This section of the Kettle Range is a wonderful place to open up the season! We started at the trailhead just outside Republic and made our way toward Bear Pot. Maybe half a mile from the Thirteen Mile/Bear Pot Trail junction, there was a delightful little cabin with an excellent water source, flat spots to put a tent, and many good bear bag trees. Perhaps another half mile and the trail was completely flooded out. Along the way, there were several spots where the trail becomes very faint and not well traveled. Elevations never get above 5,000’, so snow was not a problem for us. Although this is not an alpine trail, it is rolling as goes through the foothills, so be prepared to get your heart rate up! Water is not an issue this time of year and is plentiful in drainage areas. The USGS topo maps may not be completely accurate in spots, so plan on 9.5-10 miles and an extra climb if you are going to Bear Pot.

I hiked a small portion of this trail a few years ago, but did not explore the area as in-depth as I had wished. I discovered this area simply by noting the name of a trailhead off the Sanpoil River road on the way back from a Kettle Crest trip and researching it when I got home. This is tops on my list of favorite places in Washington. Because I wanted to do some off-trail exploration, I did not want to go alone, so I asked my very capable friend Jim Kuresman to join me. Thursday night, we spent at the 10 Mile campground in Colville NF off the Sanpoil River Road south of Republic (SR 21). Friday morning we hit the 13 Mile trailhead a few miles south of the campground (interestingly enough, it’s 3 miles beyond 10 Mile campground). This trail was once a stock driveway, and old Forest Service signs are still posted on the trees along the trail reading “Center Stock Driveway.” Very neat to see. The trail begins at 2020’ and runs close to 13 Mile creek. Soon it ascends high above the creek, and there are plenty of opportunities to peer over the edge of the Grand Canyon of the Sanpoil area and look down to the roiling rapids and waterfalls below. How long into summer and how fast this creek roils and toils I don’t know, for this is dry country. But for about another month, I think the weather would be reasonable. For now, it’s hot, yet a cool breeze constantly blows, and jackets are welcomed after sundown. This trail rolls along the rounded mountains through acres and acres of green bunchgrass dotted with charred logs and snags from various and sundry lightning strikes and spot fires this area evidently endures, given the numbers of charred logs and snags that we saw throughout our days here. But this is not a wasteland of charred logs – there are plenty of green trees – larches, firs, White Pine (the needles of the pines are up to 6 inches long, making a typical bunch of needles a foot wide!). The charred remains are simply an interesting sidenote to a landscape full of life. Easy exploration off trail found us upon a rocky outcrop overlook where we took a nice long nap in the warm sun after gazing at the mountains of the Kettle Crest and Sherman Pass. Saturday was our off trail exploration day that began with a bootbeat path to Cougar Mountain a few miles beyond our camp. I had read about Cougar Mountain in Ron Stricklands book, Hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail. The east side of Cougar ridge looks deep into a canyon and across this is 13 Mile Mountain, a very appealing summit, but we had already spied an awesome-looking ridgewalk beyond Cougar Mountain, and if we could figure a way across the valley, we would end up at our napping spot from the day before, and then retrace our steps back to camp – a great little loop. The ridges are open and glorious, the valleys thick and dark with trees, downfall, prickly rose bushes, yet interspersed with large patches of sunny bunchgrass. Along with love of exploration and diligence, Jim’s expertise at bushwhacking, our loop enchanted us with fairy tale views and myriads of flowers. It wasn’t exactly easy, but so enjoyable. We were delighted by the vast numbers of rock rose and Hooker’s Onion in bloom, the variety of flowers, the terrain, and the route-finding, which was more involved than we initially thought (read: cliffs where the map shows mere steep hillside). Currently blooming are desert parsley, larkspur, ballhead waterleaf, billions of strawberry plants, lupine, paintbrush, more Hooker’s Onion than you can ever imagine seeing, death camas all over the place, and rock rose galore – Jim was intrigued by the white rock rose, some blooming from the same strand as a pink rock rose! We spied a Columbia clematis in bloom, and hundreds of clematis vines not yet in bloom. This is an amazingly delicate and beautiful flower. I was excited to see the hills cloaked in Old Man’s Whiskers, a wonderful pink flower I had only seen in bloom one other time, years ago. And there’s no prettier site than a half-acre of brilliant white woodland stars gracefully dancing in the breeze – they looked like shooting stars in the shady hillocks. Rain Saturday night kicked out even more blooms – we spied a beautiful yellow salsify and lots of scarlet gilia that weren’t in bloom the day before. Thanks to Jim for helping me explore this wonderful area and for being a kind, patient friend to my whims of exploration and teaching me many little tricks in navigating off trail.

