Lost and Forgotten:
A Trail Guide to Roadless Area Hikes
and Vistas in Western Okanogan County, Washington
[
Read another chapter from Lost and Forgotten ]
Golden Horn Roadless Area
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Canyon Creek (West) / Mill
Creek / Ruby Arm / McMillan Park: Golden Horn Roadless Area; Crater
Mountain, Azurite Peak Quads.
Hike length: Depending on the trail taken, it is approximately
5 miles to Mill Creek, 3.5 miles to Ruby Arm; and about two miles to McMillan
Park. Beyond Mill Creek, the trail continues to the Chancellor mining district,
in about 8 or 9 miles overall.
Difficulty & walking time: Difficulty
is moderate for most of the way; a full day's hiking can reach Mill Creek
and back by dark, but most will want to dilly-dally.
Elevation gain:
From the Granite Creek trailhead at approximately 1900 feet elevation,
the trail goes up to approximately 2700 feet at Mill Creek Crossing; down
to 1700 feet at Ruby Arm, or up to approximately 5300 feet over 60-some
switchbacks to Macmillan Park.
Directions to site: From Winthrop,
travel west on Highway 20 for approximately an hour, over Washington and
Rainy Passes, and down the other side of Granite Creek. About 3 miles past
East Creek, park at Granite Creek Trailhead. You have driven 3 miles too
far if you see the Thunder Creek Trail.
Route directions: From the
trailhead, walk upstream along the trail about 500 feet to a foot bridge
and cross Granite Creek. To get on the Canyon Creek Trail No. 754, which
leads to Mill Creek and eventually Chancellor, look for a faint trail heading
right and northeast just beyond the Granite Creek Bridge crossing. Bypassing
this trail and going straight will cross a second bridge to access Trail
No. 738, which bifurcates into McMillan Park (right) and Ruby Arm (left).
For a brief side tour, there is a historic barn in the forest just across
from the parking area. An easy 3.5 miles downstream reaches Ross Lake in
the North Cascades National Park at Ruby Arm.
Specific guidelines or
difficulties: Canyon Creek is a real gorge, making off-trail travel
steep or impossible. For those planning to continue on to Chancellor, trail
construction between Mill Creek and Chancellor is on an every-other year
basis, which sometimes leaves a crumbling chasm above a 300 foot plunge
into the river on the odd years. Turning back might be in order, or confirm
ahead of time with the Twisp Ranger District whether the trail is open.
Be careful to keep your eyes on the trail for sharp drop-offs, lonesome
bears and wayward miners. Don't mistake Boulder Creek for Mill Creek, which
is much larger. Those attempting to reach Jerry Lakes will need technical
gear such as ice axes. The National Park requires visitors to register
before camping.
Area features: Canyon Creek is a spectacular gorge filled with
lush, mossy old growth, sparkling cascades, and glints of fool's gold.
It is about three miles to Rawley's Chasm. Rawley's Chasm is a hundred-plus
foot deep ravine bridged by a short wooden span. The faint trail down,
barely negotiable, leads to a historic trash pit above the river.
Mill Creek is a large stream, the source of the Azurite Mine, legend
and lore. Many stories were told of the Kikendall dogsled team (e.g., Roe,
1980) that supplied the miners at the mine, about six miles up Mill Creek,
around the turn of the century. The mill site and tailings are currently
being probed for any remaining ore, but this effort has been marginal,
and the mine and its tailings are a dismal, gaunt blemish in an otherwise
spectacular, biologically diverse valley.
Like its parallel cousin, Granite Creek, Mill Creek runs from Canyon
Creek to the crest, but in contrast to the subalpine forests of Granite
Creek, Mill Creek squeezes in tropical novelties (by East Cascades standards)
such as Oregon cascara (
Rhamnus purshiana), bigleaf maple (
Acer
macrophyllum), and rocky mountain juniper (
Juniperus scopulorum).
This diversity was recently enhanced through patchy underburning caused
by an escaped campfire which was allowed to burn for about a month during
the late 1980s.
McMillan Park is a high plateau that leads to the Devil's Dome area.
This is a good place to study the different blueberry species, including
Vaccinium
deliciosum, V. membranaceum, V. scoparium and
V. caespitosum.
Their leaves are all rather similar until studied closely, however their
fruits are distinctive enough, being respectively, blue and sweet, black
and tart, red and small, and blue and small.
Jerry Lakes are pristine gems set into a large glacier tiara. The glaciers
have melted considerably in the last couple of years, exposing a new lake.
The route up to the lookout passes pillow basalts, while crossing folds
of the Jack Mountain Thrust Fault, which telescoped about 75 miles of sediments
during a cathartic episode of the Cascade uplift.
Near Jerry Lakes there is a recent burn from a 1998 wildfire which killed
many of the picturesque subalpine trees. These will regenerate as they
did following an earlier fire seen burning in this same area in the earliest
pictures of the area taken by Lage Wernstedt. Lage, or "Loggy", as his
co-workers called him, was a draftsman hired for the incredible job of
photographing each cardinal direction from the summit of as many peaks
as he could climb with his men and horses each year, during the 1920s and
1930s.
The trail down to Ruby Arm on Ross Lake passes through pockets of lush
deciduous stands and old growth. Day hikers might find a spot to take a
dip below the campground at Ruby Arm. The old barn and clearcut by the
trail here are a legacy of Forest Service ownership, when the plan was
to convert Ross Lake into a resort Mecca.
Ruby Creek is only a few miles long, and serves to collect the waters
of Canyon Creek and Granite Creek for delivery to Ross Lake. During the
early 1990s, the creek experienced a debris flow originating from a small
drainage near County Line Creek. Large logs up to two feet in diameter
were lodged twenty feet up in the trees along the creek, following this
event.
There is a sign at the Canyon Creek Trailhead describing how Ruby Creek
got its name. The sign speculates that the early miners might have named
it for the "rubies" (garnets) found in the creek bed or perhaps from fond
remembrance of a saloon girl.
