Thorp Mountain via Knox Creek, No Name Ridge - Thorp Mountain, Kachess Ridge / Kachess Beacon & Thorp Mountain Lookout via Thorp Creek — Wednesday, Jun. 27, 2007

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

We wanted to camp at Thorp Lake and were inspired by trip reports from Climbbike's report on June 9, and dogandpony's on June 23. We easily found the well-marked Knox Creek trailhead and started up about 3 pm. The narrow and sloping path was in good condition, and we encountered only one annoying blowdown at 5100 ft shortly before reaching the ridge. (We cleared the branches from it near the trail on the way down so it's now just a minor obstacle.) From the intersection with the Kachess Ridge trail to the Thorp Mtn cutoff the trail has only small snow patches in the woods. The trail to the summit lookout was dry except for one steeply sloping snow patch near the lookout that can be easily bypassed on the left along the ridge crest. Descending the Thorp Creek trail to the lake late in the day proved more difficult than expected due to steep snow that obscured the trail so we backtracked and spent the night at the Thorp Mtn trail intersection on the ridge. We melted snow from remaining drifts for water. It is a small site that is well sheltered by trees and terrain from the gusting winds from the west. It will not have any water once the snow is gone.