Left the trailhead about 11am. It appears there are a couple of different trailheads that all lead to a path paralleling the road. We parked in the big lot almost opposite of the horse camp and walked about .25 mi before turning to the right up the Blackjack Ridge trail. The trail goes through forest climbing fairly steeply except for one brief respite. Eventually we broke out into the meadow/burn at about 1.30. Stopped here to enjoy the silvery trees and the view--somewhat marred by clouds on the west side--and eat lunch. We started up towards the summit again around 3.00. The trail to the summit is somewhat hard to find, but just start heading up where you think it'll be and you'll find it. Made the summit about 3.30--an easy scramble at the end. Enjoyed the view and headed back after about 10 minutes. The steep downhill was tiring, but we made it back to the car around 6. A few too many trees for my taste, but once you break out of them the hike is awesome! It'd have been even better if we had had the full view. The trail's well engineered throughout and we saw no one, evn on a beautiful Saturday in late July.

Bootjack Mountain Bootjack Mountain is a superb view point, possibly the best one I have been to in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The approach via Blackjack Ridge is a delight: open, green meadows, awash in wildflowers and surrounded by fantastic views. I was at the Jack Pine trailhead at 5:00am, where I spent 15min searching for the Blackjack Ridge trailhead in the wrong spot; I eventually found it not 20 yards away from my car! Another 15min was spent setting off and then returning to put on full wets; the brush was soaked from the overnight rain. Finally, I was on my way by 5:30am. The trail was quite steep, as it switch-backed more than 3,000ft to Blackjack Ridge’s crest. Highlights along the way: numerous cobwebs that had me spitting and cursing as they wrapped their clammy selves all over my face; a nice level spot halfway up that was notable for being about the only gentle spot the whole way up; nice views (through the trees) of Grindstone Mountain across the valley on Icicle Ridge. Finally, I made my way out of the forest to reach the ridge crest at 6,000ft. Immediately, I was treated to a beautiful, ghostly white forest of burnt trees. Wildflowers carpeted the way, as I made my along the ridge. Open meadows lead me to 6,100ft, where I left the trail to begin the climb up along the ridge crest to Bootjack Mountain. Here the first full-on views of Mount Stuart appeared, along with Eightmile Mountain. The Jack Creek valley lead the eye to Stuart Pass and still snow-capped Ingalls Peak. Behind me, Icicle Ridge was, for the moment, obscured by early morning clouds. With Sixtysix Hundred Ridge to my right and Jack Ridge to my left, I made my up along the open sloped meadows of Blackjack Ridge. Bootjack Mountain’s summit was now in view. The going was slow, since every upward step seemed to bring another opportunity to photograph something new. Finally, after passing though one last glacier lily field, I ascended the last few rocky feet to the summit. By now the early morning clouds had been banished by the sun and blue skies dotted by a few puffball clouds formed a magnificent canvass for nature to paint her magic. Grindstone Mountain, Cape Horn, Snowgrass Mountain and Big Lou crowned Icicle Ridge to the north. Cashmere Mountain, Eightmile Mountain and Mount Stuart led the march from northeast to southeast. Mount Rainier trumpeted the charge to the south. To the southwest, Blackjack ridge continued on a knife-edge to Highchair Mountain. The Cradle, Mount Daniel and Sixtysix Hundred ridge dominated the west. Last, but definitely not least, Glacier Peak to the northwest. It felt good to be alive! More photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shahiddurrani/sets/72157600586700889 Stats: • Distance: 7mi • Elevation gain: 4,100ft, High point: 6,789ft • Hiking time: 5.5hrs

This is a good workout and a way to avoid crowds in the Leavenworth area. In fact, we saw nobody on this hike, which is amazing for a clear Saturday in August. Of course, there is a reason. My old 100 hikes book says something about the trail being ""up and down"", which makes no sense. It is basically up, up, up. In only 3 miles you will be rewarded with stunning views of cashmere, glacier peak and stuart. It is shaded most of the way until you break out into an old burn area of now white tree trunks at about 2.75 miles. We found the trail to be in excellent condition. After reaching about the halfway point we had enough breeze to keep bugs away the rest of the trip. No blowdown to speak of, only a tiny patch of snow on the north slope of bootjack mountain (a scramble from the 100 hikes lunch spot on the shoulder). Stats: 3miles (3250' gain) to lunch on the shoulder of bootjack mtn, another 0.25 (400 gain) to bootjack summit.

