Spent the long weekend out around the Entiat.

I drove up to North Tommy Trailhead in my Jeep and hiked to Klone Peak. Lots of snow along the trail and quite a few down trees. The trail after the first lookout (5863 according to my map) was where I ran into tons of snow and the trail was pretty hard to find (in spots).

I drove around to Maverick Saddle with my Jeep, stopping off at Sugarloaf first for breakfast. I did a big loop of Cougar Ridge / Mad River Trail, with a short detour along Billy Creek Trail (cool rugged area). There are lots of down trees up Cougar Ridge and south of Maverick Saddle down Mad River Trail, but very little snow there. I couldn't really find the trail though from Mad River Trail to Cougar Ridge, though. There was lots of snow past the road (FS 5700) and lots more when I got to Cougar Mountain. Going back to Maverick saddle from Cougar Mountain was tough in boots, but I made it work (I wish I'd brought my snowshoes). I called the Second Creek Fire in too (I spotted the fire up on Cougar).

Lots of flowers are in bloom right now down lower: paintbrush, lupine, tweedy, penstemon, and some arrowhead balsamroot. I spotted some shooting stars and glacier lilies up higher.

PS There's a huge boulder smack dab in the middle of the road by North Tommy Creek. I drove around it, but I would have had a hard time with a wider truck or a trailer.

Sunday, July 28^th:

I headed over Stevens Pass, past Lake Wenatchee, and out to FR6101.  The road was full of the usual potholes, but nothing really noteworthy up until Deer Camp.  Almost immediately upon turning that hair pin turn of FR6101, the road conditions changed.  The number of potholes increased, but still not too bad.  The problem was that the road became narrow to VERY narrow the whole 2.66 miles up to Maverick Saddle!  A rock wall on the right, a drop off on the left, and little room for error.  If there had been a car coming down toward me, options to pass were few and far between.  And backing up on that road would have been brutal at best.  I was sweating bullets and hoping against hope for no other cars!  That road was longest bloody 2.6 mile drive of my life!  I finally emerged into the large parking area at the Maverick Saddle TH, and was very relieved to be done with that bit and meet Fortified.  He had driven up from Mad River Road and had spent the previous night camping at Maverick Saddle. 

We loaded up the last items into the packs and headed North up the Mad River Trail.  The trail was dusty most of the time with some mild muddy areas.  Overall  it was a very cruisy and beautiful trail!  Different trails cut off to the left and right off to various creeks and ridges and we kept on straight.  Crossing Mad River was pretty easy this time of year.  I rock hopped and was able to keep my shoes dry.  The water was only about 8” deep at most.  The only real challenge of this trail was the dirt bikes and kept speeding though and stirring up clouds of dust!  They were all super polite, but we had to keep our ears open and get off the trail with plenty of time, but cause the bikes couldn’t see us with much notice with all the twists/turns in the trail.  At 8.3miles in, we took a left to have lunch at beautiful Mad Lake.  Fortified remembered coming here once as a kid on his old dirt bike many many moons ago and enjoyed reminiscing.  He even showed me the exact spot where he had fallen off his bike on a little bridge lol. 

We continued on past Marble Creek Camp (very nice spot with room for 2 or 3 tents) and up the switch backs and on to the Three Creeks Spring.  Thankfully water was running quite nicely there with room for quite a few tents in the trees nearby!  There were two older gentlemen already camped there who my Dad knew from years ago growing up in Entiat!  They had gone to school a few years apart and the gentleman’s mom had been my Dad’s teacher on one point!  Small word.  They had come up the Shetipo creek Trail and were planning to return to the Entiat valley/Cottonwood the same way.  Fortified and I had a lovely evening and slept well after our 12miles day. 

Monday, July 29^th

We got going in good time and continued heading north, past the Shetipo Creek trail junction and on to the Garland Peak Trail!  The next 4.6miles was a maze of downed trees and playing hide and seek with the bloody trail!  I was beyond grateful for Gaia on my phone.  The trail was accurately shown in the app and whenever we were confused, pulling up the app got us on track quite well : )  The Garland Peak Ridge is STUNNING!  If this trail was re-established, WOW!  I think it would be highly popular!  About half way along the ridge the weather moved in and dumped on us for about 20min, then stayed misty and damp for a few more hours.  It was slow going on the side hill with the trail remnants falling off the hillside.  The trail junction with Basalt Ridge Trail was an epically cool spot!  All open pumas field and felt so ethereal in the mist!  We emptied the dirt, pine needles, and grit out of our shoes and continued on. 

