Sunday, July 28th:
I headed over Stevens Pass, past Lake Wenatchee, and out to FR6101. The road was full of the usual potholes, but nothing really noteworthy up until Deer Camp. Almost immediately upon turning that hair pin turn of FR6101, the road conditions changed. The number of potholes increased, but still not too bad. The problem was that the road became narrow to VERY narrow the whole 2.66 miles up to Maverick Saddle! A rock wall on the right, a drop off on the left, and little room for error. If there had been a car coming down toward me, options to pass were few and far between. And backing up on that road would have been brutal at best. I was sweating bullets and hoping against hope for no other cars! That road was longest bloody 2.6 mile drive of my life! I finally emerged into the large parking area at the Maverick Saddle TH, and was very relieved to be done with that bit and meet Fortified. He had driven up from Mad River Road and had spent the previous night camping at Maverick Saddle.
We loaded up the last items into the packs and headed North up the Mad River Trail. The trail was dusty most of the time with some mild muddy areas. Overall it was a very cruisy and beautiful trail! Different trails cut off to the left and right off to various creeks and ridges and we kept on straight. Crossing Mad River was pretty easy this time of year. I rock hopped and was able to keep my shoes dry. The water was only about 8” deep at most. The only real challenge of this trail was the dirt bikes and kept speeding though and stirring up clouds of dust! They were all super polite, but we had to keep our ears open and get off the trail with plenty of time, but cause the bikes couldn’t see us with much notice with all the twists/turns in the trail. At 8.3miles in, we took a left to have lunch at beautiful Mad Lake. Fortified remembered coming here once as a kid on his old dirt bike many many moons ago and enjoyed reminiscing. He even showed me the exact spot where he had fallen off his bike on a little bridge lol.
We continued on past Marble Creek Camp (very nice spot with room for 2 or 3 tents) and up the switch backs and on to the Three Creeks Spring. Thankfully water was running quite nicely there with room for quite a few tents in the trees nearby! There were two older gentlemen already camped there who my Dad knew from years ago growing up in Entiat! They had gone to school a few years apart and the gentleman’s mom had been my Dad’s teacher on one point! Small word. They had come up the Shetipo creek Trail and were planning to return to the Entiat valley/Cottonwood the same way. Fortified and I had a lovely evening and slept well after our 12miles day.
Monday, July 29th
We got going in good time and continued heading north, past the Shetipo Creek trail junction and on to the Garland Peak Trail! The next 4.6miles was a maze of downed trees and playing hide and seek with the bloody trail! I was beyond grateful for Gaia on my phone. The trail was accurately shown in the app and whenever we were confused, pulling up the app got us on track quite well : ) The Garland Peak Ridge is STUNNING! If this trail was re-established, WOW! I think it would be highly popular! About half way along the ridge the weather moved in and dumped on us for about 20min, then stayed misty and damp for a few more hours. It was slow going on the side hill with the trail remnants falling off the hillside. The trail junction with Basalt Ridge Trail was an epically cool spot! All open pumas field and felt so ethereal in the mist! We emptied the dirt, pine needles, and grit out of our shoes and continued on.
The brush and trees returned in force as we descended down the thousand feet or so under Rampart Mountain. Here we lost the trail around the 6,500ft area several times, but ended up just cutting down to our right and picking up the trail again around 6300. From there the trail was brushing but easy to follow all the way the stream crossing and camping area at 5900ft on the little tributary of Rock Creek. We stopped here to empty our shoes again, eat, and inspect our various scratched and scrapes. After a much needed rest, we started following the trail up the ridge to Fifth of July Pass! This bit of trail was mostly easy to follow with just a few blow downs to navigate around and a deep layer of moss at time on the trail bed that felt magical! Once at the pass, we took a breather, reminisce a bit as it had been a few years since our last visit to this spot, then continued on.
The trail keeps going up a bit from Fifth of July pass in order to get above and avoid a cliff band. The trail had deteriorated from what I remembered last time and we bumbled around in the rocks for a bit around 7,000ft before finding the trail again on the other side and beginning the long decent into Cow Creek Meadows. This seemed to take much longer than it should have especially with rain threatening on and off again! The views were amazing though!! The rain held off just long enough for us to set up camp, filter water, and climb into our tents! Very cool day!
Tuesday, July 30th
The morning was beautiful with everything washed clean after the rain. We packed up and headed down to Myrtle Lake for some breakfast. The change here was very dramatic from my last visit! The woods had been burned out in a fire and the beaver activity had raised the level of Myrtle lake by about 10ft! Where I had eaten my lunch last visit was now feel underwater. We did not filter water here to avoid any Giardia concerns and continued on to Anthem Creek and filled up there. The last couple miles out to Cottenwood trailhead was Hot and Dusty! There was one cute deer we followed down the trail who met us at the car. Great Trip!
We drove our second planed car down the Entiat River Road, hung a right at Ardenvoir, then up Tillicum Road. We made a much needed bathroom stop just under Mosquite Ridge and continued driving North-ish, past Sugarloaf Peak lookout, and on to Maverick Saddle and the Upper Mad River Trailhead to where my car was waiting.
I gingerly oozed my car back down that bloody narrow 2.6mile Forest Road 6101 to Deer Camp and was home free! I am so grateful to have this time with my Dad as he is in his 70’s but still hiking strong! Great Trip! Thank you Lord for these Mountains that are covered in your fingerprints!
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