Larch Lakes/5th of July Mountain October 7-8, 2000 Go see the larches NOW! Take a day or two THIS WEEK and get up there while they are still magical!! In a week or two at most it will be over. This was a perfectly-timed trip to the center of the larch universe. Three and a half hours max. from Seattle to the 3100’ trailhead (38 miles from Highway 97A, mostly on good paved road, the last 4 or 5 miles on a good hard-packed single-lane dirt road). Plenty of parking space, and only 4 other vehicles there at noon on Saturday. The few larches I saw turning on Swauk Pass were still quite green, so I thought I might have been a week too early for prime larch viewing. I was in for a wonderful surprise. The weather was perfect for the 3+ hour hike up to 5800’ Upper Larch Lake – clear and sunny but cool enough to make the hill-climb not so bad, and virtually no bugs. The first 3½ miles of trail are in pleasant cool forest along but usually out of sight of the Entiat River. Wide easy tread, barely noticeable rise, wonderful big old trees (alive and downed), patches of brilliant yellow cottonwoods on the hillsides, and a tantalizing splash of larch gold on the higher ridges above. At the Myrtle Lake trail turn, I considered the options. Signs warned that horses are not allowed on the Myrtle Lake bridge across the Entiat, and must continue another mile up valley to the stock ford at the start of the Larch Lakes trail. A sign assured me there would be a hiker trail to Larch Lakes just 1 mile along if I took the left turn toward Myrtle Lake. I figured all this meant there was no bridge for me if I stayed on the Entiat River trail for that additional mile, so I took the left turn toward Myrtle Lake. The trail drops a little to a substantial wooden bridge with railings missing. Then it climbs a little to Myrtle Lake (nice campsite) and beyond. Only a few hundred yards above Myrtle Lake, there is a fork. The Cow Creek trail continues up to the left, while to the right is the well-signed hiker-only trail #1430.1 (not on my maps) that parallels the Entiat upstream on its west side a mile to connect with the Larch Lakes trail about one-third of its way up from the River to the Lakes. On this hiker-only trail I encountered the only uncleared blowdown of the trip; it was easily clambered over. The climb up to Lower Larch Lake isn’t that bad, though the long gentle grade for the horses was frustrating for this hiker. The colors started getting amazing as soon as I emerged from the forest. The slide alder and huckleberries and cottonwoods were first to impress. Then the larches. The main larch zone in this area is from 5500’ to 8000’, but the best concentration of brilliance is between about 6000’ to 7000’. Trees on the lower edge of this range still have a little green in them, while those at the top of the range are getting a little towards brown. But for the most part, the hills, trails, sky were all gold. I have never seen anything like it; even the trip to Ingalls Lake at its peak last year was a warm-up act for this display. From Upper Larch Lake (5800’), about half the trees you can see are larches, including a dense stand of large specimens right in the middle of the main camp area. Two rifle-toting hunters and their 4 stock and 2 dogs half-way through a 4-day visit had taken over the south and west sides of Upper Larch Lake (the horses by depositing piles of droppings on every flat spot in the south meadow). I took note of the low point in the eastern skyline and pitched my tent on the uplands NW of the lake to get the earliest sun and was glad I did. The sun disappeared over the high western ridge about 4:00, and by 5:00 the temperature had dropped to freezing. By 6:00 I was in my bag and dozing off, watching the glint of the setting sun on the larches at the top of the west ridge through the screen of my tent roof, when 2 other hikers arrived to much neighing and barking. Everything soon settled down, and it was a brilliant night. I was able to trace the progress of the gibbous moon and the stars through the tent wall and roof. Once I added a second pair of socks, I was plenty warm, though the temperature inside the tent was in the low 20s, and there was ice everywhere. Sunrise around 7:00 cast a warm pink-gold glow on the larches on the western ridge above camp, and very soon after that on my tent. By 9:00 I was off around the south end of the lake and steadily climbing the obvious trail through phenomenal gold. Flushed several blue grouse up into trees as I walked. They are so comical as they strut along a branch, craning their necks and wondering whether it is yet safe to come back down. Forty minutes after leaving the lake I crested the ridge on a rocky hillside with views back to the lake, then continued down a little way to the 6500’ junction with the Cow Creek Trail. This stretch of trail was the most amazing solid gold I have ever seen. There are places where you see in all direction through a curtain of gold. Shortly before the junction was the first water I had encountered since leaving the Lake. I stashed my backpack and headed south along the Garland Peak trail with a daypack. This trail IS steep, not a horse grade. It climbs in a mile to above the 7000’ pass with larches everywhere. As soon as you start dropping over the ridge, look for a small pile of stones on the right. These indicate a worn zig-zagging boot path to the summit ridge of 5th of July Mountain. You don’t need really a trail – you can just head up the south slope, but be careful to stay on or near the ridge-line, as it gets very cliffy on the west side, and bouldery and steep on the east side. The boot track stays mostly a little east of the center of the slope, but near the top there is only one way to go through a narrow section. In a few places it was easier to use hands than not. The track comes to the summit ridge south of the true summit, about an hour above the Cow Creek trail junction. It’s a little airy to edge along the east side of the north-south running ridge and scramble the final boulders up to the true 7700’ summit. I didn’t find a summit register, but some Boy Scouts had left a 1998 wine bottle short of the summit with their names and troop number on a paper corked inside. The weather was changing as forecast, and the wind was blowing hard from the west. I spent about 90 minutes on top savoring what is likely to have been the last nice day of fall this year. The cottonwoods and larches are so prominent from this vantage point! Clouds obscured the top of Glacier Peak and Mt. Rainier, but most of the rest was clear, all the way down to Mt. Stuart. Smoke from the orchards hung over the Columbia River Valley. I was able to get down out of the wind on the east side of the ridge and locate all the peaks on a 6-quadrangle spread of maps. A Swainson’s hawk coasted soundlessly southward. From this perspective I could tell that I had made the right decision to camp at Larch Lakes rather than at Cow Creek Meadow, as the latter is in a cold, shady, north-facing bowl with high cliffs around it and few larches. Finally at 1:00 I left the high country, picked up my backpack, and wound my way back down through the larches on a horse-grade trail (guide-book to the contrary, this is NOT steep for hikers). It got cloudier as I descended, and by time I got to the next water at Cow Creek (just before the signed turn-off for the meadow) the sun was gone for the day. More woods, first almost level and then more descent, dropping down to the junction above Myrtle Lake where I had started off on the hiker-only trail just a day before. The rest of the trip was just as nice as on the way in – easy tread even under tired feet -- and the parking lot almost came too soon at 5:00. Good food at El Camino Real west of Cashmere finished off a most wonderful weekend. Go, do this hike or one like it now before it is too late!