Excuse me, but this fabrication
ignores the most significant landmark in the area, and insults the character
of the farmer and packer, John McMillan, who lived on Beaver Creek about
halfway up the present Ross Lake in the late 1800s. If the people who wrote
the sign would visit McMillan's homestead in the spring, they would find
the valley filled each night with the ruby light of alpenglow reflecting
off the snow on Ruby Mountain.
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Hart's Pass / Slate Peak
/ Pacific Crest Trail; Golden Horn Roadless Area; Pasayten Peak, Slate
Peak Quads.
Hike length: The Pacific Crest Trail, or PCT, stretches from
Canada to Mexico; the brief description here is of a 16 mile section along
this trail and road between Holman Pass north of Hart's Pass in the Pasayten
Wilderness, south to Glacier Pass to the south.
Difficulty & walking
time: Trails in the Hart's Pass area are mostly well-maintained and
easy to walk at a rate of about two miles per hour.
Elevation gain:
Slate Peak is at 7440 feet, Hart's Pass at 6200. The two low spots on the
Pacific Crest Trail near here are Holman Pass at about 5000 feet and Glacier
Pass at about 5600 feet elevation, while the rest of the PCT between these
two passes is higher and generally fairly level.
Directions to site:
From Winthrop, go west on Highway 20 about 8 miles and turn right onto
Goat Creek Road just before the Weeman Bridge. Stay on this road on the
northeast side of the river right on past Mazama at 13.5 miles. Continue
on, crossing Lost River 20 miles up onto unimproved Road No. 5400 . Shortly
beyond here, trailers are forbidden, as will soon become obvious. This
unimproved road begins the first few miles past several broad switchbacks,
affording a view of the glaciated upper Methow Valley, that is considered
by some to be the high point of their Okanogan trip. About 25 miles up,
the road crosses Dead Horse Point, which is a fright, but is negotiable
by most passenger vehicles with high clearance. Continue onward to Hart's
Pass at about 32 miles overall. The PCT crosses the road at this pass.
Route
directions: The PCT goes north from the big switchback a mile beyond
Hart's Pass on Road No. 600, and goes south from the end of the 2-mile
long Grasshopper Meadows Road No. 500.
Specific guidelines or difficulties:
The weather here is usually hotter, colder, wetter or windier than anywhere
else around-be prepared with appropriate gear. The Pasayten Wilderness
is entered at Windy Pass, 4 miles north of the Hart's Pass Trailhead; Within
the Pasayten Wilderness, respect group limits. Don't go west from Windy
Pass onto the private mine property.
Area features: Hart's Pass offers a wealth of hiking possibilities
amid subalpine parklands and alpine peaks. It is the last pass one crosses
before dropping down the mining road to Chancellor. The right fork of the
road continues upward another two miles to within a quarter mile of Slate
Peak Lookout, right on the boundary of the Pasayten Wilderness to the North.
The Pasayten is one of the big Wilderness areas created during the early
days of the Wilderness Act, but added to in 1976. It spans the country
between the Canadian border between Ross Lake east to Horseshoe Basin,
and south for about 30 miles nearly to Mazama.
Strangely, the area between Hart's Pass and Gardner Mountain, including
the entire upper Methow River, was left entirely outside of the wilderness,
even though its only significant developments are Highway 20 and less than
a handful of patented mines. One could hardly find a wilder chunk of territory,
and visitors to the area are surprised to find that the area
isn't
wilderness. Ongoing developments here include two timber assessments begun
here by the Forest Service, one below Hart's Pass and one on Cedar Creek;
an insider's agreement with the phone company to install a relay station
near Hart's Pass, possible mine expansions and road building on Mill, Slate
and East Creeks. Although the Scenic Highway designation affords some protection
for the area, such plans are easily compromised in favor of "recreational"
concessions, ski resorts, trams and more parking lots, all of which are
already on the books: the proposed Early Winters Ski Resort, the proposed
Beebe Mountain aerial tram, the bulldozed summit of Slate Peak, cleared
to watch for incoming Japanese attacks during World War II, and the most
painful reality: a million dollar outhouse in the Washington Pass parking
lot.
From Hart's Pass, a dozen or so trails radiate in every direction. The
Pacific Crest Trail, or PCT, comes in from the north along the crest between
the Pasayten River and Canyon Creeks. This part of the trail is a level
ride, except for the thousand-foot drop into Holman Pass, ten miles north
of Hart's Pass. Holman Pass is a glacial outflow channel, or
coulee,
carved when the north flowing Pasayten River was blocked by the advancing
Pleistocene ice sheet and forced southward over and through the ridge.
The PCT follows the road past Hart's Pass, then continues vicariously
southward from the end of the road at Grasshopper Meadows. Along this part
of the PCT, fossil-bearing sedimentary units give way to igneous rocks
of the Golden Horn Batholith, the boundary of which marks the location
of most of the mining ventures in this area. Most of the ore deposits are
highly localized and rapidly depleted; even the patented mines near Hart's
Pass have largely played out. For this reason, this part of the Cascades
has been spared much of the large-scale despoiling that characterizes so
many other mountains in the western US, although it is possible that the
Azurite Mine on nearby Mill Creek will eventually become a superfund site.
For the time, travelers on the PCT can still admire the colorful interplay
of sky and earth, unspoiled by the onslaught of progress. Places like this
are becoming rarer to find and Hart's Pass is already a crowded tourist
destination on weekends. The clean water and air of headwater streams originating
here should be protected while it is still unpolluted and wild, hopefully
before any more irreversible developments occur. This is not to say such
protection needs to be a lock-'em-out proposal. There is room for Wilderness
and a highway corridor and even hundreds of people, although probably not
thousands. Thousands at Hart's Pass! Or a rock concert; imagine that. In
the meantime, try and take the time to visit this area now, before the
inevitable throngs, and while the glaciers of Glacier Pass are still unmelted
by the warming climate. Then think about how you would choose to protect
the area's resources.
