This little-used trail takes you up to the high country on the northeast slope of the Twisp River Valley. According to the trail description, the Crescent fire burned through here in 2018. This has had several consequences for the trail. Most of the forest was severely burned, and the loss of forest cover opened up the hillsides for bushes and flowers, making this a good choice for a spring wildflower hike. The standing dead trees make a stark contrast with the verdant green understory. Lack of tree cover also means more warm spring sunshine and much better long-distance views across to the Sawtooth Range and up both sides of the North Creek valley. For all of those reasons, we chose this for a short day-hike. However, the burned forest also means lot of dead-fall over the trail and, of course, loss of the beautiful, healthy forest that once graced these hills. For all the benefits of fire, we are always saddened by its destruction.
We were the only people on the trail all day, which was wonderful. I doubt that this trail gets a lot of use even in summer, judging from the condition of the trail. It starts off well as it zig-zaggs up through patches of living and burnt forest until it rounds the bend into the North Lake valley. There are no obstacles on the lower trail other than crowding berry bushes and high densities of pine and fir cones littering the trail. Grasses sprouting up in the trail bed might obscure the trail later in the season if foot traffic doesn’t suppress them, but the trail is still easy to follow. The high ridges and peaks of the Twisp River Valley soar on all sides.
Once the trail starts up the North Creek Valley, the views get better and better, but the trail gets worse and worse. It is littered with branches and twigs, and bushes often crowd the trail. Many logs and dead trees have fallen across the trail, ranging from massive logs to tangles of branches to small trunks easily stepped over. I counted 18 logs/trees across the trail. About a half dozen of these were major obstacles that required deft bushwhacking to negotiate by either crawling under, clambering over or finding a way around through the brushy ground cover (see photo).
The most difficult obstruction along the trail was crossing a smaller cascade about 2 miles in from the trailhead. The recent rains combined with snowmelt have swollen all the streams, and this was no exception. We took some time to gather small logs and branches to place across the stream, giving us and our dog a safer crossing. Hopefully, this ad hoc ford will help future hikers as well.
After the stream crossing, the trail continued up the valley through patches of burned forest with many downed logs and trees, and then through green forest. The living forest was noticeably cooler and soon snow patches appeared beside the trail. The green verges of the trail hosted large patches of blooming glacier lilies and the views up the east side of the valley as well as back over the Twisp River valley were beautiful (see photo).
About a half mile before we reached the ford of North Creek, the trail became fully snow-covered (see photo). We used our GPS to stay on the trail, and occasionally we could see melted-out traces of footprints from a previous hiker. The soft snow surface revealed fresh tracks of a large moose that had come down the trail not long before we arrived (the tracks were still filling with snowmelt), and later on, fresh coyote tracks going uphill joined the trail for a while.
When we reached the ford of North Creek we found the creek running very high with no possibility of getting across (see photo). The depth of the creek and velocity of the water would have made any attempt at crossing dangerous and impossible for our dog. This had been our planned turn-around point so we headed a short way back down the trail and then detoured up the west slope into a rock slide/avalanche track where exposed grey boulders offered a place in the sun for a lunch break.
Overall, this was a good choice for a spring hike. The open forest let in lots of light and enabled us to see the beautiful, snowy, high ridges and mountains around the Twisp and North creek Valleys. Snow on the peaks and ridges contrasted wonderfully with the rich greens of the lower slopes. The understory was green and verdant, and some flowers were blooming, notably the glacier lilies higher up. However, most flowers had not yet bloomed so the flowers here have not reached their peak here.
We will come back in fall, when water levels should be low, and see if we can get all the way to the lake. The lower reaches of this trail suggest that the upper trail should be well worth the effort.
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