been more pleasant to retrace our trip back over the ridge past Boiling Lake and Eagle Lake. I usually don't like retracing my steps, but the amazing views and beautiful flowery meadows would have been worth it here. The trip wound up being about 27 miles with our wrong turns, a little over 5000' elevation gain, occasionally steep but mostly steady ascents and descents. No problems except dust and plenty of horse dooky on the trails. Highly recommended for the views and flowers!

July 3: Camped at War Creek Campground on the Twisp River. Strangely, on the day before Fourth of July weekend, we were the only ones in the entire campground. Later, we learned that this campground is notorious for its rattlesnakes. Very peaceful though, and we didn't see any. July 4: Drove a few miles to the Eagle Creek Trailhead and hit the dusty trail. Trail is in excellent condition. The ford of Eagle Creek is straightforward. About 30 feet downstream there's a relatively easy crossing that is aided by plentiful over-hanging slide alder, which can be used to pull yourself across. From there, we hiked the Oval Creek Trail up to Middle Oval Lake. Stunning! We set up camp on a warm sunny afternoon and lounged about. In the late afternoon, we hiked-scrambled up the ridge to Oval Pass, bagged an un-named and airy summit above Middle Oval, then wandered the high ridgeline to the summit of Gray Peak and then down the ridge to the saddle between Gray and Courtney, at which point we headed back to Middle Oval. There were a couple of snowfields in the higher places that were somewhat hard. We didn't use our ice axes, but it sure was nice to have poles. We were the only ones at Middle Oval that night. July 5: We hiked back up the trail to the Gray-Courtney saddle, then found a way trail along Courtney. It was descending too much for our taste, so we branched off and commenced a long, loose, and very annoying traverse of Courtney's south side. This was a stupid idea. It would have been better to start the climb from Fish Creek Pass (from which point it's straightforward and simple) or possibly take the ridgeline all the way from the Gray-Courtney saddle (a large party did this at the same time, much slower than we were). Along the traverse my wife took a roughly 3-foot tumble onto her side on loose talus and broke her finger (we confirmed with the doctor later), but not badly. She's a bad-ass, so we continued. We eventually reached the defined bootpath leading up from Fish Creek Pass, which we ascended to achieve the summit easily. There is absolutely no snow on Courtney, nor on the other nearby peaks—at least not on the scrambling routes. Ate lunch there, then descended to the pass and to Star Lake. We gave up on doing Buttermilk and Oval, which had been in the original plan. We hiked the Summit Trail to the Horseshoe Basin camp (just below Tuckaway Lake on the Summit Trail). This portion of the Summit Trail has burned recently and there is debris and new plant growth in the ash -- it could use a little TLC. My wife was feeling kind of lousy at this point -- did I mention she's pregnant? -- so I emptied by day pack there, then hiked up over Oval Pass and back to Middle Oval. By now it was raining -- super! -- so I jammed everything back at camp into my packing, tying stuff onto the outside, then hiked back up over Oval and down to Horseshoe Basin. We set up camp, ate dinner, taped her finger up, then to bed. One other party was camped with us. July 6: Star Peak today. We retraced our steps along the Summit Trail, then hiked up to the pass south of Star Peak. From here, we ascended via bootpath along the ridges of Star Peak, steadily gaining elevation. The ascent route is much easier than it appears from a distance – with poles for balancing, the terrain is quite encouraging. We summated Star – a truly lovely summit – shortly after noon – then descended to a high col for a long lunch. We descend by the bootpath directly to Star Lake (again, easier than it looks from a distance) where we sacked out on some warm granite boulders for a while. Then hiked back to Horseshoe Basin for dinner and sleep. We were alone at Horseshoe Basin this night. July 7: Packed everything up and headed the other way on the Summit Trail, climbing the pass, then descending to Eagle Creek; then to North Fork Fish Creek for a snack. Then up another long pass, which still has some snow cover (easily traveled by backpackers), for a long lunch on a high knoll overlooking the entire world. (The Summit Trail is in pretty good shape at higher elevations; where it passes through forested areas there is downfall, including a very large pile somewhat south of the N. Fk. Fish Crk junction. In general, it needs a trail crew.) Then 3 miles to Juanita Lake, which is drastically under-sold in the books: it’s a terrific larch-and-granite parkland. We didn’t have national park permits because the Twisp Ranger Station is closed (who knew?). We