Icicle Creek, French Ridge & French Creek — Friday, Oct. 29, 2010

Central Cascades > Leavenworth Area

The Icicle Road is open! The long unvisited Icicle Creek trail is in super condition and dripping with lichens as far as the French Ridge junction. The French Ridge trail is in excellent condition, not as steep as some in the area-- I'm looking at you Blackjack Ridge-- though the snow was a dusting at the 5000' mark and increased to maybe 3-4" out on the open ridge. The brush across the trail required constant whacking to knock off the snow and there's one blow down too spoketastic to climb over or get around-- I shimmied under on my belly six or eight feet. The views form the old lookout site were intermittent owing to foggy clouds, and I lost the trail in a snow basin on my way down, wound up heading uphill toward Turquoise Lake. The backdoor trail is really brushy, and the French Creek return leg has a bunch of big downed trees to clamber over.