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Klipchuck Campground /
Driveway Butte / Early Winters Trail; Golden Horn Roadless Area; Silver
Star Mountain Quad.
Hike length: Driveway Butte summit is four miles from the trailhead.
Early Winters Trail No. 522 is a recently reconstructed extension of the
Klipchuck Campground loop that goes to Silver Star Creek about 3.5 miles
away.
Difficulty & walking time: Driveway Butte is a moderately
difficult climb on a fair trail up a steep, dry hillside, that takes all
day to properly experience. Early Winters Trail is an easy, shady walk
along the creek, which can be shortened to a 2 hour walk if a getaway vehicle
is parked at the far end.
Elevation gain: The Driveway Butte Trail
goes from 3000 to 5982 feet elevation; Early Winters Trail from the same
starting point tops out at the road by Silver Star Creek at 3400 feet.
Directions
to site: These 2 trail systems each begin at Klipchuck Campground,
which is a marked turn to the north off of Highway 20 about 3.5 miles west
of Mazama junction or approximately 18 miles northwest of Winthrop. Campsites
are for paying visitors, so be careful not to engender a fine. Parking
is sparse outside of the campground proper, but a couple Subarus can usually
squeeze in barely off the pavement, right beside the trailhead sign to
Driveway Butte.
Route directions: The trailhead for Trail No. 481
to Driveway Butte begins at an old access road behind a green metal gate
at the entrance to Klipchuck Campground. A little way down the road, the
trail takes off to the right through a brushy area with partial logging.
Klipchuck Campground offers a splendid nature walk along Early Winters
Creek, which loops around from one end of the campground to the other.
At the upper end, the trail joins the newly refurbished Early Winters Trail,
No. 330, which stays on the north side of Klipchuck Creek as far as Silver
Star Creek.
Specific guidelines or difficulties: Watch for rattlesnakes.
During an elementary class in Klipchuck Campground, the first girl in my
group of kids kicked over a rock from which issued a huge rattler. The
second kid in line pulled up short, but was bumped by the third, and thus
the entire group hopped over the surprised rattler, stop - bump - scream
- hop, one-by-one. This is a good place to encounter bears of many colors.
A red-colored grizzly bear cub, 4-inch white flashing claws and all, spent
a summer here harassing a work crew for the Wilson Ranch Freestone Inn,
however it has not been seen since then.
Area features: Driveway Butte is the furthest incursion of ponderosa
pine / sagebrush-steppe into the North Cascades of the Okanogan, with steep
environmental gradients between the hot, dry slopes and cool, moist valleys.
Early Winters Creek is both charming and diverse, and the Early Winters
Trail traverses old growth Douglas fir (
Pseudotsuga menziesii),
cool stands of redcedar (
Thuja plicata), rare ferns (
Botrychium
spp.), coral-root orchids (
Corallorhiza mertensiana, C. striata and
C.
maculata), and many liliaceous and orchidaceous delicacies. West Cascades
species are found here and nowhere else in Okanogan County, including Oregon
cascara (
Rhamnus purshiana), and the rare (for Okanogan County)
western hemlock (
Tsuga heterophylla).
Remnants of the vast Forest Service empire of the past still linger
here. There is an old cement foundation marking some sort of fairly substantial
building that once stood just above Silver Star Creek on the north side
of the creek in an avalanche chute now grown over with aspen. This old
trail has been largely obliterated by Highway 20 on both sides of the pass,
but can be picked up here and there as it winds past an airplane wreck
below Washington Pass, over Rainy Pass, and on down through Granite Creek
across many bridges in every conceivable sort of decay. One cute span just
below the Granite Creek road crossing was hovering precariously close to
collapse in the early 1990s. Parts of the old trail are marked with green-and-white
diamond-shaped signs for the old route of the Pacific Crest Trail, which
would make an excellent roadside trail for the benefit of highway travelers
if rebuilt today.
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Methow River across from
Robinson Creek confluence; Golden Horn Roadless Area; Robinson Mountain
Quad.
Hike length: This hike covers about two miles, round trip.
Difficulty
& walking time: This is an easy 1 or 2 hour walk.
Elevation
gain: This trail and old road system is mostly level at about 2500
feet elevation.
Directions to site: From Winthrop take Highway 20,
and turn right onto Goat Creek Road just before the Weeman Bridge, 8 miles
up. Continue on past Mazama at 13.5 miles, staying to the right past the
Mazama Store. Continue on, crossing the Lost River 20 miles up onto the
unimproved road. Turn left onto Forest Service Road No. 60 at the switchback
about 23 miles up and park, being very careful not to block any traffic
coming down from the Hart's Pass road. More parking is available near Ballard
Campground, just further on this spur road. The trail begins 0.1 mile back
down from the switchback. Behind a green metal gate, there is another road,
No. 50, which leads across a bridge to a network of old logging and farming
access roads.
Route directions: Just wander around on the old network
of roads and trails here, within a mile of the bridge. Stay on public lands
above the irrigation inlet.
Specific guidelines or difficulties:
Be very careful crossing the damaged bridge near the beginning of the hike.
Area features: The Pacific Biodiversity Institute in Winthrop
developed a computer algorithm to compute a composite biodiversity value
for land areas. The method incorporated environmental parameters such as
stream proximity, distance to roads, forest productivity, vegetative condition,
etc. Originally it was run on the Methow Valley as a test of its validity.
Land parcels of 50 acres or more were scored with a composite biodiversity
score ranging from zero to 400. Of the hundreds of parcels in the valley,
only four scored above 350; the second-highest score being that of this
parcel. Seeking protection for the area, it was surprising to find out
from the Forest Service that the parcel had just been acquired by in a
land swap, by some fortuitous quirk of fate. You too, will find the area
wonderfully wild and diverse.
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Methow River Road's End
Trail; Golden Horn Roadless Area; Slate Peak, Robinson Mountain Quads.
Hike length: It is 3 miles to Trout Creek from the end of the
Methow River Road No. 60.
