Chiwaukum Creek — Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024

I figured the Chiwaukum would be a good choice for a larch march without crowds of other larch pilgrims, and I was right!  I hiked in to Flora and Bringham Lakes for an overnighter and a bit of fishing.  The first 6.5 miles of trail through the burn zone has a lot of overgrown sections and blowdown.  Thankfully, a lot of work has been done on this trail recently, and the going is fairly easy.  I didn't see any rattlesnakes this time (rare) but I did see a bear!  It ran away before I could get the quick-draw on my camera..  While taking a break at the creek crossing, a couple ticks dropped out of a tree onto my pack, so watch out!  There are 2 footlogs to use in crossing the creek.  There is also the horse ford, which has a signed junction a little ways before the footlogs.  A very rough but followable path has been newly cleared through the brush and blowdown to the ford.

After crossing the creek and passing the N.F. Chiwaukum junction, the trail leaves the burn zone and enters living forest.  There are several areas of tangled blowdown and thick overgrowth, but the trail remains quite followable.  A lot of the trees are easy to bushwack around and avoid altogether.  The massive cottonwood blockage has been completely cleared out and it's great.  The head of the Chiwaukum Valley can be tricky to navigate as the trail enters the meadows.  Follow the faint tread, detouring around thickets as neccesary, until you come to the switchbacks up to Flora Lake.  The trail is in much better shape from here on out.  I camped in a sheltered little spot at Bringham Lake. There are established camps at Flora Lake and a pit toilet.  Bringham Lake has neither, but there are flat areas in the meadows near the lake that can fit a tent.  Larches are perfect right now and Brigham has a good number of them.  The trout fishing is good, too.  Flora's fish are bigger, but I felt like the Bringham fish had more fight.

The hike out the following day was uneventful.  Ran into only one other party of larch pilgrims on the way back.  They were trying for Larch Lake via N.F. Chiwaukum.  I told them about that trail being totally buried in down trees, but if they tried for Flora/Bringham instead, they'd have a much easier time (and guaranteed larches).  They seemed bummed about the news but thankful for a plan b.

Summary: ~26 miles RT w/~3800ft elevation gain (mostly on the way in); 12 hours moving time

"Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea, And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a Golden Tree."

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring