A few of us had an opportunity to join a Pacific Northwest Trail Association (PNTA) trail crew to continue work on the North Fork Sullivan Creek Trail in the beautiful Salmo Priest Wilderness at the end (extension?) of Labor Day weekend. We worked on the same trail from the bottom up during our August BCRT with WTA, but we weren't able to make it all the way to Crowell Ridge. When we heard a PNTA crew was going to try to finish from the top down, we jumped at the opportunity to return and volunteer with their crew!
In hindsight, I wish that we had scheduled this as an overnight trip instead of a day hike. It has been a decade since I've hiked in from the Sullivan Mountain TH on Crowell Ridge, and my memory of everything was just a little bit off! For starters, I had forgotten just how awful that access road is. More on that at the end, but it's terrible. Don't try it without high clearance. I made it in my Subaru Forester, but I probably shouldn't have attempted it. More importantly to this part of the trail report, I had forgotten exact distances for things, which as it turns out I had condensed in my head. I also should have looked mileage up, but I thought I remembered correctly...and it was a lot farther than I thought. So unlike my memory of it, it's actually about 4 miles from the TH to the junction with the North Fork Trail. By the time we arrived at the North Fork, we only had a couple hours to clear downfall before we reached our turn-around time. This meant that while we did make an additional dent in the remaining downfall, we didn't quite finish it on this trip. It's a bit of a bummer, but I know we've cleared the very worst of it at this point, and it's probably less than a half mile of trail that hasn't been cleared yet this season.
Crowell Ridge is in good shape, entirely cleared of downfall and several sections have received recent treadwork. However, this is a very rough and rocky trail, with a surprising number of climbs and descents for a trail that begins at roughly 6200'. Even though it's in great shape, it's still a difficult trail to hike. I think I was in worse shape at the end of this hike than I was from Saturday's Eight Peak Tour at Mount Spokane which was over double the distance!
We enjoyed lunch from the beautiful rock outcropping at the junction of Crowell Ridge and North Fork Sullivan Creek, then hiked down the North Fork to get to work. We probably worked another 1.5-2 miles down North Fork, clearing approximately 8-10 more trees before we hit our turn-around time. The small stream about .5 miles below the Crowell/North Fork junction still had water available, which was good to know considering I've never visited this late in the season before. Everyone was able to top off water bottles before we hiked out.
Other neat things about this hike: two of us arrived the night before the work party to do the extra hike up Sullivan Mountain to the former fire lookout (still standing, but not open to visitors). We spent at least an hour just wandering around the top, admiring the views and the late wildflowers. There's an excellent view of Abercrombie/Hooknose to the west, the Idaho Selkirks to the east, and Canada to the North. I was amazed at how one could also look directly down on Metaline Falls from the summit. From the Crowell Ridge TH it's approximately a 2 mile RT hike to the lookout on a gated FS road, and well worth the effort. We were hoping the aurora forecast would work out in our favor, too, but unfortunately, that wasn't much of a show. Still, the skies up here are incredible dark (the LED lights on the Pend Oreille River dam notwithstanding...seriously like a nightlight & we found it very annoying) so the view of the stars was great. I enjoyed it from the comfort of my sleeping bag as I hung out in my hammock near the TH.
But about the Sullivan Mountain road: on the way out, we kept careful track. It's only 10.3 miles from the TH to the pavement, but it took us nearly 2 hours to make the drive. I'd compare it to trying to drive a rocky dry riverbed. It's not particularly rutted, but there are boulders everywhere and its extremely narrow. One section washed out at some point in the recent past, and is passable for now but just barely. The alternate access to Crowell Ridge at Bear Pasture is closed/gated for the season (access ends August 15th each year), so have high clearance and good tires before trying this road.
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