July 3: Camped at War Creek Campground on the Twisp River. Strangely, on the day before Fourth of July weekend, we were the only ones in the entire campground. Later, we learned that this campground is notorious for its rattlesnakes. Very peaceful though, and we didn't see any. July 4: Drove a few miles to the Eagle Creek Trailhead and hit the dusty trail. Trail is in excellent condition. The ford of Eagle Creek is straightforward. About 30 feet downstream there's a relatively easy crossing that is aided by plentiful over-hanging slide alder, which can be used to pull yourself across. From there, we hiked the Oval Creek Trail up to Middle Oval Lake. Stunning! We set up camp on a warm sunny afternoon and lounged about. In the late afternoon, we hiked-scrambled up the ridge to Oval Pass, bagged an un-named and airy summit above Middle Oval, then wandered the high ridgeline to the summit of Gray Peak and then down the ridge to the saddle between Gray and Courtney, at which point we headed back to Middle Oval. There were a couple of snowfields in the higher places that were somewhat hard. We didn't use our ice axes, but it sure was nice to have poles. We were the only ones at Middle Oval that night. July 5: We hiked back up the trail to the Gray-Courtney saddle, then found a way trail along Courtney. It was descending too much for our taste, so we branched off and commenced a long, loose, and very annoying traverse of Courtney's south side. This was a stupid idea. It would have been better to start the climb from Fish Creek Pass (from which point it's straightforward and simple) or possibly take the ridgeline all the way from the Gray-Courtney saddle (a large party did this at the same time, much slower than we were). Along the traverse my wife took a roughly 3-foot tumble onto her side on loose talus and broke her finger (we confirmed with the doctor later), but not badly. She's a bad-ass, so we continued. We eventually reached the defined bootpath leading up from Fish Creek Pass, which we ascended to achieve the summit easily. There is absolutely no snow on Courtney, nor on the other nearby peaks—at least not on the scrambling routes. Ate lunch there, then descended to the pass and to Star Lake. We gave up on doing Buttermilk and Oval, which had been in the original plan. We hiked the Summit Trail to the Horseshoe Basin camp (just below Tuckaway Lake on the Summit Trail). This portion of the Summit Trail has burned recently and there is debris and new plant growth in the ash -- it could use a little TLC. My wife was feeling kind of lousy at this point -- did I mention she's pregnant? -- so I emptied by day pack there, then hiked up over Oval Pass and back to Middle Oval. By now it was raining -- super! -- so I jammed everything back at camp into my packing, tying stuff onto the outside, then hiked back up over Oval and down to Horseshoe Basin. We set up camp, ate dinner, taped her finger up, then to bed. One other party was camped with us. July 6: Star Peak today. We retraced our steps along the Summit Trail, then hiked up to the pass south of Star Peak. From here, we ascended via bootpath along the ridges of Star Peak, steadily gaining elevation. The ascent route is much easier than it appears from a distance – with poles for balancing, the terrain is quite encouraging. We summated Star – a truly lovely summit – shortly after noon – then descended to a high col for a long lunch. We descend by the bootpath directly to Star Lake (again, easier than it looks from a distance) where we sacked out on some warm granite boulders for a while. Then hiked back to Horseshoe Basin for dinner and sleep. We were alone at Horseshoe Basin this night. July 7: Packed everything up and headed the other way on the Summit Trail, climbing the pass, then descending to Eagle Creek; then to North Fork Fish Creek for a snack. Then up another long pass, which still has some snow cover (easily traveled by backpackers), for a long lunch on a high knoll overlooking the entire world. (The Summit Trail is in pretty good shape at higher elevations; where it passes through forested areas there is downfall, including a very large pile somewhat south of the N. Fk. Fish Crk junction. In general, it needs a trail crew.) Then 3 miles to Juanita Lake, which is drastically under-sold in the books: it’s a terrific larch-and-granite parkland. We didn’t have national park permits because the Twisp Ranger Station is closed (who knew?). We camped anyway, which didn’t really matter because we were totally alone the entire time. We walked up to War Creek Pass in the evening and spent the waning daylight watching marmots and golden eagles. There's basically no snow anywhere in the Juanita vicinity. July 8: We packed up early, hiked up to Purple Pass and then began the long knee-busting 5,900-foot descent to Stehekin. The trail is mostly in good shape, but is brushy in wet areas. The miles fly by. We arrived a bit after 11:00 and soon were camped at Purple Point, chowing down on take-out cheeseburgers from the Landing Resort. Perfection. We spent one night at Purple Point, then two nights at the Stehekin Valley Ranch. Truly a lovely area. My folks were kind enough to give us a car shuttle from the Chelan boat dock back to our car on the Twisp River. About ½ mile from the car, we were surprised to find a 2-foot diameter ponderosa fallen completely across the road. (This was a Friday night at about 5:00 p.m.) Yikes. It’s a dead-end road, so there was no way to retrieve the car. We were glad to be on the civilization side though. In a sequence of events that is too much to recount here, we found a trusty 76-year-old local by the name of Frank Austin – as colorful a guy as you could hope to meet – who handles a chainsaw with artistic grace. Long story short: we were quaffing beer at the Twisp Brewery only about an hour-and-a-half after we had intended to be. Thanks, Frank! The two other vehicles at the trailhead will probably never know how trapped they almost were.

