Upper Mad River Trail — Sunday, Jul. 31, 2011

Central Cascades > Entiat Mountains/Lake Chelan

Starting from Mavarack Saddle we hiked the Mad River trail to Mad Lk. We couldn't find anything on WTA and of course the Wenatchee Ranger Station is closed. They say call Leavenworth, who say "it's not if our area". ??? They did finally divulge that it is snow free and still closed to motorized vehicles and horses which is the window we wanted to hit. Unfortunately, there were still bikes on the trail. We met two on the way up that scared the daylights out of us, not to mention our mini Austrailain Shepherd. We met no other hikers. We finally reached the lake and there were two guys in camaflouge attire on dirt bikes - not the type I would confront in the wilderness about the trail being closed to bikes. The trail was trashed with ruts from bikes. On the way out we again heard engines and jumped off the trail to be met by 3 Forest Service employees on bikes who were there to clear trails (and I hope to give tickets). We will never again hike a trail that is open to bikes (or not open but used by them). We met three more guys on bikes when we got to the trailhead. They were nice and said that they had spent three hours getting there only to see the sign at the trailhead. They also had no understanding of why it would be closed when the trails are wet. I will say that it is ridiculous that it was not posted further down the road. The road, by the way, was the worst road we have ever been on. It is 2 1/2 miles off the FS road that has no spot for passing and a sheer dropoff. What would you do if you met a trailer coming the other way? On the bright side, it is really a lovely area and when no bikes were there, it was sheer heaven. . . lovely meadows, lots of creek/river crossings, wildflowers, and nice wooded trail. Highly recommend if you can hit the 'window' with no motorized vehicles!