Cow Creek Meadows — Friday, Jun. 6, 2025

While we had aimed for a backpack site in Cow Creek Meadows, the heat of the weekend led us to pivot plans.  We backpacked into Myrtle Lake on Friday, and set up camp at the south side of the lake, taking care to avoid camping under hazard trees as much as possible.  We chose the south side camps over the newly created north side camps as they had a bit more shade and less time under the glare of the sun.  Overall, there are beaver in Myrtle Lake and the beaver dam at the lake outlet is causing the lake level to rise.  A wonderful WTA crew was leaving after a five day stint the day we arrived, and they did significant work to create new trails and campsites at both the north and south camps.  
For our lay day, we went up to Cow Creek Meadows and above, as much as snow and heat allowed.  We encountered snow patches at a bit over 5000’, and they generally persisted until we climbed above the meadow basin.  Just before finally arriving at the junction between the main trail that continues upwards and the spur that leads to the meadows, there is a creek crossing that requires fording, and is less than knee deep and quite cold.  A few of us found a sizable log upstream to cross on, but it requires some brushy travel to get to.  Either way, the meadows and surrounding cliffs are stunning!  
Above the meadows, the trail has not been maintained, but there are only a couple of burnt logs down that require going around.  I turned around at 5900’, but the sturdy hikers in our party got up to 6800’, having found lots of snow up there.  
Overall, the area is gorgeous.  The only daunting part was how much burnt forest there is up the Entiat, but otherwise lovely views, wildflowers, and not that many people.