Cow Creek Meadows, Myrtle Lake & Entiat River — Thursday, Jun. 24, 2021

Just got back from a 4-day logout with WTA's pro crew along the Cow Creek Trail and got lots of work done! The crew had been out here the week before working up from Myrtle Lake, and this week we finished clearing up the remaining trail to Cow Creek Meadows and beyond. As of Thursday, all fallen logs have been cleared from the Entiat River trailhead up to about .25 miles from the Garland Peak trail junction.

There is still plenty of tread work and brushing to be done to really bring this trail into tip-top shape, but it's honestly looking pretty good.

The road to the trailhead is paved almost the entire way, and the gravel section toward the end is in pretty good shape with only two real bumpy spots. Plenty of parking at the trailhead on a Monday morning (and honestly probably every morning) and a clean/open pit toilet available. We only saw one group of hikers come up to Cow Creek during our stay, and passed by one other group on our way in who had stopped to camp at Myrtle Lake. Plenty of solitude out here.

Ticks and mosquitos are both out in full force around the meadows — I went home with probably 150 mosquito bites (no exaggeration) after our visit. Thankfully no tick bites, but I saw them lounging around on branches as we sawed.

The trail was snow free up until ~6200 feet, just below the Garland Peak Trail junction, and then it became quite snow covered — though I expect it will be melting out quickly after this upcoming weekend/week.