Icicle Ridge via Fourth of July Creek — Friday, May. 5, 2006

Central Cascades > Leavenworth Area

The weather forecast was looking less than stellar so the plan was to head east. Rubberlegs joined me for a trip up the Icicle. We decide on the Icicle Ridge Lookout since Rubberlegs has been trying to visit as many of the LO sites as possible. The promise of a nice day improved as we headed over the crest. Pockets of clear sky peaked out. We arrived at the TH at about 8:15am and other then a few low clouds hugging the ridge the day seemed promising. About 8:30am he were headed up the trail. Neither of us had been up the trail before but since both of us were familiar with the steepness of the Chatter Ck trail, this trail was no surprise. There is a sustained steep grade all the way up to 5000'. It's actually a pleasent trail. Along the lower stretches the flowers are coming out. We saw trillium, calypso orchids and balsam root. A bit higher up out came avalanche lilies and yellow bells. The trail is in open forest and the evidence of fire is everywhere. At about 5000' the grade eases up, just a bit. It's here that the snow becomes really consisent and following the trail is hit or miss. We aimed for where we figuered the trail was. This basically had us doing a steady gain on the SW ridge of the LO. We were aiming for a point just east of the highpoint. At about 6000' we left the trail completely, or what we could find of it under the snow, and did a beeline for the top. The snow was really nicely consolidated and hard but not difficult to get a good step in. We arrived at the summit and Rubberlegs poked around investigating the remains of the old LO. Not much remains. Just the anchors and a bit of cable and the remains of the old ladder to the LO. (Stats to LO: 4mi, 4700' gain). We made such great time to the LO that I asked if Rubberlegs was interested in heading over to Pt 6906. He jumped at the chance since it was only about 12:30pm. This point is only about 1/2 mile and 140' gaina way. We arrived there and took shelter behind a nice big rock since it was a bit windy. We had incredible views of the Enchatments. Both of us were really surprised and the nice weather we were having for the day. I really did expect to get rained on at some point during the trip but it never happened. The weather just continued getting better as the day moved on. After a short lunch on Pt 6906 we headed back to the saddle, dropped down in a slow traverse, and tried to find our up tracks. It was hard at first since the hard morning snow didn't leave much of a footprint. Eventually around 5600' we found parts of our tracks as well as the trail and we followed them back down to tha car. I found what looks to be a pair of reading glasses along the trail. They are black wire rim glasses. If these are yours and you would like them returned, email me at Putz-in-Boots@comcast.net. Stats: almost 9 miles, 5000' gain.