September 1st, 2007: Leroy Creek to Ice Lakes Meadows, waterfalls and steep scree slopes, culminating in a whiff of rarified air and two stunning lakes. One week earlier I had gazed across the Phelps Creek valley at mighty Mount Maude and seemingly impassable scree slopes guarding a saddle on its south ridge; access to the Ice Lakes. It had not looked very appetizing so I was a bit apprehensive as I started my hike. It was 5:30am and the Phelps Creek valley was untouched by any sunlight. However, the moon was bright enough that I did not need my headlamp; even my shadow was starkly outlined before me. An hour after starting, immediately after crossing Leroy Creek, I took a hard right, along the Leroy Creek trail. The going was steep but the sight of a beautiful cascading waterfall, a short distance into the climb was most entertaining. Unfortunately, the trail got even steeper and remained steep all the way to Leroy Basin. Leroy Basin was a beautiful spot: A bowl shaped meadow, cut by burbling streams and walled in by 9000ft+ Seven-fingered Jack and Mount Maude. Ooohing and ahhing, I skirted below the craggy cliffs of Mount Maude and headed south towards an obvious saddle. The trail vended its way through rocky, grassy meadows, then through some woods and finally through a boulder field. And smack in the middle of said boulder field was The Gully. Ahh…The Gully: A 20-30ft deep groove cut in the mountain side, sided by steep crumbly dirt and rock. The only way across is to find any route through which one is reasonable comfortably with. Cairns mark 2 possible spots (the lower one is easier), but since the sides are constantly crumbling, the proof is left as an exercise for the reader. The near (north) end was not that steep, but the far end was pretty steep. As I worked my way up it I was ever mindful of the fact that the boulder I was clinging to might change its mind at any moment and decide that it wasn’t quite satisfied with its current resting place… Safely across, I headed over to an obvious saddle at around 6,600ft on a western arm of Mount Maude. I had been deep in shadow till this point. Now, I was dazzled by sunlight spilling over the south shoulder of Maude. Somewhere close above, hidden by deep shadows and the bright sunlight was the ‘trail’ to a 7,700ft saddle. In front of me was a deep 270 degree bowl-shaped basin walled by steep slopes. One part of the trail (the Leroy Creek High Route) lead down into the basin while another headed up the west ridge of Maude. I headed steeply up the second option. Halfway up, the skinny trail started to traverse southeast across scree slopes and a sketchy route appeared where none had seemed possible. Before I knew it I was cresting the 7,700ft saddle. It was 9:15am. From my balcony in the sky, I decompressed for a bit and enjoyed the sights. To the west were glaciated Clark Mountain and Glacier Peak. Far in the distance to the southwest Mount Rainier and Mount Daniel ruled the roost. To the north Mount Maude’s summit slopes rose gently up to 9,082ft. But, what trumped all, was the sight of stunning upper Ice Lake just a bit below me. Mount Maude wrapped around a large part of the lake while numerous other peaks took care of the rest. Far in the distance I could see the Chelan Mountains rising above smoke from the Domke Lake Fire. Upper Ice Lake itself was a gorgeous deep blue. Pretty meadows and snow-melt fed streams led to the lake. I dropped down to upper Ice Lake on crumbly dirt and rock. Pumice (from an earlier Glacier Peak eruption) coated a large portion of the area. A few larch trees dotted the landscape and ice polished granite created a nice contrast for them. I wandered around before dropping further down to the lake outlet stream. I followed this down steep slopes to a delightful meadow that would lead me to lower Ice Lake. Upper Ice Lake’s outlet culminated in a lovely waterfall that gathered itself in a couple of pretty larch ringed tarns, before finally heading over to lower Ice Lake. Lower Ice Lake was just as nice as upper Ice Lake. A pretty little island was a nice