From road end at west end of Long Swamp, trail descends about 500 feet. Once down in the valley, turnoff for trail #342 up Windy Creek is obscure. It's about 25 yards before the bridge built by Backcountry Horsemen over Windy Creek. Entire drainage was burned in 2006 Tripod Fire. A few patches of green remain that fire skirted or burned less hot so that it didn't kill the trees. In much of the valley, especially the upper end, fire burned hot, consuming all needles and ground litter down to mineral soil, exposing roots and rocks and destroying the trail tread. As a result the trail is rough and hard to follow. Watch for cairns and orange flagging. Post-fire vegetation is profuse, especailly in moist areas. The trail is already overgrown in places with fireweed and new willows. In a few years it could be even more brushy from the lodgepole pine seedlings that are sprouting by the thousands. In the upper valley, USGS map incorrectly shows trail switchbacking up ridge on north side of creek. Haven't checked Green Trails to see if it repeats the error. Trail actually recrosees Windy Creek in NW corner of section 5 to south side of stream, and follows it up into a basin SE of Windy Peak. From there it traverses up to ridge line west of Windy Peak and climbs steeply to the summit.

I hiked the Windy Peak Trail from Sunny Pass to Basin Creek Trail junction as a part of a 7 might Pasayten backpack trip. This trail serves as a useful link for many loop hikes through the Pasayten. The trail is lightly used and can be hard to follow in spots. Steep and eroded in places. It has been cleared of fallen logs and is not difficult to hike, other than the problems noted above. The Tripod Fire burned much of the forest along the trail, and it is only starting to recover. Windy Lake was not burned, and may provide a good camping spot (but beware of mosquitoes). Be sure to make the one mile side trip to Windy Peak...the spectacular view from the summit is worth effort!

This was about a 50 mile hike starting at the Iron Horse Trailhead in the Okanagan National Forest. We hiked up to Windy Peak the first day - about 5 miles. The trail was in good condition, although parts of the trail that leads to the backside of Windy Peak was a little overgrown, though it was not hard to follow. We camped at the top of Windy Peak, very close to where the trail hits a plateau. From there, we hiked from Windy Peak to Topaz Mountain and down to the Chewuch River (trail #360). The forest was mostly burned out and looked like a fire had taken place there very recently - within the last few years. The trail was difficult to follow in places, but previous hikers had drawn arrows in the mud in the tricky spots. More difficult than we were expecting, the hike down to the river was steep at times and got kind of rough on our knees by the time we reached the bottom. From here, the trail widens up and becomes much better maintained. You follow the river for a while until you hit the trail that heads up to the Cathedral Lakes area. Very beautiful sections of trail, this was one of my favorite sections of the hike. Hiking through a beautiful meadow, you eventually get to the lakes. We camped at Upper Cathedral Lake, and were visited by some mountain goats in the morning. From here, the trail goes through a pass and takes you past the old Tungsten Mine. Eventually, the trail winds around a few ridges to eventually take you down to the Horseshoe Basin. The trail was in good condition this entire time. Horseshoe Basin is fantastic - a must-see for all Washington hikers. The trail from the basin back to the trailhead is in fine condition. Overall - a fantastic (but pretty tiring) hike! Probably the biggest issue was the many, many mosquitoes at most of our campsites - particularly at Upper Cathedral Lake and Horseshoe Basin, but they were present almost everywhere we stopped.

Matt and I drove out on Friday evening to camp at Long Swamp Campground (~5500 feet). Although temperatures for Loomis were over 80 Friday-Sunday, it was C-O-L-D at camp. The campground itself is in great shape and we had it all to ourselves--aside from a car or two driving by during the next two days no one else was at the campground. We got up early and were on the Windy Peak trail by 6:15. We choose the Windy Peak trail over the Windy Creek trail because it was a bit more in the fire damaged area and also on the ridge--we figured there was less chance of hitting snow. The ranger at Tonasket had also indicated the trail was mostly clear. So we figured the extra four miles roundtrip (~10 miles on Windy Creek versus ~14 miles on Windy Peak) was a reasonable sacrifice. Aside from one snow field that required a boulder scrambling detour (this is right before you hit the plataeu near the peak) the trail was in excellent conditions. Three or four small blowdowns that were easily skirted (and Matt fixed one of these as well). We were at the summit (8,365' I think) by 10:15 a.m. Although there were some thunderheads/showers threatening us the whole way, they help off and we were able to have lunch on the peak and get our photos. We headed down and made it back to camp by 1:50 p.m. It did rain on us the last two miles (ugh), and for a couple hours at camp...but then the sun came out and kept us warm for the rest of the day. Although the bugs weren't too much of a problem, there were a couple of spots on the trail where we were absolutely swarmed by mosquitos. And then they would just disappear. The campground also had some mosquitos...bring the DEET! Overall, a great hike with a wonderful payoff. We didn't see a single other hiker the entire day, which is probably a result of the remoteness--5.5 hour drive to the trailhead from Seattle.

