The air was misty with a gentle drizzle as I rolled into the Entiat River Trailhead around noon on Friday. Only two other cars dotted the lot, giving the place a peaceful, secluded vibe. I pulled up the weather report and weighed my options: push ahead with my plan to camp at Upper Larch Lake, knowing I’d get a little soggy but could enjoy a long, lazy morning by the lakes? Or grab a dry campsite at Cottonwood Campground and make a long day hike tomorrow? The thought of quiet, rainy solitude won out—I was sticking to the plan.

Geared up in my rain jacket, I headed up the trail. I passed two other groups on their way out, but otherwise, I had the trail to myself. There were a few logs to step over, but nothing that slowed me down.

After about four miles, I veered off the Entiat River Trail and made a quick detour to Myrtle Lake for a lunch break. From there, I began the climb toward Cow Meadows, where I spotted my first golden larch, glowing through the mist like a promise of adventure. The trail remained in good shape, though the rain had picked up. Soon enough, as I climbed higher, the drizzle turned to fresh snow—soft, powdery, and just a few inches deep. No need for traction devices, just a peaceful, snow-dusted trek up the Garland Peak Trail.

I couldn’t help but worry that my campsite would be buried under snow, but when I finally reached the ridge and peered down at the lakes, I was thrilled—no snow in sight! There was one tricky part where the trail seemed to vanish near a gnarled tree, but after a little searching, I found the way forward and continued down the ridge. Snow turned to slush, then rain again, as I descended toward the lakes.

After scouting out a few spots, I found the perfect campsite nestled in a larch grove, just a few steps from the shore. By this point, I was pretty cold and soaked, but I quickly threw on some insulation and got my camp set up just before dusk, as the wind began to howl. I grabbed water from the lake, retreated to my tent, and dried off. Dinner never tasted so good, and I spent the evening cozy in my sleeping bag, listening to an audiobook while the wind whipped around my tent. By 11 p.m., the worst of the storm had passed, and the night was calm and uneventful.

Saturday morning greeted me with clear skies and brilliant sunshine. There was a light frost on my rain fly, but it melted quickly in the sun. I spent the morning leisurely sipping coffee, drying out my wet gear, and wandering around the lakes, marveling at the golden larches. It was a blissful, slow start to the day, and by the time I packed up around noon, everything was dry and ready to go.

On my way out, I took the trail down by Lower Larch Lake, passing a few groups making their way in. I opted to ford the river, which was only mid-calf deep—no big deal. There’s a hiker’s trail that peels off and leads to the lovely bridge at Myrtle Lake if you want to avoid the ford, but the water was so low this late in the season that I decided to wade across.

The last stretch along the Entiat River Trail was easy and quick, thanks to some trail angels who had cleared the blowdowns earlier that morning. When I reached the trailhead, nine cars were now in the lot—much busier than when I arrived. But despite the rain and snow, I’d had the lakes all to myself. A little wet, sure, but absolutely worth it.

Summary: With my trusty Golden Retriever, I squeezed a fun, challenging shoulder-season 4 night lollipop-ish route thru the Entiat. We hiked past Myrtle Lake and Cow Creek Meadow, camped amidst Larch Lakes, crossed Pomas Pass into the Ice Creek drainage and then went up to Lower Ice Lake. Weather was mostly great, trails in good condition - but not without challenges in terrain and route-finding. We had the trails to ourselves: passed a family of 3 heading out as we came in, at about 3 mi from the trailhead. At about the same spot heading out, we passed a solo hiker heading in. That's it!

Water was never a problem, bugs were nonexistent. We encountered over a dozen trees across the trail on our first day - most of which had been cleared by our hike out. After that 1st day, trail obstacles were few. Thanks to the USFS and WTA BCRTs for fine work on clearing trail.

I’d been wanting to explore the Entiat for several years. Got my first taste of its beauty while working a WTA BCRT in '23 and another in ’24, and wanted a chance to explore and discover it on my own. This seemed a perfect opportunity.

