May I suggest that you visit Larchland now. Not much green left and the golden glow of those that have turned will mesmerize you. About a foot of snow in the basin. Made it up to the 6700 foot pass where #1509 plummets to the Rock Creek valley. From there you can see part of Big G. Pretty cold on the ridge and very dark by 7:30 in the forest.

I saw no other people on this 2 day loop trip, returning via trail #1528. Rock creek trail is well maintained, with one or two downed trees. After the second crossing of rock creek at mile 7 or so I camped at rock creek meadow, which has 2 camp sites. At the top of the basin of Rock Creek and up to the pass to Carne Mountain there was some snow, but the route was easy to follow. Great views at Carne Mountain! Green trails map for trail #1528 is a dotted green line, but the trail is fairly easy to follow, except for on short segement. After the trail traverses over and down to a saddle just below the baren north face of Old Gibb mountain the trail disappeared. I took a grassy gully downhill for about 1/8-1/4 mile or so, and saw a pink route marker on a tree. 50 feet further downhill from the marker I saw a carne to the left, so I turned left and went about 100 feet further downhill, and found the trail again by a tiny green spring. The trail from here on out goes steeply up and down many times, to the maintainted trail at Estes Butte lookout.

Since there aren't too many reports on this Chiwawa Valley trail I thought I'd add a more recent one even though we didn't get too far. Hot Memorial Day weekend over here. Decided to try a moderate and potentially shady hike for our sake and the sake of our 2 year old in the pack (he did hike a portion before falling asleep on Dad's back, though). We made it 2.5 miles up the trail to the intersection with the Basalt Ridge trail, plus about 5 more minutes up the Basalt Ridge trail looking for view potential. To this point the trail is mostly shady with decent views of Estes Peak or at least the nose of the ridge leading to Estes Peak. The tread is very smooth the whole way and the grade moderate. Mtn bikes are permitted; but we saw only one very polite one. The gain of about 900 feet is easy and three creek crossings added some coolness. No real views however, just a few tantalizing peek a boos, which was a little disappointing. We enjoyed this short 5 mile hike as a leg stretcher in some pretty woods on a hot day. No bugs. One easy blowdown.