The brush and trees returned in force as we descended down the thousand feet or so under Rampart Mountain.  Here we lost the trail around the 6,500ft area several times, but ended up just cutting down to our right and picking up the trail again around 6300.  From there the trail was brushing but easy to follow all the way the stream crossing and camping area at 5900ft on the little tributary of Rock Creek.  We stopped here to empty our shoes again, eat, and inspect our various scratched and scrapes.  After a much needed rest, we started following the trail up the ridge to Fifth of July Pass!  This bit of trail was mostly easy to follow with just a few blow downs to navigate around and a deep layer of moss at time on the trail bed that felt magical!  Once at the pass, we took a breather, reminisce a bit as it had been a few years since our last visit to this spot, then continued on. 

The trail keeps going up a bit from Fifth of July pass in order to get above and avoid a cliff band.  The trail had deteriorated from what I remembered last time and we bumbled around in the rocks for a bit around 7,000ft before finding the trail again on the other side and beginning the long decent into Cow Creek Meadows.  This seemed to take much longer than it should have especially with rain threatening on and off again!  The views were amazing though!!  The rain held off just long enough for us to set up camp, filter water, and climb into our tents!  Very cool day!

Tuesday, July 30^th

The morning was beautiful with everything washed clean after the rain.  We packed up and headed down to Myrtle Lake for some breakfast.  The change here was very dramatic from my last visit!  The woods had been burned out in a fire and the beaver activity had raised the level of Myrtle lake by about 10ft!  Where I had eaten my lunch last visit was now feel underwater.  We did not filter water here to avoid any Giardia concerns and continued on to Anthem Creek and filled up there.  The last couple miles out to Cottenwood trailhead was Hot and Dusty!  There was one cute deer we followed down the trail who met us at the car.  Great Trip! 

We drove our second planed car down the Entiat River Road, hung a right at Ardenvoir, then up Tillicum Road.  We made a much needed bathroom stop just under Mosquite Ridge and continued driving North-ish, past Sugarloaf Peak lookout, and on to Maverick Saddle and the Upper Mad River Trailhead to where my car was waiting.

I gingerly oozed my car back down that bloody narrow 2.6mile Forest Road 6101 to Deer Camp and was home free!  I am so grateful to have this time with my Dad as he is in his 70’s but still hiking strong!  Great Trip!  Thank you Lord for these Mountains that are covered in your fingerprints! 

We did a 4-day/3-night loop from the 4th-7th of July, heading up the Shetipo Trail to meet the Garland Peak Trail. We followed the ridge with a climb of Rampart Mountain on the way, dropped down to Larch Lakes, further down to Myrtle Lake, and exited via the Entiat River Trail.

ROAD: Long, but managable in a normal car. There were a few bumpy/rough spots, but most of the road was in good shape. Outhouses were clean and stocked. NW Forest Pass/America the Beautiful for parking.

We parked at the Entiat River TH and walked back down the road to the Shetipo Trail near Cottonwood Campground to kick off our loop.

SHETIPO TRAIL: We crossed paths with trail reporter westcoastpj who wrote a detailed report for this section so I won't add much. Only one of the blowdowns was tricky for short-legged me, and I had to take my pack off and hand it to my friends so I could get over it.

Water was quite prevalent, and we filled up where the creek was last marked as close to the trail on Gaia at 5,500', but our last water crossing on this side of the ridge actually ended up being higher up at around 6,000'.

UPPER MAD RIVER TRAIL: From the pass, we headed down this trail for a short distance until we found a flat meadow/campsite at around 6,150'. There was a small stream (Three Creek on Gaia) running through this area, and we decided to set up here for the night. Bugs were horrible, and a cloud of mosquitoes followed us wherever we went.

My friends hit up Chickamin Ridge in the evening while I stayed in camp.

GARLAND PEAK TRAIL DAY 1: Long story short, this trail could definitely use some love and maintenance! If you head here just expect route-finding, off-trail travel, the usual obstacles (burned areas, blowdowns, brush, loose ground underfoot), and limited water.

We backtracked to the pass and headed up the Garland Peak Trail in the morning. It started off well enough, but eventually the trail started becoming fainter and less-defined. The theme of the day eventually became a game of hide-and-seek with the trail, with some sections of decent trail, other sections where there was maybe an idea of a trail, and lots of times where there was simply no trail, and we just ended up going cross-country, especially through the multiple burned areas. 

There was no running water on the ridge, and no snow patches until we got higher up (over 6,600').

We eventually reached a saddle at 7,300' close to where the Basalt Ridge Trail intersects on the map (I don't recall seeing the actual junction though). There was plentiful flat space to camp in the open, but we ended up climbing up a little bump just next to the saddle in order to camp near some trees as the wind was whipping and the saddle area was completely exposed.

There were numerous snow patches here and we melted snow for water.

We had great views out over the valley and of Devil's Smoke Stack and Garland Peak from camp, and the giant plume of smoke from the fire by Lake Chelan. Bugs were not bad this evening, as the winds were strong - strong enough to keep me from sleeping well, as numerous gusts shook my tent for hours.