From Iron Gate Trailhead we took Trial 533 and turned left onto Trail 343 to Windy Peak on 7/14/07. Trail 533 to the junction was not damaged in last fall's burn, but the trail down to the valley floor on 343 was burnt sporatically with the level of damage being concentrated to the valley. As we went up hill toward Windy Peak and the junction with Trail 342, the burn zone became less and less, but there were numerous fallen burnt trees we went over and around. At the junction of 343 and 342 there is extreme damage with no signs of life, of previous campsites, or of the junction as there is a large tree burned to a crisp and blocking the path. The burn continued on up the hill on 342 until we reached the creek on the east side of the trail just below the meadow and made camp for the night. There are patches of burn up to the meadow's edge. 7/15/07-we hiked up trail 342 in a slow slog as the elevation gain was reminescent of Aasgard Pass in the Enchantments with the trail cairn's being few and far between in places. At the top of the rise, the trail splits into 2 with a left path that is snow-free and a right path which appeared blocked with snow. Once onto the plateau, the damage from the burn on the west side is spectacularly apparent as the entire valley for trail 362 is gone of vegitation. There are trees at on the plateau, and Windy Peak is amazing, but Topaz Mountain is denuded as well as much of the visible valley leading west toward Cathedral Mountain, Haig Mountain and Ampitheater Mountain. Very sad. We continued on 342 over the edge of the ridgeline and could see the east burn zone from the back of Windy Peak to Sunny Pass. Much damage with only Windy Lake and a few marshy areas spared an green. Just past the junction with trail 360 the trees are burnt completely with no vegitation, no limbs, no shade and a radiantly hot black trail of ash. Lots of downed trees from the fire, the trail bed is very clear but black/grey with ash and very dusty. There is a small oasis on the valley floor from the out flow of Windy Lake that was a welcome lunch stop, but 2 miles of complete burn until about .5 mile from Sunny Pass when the vegitation returns in full bloom of Lupins and evergreen trees. The campsite at the headwaters of the Middle Fork Toats Coulee river is gone too. There are occasional growths of Lupine and other wild flowers along the trail in pockets of 2-5 plants, and growth returning along any stream bank. Horseshoe Basin is untouched, but there is a distince burn line on its west edge and many dead trees with dropping needles. The basin and surrounding area from Sunny Pass to Horseshoe Pass are glorious and new, just as we saw 2 years ago. We camped at Horseshoe Pass for the next 2 nights. 7/16/07-We day hiked from Horseshoe Pass to Loudon Lake on trail 533 and up Armstrong Mountain. The flower are in full bloom, the humming birds loving the Indian Paintbrush, with sights and sounds of life everywhere. The burn is visible at the west edge of Rock Mountain as the trail turns toward Haig Mountain. Armstrong Mountain has spots of burn that look like someone was playing with a blowtorch and just crisped a bush here and there, but at the top all is clear and glorious with views as far as the eye can see. The US/Canada border is very strange but we were happy to lunch in Canada sans passports. Lovely day and great to see that Canada appeared to not get damaged from the fall fires. We sat by Horseshoe Creek and soaked our tired feet while allowing the black flies to be annoying but not bothering with our Deet covered limbs. 7/17/07-it sprinkled overnight and the clouds were gathering quickly by morning with a huge black rain clouds gathering over Sunny Pass and thunder rolling up the valley like a jet plane. We took trail 533 over Sunny Pass and down to the first/last set of campsites on the bend in the trail. The burn zone begins here and continues down the valley to the trail juncture with 343 with the primary meadow 1/2 way down the trail intact but all trees burned. We met the trail crew at the campsite below Sunny Pass. The boss said they cleared over 300 downed trees from the burn and were to continue on up the pass and beyond on 533 for the next week. We discussed if another crew would be coming in to clean up the Windy Peak trail over to Sunny Pass and he said there are negotiations in process. The rain was coming down in torrents, so we headed down the trail to enjoy the trail crew's work and marvel as the extent of the burn. Having hiked this trail 2 years ago at the same time, we were very saddened to see all the trees from one side of the valley to the other obliterated. Life does begin again about .5 mile from the trail junction, with the occasional small evergreen along the trail bed that survived because they are so small as not to catch the flames above in the canopy, so hope is there for renewed life.