My planned 4-day trip partner cancelled out, so left with a 4-day supply of food and nothing to do, I took off up the Estes Butte trail. This trail is in excellent condition to the lookout -- just a couple minor blowdowns. The trail was re-routed (presumably for the horsie contingent?) and climbs at a reasonable gradient. Except where it's the old route. You can see the old route from time to time. No snow to the lookout site. Past the lookout, things change considerably. The trail isn't maintained, and can be quite hard to follow in a few spots. I wandered down a wrong path at Estes Butte, where I found sawed logs galore. However, the compass bearing was incorrect. I was discombobulated all day because the altimeter was ""off"" by 600'. But later I discovered that I'm just a dufus and it was right on all day. The route follows the ridge with glorious views. Near Old Gib it dives down to go around this ""volcanic neck"" (so Crowder and Tabor call it). But I had to climb a real volcanic neck. The route goes well on the south ridge, only becoming class 2 in a few sections. Right before the summit is a gully that looked attractive, heading down towards the west. Fortunately, it went quite well. Even more fortunately, I found the Estes Butte trail right where it is supposed to be. This section of trail is rarely travelled. There was considerable snow rounding the mountain, but I managed to find the trail by careful map studying. In this area I saw a porcupine. First time to see a quillmeister up close and personal. It rambled off and climbed a tree. The route continues along the ridge, with considerable snow cover. En route I had to climb up to the former lookout site south of Carne Mt. Lots of snow in the vicinity, trails are hard to find. By this time it's late, there are no campsites with flowing water, and I'm getting cold in the fierce wind. So I dropped to the east side, slightly down the Rock Creek trail and set up camp on a flat spot of snow. With one quart of unfrozen water, and a weak alcohol stove, it was a quick dinner and hope for good water someplace for breakfast! That evening it snowed a teeny bit. Day 2 I traversed off trail to Pomas Pass. Early in the day I found water and cooked up a big pot of oatmeal. Mmmm. Better. The route went well. Pomas Pass has lots of snow too. I dropped down the Pomas Creek trail on steep snow. By 5700' it was mostly bare. This trail is rarely travelled and could use an army of loppers. Some of the tread looks lonely and untrodden. But it goes well. The crossing of Ice Creek was made easier with a nicely placed couple of logs, a couple hundred feet upstream. It would be a challenge to cross without those logs. The trail continues to the Ice Creek trail. Here I found the first footprints in many miles. Ice Creek is mostly bare to the horsie camp at about 5500'. After that, the route is snow covered. I followed bootprints near the top, where an ice axe is mandatory for the sane. Topping out at lower Ice Lakes was a sigh of relief, and a spectacular view. Spectacle Buttes, as a matter of fact, along with Maude and the valley far down Ice Creek. I camped between the two lakes on a soft bed of pumice. Day 3 I hoped the snow would soften enough that I could traverse steep snow to the upper Ice Lake. Fortunately it went well. An hour later I was at the pass South of Mt Maude. I took a shortcut to the Carne Mt high route, then followed it to Carne Mt. Lots of steep, very hard snow. I really wished I had crampons. But later in the day it improved. At Carne Mt I had completed the top half of a ""figure 8"", so I crossed my route and headed down the Rock Creek trail. The east side of the crest also has been hammered by avalanche this winter. Many trees were knocked down and have probably crossed the trail in a few places. But since its under snow it's hard to tell. By 5200' I found the trail. It's patchy snow down to the lower crossing of Rock Creek. First sign of the elusive ""lug-soled hominid"" on this trail in many miles, and soon I saw their shelter near the trail. It's a long, long, long, long and frankly quite boring slog out to the Chiwawa River Road. Of the three routes to Carne Mt, this is my least favorite by far. Lots of pesky blowdowns in the upper section of the trail. Lots of bugs in the lower section where the horsies have been walking recently. Several pretty muddy areas as well.

Sleeting going over Stevens Pass, snow on the ridges above 4500-5000', but off I was to dry land and adventure up the Chiwawa River Valley. The peaks west of the area (i.e. Mount David, etc...) all were white half way up. However the recent moisture never made it as far as the Entiat Mountains and I never hit snow as I declared today the day to explore around Basalt Ridge and other area trails. I hiked up the Rock Creek trail from the main road #62 to start off the day in sunshine. Rock Creek was extremely photogenic and lined in areas with yellow douglas maples and quaking aspen trees. Much of the 2.5 miles up the trail are away from the creek, but still lovely. I then hit the trail junction and hiked up to Basalt Ridge where the trail hits the ridge just off the place where the Basalt Pass trail comes up to the pass from the other side. I had planned on hiking up to the summit of Basalt Peak, but no more than 10 minutes after starting on up that way on trail #1515 the western clouds suddenly blew across the valley and socked me in! I waited a bit, but didn't want to waste time waiting nor waste it stomping that way into a cloud, so turned the other way and hiked east on the Basalt Ridge trail. Sure enough, by the time I was at 5700' heading in the direction of what eventually goes to Garland Mountain I was high in the sun and views. Fall colors are everywhere now and there are even a few token stands of larch on the NE side of Basalt Peak. I ate some food, and while hiking back down to Basalt Pass saw Basalt Peak come back out to play again. Alas, I was out of time to hike way up that stretch by now, so I hiked on down the Basalt Pass trail #1530 down a VERY steep 1.5 miles to the trailhead on FS 6210. Huh' This isn't where I parked. Aha...little did the world know that I had stashed my mountain bike in the forest at this trailhead earlier in the day! The 5.8 mile all downhill blast out on the bike on a very good dirt surface was one of the funniest times I've had all summer coming out from a hike!! I decided not to wonder what would happen should I wipe out going about 25-30 MPH on the bike with a full pack and tripod whizzing on down behind me on my back! Once to the main road (only 13 minutes to get there), it was an easy ride up the Chiwawa River Road about five miles back to my parked rig. Life was indeed grand today.