We set our sights on exploring the Bismarck and Aix area and decided to make a backpack trip out of this exploration. It was great! While much of the William O was burnt in the Snider Springs fire, much has not been, including this specific area, and we understand the LTF crews are working on many of the affected trails as well.
The Pear Butte TH is just over Copper Creek from the more busy Mt Aix TH. Overall, the unpaved road section is rough to pretty rough; curious if the Naches Ranger District has a road grader? The trail is actually quite lovely, if rough at times due to down trees, and steep at times; I don’t believe the trail has seen a saw in some years. It is certainly not open to horse traffic at this time. However, once up on the ridge at about 5000’, the views to both the west and east only continue to grow. Nice forest, some enticing meadows, cooling breezes, ah….
At the 4.5 mile mark, the real fun begins. Despite not being counted on the current Naches trail roster, the Bismarck Peak trail is both signed on a tree at the junction, and often relatively easily visible for the tried and true trail scout along the way, sometimes obscured by elk trails, to the lovely basin located west of Bismarck Peak. The way stays generally on the ridge, until going around the south side of 6246. And then tends to be more “elk-y” as it traverses the west than north sides of 6816, before dropping into the lovely basin, at about another 2.5 miles. We camped in what has been called the Green Lantern Camp, avoiding the lush meadows, and found enough water to easily fill our pots after an otherwise completely dry hike.
In the morning, we relatively quickly completed the scramble of Bismarck, (lots of loose rock, mind your footing and take care of those in your party below) and turned to consider if the heat, the bugs and the chance of afternoon thunderstorms made us wish to complete the day trip along Nelson Ridge and over to Aix and back again. We decided no, but did wander so far as to look down into Carmelita Basin, where we spied two goats amongst the cliffs there.
The way back along the trails and the un-trails went quite easily overall. Despite finishing our trip on a Saturday, we saw literally no one on either of these trails. Come check them out!
Comments