BUGS, a BEAR, and BEES!

There are just enough patches of snow at the top to fill up your water bottle, but they won't be there long. 

The road is rough with ruts, washouts, and potholes.  I made it to within a mile of the trail with my compact car and hoofed it from there. 

I did not see one cloud all day--except for clouds of bugs in some places- especially at the lookout.  They were annoying, but I've experienced much worse.  I'm glad I didn't do my originally planned hike to Thorp Lake.  

I encountered a bear on the trail about halfway up. It was on the trail and about 20 paces from me, so I backed up and out of sight and started yelling.

The rest of my hike was punctuated by "Hey Bear!" in multiple accents. FYI- a Southern accent seems to carry farther.  

Did not see another soul or car the whole day- but it is Monday. 

Once at the lookout I got out my painting kit, and painted away while hornets, mosquitos, and gnats happily stung and bit me. Totally worth it!

The flowers are at their peak right now!

The road leading to the trailhead is extremely rough. My Hyundai elantra was able to make it 1 mile up, at which point I ran into a gully that would be difficult even for an SUV. Pulled off to the side and hiked the second mile of road to the trailhead. 

Beautiful hike bursting with wildflowers! Paintbrush, lupines, yellow glacier lilies, larkspur, penstemon were all peaking. Trail is steep at times and brushy, but easy enough to follow. I was the only person here on a Saturday mid-day, unbelievable! I did run into two other parties near the lookout who had taken a different route. Overall excellent experience, minus the sketchy road. 

Just did this hike by accident, we ended up on the Knox Creek access road instead of the Thorp Creek trail. The Knox Creek Rd after about a mile is in terrible condition, impassable even in a SUV. So we parked off the side of the road at about a mile in and hiked up to the Knox Creek trail. 
The trail is in good shape and the flowers were spectacular. The first mile is quite a steep slog but completely snow free. We didn’t encounter any snow at all till after the intersection with the Nachess Ridge trail. Maybe two spots were you need to climb over downed trees.  Always a stunning view from the Lookout and snow free up there as well. Bugs are starting to come out so bring your bug spray. 

I attempted to hike Thorp Mountain via Knox creek today (12/5/21). The road becomes impassable about 1 mile before the trailhead due to snow and rough road conditions. I parked along the side of the road and started hiking up the road towards the trailhead, there was about 4-6 inches of fresh snow covering the road. I made it 1.4 miles on the trail, until just below Kachess Ridge where I turned around due to postholing to my knees and falling short on time. The trail is completely snow covered with varying snow conditions throughout. Some places there was wind blown snow with a crust that I kept punching through and some places was powder and about 6-8 inches deep. You must rely on GPS/Maps to navigate the trail due to snow. I used crampons and an ice axe for most of the trail, although snow shoes would've been useful at times. I came across many animal tracks, but didn't see another person all day.

Dayhike of Thorp Mountain/Lookout on October 31st.

We tried the Thorp Creek approach first. Road to this trailhead was fine for all vehicles, but we were turned around by the creek crossing which was running too high to rock-hop, and the tiny log across the creek was covered in ice. After some fumbling around and trying to supplement the crossing with more branches, we decided it wasn't worth falling in and it was too cold for us to want to wade.

We left and headed to the Knox Creek trailhead instead. We opted to park about half or three-quarters of a mile from the trailhead where the road got rough and rocky. A proper high clearance vehicle would be recommended to go past this point.

We walked the road, which was a mellow grade but occasionally ice-covered and slippery, to the tiny unmarked trailhead. The trail climbed up from here to the ridge, starting out snow-free but eventually turning into snow, with some icy sections where spikes might be helpful. We lost the trail for a minute in the snow but managed to pick it up again. There were also a handful of blowdowns to crawl under or over.

We headed the wrong way on the ridge for a little way to a small viewpoint before realizing we should have turned right at the junction when we popped up. We backtracked and headed the other way, following the ridge through the forest and eventually climbing up some more open final switchbacks to reach the lookout and some great views.

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