feature and views of the Entiat Mountains range as well as Spectacle Buttes were stunning. I had the place to myself and enjoyed myself hugely. The way back was tedious. I spent a bit of time exploring the Leroy Creek High route option for a short stretch, but gave up after realizing that it was costing me too much time on this trip. The Gully was definitely harder on the way back, but careful attention did the trick and I was safely across. Additional photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shahiddurrani/sets/72157601816587499 Overall Stats (including all side trips): • Distance: 18-19mi • Elevation gain: 6,820ft • Hiking time: 11hrs

This is the summer I finally took a chance on exploring the Entiat river area of Glacier Peaks wilderness. Having driven state route 97A between Wenatchee and Lake Chelan many times, I'd assumed the Entiat trails would be treeless scorching death marches. The trailhead for the Entiat river trail is 38 miles up the river from the highway, and it looks nothing like the area around the town of Entiat. I brought along wonder mutt Yeti for company, and hiked in 6 miles to a campsite on the edge of the Snowbrushy meadow after the long drive from the west side of the pass. The trailhead parking area was blanketed by flies. The trail is open to stock, and there were many horse trailers in the parking lot when I returned on the weekend. It's a better idea to park at the Cottonwood campground 1/4 mile before the trailhead or at least stop there to prepare gear so no time is wasted in the trailhead parking area. The Entiat river trail has been cleared of blowdowns and is in great shape. The water crossings are ankle deep or less. The river valley is teaming with deer. Yeti kept me on alert all night with his growling at the deer passing through the meadow. The next day, we continued up the Entiat river trail to the junction with the Ice Creek trail. There's no bridge crossing, but a jumble of downed trees can be crawled over if you insist on keeping your feet dry. Yeti wasn't having any of that sketchy crossing, so we went another 50 yards up river to the stock ford and waded across in knee deep water. The Ice creek trail hasn't been worked on by a trail crew anytime recently. Perhaps it's been several years. Dozens of snags from a fire have fallen onto the trail in the first two miles. Then several areas of dozens of trees have been blown onto the trail by avalanches coming off the peaks to the north. Expect slow going here. I let Yeti off leash to find his own way through the jungles of blow downs while I mostly tried to go over the top. We found both crossings of Ice Creek to be only shin deep, and not unusually cold, but finding the trail again on the opposite side of the upper crossing is not obvious. Head upstream 15-20 yards in the creek bead to find the trail. We lost the trail again in the meadow above the creek. After stumbling around following game trails for a few minutes we found it again. The campsite at the end of the ""maintained"" Ice Creek trail is at the head of the valley within earshot of the falls from the upper lake. Now the real work begins. It's 1300 feet of elevation gain in about a mile. Much of that gain is in the last two hundred yards. It's silly steep. There are easier trails to high alpine lakes, but this one is beautiful. To catch a sunrise down the valley, we set up camp on the ridge top above lower Ice Lake rather than dropping down into the lake basin . We didn't expect the winds to gust all night, blowing dirt through camp. At least the wind kept Yeti from hearing the deer that wandered through, and minimized the bugs. The water is nearly ice cold. There are still snow patches melting into lower Ice Lake. I stood in the lake and splashed water on myself, but I couldn't see diving in. On the return trip we camped at the Ice Creek trail junction with the Entiat river. There are camps on both sides of the river. The parking area was popular when we returned on Saturday. Most of the people I encountered were headed for the closest destination, Myrtle Lake.

