A Bald Spot of Sunshine - Baldy Mountain 11-16-2013

My family used to camp on the Entiat River and lately I've been looking for an excuse to make the long drive for some hiking in the area. With clouds and precipitation in the forecast for most of the Cascades and Olympics on Saturday the best chance to climb a mountain in the sunshine was near Lake Chelan and that was good enough for me. I started over Snoqualmie Pass at 4 am in an attempt to make the most of the morning sun. Thanks to the WSDOT website I chose to drive the long way (through Vantage) to avoid several inches of compact snow and ice on Blewett Pass. Mud Creek Road 5300 was covered in ice on the drive up, and snow appeared before the turn onto road 8410. I parked around 3200' below a shady stretch of steep icy road.



I headed up the road with the dogs in tow before 9 am, passing a hunting camp in the first mile. There were 2-3 inches of snow on the road which had been broken through by a few vehicles, a few of which we encountered along the way. Early on I could see the stormy weather to the West blocking views into the Enchantments. I noticed what I though to be Baldy Mountain when I started up 8410, but the summit was over the hill until I crested a small peak about halfway up. Lake Chelan became visible as we entered the site of a wildfire filled with silver snags, many of them blown down by the high winds that frequent the area. That wind steadily increased as we gained elevation. We avoided it at times when it was possible to drop slightly below the ridge on the NW side.

From Fall to Winter on Mount Forgotten 11-13-2013

A few recent trip reports for Perry Creek and Mount Forgotten reminded me that I wanted to return to the Mountain Loop Highway before access to it becomes complicated by winter. I parked behind the only other vehicle at the barricaded access road just east of the bridge over Perry Creek. Snow began to appear on the trail after the second creek crossing, and was covered the ground by halfway up the switchbacks up to the meadows. At the top of the ridge there was a solid boot trench across the meadows through at least a foot of snow, and a set of tracks (at least a day old) continued down to the traverse. From there, two to four feet of soft snow covered the ground up to the summit, the tip of which was bare rock.


 

Jolly Mountain Snowshoe 11-9-2013

With the snow-line around 4000 feet, I though this would be the perfect time for an attempt at Jolly Mountain near Salmon La Sac. On the drive in along Lake Cle Elum, the morning sun lit up the snow that blanketed the French Cabin Peaks and Red Mountain. The NOAA predicted more snow by 11am so I was stoked get in some mountain views before then. To cut off some elevation and ease route-finding on the lower slopes I opted to take road 4315 rather than the Jolly Mountain Trail from Cayuse Horse Camp. Snow appeared on the road around 2500' and was solid by 3500', where I parked by a roadside campsite.

Three Peaks of Tonga Ridge 10-27-2013

Road 68 is in decent shape besides about 2 dozen gnarly potholes along the way. Road 6830 had even fewer potholes and just a few sections of wash boarded road. The lower slopes of Sobieski Mountain were visible across the Foss Creek valley on the drive up until I entered a thick fog around 3000 feet. Light snow began to fall before Road 310, and was a thin layer was already sticking in a few places. Trail 1058 was well kept to the Fisher Lake/Deception Creek Junction. I encountered several patches of firm snow above 5000 feet, mostly on the North side of Tonga Ridge. Mount Sawyer has a nice trail leading to the summit, but I found only game trails between lots of bushwhacking to the peaks to the West and East.

The first time I attempted to reach these summits there was a large blowdown blocking Road 68 less than a mile up. We turned back about 4.5 miles up the snow-covered road when my partners waterproof boots failed him. This trip was also a backup plan, as I had intended to hit Mastiff Mountain and Mount Howard until I read about 20-30 mph winds in the NOAA forecast for the Lake Wenatchee area.

Goldmyer Hotsprings overnight with aDam 2013-10-19

Last weekend a few friends joined my wife and I at one of our favorite places - Goldmyer Hotsprings. This was Colin's first time to the springs, and we had another first-timer as well. aDam is the official mascot of Fazed, an incredible online community which I was lucky enough to stumble across many years ago. For the last few years (besides a few months of being lost) aDam has been travelling the globe from fazer to fazer, living it up in a fashion that most living breathing people will would envy. He finally arrived on my doorstep for the first time a few weeks ago and we have been having a blast, as you already know if you've been following my blog.