Group of three will always refer to this hike as the Death March....because of 10 degree nights and a snow covered trail that was borderline impossible to find, lastly we had the company of a cougar. So got on ferry with idea of getting off at Prince Creek, hike up it to Chelan Summit trail and exit via Purple Pass....wrong!...too late of the year to be dropped off. So....

Day 1 Wed Oct 24 11miles  Got off at Stehekin at 11am, beat feet down Lakeshore trail to Fish Creek,take a left up it and encounter many blowdowns from old burn area...got to area of the Fish Creek shelter but had burned down. Started raining, temps dropping to 30s. Little did we know, this was the easy day.

Day 2 Thurs Oct 25 9 miles Woke to beautiful, sunny day with frost covering everything. As we got to 4000' and crossed creek , encountered icy trail then snow...inches...then feet....1- 4 feet.  Postholing every step as was all new snow and nobody had been thru trail. So it took a lot of extra energy for all but mostly for the lead...plus had to rely on blazes and general guesses about where the trail would be. We were looking to get to Deephole Spring...and found it! Also kind of a bare area on the trees...cleared away snow in clearing and built big fire...all night fire. Everything was freezing, temp was it 10 degrees, slept with water filter so that it would work. We had a bottle of single malt, Abundah Abelour, that got us thru the night. Beautiful full moon, didn't know we had company until the next morning.

Day 3 Fri Oct 26 8 miles So the decision was to continue or turn back. We had a 6200' pass to cross to get to Juanita Lake...but where was the trail? As I was reconning the area to try to pickup the trail....found cougar prints...they have big paws! So found some faint impressions of a trail, followed it towards pass...breaking trail...once I felt assured we could get up and over..went back and got the other two. So up over pass, more cougar prints but at the top they went one way and we went the other way to Juanita Lake. Trail hard to find all the way but knew we had to get to the saddle...of course lake was froze up, but able to break ice to get filtered water. Great campsite, another big fire, decided to break trail up to Purple Pass.Built a snowman at top on the sign to welcome us the next morning.

Day 4 Oct 27 9 miles Got up before sun us up, can't be late for ferry and concerned about getting down Purple Pass with snow. Got up to pass, great view of lake, North Cascades and beginning of winter as snow is capping the range. Down we go, felt like a 100 switchbacks...snow ran out quickly, quivering quads and knees got us to the café. Food and warmth and off to ferry. Great trip in retrospect...just glad we didn't meet the cat and made it thru the snow and cold. Beautiful scenery 

Happy trails

Purple Pass from Stehekin Landing. Contrary to the most recent Trail report by NOCA posted below, the trail was not snow free to the summit nor fully logged out. However, the snow that was present was not difficult to cross. Lake Chelan elevation is at 1100' and the pass is at 6900'. Distance from Stehekin Landing to Purple Pass: 7.5 miles. I encountered patchy snow on the trail at 5900'. Recommend ice ax. One large pine tree was somewhat difficult to climb over. In all, the trail is in very good condition. Views are spectacular. I did not hike beyond the pass, but looking toward Juanita Lake, it appeared that the lake and campground were most likely still under snow. The trail to Boulder Butte likewise was under patchy snow. As a bonus, I saw a doe with two nursing fawns about one mile up from Stehekin.

My pals and I took the Lady of the Lake ferry to Stehekin, then made an attempt on Boulder Butte. It was quite warm as we started up the Purple Pass trail. We were surprised to find snow patches at 2300'. After the stream crossing at 2600' the snow was abundant but we were able to follow the trail until about 3000'. We made camp at 3300' in the forest. We placed our cooking area atop a rocky outcrop with big views - down to Stehekin and the lake, and up to Castle Rock and Tupshin, up the Stehekin valley to McGregor and Rainbow, and south to the mighty Entiat Mountains. Next day we found the trail but lost it again in the snow. We snowclimbed, first post-holing then on snowshoes up to about 6500'. Used ice axes at a couple steep steps. The sun was baking the snowpack and I felt fear of a small slide carrying us over a cliff. Anyway, it had already been a big day so we turned around. Still, I wish we had finished it. There is a wooded knob a few hundred feet higher that would've been a satisfying summit. Next time for sure. It was mighty fine to snowcamp there another night. Easy enough to pack up the next morning and get down in time for the boat. We even had time for lunch at the restaurant in Stehekin. Good friends, big views of North Cascades, and we even had peach pie. All in all a fine spring snow climb. -Dox