Difficulty & walking time: This is
an easy to moderate hike along a major, wild river. Allow a whole day to
savor the trip.
Elevation gain: The trail starts at approximately
2700 feet elevation and remains essentially level for several miles.
Directions
to site: From Winthrop tale Highway 20 eight miles west and turn right
onto Goat Creek Road just before the Weeman Bridge. Continue on past Mazama
at 13.5 miles, staying to the right past the Mazama Store. Continue on,
crossing Lost River 20 miles up onto the unimproved road. Turn left at
the switchback at 22.6 miles and go to the end Road No. 60, which is the
trailhead for Trail No. 480.
Route directions: The trail continues
to the very headwaters of the Methow River, 15 miles away at Methow Pass,
if you are so inclined. For day hikes, a good destination is the old growth
redcedar stand three miles in and about a half mile past Trout Creek.
Specific
guidelines or difficulties: At the beginning of the trip, the trail
crosses a creek on a log, which is flattened, but which has the handrail
washed off. In spring, a slip would be fatal. Please use no-trace camping
as the area is in a popularly visited narrow canyon where all visitors
must share the limited space.
Area features: The Methow River is a diverse area of talus slopes,
old growth, riparian areas, shrubfields, and avalanche chutes. The rocky
talus slopes take some resolve to cross, but that may change if the current
direction to develop the area as a mountain bike route goes forth. On one
occasion, I came here in October and the rocks were all glazed with frozen
rain, which required negotiating the trail on all fours.
Just past Trout Creek there is a small turnoff down to a redcedar stand
below the trail and along the river. Although this dense stand is practically
dark even in midday, careful observation might find the rare plant
Botrychium
lanceolatum, which is a teeny-tiny fern. It is growing next to the
largest diameter tree in the Methow Valley, with a trunk over eight feet
across. Care to guess what species the tree is? (Hint - the Latin name
is
Populus trichocarpa).
Liberty Bell Roadless Area
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Cedar Creek: Liberty
Bell Roadless Area; Silver Star Mountain, Mazama, Gilbert Quads.
Hike length: From the Cedar Creek trailhead on Trail No. 476,
it's two miles in to Cedar Falls, nine miles to Cedar Pass, and 13 miles
total for the route out at North Creek.
Difficulty & walking time:
Cedar Creek is a moderate hike on a maintained system trail, however reaching
the pass will most likely require an overnight visit.
Elevation gain:
From the trailhead at 2850 feet elevation, Cedar Creek trail climbs to
3550 feet at Cedar Falls and approximately 6450 feet at Cedar Pass.
Directions
to site: The Cedar Creek Trailhead is approximately 18 miles northwest
of Winthrop on Highway 20, or about four miles west of Mazama junction.
Route
directions: From the trailhead just follow the well marked Trail No.
476 as far as desired.
Specific guidelines or difficulties: As with
all trails in the area, be prepared for any weather circumstances.
Area features: Cedar Creek is a large watershed. The falls are
a popular destination, although the trail, which starts to becomes subalpine
in character about four miles in, is less used above there. Side canyons
offer exciting possibilities for wild encounters in the upper reaches.
The tallest point in Okanogan County is North Gardner Mountain at 8956
feet elevation. It is unusual for such a high peak to be composed of sedimentary
rocks. North Gardner, Gardner, Abernathy, and Storey Peaks are all part
of a
massif, bigger than a mountain, but not quite a whole range.
The contact zone between the granitic Golden Horn batholith and the Methow
sedimentary rocks lies across the west flank of the Gardner massif. This
same contact zone is partially visible above Highway 20 between Washington
Pass and Klipchuck campground, where the light orange granitic rocks and
gray sedimentary rocks mix together wildly. The composition and texture
of these two rock types result in topographic and floristic differences
between them that can be appreciated by hiking across them along the numerous
trails that lead to the Gardner Mountain area.
The boundary of the Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness follows the ridge along
Cedar Pass, which divides Cedar Creek from North Creek in the Wilderness.
North Creek used to be a large mining center, marked by the town of Gilbert
on older maps. There are plans to re-open some of the prospects in the
area. In the recent past, the miners have been frustrated by biologists
finding rare plants and animals where they want to dig, but that is because
they don't understand how biology relates to geology. Some plant species
are indicators for heavy metals, for instance the walking fern, Polypodium
hesperium, is only known from two sites on the Okanogan, both growing in
metal-rich ore veins in the Twisp area. Although this particular species
isn't rare enough to warrant state-wide listing, several other heavy-metal
indicator species on ore veins in the area are rare enough to warrant protection
from indiscriminate mining.
Three maintained trail systems access the Gardner Mountain area. The
shortest, steepest route is via the North Creek Trail No. 413, which begins
on North Creek off of the Twisp River, approximately one mile short of
the end of the Twisp River Road. About four miles of Wilderness travel
connect this trail with the nine mile long Cedar Creek Trail. Along North
Creek, the trail passes through avalanche chutes and stream crossings,
dense evergreen forest and open stands of deciduous trees. It is easy to
come under the spell of the mountains here and never want to come back;
day hikers will inevitably plan their next vacation to the Methow accordingly.
There is a final steep ascent up to Cedar Pass from North Creek, on Trail
No. 476. Hopefully, the sun will be shining hot and mercilessly as you
sweat and puff up that last section of ridge, but persevere--on a sunny
day the view at Cedar Pass offers spectacular vistas of Kangaroo Ridge,
Camel's Hump, and both of the Gardner Mountains, with the bright orange
Golden Horn batholith clearly streaking across the purple-green face of
the next ridge.
This vantage point is also accessed via the Mazama side of Cedar Creek
Trail No. 476, which begins two miles west of Early Winters Campground.