camped anyway, which didn’t really matter because we were totally alone the entire time. We walked up to War Creek Pass in the evening and spent the waning daylight watching marmots and golden eagles. There's basically no snow anywhere in the Juanita vicinity. July 8: We packed up early, hiked up to Purple Pass and then began the long knee-busting 5,900-foot descent to Stehekin. The trail is mostly in good shape, but is brushy in wet areas. The miles fly by. We arrived a bit after 11:00 and soon were camped at Purple Point, chowing down on take-out cheeseburgers from the Landing Resort. Perfection. We spent one night at Purple Point, then two nights at the Stehekin Valley Ranch. Truly a lovely area. My folks were kind enough to give us a car shuttle from the Chelan boat dock back to our car on the Twisp River. About ½ mile from the car, we were surprised to find a 2-foot diameter ponderosa fallen completely across the road. (This was a Friday night at about 5:00 p.m.) Yikes. It’s a dead-end road, so there was no way to retrieve the car. We were glad to be on the civilization side though. In a sequence of events that is too much to recount here, we found a trusty 76-year-old local by the name of Frank Austin – as colorful a guy as you could hope to meet – who handles a chainsaw with artistic grace. Long story short: we were quaffing beer at the Twisp Brewery only about an hour-and-a-half after we had intended to be. Thanks, Frank! The two other vehicles at the trailhead will probably never know how trapped they almost were.

We completed a 5 day pack trip in the Chelan-Sawtooth area Monday, August 20th. I went with two friends and our pack goats ( I’ve got back problems and couldn’t do a trip like this without the goat’s help). We camped at the Crater Creek trailhead Wednesday evening since it’s a 5-6 hour drive from the Seattle-Tacoma area. There is a small horse camp (no water) at the trailhead which was occupied by 3 rigs with horse trailers. We met two of the horse people that evening when they came back from their day’s ride. Thursday morning we packed up and headed for Upper Eagle Lake. We met the other two horse riders on the trail. The trail was dusty and it was kind of a warm day but we made it to Upper Eagle Lake by early afternoon, found a nice camp spot, and had a refreshing swim. Later in the afternoon the wind picked up and we got a lot of smoke from the Domke Lake fire. There was even noticeable white ash falling on the tent and other gear. The trail is open to motorcycles and is built for them, which means it has a consistent, moderate grade. Thursday we saw the two horse riders, no hikers and no motorcycles. You may see or hear motorcycles on the weekend but mid-week it’s not likely (two motorcyclists went past us on Sunday). Friday we went over Horsehead Pass to Boiling Lake. Boiling Lake had a lot more weeds growing in the shallow water than I remember from past trips. At Boiling Lake we took the path marked ‘Horse Camps’ and traversed around to connect to the Hoodoo Pass trail. About 1/3 mile before Hoodoo Pass we turned left and headed up through the meadows to the saddle in the ridge to the west. We then headed north along the ridge and followed a faint path contouring around to above Dry Lake. From there we followed a pretty well defined path up to a saddle in the ridge NNW of Dry Lake. We went up a bit and traversed across the scree slope to the ridge line which goes down about 700’ to a saddle just before point 6874. Going down, this seemed quite a bit steeper than I remembered from coming up it 3 years ago! For a little more detailed description of this route, see my WTA report from 9/25/04. We then followed the path / trail as it switch-backed steeply down toward the branch of Prince Creek which flows out of Bernice Lake. That night we made camp in a nice large meadow area near Prince Creek, about ¾ mile below Bernice Lake. We again had lots of smoke from the forest fire that afternoon. The next day we explored the Bernice Lake area and surrounding meadows. That afternoon we again had smoke and it started clouding up. Sometime during the night it started raining. It stopped for awhile in the morning, so we packed up and headed down the trail along Prince Creek toward the Chelan Summit trail. On the way down we encountered some avalanche debris and it started raining again. Once on the Chelan Summit trail we headed for Chipmunk Pass and Boiling Lake. It rained most of the day Sunday. Fortunately it stopped in the evening and we were able to get camp setup without much trouble, although it was quite cool (low 40’s). Monday morning we headed back up over Horsehead Pass and the trailhead. On the way up to Horsehead Pass we had a few snow flurries. There were a few bugs at times, but they were not too much of a problem. I spite of the rain it was a great hike; and the goats did a great job of just following along and carrying most everything for us.