Day 1 we hiked up the Entiat River Trail, took the left to go past beautiful Myrtle Lake and continued up past Cow Creek Meadows to the Garland Peak Trail, continuing down to camp on the west side of Upper Larch Lake. Apart from the windfalls in the first 4 miles, the upper stretches of Cow Creek Trail remained mostly clear as was Garland Peak Trail. Larch Lake is gorgeous – but the big climb followed by the descent to the lake left me and my legs cooked! I made us dinner and we crashed early.

Day 2 we woke to a planned "lag day" where we'd explore the Larch basin; I wanted to get another look at the falls draining Lower Larch. But that drainage wasn't flowing as well as it was in my June visit (with all the snow-melt assist). We returned to camp for lunch and shelter - anticipating a forecast of "heavy rain" and "strong" 10-12 mph winds, and wanting to be near shelter. The wind started as forecast at about 3p, the rain following shortly after – but it never amounted to much more than a modest rain. The wind, OTOH, got to howling. Based on comparison to the Beaufort scale I estimate windspeed closer to 30-35 mph, which continued thru the afternoon, evening and all night, until subsiding by about 10a on Day 3. The overnight winds several times flattened the low end of my tent; each time it flexed back. So impressed with modern tent designs: I grew up in Boy Scouts using US Army shelter halves, which never would have survived the night!

Day 3: once the wind died, we broke camp, packing up and continuing north on the Garland Peak Trail to a clear junction with the Larch Lakes Trail, turning left (uphill), destination Pomas Pass. The climb up to 6900’ was uneventful; the climb DOWN to Pomas Pass was, for much of the way, a steep sidehill - some of it, not for the faint-of-heart. The Pass itself offered pretty views in both directions. I’d read a recent USFS report indicating the trail had been cleared between the Pass and Ice Creek Trail, and can confirm this to be the case. There were a few windfalls to clamber over, some brushy spots, a few rock fields thru which the route was not overly evident, but all passable. Shortly after re-entering the burn zone at about 5600 ft, I did lose the trail - I missed the turn - where the trail turns downhill from the sidehill (the way obstructed by a large downfall). There’s a nice camp at the bottom of Pomas Creek Trail just before emerging to the junction with Ice Cr Tr. We turned west on Ice Cr Tr for 1.5 mi to a nice camp on the east side of the creek.

Day 4: we got out early with dayhike gear and made quick work reaching the camp at the base of the trail up to Ice Lakes; there was some gorgeous forest walking along the way. From that camp, the trail stayed just west of the route shown in USFS maps, mostly in a drainage gully - closer to what’s shown in OpenStreetMaps. The going gets pretty steep, and then steepens a few times more until reaching the Lower Ice Lake basin. The view is spectacular. We saw the first people we’d seen since Day 1 - with fishing poles on the other side of the lake. After a too-brief stop, I felt that given our schedule constraints, we had to ignore some great advice to proceed to the Upper Lake, and instead turn back to camp. The descent proved particularly challenging to my faithful canine companion, who expressed hesitancy in taking a few of the 3’ straight-down-steps required to make progress. Our negotiations were ultimately successful, we reached the camp at the upper end of the valley, and then proceeded back to our cached gear on the E side of the creek. We packed up the rest of our gear and continued east; after crossing the Entiat on a nearby log, camped at the dusty horse camp at the junction of Ice Creek Tr with the Entiat River trail.

Day 5 we hiked out to the car; most / all of this hike is thru the burn zone. The burned out carcasses of trees lost to the fires is offset by the impressive new growth as the forest slowly returns to a sense of health. That health evidently has a long ways to go, but its coming. Along the way we spoke to our 1st human since Monday, a fellow solo hiker, about 3 miles before the trailhead. Back to the car we packed up, wiped down and headed home.

Started at Basalt Ridge trailhead. Some quick bullet points:

• No water available along the route. Maybe if you detour way off trail below Basalt Ridge, but I wouldn't plan on that
• Burn area has been cleared up. One down tree posed a minor obstacle. On-trail portion of the route otherwise in good shape
• Off-trail portion of the route up Garland has a lot of dense young trees that were annoying to navigate through/around

We reached "Garland Knoll", not Garland Peak.  Start about 3550', top about 7400'; 8.7 miles. (Maybe Garland Peak would be 10.4 miles ?) 

