Thirteenmile — Friday, Apr. 25, 2014

Eastern Washington > Okanogan Highlands/Kettle River Range

The section of the trail before the road crossing is very well maintained, but after that it is difficult to follow in some spots. The way is marked with cairns, however, that some lovely person/people built; that helped. All blowdowns cleared on the section before the road crossing and only a couple thereafter remain, nothing too crazy to get around with ease. That said, we may have been overenthusiastic about getting our backpack on! We started late on Friday afternoon since we had to travel quite far to arrive at Thirteenmile, so we set up camp only about 3 miles in that day. Wildflowers are starting to make an appearance, but just a few. I think in a couple of weeks this hike will be glorious if you enjoy the flowers as much as I do. It rained a bit overnight and was VERY cold. Most of the wood is still damp, just fyi on the campfire; it takes a little more effort than usual to get a good one going. We hiked about another 6 miles on the second day, taking it easy since this was our first backpack of the season. We found a campsite off trail on the top of a ridge but on the leeward side so we were protected from the cold wind. The ground is still very soggy in many places, but the view was amazing! It SNOWED that night, about 3 inches where we were! We got up and got moving quite early (around 5:30-6). We took a break for breakfast at the road crossing and got back to our car at about 10:15. The trail was easy to spot in the snow, thankfully, but were I to do this hike again, I think I would go a bit later in the season.