I headed East today looking for sunshine, and found it all around Lake Cle Elum. The road to the trailhead has snow at around 3000 ft but was nicely rutted out down to gravel until a half mile from the trailhead, where I parked. The road I ended up on (after trying a few possibilities for rd 116 to Trail 1343 only to find housing developments) is the second turn south of Davis Creek and was signed "Sasse Mtn Trailhead 3" at the turnoff. The sign at the TH indicates the trail as Sasse Mtn Trail No. 1302, which is not on the Green Trails Map No. 208 for Kachess Lake, and seems to be the same as Trail 1340 on that map.
Despite any confusion, the trail was straight-forward and had the intermittent snow had been stamped down by a group of 6 ahead of me :up:. Snow covered the ground from the camp at about 4000' and got at least 2' deep by the top. One of my dogs feet started to bleed less than a half mile from the top, dashing my plans to continue on to Sasse.
I passed the 2 leaders as they waited at the false summit for the rest of their group. They were slightly hesitant to accept that they weren't already on the true summit. Beyond them there was a solo set of tracks running parallel to the return set, dusted with a few inches of powder.
It was sunny at the top and not too windy either. I could see clearly to Iron, Bill and Gene Peaks to the NE and to Alta Mountain, Hibox and the 3 Queens to the West before the surrounding clouds enveloped the rest. The return was quick and uneventful.
No comments:
Post a Comment