This route follows open brushy terrain for nine miles, and relief from
the sun will be appreciated each time you pass through a richly scented
coniferous draw. A unique plant association--Scouler willow / fairy bells
(
Salix scouleriana / Disporum sp.)--occurs about five miles up this
trail, or two miles above Cedar Falls. Such deciduous stands are often
preferred by wildlife. During a wildlife inventory by two college students
here, 27 bear scats were found in a fifteen minute walk. Day hikers can
visit spectacular Cedar Falls in a six mile round trip, but plan to spend
the night in the back-country if you want to reach Cedar Pass this way
on foot.
A third route to visit the Gardner Mountain area, popular with those
with a little more time on their hands, is to hike up Wolf Creek Trail
No. 527. The 12 mile trail to Gardner Meadows becomes snow- free around
the beginning of June, and south-facing Gardner Mountain melts off earlier
than most other high summits. The trail enters the Wilderness a half mile
from Wolf Creek Trailhead and follows Wolf Creek through mixed coniferous
forest. Be prepared to share the trail with its abundant wildlife: bear,
deer, and if you are lucky, mountain goats or perhaps the distant roar
of a mountain lion or raucous cry of a bobcat. You may also encounter cattle
or horseback riders along this popular route.
Liberty Bell is a big area:
This trip was on one of my end-of-the year forays to climb
North Gardner Peak, the tallest summit in Okanogan County at 8956 feet,
and more properly identified as a massif, or small mountain range. Despite
three attempts to scale the summit, success still eludes me, and to tell
the truth, I hope I never "summit". There is a wellspring of energy in
the attempting the unattained, that vanishes once the goal is reached.
On one of these mystical "attempts", I was going past Lamont Lake when
something very large growled at me from 300 yards away. I left without
bothering to discover what it was.
Another unsuccessful missions to climb the summit of North Gardner found
me with my friend Jason, deep in the bosom of nowhere, somewhere near North
Gardner Mountain. We had been hiking all day, after abandoning our mountain
bikes when we realized what a ridiculous idea that was in such a wild area.
It seemed like we were drawing near the base of the peak, since alpine
larch were close by, so we pulled out our maps to check our progress. The
maps indicated that another mile of hiking through boulder talus would
bring us to a small cirque, after which a mile-long ascent of a thousand-foot-tall
talus cirque, and then two more miles of negotiation of the final knife
ridge would put the summit below our feet. As I said it is a massif.-
GW
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Easy Pass; Liberty
Bell Roadless Area; Mt. Arriva Quad.
Hike length: Just over 2 miles.
Difficulty & walking time:
A moderate walk will gain the pass in a couple hours.
Elevation gain:
The elevation ranges from 3750 - 6500 feet.
Directions to site:
Going west on Highway 20, go six miles past Rainy Pass and park at the
Easy Pass Trailhead.
Route directions: Follow the groomed Trail
No. 471 as it winds up the mountainside.
Specific guidelines or difficulties:
This trail is fairly straightforward, although at the pass, the indicated
trail leading onward down to the west seems seldom used.
Area features: Easy Pass is practically the only easy route to
Ragged Ridge between Granite Creek and Fisher Creek. After starting out
in a cool subalpine forest, the route goes progressively through more heather
and blueberries, until it reaches the narrow pass at the top, flanked with
the steep peaks of Ragged Ridge, and panoramic vistas of Fisher Creek.
Easy Pass represents only a small portion of the range of floral diversity
found within Granite Creek. The vegetation in upper Granite Creek has more
old growth than the lower part. Further down Granite Creek, the terrain
becomes less subalpine and more montane, the trees are only about 80 years
old, and the vegetation in general is much brushier. This is the result
of a giant fire set in the early 1900s. Early pictures of these fires taken
by Lage Wernstedt from atop Crater Mountain, show that the fire burned
clear to the tops of the ridges from the trail up Granite Creek upward
on one side of the valley or the other. From the location of the fire,
the unmistakable conclusion is that they were intentionally set by someone
on the trail. Hmmm.
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Granite Creek; Liberty
Bell / Golden Horn Roadless Area; Mount Arriva, Azurite Peak, Crater Mountain,
Washington Pass Quads.
Hike length: Variable, depending on the length of trail walked;
the distance from Rainy Pass to Canyon Creek Trailhead is 16 miles, but
the trail along the way has been partly lost.
Difficulty & walking
time: This is an old, abandoned trail that was originally an easy walk,
but which has become partly overgrown and blocked by blowdown trees. Fortunately,
it follows within a quarter mile of the North Cascades Highway for the
entire trail route, so one can easily get on or off the trail from a car
at any point. It's doubtful you will follow the entire route, but a couple
hours could be enjoyably spent along any section.
Elevation gain:
The route follows Granite Creek as it descends along Highway 20 from Rainy
Pass at approximately 4900 feet to Granite Creek Trailhead at approximately
1900 feet.
Directions to site: Going west on Highway 20, go 10 miles
past Rainy Pass and park off the highway near Cabinet Creek, approximately
two miles above East Creek Trailhead.
Route directions: The old
trail goes both up and down along Granite Creek. Below East Creek, it is
still shown on the Washington Gazetteer alongside the east bank of Granite
Creek. Where the highway crosses Granite Creek, the trail can be picked
up 20 feet east of the highway clearing on the east side of the creek.
Formerly, there was an old derelict and uncrossable bridge just below the
modern highway crossing. Other sections of the trail appear sporadically
along the road up to Rainy Pass, where they have not been wiped out by
construction or overgrown by the forest. The old trail continues east past
Washington Pass, below Liberty Bell, and on down Early Winters Creek where
it gets lost in the forest along Early Winters Creek just below Cedar Creek
Trailhead, marked by a small wooden sign on a tree for mile marker No.
1.
Specific guidelines or difficulties: This is an old abandoned
trail, becoming fainter and more difficult to follow with each passing
season.
Area features: The abandoned Granite Creek Trail might also be
called the original Pacific Crest Trail. Along its length are relicts of
bygone days, such as wooden mile markers, quaint old wooden bridges best
left alone, and little green-and-white diamond-shaped signs notifying the
traveler that this is part of the Pacific Crest Trail system. In its early
planning stages, no one had a clear idea of where the PCT should be located.
