Thorp Mountain Lookout via Thorp Creek, Thorp Lake — Saturday, Jun. 28, 2008

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

It was a hot day (up towards 90 degrees), so there was a lot of run-off and even the smaller creeks were running a little high. The Thorp Creek crossing right at the start of the trail required fording, boots off, with 32.00001 degree water up to my knees (I'm 5'10""). Well, it sure seemed that cold. The first mile or so of the trail, running parallel with Thorp Creek, has a lot of side brush protruding into the trail, making me wish I had worn gaiters for that stretch. Snow on the trail about 3/4 of a mile in, patchy at first, and then enough that we lost the trail for a while on the uphill stretch. GPS pointed us back to the trail, though. We reached 5100 feet AMSL at about noon. Still 700 vertical feet to the peak, and we decided to just have lunch and turn around since the higher exposed snow was getting mushy. We took the side trail to Thorp Lake on the way down. That trail was 90% snow-covered, and there was some ice still on the lake. No flowers yet, just a few bugs.