Despite calling the ranger station and getting the report of ""lots of snow in the passes"", we set out on the Golden Lakes Loop, equipped with gaiters and ice axes. As it turned out, we used the gaiters a lot, but the only time we needed the axes, they were back in camp... Leaving town early on Friday, we were able to drive to the Crater Creek TH and start hiking at noon. Saw no one that day, except a family at the TH going to Crater Lake for a day of fishing. While our initial goal was to camp at Upper Eagle Lake, at the last minute we elected to head over Horsehead Pass and set up camp at Boiling Lake. We encountered some snow patches, but all quite easy to negotiate, from about 6800' to the pass. From the pass down to the lake, it was clear, except for some areas where the trail has slipped out; clear for feet, but probably less for horse or bike. We had Boiling Lake to ourselves the first night; the next night, two other parties of two each were there, but still quiet. That is except for the large buck that wandered through camp and tried to make off with my shoes. On our layover day at Boiling Lake, we ambled over towards Hoodoo Pass and Mt Bigelow, maxing out at the 8135 hoodoo. We especially liked this area: rocks, basin, larch trees, lovely meadows!! We also found an old trail, not on map but still with signs of maintenance, heading back to Boiling Lake from where the camp is marked on the GT #115 map. Sunday, we reluctantly pulled up stakes at Boiling Lake. We had thought of following the old sheepherder's trail over the 7500' saddle, but due to snow on the north side, elected to follow the regular trail. Heading south on the Summit Trail, it seems we may have been the first to pass this year, as the only prints were deer and coyote. Snow patches were rather consistent up to the small saddle, but again, nothing to worry a hiker about. From the saddle, we contoured around to the well-marked and extremely well constructed Angel's Staircase trail, passing for re-fueling before the ascent. The easy tred and the ever-increasing views made for a pleasurable climb to the 8000' mark on Switchback Peak (aka Cooney Peak). We dropped packs here and scrambled to the summit. From there, we contoured around to the SE ridge, and looked down at lots of snow on the way down to Cooney Lake. Slowly, we found a spot to work over the cornice, finding many of the switchbacks still in snow, or super-saturated soil. It was a slow way down. One other party later went straight down the larger snowfield, but it was steep! We found a spot to camp on the ledges south of Cooney. Monday, we awakened at 5:30 to a clap of thunder, looked out of the tent and saw a very black cloud, and took down camp in no time flat. The rain only lasted maybe 30 minutes, but we were packed. So we headed down to Cooney Lake proper, saw one two-person party camped there, and made breakfast. From there, we scrambled up to Martin Peak under now blue skies. Traversing under the first knob to arrive at the true summit was the one time we wanted axes, but these were back with our packs... Back with our gear, we loaded up under another small shower - this was to become the pattern, very small showers then sun. We headed down the Martin Creek trail, encountering snow in the basin SE of Martin Peak, once again all passable to feet. There were a couple of trees across the trail in this section, both above and below the junction with the Martin Lakes trail, one being somewhat difficult for hikers, all being difficult for horses and bikes. At the junction with Martin Lakes, maybe because we had gotten up early due to the storm, we decided to head to the lakes and have a lazy afternoon. The lakes were much less scenic than Cooney or Boiling, with some large, much abused campsites and the first really bothersome mosquitoes of the trip. Nothing that a nap in the tent couldn't repair, however. Finally on Tuesday, we awoke early and broke camp, with the goal of a real lunch in Twisp. It was a rather uneventful hike out, with a ford of Eagle Creek to cool the feet. All in all, it was an absolutely stellar hike. Something I would recommend to all, either now for flowers (lots!) or in the fall to enjoy the larches. We saw very few others: the four I mentioned at Boiling Lake, two at Cooney, and then on the last section out, one mountain biker and a party of three backpackers - a total of ten people in five days! Lastly, I have to say that I side with Harvey and Ira in their books, calling for more protection to this area. It truly was wilderness quality scenery, and should be protected as such. If not this, then there should be limits on motorcycle use - waiting till the trails are snow free, so that wheels won't go around a snow patch and erode the surrounding area. There should also be limits on horse use, in terms of party size and more emphasis placed on ""leave no trace"" horse camping. We saw lots of horse manure right next to many lakes. But don't let this dissuade you from going to this area. It needs more folks coming back star struck like me to gather more support.