Johnson Creek - Medra Pass, Jungle Creek, Way Creek & Koppen Mountain — Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

The ridge dividing the North and Middle Forks of the Teanaway usually offers lots of solitude and good views of the peaks along the county line and the Stuart Range behind them. I set out to walk a clockwise loop along this ridge by going up to the head of Johnson Creek, over to and along this divide, and back down the Johnson-Medra Trail for a total of about ten miles. I ended up turning around midway and retracing my route. Some of these trails are open to ORVs, but I suspected there wouldn't be any mid-week. I was right; I had the whole place to myself. I started at the Johnson-Medra trailhead less than half a mile up the North Fork Teanaway Road from Beverly Campground. I saw two Forest Service warning signs near the trailhead, one on each side of the footbridge over the North Fork Teanaway. The first warned about aggressive mountain goats. I didn't see any. The second sign said: "Medra Creek section of trail (2.7 miles from here) is impassable and not maintained. 7-8-11" The confusing part about this is that, at least according to the Green Trails map, it's 3.7 miles to the top of the ridge and the start of the "Medra Creek section of trail." I presume that the impassable part is actually on the west side of the ridge on the descent into Medra Creek, despite the incorrect info about the dis- tance. In any event, my plan was to continue on up Johnson Creek and return via the Johnson-Medra trail. The trail number and name for my route changed at every trail intersection. I started out walking the Johnson-Medra Trail #1383 from the road up Johnson Creek. It was like a freeway compared to what lay ahead. At 0.7 miles, the Johnson-Medra trail turns right up what I would call the west fork of Johnson Creek. I continued on up the main valley on what became the Jungle Creek Trail #1383.1. Jungle Creek Trail, unlike the Johnson-Medra Trail, receives little use. The first mile was especially overgrown. I felt like I was swimming though a head-high sea of succulent summer vegetation -- ferns, salmon berry, and cows parsnip. One consolation was the ripe huckleberries. After a mile and a half, this trail crosses Johnson Creek and begins to switchback seriously up, gaining about five hundred feet in half a mile. It tops out on an east-west ridge where it intersects Way Creek Trail #1235. As I climbed up the switchbacks, the peaks to the north rose up behind me. First were the peaks along the Kittitas-Chelan county line, from Ingalls Peak on the west all the way to Navaho (peek- ing over the shoulder of Earl Peak, and Miller Peak. Beyond the county line peaks, Mt. Stuart loomed up behind them. Other peaks in the Stuart range soon emerged. Despite the brush, the Jungle Creek Trail had been cleared of blowdown. I could not say the same for the Way Creek Trail. In the one mile I hiked along it to the west, I counted ten blowdowns. Like a typical ORV trail, the Way Creek Trail also has steep up and down pitches. A mile later I reached the ridge dividing the North and Middle Forks of the Teanaway. Here I intersected the Koppen Mountain Trail #1225, which follows the ridge north. This trail is closed to ORVs and I could see why. Koppen Mountain Trail is not for the faint-hearted. I learned this on previous scrambles between its intersection with the Johnson-Medra trail and the summit of Koppen Mountain. Because the ridge line has many exposed rock outcrops, the trail tries to skirt them. Heading north on Koppen Mtn Trail, I came to a spot just south of where Malcolm Mountain extends west from the ridge line, that I didn't like. The trail was traversing around the west side of the ridge across a steep gravel slope. Loose gravel lay atop rock angling downhill. It was like walking on marbles across a sidehill. I might have made it across this without sliding down the hill, but I didn't know whether there were worse spots ahead. Hiking alone, I decided, with little debate, that the wise move for me to make was to turn around. So I did. The return gave me a chance to appreciate the views even more. Be aware that the entire North Fork Teanaway drainage has been hard hit with an insect infestation. Both the Douglas fir and true firs have been devastated. Most of them are dead or dying. Whole hillsides are turning into a sea of snags. Pines and larch are the beneficiaries, but it will be years before these hills are completely forested again. I don't know if it's the same bugs, but in early August the air was full of little half-inch caterpillars suspended on threads, waiting for somebody to come along and give them a ride. They collected on my shirt and I had to stop from time to time to flick them off. Overall, it was a good day -- great scenery all to myself -- even if I didn't complete the loop.