We were pleasantly surprised to encounter no wheeled traffic whatsoever on the first 4 miles of the Entiat River trail, which are open to trail bikes. The weather was hot and trail dusty but unpopulated -- we met a family hiking out from Myrtle Lake and that was it. We also found ""Marmot and Goat""'s report of July 2, 2005 quite useful. The log crossings were as he described, and the section of the Ice Creek trail above the second crossing is no longer underwater. We camped the first night at what Harvey Manning calls ""a Snowbrushy Meadow"" 6 miles from the trailhead. The sidetrail to the meadow, unsigned, takes off toward the river about 50 yards before the junction with trail #1230. There are at least two campsites in the trees on the edge of the meadow, one south and near the river, the other north and away from the river. Other than a few pesky no-see-ums, the bugs were absent. The second day, August 19, was as hot as the first and when we reached the campsite at the end of the Ice Creek trail, the site didn't seem all that great, being next to the trail, baking in the afternoon sun, and at least 100 yards of bashing through willows from the nearest water source, as the near channels were all dried up. We napped for an hour in the shade, then continued up the Ice Lakes trail, which is well established but gradually ratchets the steepness up to somewhere between torture and dangerous. I haven't been up Mailbox Peak, but the steep loose dirt and rocks of the last pitch of the trail before it traverses to the knoll above Lower Ice Lake must be at least as ""character-building."" However, the steep trail and 14 mile approach had done its work: we had the lakes to ourselves. We set up camp in a lovely spot maybe 100 yards beyond the outlet of Lower Ice Lake, overlooking the valley. The wind periodically picked up from above and either side, particularly in the late afternoon, but the site was open primarily downvalley, so we were pretty sheltered. The next morning, August 20, we had a bit of a shock. Mary tapped one of her camp shoes before putting it on, and out popped a big juicy Northern scorpion! So I guess even the Entiat headwaters qualify as ""eastern Washington."" Toward late morning we hiked up to Upper Ice Lake, following the route from the southwest corner of Lower Ice Lake to the outlet of Upper Ice Lake and thence up to the lake. Dipping our feet into the lake, we decided it was too cold for human immersion, so we hiked the length of it to the ramp route back down to Lower Ice Lake, getting a nice view of it from above shown in the first photo. I would agree with ""Marmot and Goat"" that the outlet route is easier, though there is a steep dirt stretch next to the outlet; however, if you survived the trail up to Lower Ice Lake this stretch is certainly no worse. Upon our return, we waded out to Lower Ice Lake's island in and went swimming in the deeper water on its other side. The wind picked up shortly afterward, cutting short our apres-swim basking, so we wandered a short way down the approach trail and picked a short pint of blueberries from a patch just below Lower Ice Lake. The berries are in the early stages here and are of middling size, but larger than the BB-sized ones along the Ice Creek Trail below. Our solitude wasn't disturbed until a party of three hiked by around 6pm, continuing to points unknown. Day four we packed up and hiked out to the car, encountering two hiker parties bound for Ice Lakes, a horse party bound for Entiat Meadows, and a solo horsewoman coming out from the Cow Creek trail. On the way out, we saw a lot of butterflies on the pearly everlasting by the trail, some of which are in photo #2.

Trail is in great condition all the way to Ice Lakes. 6 water crossings on rocks or trees. We followed the Entiat River 8 miles before crossing. The main log is OK, though slippery. Plenty of other logs just upstream that would also work. From this junction Ice Cr is crossed twice. For the first crossing we went downstream ~ 10 yards to some small logs. Second crossing on large tree. After this crossing the trail is underwater for ~25 yards. From here the views open up and Ice Cr camp is in easy reach. From the camp the trail climbs up the valley along the creek. 2 more easy crossings before a steep climb to the lower lake - some mud on trail. The trail from to the lake is faint, stay left of the rockslide and look for occasional cairns. Great camps at lower Ice lake, just a few snowpatches here and there. An obvious trail heads east around the lower lake to gain a ramp to the upper lake, however its easier to head west from the lower lake and ascent near the outlet of the upper lake The upper lake is 1/2 frozen still. From the upper lake the ascent of Mt Maude (9060') is ""trivial"" (according to FB). Some snow above the lake, but the south slope is snowfree and a trail ascends the left edge of the slope.

Started at the Spider Meadows trailhead at the end of Phelps Creek Road. Took the Carne Mountain trail off to the right about 10 mintues from the start. Carne Mountain is a 3,000 foot elevation gain in 3 miles. There is a small spring for water in the meadows just below Carne mountain. From the peak headed down the Rock creek trail until you reach a saddle and the Leroy Creek High route trail #1512. Headed towards mount Maude and then scrambled up towards a saddle which seem to go on forever. Slide down to the upper Ice lake and spent an hour in the hot sun. Had a report from the Ranger station on Lake Wenatchee that the Leroy Creek trail along the creek was washed out in serval places, so I headed back down the way I came up. Nine hours return.