From the Basalt Pass TH, we hiked up to the Basalt Ridge trail, then up to the knoll (I call it Garland Knoll) near the intersection of the Basalt RidgeTrail and the Garland Peak Trail.  

Romano gave this Garland Knoll hike 5 stars in his Central Casades Day Hikes book. I agree. We had intended to continue a mile east on the Garland Peak Trail, then walk up to Garland Peak; but with the trail and our pace and the drive time from Seattle, we lost the daylight window. Garland Knoll was quite okay.  I wasn't frustrated. 

GETTING THERE. 

Go to the TH for Basalt Pass Trail #1530. Do not go to the Basalt Ridge TH (which would leave a considerably longer and harder hike to Garland Knoll). If your directions don't have a last turn off Chiwawa River Road, you're probably headed to the Basalt Ridge TH.  

For the Basalt Pass TH, your last turn is a right turn off the Chiwawa River Road onto Chikamin FR 6010, signed Chikamin Trailheads slightly before your turn, 1 to 1.5 miles after a sizable sign for Grouse Creek Campground.  On our visit, someone had leaned a post with a wrong road number (FR 6000) against the road sign at that turn -- if that wrong marker remains, ignore it.  

THE TRAIL. 

Almost no blowdown. Still, slower and more taxing than expected. 

The trail to the ridge is mushy (pack animals), steep with poor tread, some up and down. We hit an optimal period (given possibilities):  moist in the morning and only a little dusty on return. Neither sliding mud nor sliding dust. The only person we met on our Wednesday hike was a lookout enthusiast, coming down on this segment, from the bare remains of a lookout near Basalt Peak. 

After you hit the Basalt Ridge trail, turn right, and soon encounter an intersection. A left option goes downhill (Rock Creek Tie Trail). Is that obstructed thing on the right a trail? (No.) The faint overgrown path in the middle straight ahead is your trail. 

Eventually the trail opens up, very nice, and diverse. Fireweed in the burnt forest sections. Look through burnt trees around you, over the Entiat River basin to the east, to trees healthy green and many trees washed out dead (drought? beetles?). Or west over two grand watersheds, to Glacier Peak.

The trail is faint in spots. At elevation 6560 ft, we evidently lost the trail (per GAIA trip record). We should have kept left to stay on the main trail. Instead, we went right on a spur trail. That basically disappeared in a meadow. We lost time, ascending a steep hillside to get back to the main ridge trail.  

In the last, wide open stretch to the intersection with Garland Peak Trail, the "trail" becomes hard to see. Doesn't matter. Just choose your path up. 

Wonderful views up there. Regionally, Rampart and Devil's Smokestack, and the huge drainage valleys. Glacier Peak in the distance. A grand sense of space looking over that open stretch to the south/southeast. Serenity. 

Sunday, July 28^th:

I headed over Stevens Pass, past Lake Wenatchee, and out to FR6101.  The road was full of the usual potholes, but nothing really noteworthy up until Deer Camp.  Almost immediately upon turning that hair pin turn of FR6101, the road conditions changed.  The number of potholes increased, but still not too bad.  The problem was that the road became narrow to VERY narrow the whole 2.66 miles up to Maverick Saddle!  A rock wall on the right, a drop off on the left, and little room for error.  If there had been a car coming down toward me, options to pass were few and far between.  And backing up on that road would have been brutal at best.  I was sweating bullets and hoping against hope for no other cars!  That road was longest bloody 2.6 mile drive of my life!  I finally emerged into the large parking area at the Maverick Saddle TH, and was very relieved to be done with that bit and meet Fortified.  He had driven up from Mad River Road and had spent the previous night camping at Maverick Saddle. 

We loaded up the last items into the packs and headed North up the Mad River Trail.  The trail was dusty most of the time with some mild muddy areas.  Overall  it was a very cruisy and beautiful trail!  Different trails cut off to the left and right off to various creeks and ridges and we kept on straight.  Crossing Mad River was pretty easy this time of year.  I rock hopped and was able to keep my shoes dry.  The water was only about 8” deep at most.  The only real challenge of this trail was the dirt bikes and kept speeding though and stirring up clouds of dust!  They were all super polite, but we had to keep our ears open and get off the trail with plenty of time, but cause the bikes couldn’t see us with much notice with all the twists/turns in the trail.  At 8.3miles in, we took a left to have lunch at beautiful Mad Lake.  Fortified remembered coming here once as a kid on his old dirt bike many many moons ago and enjoyed reminiscing.  He even showed me the exact spot where he had fallen off his bike on a little bridge lol. 