GARLAND PEAK TRAIL DAY 2 & RAMPART MT: We left camp in the morning - bugs were worse now as the winds had subsided - and continued up the ridge towards Rampart Mountain, the trail still fading in and out.

We dropped our packs at 7,280' and headed up to gain Rampart's SW Ridge. It was a pretty straightforward climb along the ridge to the top with some minimal boulder-hopping, and a small snowfield to cross near the summit. There was not much room on the summit itself for hanging out.

After enjoying the views for a little bit, we returned to our bags and continued along. We eventually managed to pick up the faint trail as it descended a thousand feet (it was not exactly where it was marked on Gaia though, which was also a theme for this trip).

We finally crossed a creek shortly after we entered the Glacier Peak Wilderness at 5,850', (creek marked on Caltopo but not on Gaia) and we luxuriated in the access to running water, had lunch, and filled up on H2O, as we knew the trail was heading right back uphill shortly.

And uphill we went after lunch, up up up the brushy trail, climbing up to 5th of July Pass. The trail did start improving greatly at this point - we had a little trouble picking it up in the steep scree section just past the pass, but there were actually cairns to follow, and the closer we got to Larch Lakes the better and easier our navigation became. 

There were some snow patches to cross - the largest being over a stream crossing - but none of them posed us trouble without traction.

LARCH LAKES: We eventually reached Upper Larch Lake and found a nice spacious campsite for the evening (yes, the bugs were also horrendous here). One of our crew took a dip in the lake, although there weren't really any great entry spots - one had to wade in through grass/mud.

We left camp in the morning and hiked down past the Lower Larch Lake (there were also nice camping spots available here, but less of a view). The trail out and down was hot and exposed down the switchbacks (this section would definitely be rough to ascend on a toasty day), but thanks to the recent trail work it was pretty cruiser, and the views of the falls coming out of Larch Lakes were lovely.

MYRTLE LAKE: We took the connector trail to Myrtle Lake, which was also in good condition with a few log crossings to get over the creeks. We walked down to the far side of the lake to check out the campsites, but since the lake water levels were high (thanks to the beaver dam) and there was no great water access for swimming, we decided to just hike the rest of the way out instead of spending a 4th night here. Surprisingly enough, there weren't really any bugs at Myrtle though!

ENTIAT RIVER TRAIL: This was a hot, dry and dusty exit, an unremarkable several-mile slog out through the burn. We had meant to have lunch and fill up water at Anthem Creek but didn't realize it was further east than marked on the map, and we ended up stopping for our break before we reached it, whoops.

Once back at our car, we headed back to the Cottonwood Campground where there was good river access for dip in the cold water - much welcomed after four very hot, sweaty and buggy days on trail!

This route was a good choice for solitude - we only saw two people on day one, and four people on our last day out. There were a couple more peaks along our route that we didn't have time to climb - Devil's Smoke Stack, and 5th of July.

For more photos/adventures: follow along on Instagram! @thenomadicartist 

I did this as a hike and snowshoe, starting at Maverick Saddle, then on trails Upper Mad River and Jimmy Creek to Cougar Mtn. 

The last 2.5 miles of road 6101 is rough but doable with high clearance. The road is steep, narrow and rocky with up and down dips and few pull outs. The hillside on the side of the road goes down quite a ways at times. 

I hiked Upper Mad River trail to just past the bridge, approx. 1 mile.  About half of this trail has compact, icy snow which is easy to walk over or around. Trekking poles were very helpful. 

Just a ways past the bridge is the turnoff for Jimmy Creek trail. It’s not signed but if you get to the large boulder field, you’ve gone too far. The first mile or so is high above the creek on a steep and narrow trail, but which is currently snow free, probably due to it being south facing. 

Snow started at ~5,000’ and I put on the snowshoes shortly after that. If you do carry on from here GPS is highly recommended.  I followed the creek, picking my way over fallen trees, other small creek crossings, meadows, etc. I crossed Jimmy Creek at ~5,600’ at a safe crossing

Continuing on and gaining elevation, the trail is appearing here and there.  I took the snowshoes off at ~5,900’ and then at ~6,200 went straight up to the summit of Cougar  Mt.  Beautiful views all around!

Short hike from Maverick Saddle down to the Mad River crossing.

Access. Drove up Rd 6101 from the Lake Wenatchee side. Clear, but plentiful potholes. The final 2.5 miles was narrow with steep drop-offs and few turn-outs, and some loose rocks thrown in for fun. Great views, if you dare take your eyes off the road...

Condition. Sections of soft, compact snow. Couple of blowdowns to step over. The stream crossing looked implausible with the current volume of water. 

Flora & Funga. Lots of early mushrooms and shoots and buds coming up wherever the snow is gone, incl many budding Lewisias.

Crowds. Encountered 1 pickup truck, 2 dirt bikes and 2 mountain bikes on the road, but no one on the trail.