Overly ambitious plans to build it over Maple and Heather Pass were scrapped
as too difficult, and the PCT was moved to Rainy Pass, leaving this trail
quite forgotten.
The original plans of the Forest Service were to accommodate Highway
20 with resort facilities, an aerial tramway to the summit of Beebe Mountain,
and a string of concessions that would form a continuous recreation corridor
from Mazama to Hozomeen on the Canadian border of Ross Lake. The transfer
of Ross Lake to the National Park, and the protracted battle over the proposed
Sandy Butte ski resort in the Methow Valley drained the energy from these
plans, leaving this area unblemished for the present. The single greatest
disturbance to the area, however, will probably always be the highway itself:
During the writing of this guide in 1999, a fuel truck crashed in Granite
Creek just below Swamp Creek dumping 7,000 gallons of fuel into the soil
along the creek. A massive cleanup ensued during the oncoming winter snows,
results of which await the coming years. Adding to the insecurity are yearly
debris flows that emanate from above Swamp Creek and threaten to take the
highway out. A debris flow during the early 1990s wiped out the highway
near East Creek and sent a twenty-foot tall wall of mud down Ruby Creek.
In the mid-1990s, the reconstruction of the Rainy Pass Trailhead was followed
by seeding the roadsides with contaminated grass seed, resulting in an
explosion of weeds along the highway. And on certain popular holidays,
traffic on the two lane highway can get backed up in a solid wall of traffic
stretching from Winthrop to Seattle.
Highway 20 goes through one of the few dedicated Scenic Highway Corridors
in the United States. If this highway is to be rationally managed, it might
be worth considering the feasibility of restoring the old trail system
along Granite Creek. It would provide tourists with a convenient break
from the pace and allow them to experience a natural setting, while preserving
the biological integrity of the surrounding roadless areas. Another consideration
is whether to provide underpasses for migrating wildlife. The annual carnage
from deer in the Methow Valley costs many motorists and animals dearly.
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Liberty Bell / Early Winters
Spires / Copper Pass; Liberty Bell Roadless Area; Washington Pass,
McAlester Mountain Quads.
Hike length: Approximately 2.5 miles.
Difficulty & walking
time: This is difficult, sometimes strenuous travel.
Elevation gain:
From the Blue Lake Trailhead at 5400 feet, the route goes over Copper Pass
on the spur ridge off of Early Winters Spires at 6700 feet.
Directions
to site: The route begins at the parking lot at Blue Lake Trailhead
on Highway 20, a mile west of Washington Pass.
Route directions:
Follow the Blue Lake Trail No. 314 to Blue Lake. The tall cliffs on the
left as one ascends are the back side
of Early Winters Spires. This is a popular place for recreational climbers,
who have hacked a bit of a user trail up the trail northeast from the lake.
Specific
guidelines or difficulties: Off-trail use by climbers is receiving
increasing scrutiny as this area gets more use. Staying on the trail is
the correct procedure, despite the popularity of Early Winters Spires with
extreme skiers and climbing jocks. During the late 1980s, mountain goats
were imported to this area from the Olympic Peninsula. Unlike our wild
denizens of the cliffs, these critters are a breed apart, and will follow
hikers quite closely, and even display aggression, in their unquenchable
thirst for salt.
Area features: A loop from Blue Lake over to Copper Creek and
back almost became a system trail, but thank goodness it didn't, because
it is ridiculously steep and goes through some prime, diverse habitats
which can benefit from the solitude while money is spent on more heavily
used sites. We humans have already claimed Washington Pass, Blue Lake and
Early Winters Spires, so it seems reasonable that such a trail remain theoretical.
Just for fun, imagine you are a Forest Ranger scouting for a suitable route
to build a new the trail as you hike here. Just pretend!
According to plant survey reports prepared for the Okanogan National
Forest, the Copper Pass survey area is the most floristic ally diverse
in the North Cascades, with 286 taxa found over the span of the Copper
Pass Route described.
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Lone Fir Nature Trail (wheelchair
access); Liberty Bell Roadless Area; Silver Star Mountain Quad.
Hike length: The wheelchair-capable portion of this trail covers
1/2 mile; the loop trail continues across the bridge and returns to the
trailhead in about a mile, while the unmaintained Early Winters Trail takes
off upstream and continues for many miles.
Difficulty & walking
time: A wheelchair moving at slow speed should take less than 30 to
45 minutes to get to the bridge over Early Winters Creek.
Elevation
gain: The wheelchair portion of this trail is on the level at 3600
feet elevation.
Directions to site: The Lone Fir Campground is approximately
25 miles northwest of Winthrop on Highway 20, or about 11 miles west of
Mazama junction.
Route directions: From Lone Fir Campground, the
trailhead to the nature trail is at the south (upstream) end of the parking
lot. The wheelchair portion of the route is paved.
Specific guidelines
or difficulties: Day hikers will need to find a space in the small
area near the trailhead, as the campground is often full. For wheelchair
users, the paved trail needs to have been recently cleared to use the trail,
so call the Forest Service at 509-997-2131 beforehand to confirm the trail
condition. The wheelchair portion of the route ends at the bridge over
Early Winters Creek, which suffers flood damage on a yearly basis. The
trail continues upstream.
Area features: Lone Fir Campground is in an old growth setting
which is also one of the few places in the Okanogan where western hemlock
(
Tsuga heterophylla) and Pacific silver fir (
Abies amabilis)
stands can be found. The diversity of this area is high, as drier, east
side species are also present here, including lodgpole pine (
Pinus latifolia),
western white pine (
Pinus monticola) and the ever-present Douglas-fir
(
Pseudotsuga menziesii). High elevation species are here too--subalpine
fir (
Abies lasiocarpa), Engelmann spruce (
Picea engelmanii)
and mountain hemlock (
Tsuga mertensiana). Understory plant associations
are similarly diverse.