The weather forecast for the weekend was a bit iffy so we headed east to try a ridge walk I had read about: Blackjack Ridge to Bootjack Mtn. The original idea was to go up the ridge, over the mountain, down the other side and hook up with a trail that would take us down to Jack Creek and then back to the beginning. However, the folks at the ranger station in Leavenworth were not sure if there was a bridge over Jack Creek, so our trip ended up not being a loop; just up and back. The trail starts near the end of the Icicle Creek road at 2900 ft. The first 1/2 mile or so takes it pretty easy then the real elevation gain begins. We passed one short flat section about half way up but the climbing continued to approximately 6100 ft. At that point the ridge levels out for a few hundred yards then starts up again. We elected to set up camp at the first suitable flat spot and took a brief nap. After resting a bit, Zoe the dog and I wandered upwards to the top of Bootjack Mtn. Clouds obscured the view so we headed back to camp through a light rain. The clouds disappeared in the evening and we woke to fabulous views. We packed up and headed back to Bootjack Mtn and this time the scenery was wonderful. Mt. Stuart looked very grand. The views north were also worth the trip. Beyond Chiwaukum we could see Clark and Tenpeak Mtn, Glacier, Sloan, Pugh, Baker, etc. We toyed with the idea of heading on to Highchair Mtn. but realized that would make for a very late return. Besides the clouds were beginning to grow. By the time we got half way down the trail we started to hear thunder above us. Trail conditions: Several downed trees which were not difficult to bypass in one way or another. Snow patches started above 5000 ft, and covered the trail above 5500 ft or so. Above our camp at 6100 we were on snow most of the way to the top of Bootjack Mtn. This trail has the look of one which is not heavily travelled. During hot summer weather it would be a tough climb (although wooded most of the way) but water would be an issue. Bugs were not a problem.

With ""new summit"" fever, our happy group of 3 left the car about 10am heading up the ""abandoned"" Blackjack Ridge trail (#1565). This trail is in great shape gaining the 3000' in nice switchbacks on soft trail. At about 2 1/2 miles the trail leaves the forest and enters the silver snag area which was beautiful, abundant with long grass, many wildflowers, and bluebirds. At the ridge where the trail descends to the valley we headed up the ridge to Bootjack Mt with our overnight packs for lunch on the summit. We then descended the rocky ridge toward Highchair Mt. to a bench just below the saddle with a small pond and a couple of trickle creeks nearby. By then some of us older folks were getting a bit pooped so we set up camp, loafed around had dinner and then got itchy feet again. We decided to head for the summit of Highchair (7016'). We headed upslope aiming for the right hand side of the summit. This was the best route and we were on top in about 35 min. The view is quite spectacular of The Cradle, and all the big peaks above Icicle Creek. Sunday morning we headed to where we could see the Blackjack Ridge trail intersecting the next ridge to the west thinking we would head for Cradle lake to look around. We dropped our packs and side-hilled to another saddle West of Highchair Mt, but decided we had had enough. We took the Blackjack Ridge trail down into the creek valley through many meadows with abundant wildflowers and lush vegetation. This section of trail is sketcy in places but pretty easy to follow; does not have much sign of use. It was all quite beautiful, but eventually the party was over and we had to begin ascending back to the ridges running off of Blackjack Mt. We gained and lost 5-600' two different times before finally regaining the ridge at about 6100' and the descent to the car. This entire trip exceeded expections. The elevation gain for 2 days was 6345' and about 18 miles round trip.