We continued on past Marble Creek Camp (very nice spot with room for 2 or 3 tents) and up the switch backs and on to the Three Creeks Spring.  Thankfully water was running quite nicely there with room for quite a few tents in the trees nearby!  There were two older gentlemen already camped there who my Dad knew from years ago growing up in Entiat!  They had gone to school a few years apart and the gentleman’s mom had been my Dad’s teacher on one point!  Small word.  They had come up the Shetipo creek Trail and were planning to return to the Entiat valley/Cottonwood the same way.  Fortified and I had a lovely evening and slept well after our 12miles day. 

Monday, July 29^th

We got going in good time and continued heading north, past the Shetipo Creek trail junction and on to the Garland Peak Trail!  The next 4.6miles was a maze of downed trees and playing hide and seek with the bloody trail!  I was beyond grateful for Gaia on my phone.  The trail was accurately shown in the app and whenever we were confused, pulling up the app got us on track quite well : )  The Garland Peak Ridge is STUNNING!  If this trail was re-established, WOW!  I think it would be highly popular!  About half way along the ridge the weather moved in and dumped on us for about 20min, then stayed misty and damp for a few more hours.  It was slow going on the side hill with the trail remnants falling off the hillside.  The trail junction with Basalt Ridge Trail was an epically cool spot!  All open pumas field and felt so ethereal in the mist!  We emptied the dirt, pine needles, and grit out of our shoes and continued on. 

The brush and trees returned in force as we descended down the thousand feet or so under Rampart Mountain.  Here we lost the trail around the 6,500ft area several times, but ended up just cutting down to our right and picking up the trail again around 6300.  From there the trail was brushing but easy to follow all the way the stream crossing and camping area at 5900ft on the little tributary of Rock Creek.  We stopped here to empty our shoes again, eat, and inspect our various scratched and scrapes.  After a much needed rest, we started following the trail up the ridge to Fifth of July Pass!  This bit of trail was mostly easy to follow with just a few blow downs to navigate around and a deep layer of moss at time on the trail bed that felt magical!  Once at the pass, we took a breather, reminisce a bit as it had been a few years since our last visit to this spot, then continued on. 

The trail keeps going up a bit from Fifth of July pass in order to get above and avoid a cliff band.  The trail had deteriorated from what I remembered last time and we bumbled around in the rocks for a bit around 7,000ft before finding the trail again on the other side and beginning the long decent into Cow Creek Meadows.  This seemed to take much longer than it should have especially with rain threatening on and off again!  The views were amazing though!!  The rain held off just long enough for us to set up camp, filter water, and climb into our tents!  Very cool day!

Tuesday, July 30^th

The morning was beautiful with everything washed clean after the rain.  We packed up and headed down to Myrtle Lake for some breakfast.  The change here was very dramatic from my last visit!  The woods had been burned out in a fire and the beaver activity had raised the level of Myrtle lake by about 10ft!  Where I had eaten my lunch last visit was now feel underwater.  We did not filter water here to avoid any Giardia concerns and continued on to Anthem Creek and filled up there.  The last couple miles out to Cottenwood trailhead was Hot and Dusty!  There was one cute deer we followed down the trail who met us at the car.  Great Trip! 

We drove our second planed car down the Entiat River Road, hung a right at Ardenvoir, then up Tillicum Road.  We made a much needed bathroom stop just under Mosquite Ridge and continued driving North-ish, past Sugarloaf Peak lookout, and on to Maverick Saddle and the Upper Mad River Trailhead to where my car was waiting.

I gingerly oozed my car back down that bloody narrow 2.6mile Forest Road 6101 to Deer Camp and was home free!  I am so grateful to have this time with my Dad as he is in his 70’s but still hiking strong!  Great Trip!  Thank you Lord for these Mountains that are covered in your fingerprints!