Alas, such diversity is not compatible with modern management of the
area as a campground by the Forest Service. That is why the campground
is in a clearcut. The Forest Service would be responsible if a campground
accident were to occur, say, if a tree were to fall on a tent or poodle.
Since all trees eventually die and fall over, the Forest Service may be
obligated to clearcut more campgrounds to protect the public from the trees,
and themselves from lawsuits. Here follows part of the story of the clearcutting
of Lone Fir Campground:
A local Senator had just called the Forest Service office to
ask when he could visit the Lone Fir Campground. Aware of the Forest Service's
recent clearcuting of his favorite campground, he was anxious to camp there
as soon as the slash was cleared away. We promised him, "Maybe this weekend."
The Ranger set the entire office abuzz with the project. This would
be the first time some of the desk jockeys had seen daylight in many years,
victims of the managerial grid. Arriving at the campground in a phalanx
of avocado green, work crews were assigned leaders from amongst the various
engineering staff. My engineer was a grizzled old coot with a perpetual
cigarette hanging from his lip. Pulling us off to the side under the shade
of the outhouse, he leveled with us.
"I took a lot of trouble to get this detail, and I don't want any of
yuh blowin' it. See?" All youse gotta do is dig out 40 of these old campground
signposts, and stack 'em in the truck. See? So take yer time and don't
anybuddy work too hard, or yer gonna blow it for all of us. See?" Unfortunately,
there was a young, healthy buck in our crew, and he blew it for all of
us. In less than two hours, we were reassigned to the worst of all the
jobs--rolling root wads out of sight into the creek, while the old smokestack
glared at us.
We finished the job that day, amid cynical jubilation. The Ranger chose
the time to put on a fairly elaborate awards ceremony. It seemed that for
this day, we had become the real Forest Service again.- GW
The significance of clearcutting Lone Fir Campground is not to be understated.
This was a year when an injunction had all but shut down timber operations
on the Forest to protect spotted owls. Lone Fir was in prime habitat in
a proposed late-successional reserve, and spotted owls had been heard there
a few years earlier. Since it was an administrative site, it was exempt
from the injunction and could be logged. In this way, it set a precedent
for future logging in reserves, but as a consequence of the times, it also
set a precedent for the highest price ever paid for commercial timber.
Most people are familiar with the spotted owl's close ties to old growth
forests. The range of the spotted owl reaches its northeastern limit in
the Okanogan, in the Early Winters drainage, following settlement of a
friendly wager. On the suggestions of a biologist, a small group had gone
to the area they felt most likely to host spotted owls--Early Winters Creek.
They played a single taped call of a spotted owl over a megaphone, and
instantly got a response from the forest. Over the subsequent years that
pair of owls was tagged with radio collars and found to be the widest ranging
pair in the Pacific Northwest, presumably because the habitat of northern
interior forests is somewhat more sparse and the climate harsher, necessitating
a wider range to access suitable habitat.
Owing to their long and successful tenure on earth, trees are associated
with a number of co- evolved species such as spotted owls. A number of
old growth characteristics are obviously advantageous to spotted owls.
When hunting, owls like to swoop up and quickly kill their prey; this is
easier if abundant snags and branches are available at different heights
from the forest floor. If the forest trees are too close or too far apart,
perching structures won't be distributed just right for owls to use. The
climate of old growth forests is attenuated by the canopy, being cooler
in the summer and warmer in the winter, and this is an advantage to both
bird and prey. Spotted owls don't make their own nests but rely on finding
a suitable platform such as a broken snag, a mistletoe broom, or on an
abandoned nest of another bird such as the goshawk, another old growth
denizen. Young spotted owls often fall or jump from the nest before they
can fly, but since they have excellent climbing abilities (using their
beak, of all things), they can get back to safety if the nest is in a rough-barked
tree such as old growth Douglas fir. Only old growth stands have all these
structural characteristics.
Perhaps the most interesting ecological story about old growth and spotted
owls concerns mycorrhizal associations--fungal partners that grow in the
soil. All northwest trees have such microbial partners, in fact, fungal
associations are a true symbiosis, with trees receiving germination assistance,
nutrients and water retention from the mycorrhizae, in exchange for giving
shade, soil stabilization and carbohydrates to the fungus, primarily through
specialized root connections between the partners.
Rodents adapted to northwest old growth forests use the trees for more
than just living habitat. During foraging, they consume spores of various
fungi, which are excreted in their droppings, spreading the spores, and
propagating the fungi. As individual trees mature, the fungi in their roots
form a vast subterranean network below the ground. Throughout the life
of the tree, there is a critical balance between symbiosis and outright
parasitism. As long as the forest is healthy, it benefits both to continue
the relationship.
The balance changes if an individual tree is weakened, perhaps through
injury or overstocking. As the quantity and quality of exchanged carbohydrates
changes over time, some fungi begin to attack the cellulose in the wood.
Over succeeding decades, the fungi advance their grip on the tree. This
causes chemical changes in the tissues of the tree that initiates a cascade
of chemical changes, which signal pathogenic invertebrates as well as secondary
invasions of new fungi, which then attract successional and predatory insects
to the party. Over time, the tree is broken down chemically and physically,
and the fungi are stimulated to fruit, ending their quiet vegetative existence
of a century or more, and starting the cycle anew.
The tunnels of rodents living in these forests are veritable gardens
of these underground fungi, which they use as a food source. Because of
their good hearing, spotted owls can find these rodents, even in the filtered
light below an old growth forest. The captured prey carries living fungi
in its body to new areas. The new habitat which the fungi then occupy may
be a hostile bed of angry bacteria, but many fungi are prepared for this
with an arsenal of antibiotics, many of which were used since antiquity,
and are part of modern Pharmacopoieas.
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Virginian Ridge shale barrens;
Liberty Bell Roadless Area; Mazama, Rendezvous Mountain, Thompson Ridge
Quads.
Hike length: From the end of the road to the head of North Fork
Wolf Creek is 7 miles. An optional route back via Sandy Butte covers 4
miles to reach the end of the road up Sandy Butte.