Arrived at the trailhead for Entiat River trail (#1400) about noon on Friday - third car in the lot. Shortly after exiting the car, we heard a sound that would be with us the entire trip - the whine of mosquitoes. Started up the trail in the warm weather, bathed in our favorite form of DEET. The trees provided a nice shaded hike most of the way. No problem, other than bugs, to the junction with Cow Cr Trail (#1404). As noted at the trailhead, the bridge over the Entiat is damaged, but quite usable for hikers (handrails have been severely damaged). We continued on to the south end of Myrtle Lake, where we camped at the farther of the two luxurious campsites (large rock fire rings and picnic tables at each). We set up the tent, and then put on our raincoats and pants for bug protection, even though it must have been about 80deg. Tried fishing, but no success. Just before heading back to the campsite for dinner, we heard a large chunk of rotten tree fall onto the trail above us - glad we weren't hiking by at the time. During dinner 3 deer wandered through our camp, chomping on mushrooms and other plants. Finally, after sunset, the mosquitoes subsided to the point that the repellant worked, but then we were ready to retire. We decided to leave the rainfly off our 4 season tent, since it was so warm. About 11:00pm we were awakened by lightning flashes and thunder. So, hopped out of the tent and put on the rainfly, just in case this was more than ""dry lightning"". The thunderstorm continued, and about 12:30am, the skies let loose in a downpour of rain and hail. This lasted about 30 minutes, and then repeated at 3:00am. To say the least we did not get much sleep that night. During breakfast the next morning 3 other deer wandered through camp. We packed the wet tent and started up the Cow Cr Meadows trail (#1404) toward 5th of July Mt. This trail has not been logged out beyond the wilderness boundary. We crossed ~20 logs over the trail, including 5 larger ones. Ran into snow patches about 5000ft which became 60% snow by the time we reached Cow Cr. The two log crossing was under water, since the snowmelt was ongoing. After exploring various options for crossing (slick bark-less sloped logs, submerged rock hop, we opted for the barefoot mid-thigh ford, from a snowbank, across a sandy portion of the stream, then on to grass. Very cold feet and legs. The steep climb above Cow Cr Meadows provided ever better views of the basin, and no snow, until about 6000ft. As we approached the junction with Garland Pk trail (#1408), we noticed large clouds looming over 5th of July Mt. In addition, Cow Cr Pass had a large cornice on the east side. To top it off were we fairly tired from the climb, so we were debating going direct to Larch Lakes, and eliminating the side trip to 5th of July Mt. When the thunder started, that cinched it. We decided to beat-feet to upper Larch Lk and get off the ridge. As we were hiking, the ""flash-boom"" timing was decreasing from the initial 13 seconds to about 3 seconds when we finally dropped off the ridge into the Larch Lk basin. About 5 logs over the trail on this section. About 300ft above the lake, the rain, hail, and wind started. We continued descending in the storm, through the snow patches to the lake and then a brisk hike across the open meadow to the campsites (probably not a smart thing to be walking through a boggy meadow in the thunderstorm!). We set up our tent, covered the packs, and climbed inside to wait out the storm. About 1.5 hours later the rain finally stopped and we came out to survey the area. There is still about 30% snowcover in the upper lake basin, and the lake is about 1ft deeper than normal. The rain kept the mosquitoes down for a couple of hours, but after dinner, they were out again! We had a good night's sleep, much cooler than the night before. The snow had hardened significantly by morning, but it had not dropped below freezing. We started out at 8:30am, to get home at a reasonable time. By 9:00am, the mosquitoes were out again, so we kept moving. Lower Larch Lake had a few fish surface feeding, but not many. During the descent, had a number of beautiful views of the Larch Cr Falls in the morning sun. Reached the Hiker Only trail that parallels the Entiat River (~3800ft), avoiding the Entiat Ford or logjam crossing. The single log crossings of Larch Cr and Cow Cr were uneventful. During the hike out along the Entiat River Trail, we saw 3 horses, 5 hikers, and 3 mtn bikers. No motorcycles, and lots of mosquitoes.