We left the newly upgraded Dingford Creek Trailhead at 10:30 am, leaving just enough time for the hike before we would be allowed into the springs at noon. FYI, as there is now a bathroom at the trailhead, a NW Forest Service Pass is now required to park there. Many thanks to the volunteers who offered to drive in some of our heavy/bulky gear!

We always hike in along the road as it's shorter and more scenic than the trail on the South side of the river. Snoqualmie Mountain, Wild Dare Peak, and Mount Thomson are just a few of the snow-capped peaks that pop in and out of view along the way. The weather could not have been more perfect for a backpacking trip in late October.

We arrived at the caretaker's cabin just after Noon. Before it came into view, a generator and other sounds of construction could be heard echoing through the woods. We met the new caretakers and headed down to our usual campsite above Burnt Boot Creek. After a quick set-up and warm food it was off to the hotsprings to soak away our worries. We stopped at Grandpa - a 900-year-old Douglas Fir - and made an attempt to lock arms around him, but came up about a foot short.

 

Spade Lake (Mount Hinman Attempt) 2013-9-27

The plan was to hike in towards Spade Lake on Thursday night and set up camp somewhere between the trailhead and Waptus Lake, then move camp to Spade Lake and explore the area on Friday, allowing for an alpine start on Mount Hinman on Saturday, and then a leisurely return past Deep Lake and Cathedral Rock on Sunday and Monday. I usually avoid scheduling summit bids more than a week in advance whenever possible, but 4 days would help relieve some of the pressure from our 13+ mile approach, so we each took a long weekend from work.


View 2013-9-27 Spade Lake (Hinman Attempt) in a larger map
We pulled up to Tuquala Meadows Trailhead just after 10 pm Thursday and chose to sleep in the truck to avoid breaking down camp in the rain the next morning. We awoke at 3 and started up the trail later than planned at 4:45 under clear starry skies.


From the Cathedral Rock Trail 1345 we took the first left onto Trail Creek Trail, losing 1500' over 5.5 miles down to Waptus River. The footbridge is currently out, and we briefly considered going off trail to avoid fording the river just to cross right back over a mile later. In the end we choose to grin and bear it, after all both bridges couldn't be out could they? Of course they were, and to top it off light rain began to fall as we started our second crossing.

Vesper Peak 10-5-2013

View 2013-10-5 Vesper Peak in a larger map
I finally got a chance to write up a report of my recent return to the Mountain Loop Highway. Vesper Peak was an ideal location for a last minute weekday hike. The trail was nearly snow free up to about 100 feet below Headlee Pass, and for most of the traverse over to Lake Elan. Vesper had 2-3 feet of snow above the lake and a well beaten path broken in by at least 5 pairs of snowshoes since Friday. I reached the summit at 10 am without snowshoes, and experienced only minor post-holing, mostly on the way down. Sperry peak appeared to have just a light dusting, most of which was caught by small vegetation. Both of the dogs did great on Vesper but Sperry seemed to have more scrambling than I wanted to drag them along for. This was Maverick's first serious hike since his knee surgery nearly six months ago, and all signs point to a 100% recovery. We saw about 20 people and a few dogs on the way out.



We hit the trail at 7 a.m. as the sun began to rise. Alpenglow struck the top of Sperry Peak as we crossed the North ridge of Morning Star. Fall colors were pushing through all of the green in the South Fork Stillaguamish River Valley. I noticed one of the mine entrances described in several trip reports I have read, more on that later. Small patches of snow began in the switchbacks leading up to Headlee Pass. The talus field traverse beyond the pass was nearly snow free, but Vesper Peak was blanketed in the white stuff. We crossed Vesper Creek and started up the ridge while a 4-some broke down their camp on Lake Elan, the surface of which was half covered in slush.