Difficulty &
walking time: This is a moderately difficult trail with a difficult
initial climb up a rocky ridge. To reach the head of North Fork Wolf Creek,
allow a whole day hiking. Horseback riders occasionally follow this route,
so it is reasonably well maintained, albeit difficult to follow at the
beginning.
Elevation gain: The route begins at about 3500 feet elevation,
and crests McKinney Mountain at approximately 6460 feet before descending
to the head of North Fork Wolf Creek several hundred feet further down.
Directions
to site: From the south bridge in Winthrop, take the road west out
of town toward Wolf Creek. Turn right 1.5 miles down this road onto Wolf
Creek Road proper. Follow Wolf Creek Road about 3 miles, then turn left
onto the dirt road marked by a sign for Wolf Creek Trailhead. Bear right
as this road heads up the steep grade over several big switchbacks with
expansive views over the next several miles until the road comes around
to the south side of the hill overlooking Wolf Creek. At this point, Road
No. 220 to the right should be taken to its end at a gravel pit, 1.5 miles
further.
Route directions: From the gravel pit, a number of old
logging roads wander through the forest toward the west. With luck, the
correct one will be chosen that leads up to the crest of Virginian Ridge.
Once on this trail, it is easy to follow the way to the headwaters along
the narrow ridge trail.
Specific guidelines or difficulties: It
is difficult to locate the correct trail at the beginning of the hike,
which is not an official Forest Service trail anyway. Slightly overshooting
or undershooting this trail will most assuredly lead one into steep cliffs
or shifting talus. Once Virginian Ridge is gained, however, the trail is
fairly easy to follow.
Area features: Virginian Ridge follows the Lake-Chelan Sawtooth
Wilderness boundary with the Liberty Bell roadless area. The Methow side
is draped with steep slopes forested with old growth, while to the west,
the Gardner Mountain massif looms out of the wilderness, with commanding
views of adjacent Storey Peak and the 1986 Hubbard Fire. As of 1999, there
was still a cattle allotment in Wolf Creek, but North Fork has been so
overgrazed that little forage remains to keep them there.
One of the main attractions here to botanists and geologists alike are
the shale barrens and massive outcrops of rocks in the Winthrop sandstone,
which occasionally reward one with glimpses into the fossil past. Plant
life in shale barrens is stunted and sparse, but becomes more so with the
gain in elevation. At the head of North Fork, the trees are gnarly and
wizened, and the ground cover is limited to bonsai among the crevices and
seepage cracks. The last glaciers through here stripped away the soil surface,
exposing the shale bedrock. As this flakes away, it produces a gravely
surface texture unable to hold water or support much life.
One plant that takes advantage of shale soils is brickell-bush,
Brickellia
oblongifolia, which grows unfettered by competition from other plants
in eroding shale, on the main Wolf Creek trail near its junction with North
Fork. On the summit slopes of Storey Peak, another botanical rarity,
Senecio
cymbalarioides, occurs in disintegrating shale. Both plants lie far
from other populations, and both are limited in Okanogan County to these
two sites.
Hike, Roadless Area & Quad(s): Wolf Creek Swamp and Research
Natural Area (RNA); Liberty Bell Roadless Area; Thompson Ridge Quad.
Hike length: Variable, from a short jaunt up to several miles.
Difficulty
& walking time: A walk around Wolf Creek Swamp should take about
an hour of time over a quarter mile of easy, off-trail walking, including
the short distance from parking. The RNA is a quarter section of open slope
which can be seen, and perhaps best appreciated, from above.
Elevation
gain: The swamp is in a depression about 100 feet below the road in.
The RNA spans 2400 to 3100 feet elevation from Wolf Creek to the top.
Directions
to site: From the south bridge in Winthrop, take the road west out
of town toward Wolf Creek. Turn right 1.5 miles down this road onto Wolf
Creek Road proper. Follow Wolf Creek Road about 3 miles, then turn left
onto the dirt road marked by a sign for Wolf Creek Trailhead. Bear right
as this road heads up the steep grade over several big switchbacks with
expansive views over the next several miles until the road comes around
to the south side of the hill overlooking Wolf Creek, at which point Road
No. 220 to the right should be taken to its end at a gravel pit, 1.5 miles
further.
Route directions: The swamp is back down the road from
the gravel pit about a quarter mile or less, in the depression to the west,
and partly visible from the road above. There are also some interesting
shale barrens on the ridge above to the east. The RNA is a 100 acre preserve
set aside by the Forest Service to preserve old growth ponserosa pine and
other ecological habitats, and can be seen from above at the junction of
Road No. 220 with the main Road No. 505 leading to Wolf Creek Trailhead.
An older trail going through the middle of the RNA on the contour intersects
the Wolf Creek Trail about a third of a mile down, however it is not marked.
Specific
guidelines or difficulties: Technically, Wolf Creek RNA requires permission
from the Forest Service to use it for education or research, however its
beautiful pines can be advantageously viewed from above or from Sun Mountain
Lodge across the valley.
Area features: The swamp on Wolf Creek is a new and temporary
feature, possibly caused when beavers decided to set up camp in the saddle
in the early 1990s. The swamp supports many species of wildlife, ranging
from charismatic megafauna such as cougar, bobcat and bear, down to smaller
sized critters such as long-toed salamanders and spotted frogs.
The shale barrens above the swamp are botanically interesting as they
support a number of species uncommon elsewhere in the Methow Valley, including
dwarf hesperochiron (
Hesperochiron pumilus), common nine-leaf biscuit
root (
Lomatium triternatum), steer's head (
Dicentra uniflora),
Burke's larkspur (
Delphinium burkei), and buttercup Suksdorfia (
Suksdorfia
ranunculifolia), a tidy plant that likes to hide in cracks and crevices.
The Wolf Creek RNA was designated to incorporate a number of uncommonly
found ecological cells, including old growth ponderosa pine (
Pinus ponderosa)
and bitter cherry (
Prunus emarginata) habitats.
Design by Floradora