This trip exceeded my expectations - expectations that were already high to begin with, given previous great trips to eastern Washington. My friend Frank, his pooch Zoe and I headed to Republic to hike the 13 Mile trail, a trail I have been interested in since I passed by this picturesque area last Memorial Day on my way home from Edds Mtn. near Sherman Pass. I estimate this area will probably be lush for another 2 or 3 weeks. After that, put it away until next spring if you don’t care for heat. The ranger I spoke to in Republic indicated the snow on the summits there is typically gone by the latter half of May (usually a bit later at Sherman Pass, though). The Thirteen Mile trailhead is about 11 or so miles south of Republic on Hwy 21, a mile past Tenmile C.G. (there are other trailheads, but I chose this one so we could see the Grand Canyon of the Sanpoil as described in the PNWT Guide by Ron Strickland). The first part of the trail runs along the canyon above a tributary of the Sanpoil Rv. It wanders through a never-been-logged forest of Doug fir and ponderosa. In about 1.5 miles, the trail pops up to the wide, open views of the 3,000-5,800’ rolling mountains. This fairy-tale landscape is cloaked in acres and acres of grassy, green and gray rocky meadows and dotted with stands of deeper green pine and fir spilling out from the deep folds and gullies buried in the slopes. The valleys here are wide and the views are open and big. We selected a rock outcropping and spent a lot of time gazing at what is known as the Grand Canyon of the Sanpoil. Many flowers are at their height of bloom, especially buckwheat and desert parsley. Lupine, paintbrush, millions upon millions of beautiful rock rose (bitterroot) ready to burst open, woodland star, penstemmon, larkspur, and lots of some other Dr. Seuss-looking thing that is currently just a bud. There are many boot-stopping views to cause one to gladly linger. The trail is in excellent condition. It is a horse/hiker/motorbike trail. 2 gentlemen on quiet, 4-stroke motorbikes politely puttered slowly by, but other than that we had the whole wonderful place to ourselves. This was not surprising to me – Republic is not a popular destination for Starbucks-sippin’, plastic-encased 206’ers, and the locals are not the hiking sort. There is no evidence of wear and tear on the landscape. No campfire rings, no social trails, no litter – nothing that would make anyone shake their head in disgust. It is apparently highly regarded by the locals who do use this trail (would that some trails in Western Washington were regarded this way as well!). That portion of the 16-mile long 13 Mile trail we hiked never did hit a ridge, however the open terrain makes it very easy to wander up a few hundred feet and do some ridge-walking. There were so many flowers bloom that we finally had to quit trying not to walk on them (except for the lovely pink Bitterroot!). We pitched camp at a sunny meadow, then wandered around and clambered up to Pt 3554 (Zoe’s first summit!). From here we had 360-degree views of the surrounding rolling terrain and cloudscapes. Rainshowers wisped down from puffy whitey-gray clouds and swept some summits to lift a wonderful earthy-pine fragrance into the breeze. Along the way to Pt 3554 are many, many charred remains of very recent lightning strikes. Some are burnt trunks still standing upright, some are long black lines laying on the ground, some are circles of charred pine needles on the ground, and some are gaping black holes where giant taproots now consumed by the fire once grasped the earth. Most were isolated burns, but one was a continuous burn about 3 or 4 acres in size. We came across one live ponderosa that had fallen and was still burning, slowly. The flames are deep inside the trunk, slowly eating the tree. It could take weeks to burn, unless it snuffs out when it gets deep enough and loses oxygen (the bark isn’t burning as fast as the heart). Now for my favorite part of any trip to eastern Washington: the locals. A holiday family reunion was being had at the trailhead, and when Frank, Zoe and I returned to his rig from our night out, three older male reunion refugees strolled up to us like curious cows. They had been camping with their families for 2 full days and were ready for sumpin’ different to do. That’s where we came in handy. Because of their leisurely stride and their slow, easy speech, Frank and I pretty much figured we were in for the long haul. So we gladly put the tailgate down, took a long draw off the soda bottles we had stashed in an ice chest, leaned back on the rig, and settled in. Sure enough, we chatted with these wonderful men and their elderly pop for more than an hour. The father had helped to build Grand Coulee and Rocky Reach Dams, and had also been on the blasting crew for the tunnel underneath Snow Lakes (Enchantments). His sons were clearly proud of their dad, as evidenced by their encouraging remarks to his stories. A wonderful time was had by all. If you go: Take water with you! There is no river access from the trail, and none available until you get to Cougar Creek where the trail crosses Road 2054. Luckily you don’t have to go far to find wonderful views and places to pitch camp. Please disperse any evidence of your camp like those before you had done. The ranger indicated this is cougar country. We saw none, probably because they moved away from the very recent lightning strikes near our camp (but we did see a moose wandering the streets in the town of Republic!). Return via the ($free) Keller Ferry for an additional taste sweeping central/eastern Washington views. Anyone having a favorite place for me to investigate the Republic/Sherman Pass area, please feel free to email me at brownk3@u.washington.edu.