wilconow
08-29-2008, 16:12
Note: all my full size photos can be seen here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jjs6791/WashingtonState
This trip was in the eastern part of the North Cascades.. appx 5 hrs NE of Seattle. Lake Chelan National Recreation Area (where Stehekin is) is part of the North Casc. Nat'l Park and administered by the NPS. The route also took us in the Lake Chelan/Sawtooth Wilderness area, which is USFS
This was my first trip out of the Appalachians and in the big bad west. I got the route from the Trekking Washington (http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=532).. We were planning to do an aggressive, 85 mile sort of loop in 5-6 days. The trail details are here
http://www.terrapinstats.com/trip.jpg
On Tuesday Aug 19th, we flew into Seattle and drove up rt 20 to the trailhead. Quick stop with some friendly rangers in Marblemount to get our camp permits and (an unexpected) Natl Forest parking pass. Then after we got through the park, we stopped in Winthrop for dinner. Interesting that it was "re-converted" into a Western Town in 1970s.. on the way back we took the more southern route to rt 2 and drove through the "authentic" Bavarian Leavenworth.
Winthrop Dinner @ Three Fingered Jacks:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVKLgS7aI/AAAAAAAACr4/uSyPEwbAnxo/s800/IMG_0188.jpg
Even though the trip was only last week, my memories are a bit hazy. I normally never get blisters but had a bad bad case of them this trip. It was a struggle to make the 14-17 miles a day.
First day, we awoke from the South Creek campground on Twisp River RD and went up the South Creek trail.. very nice grade and smooth as well. This was the dark dark evergreen forest I was expecting...
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVQzIPE3I/AAAAAAAACs4/xvidceT-cnE/s800/IMG_0196.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVNLvv8XI/AAAAAAAACsQ/P_-UE9FZkkk/s800/IMG_0191.jpg
The weather did clear up for a bit around McAlester Pass
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVUAvCWbI/AAAAAAAACtg/GpuoZG7svtY/s800/IMG_0202.jpg
We made it past the swinging bridge to camp at Rainbow Bridge
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVasgA4FI/AAAAAAAACuU/SDBOV3RgT-Y/s800/IMG_0211.jpg
Second day was Boulder Creek trail the whole day. Lots of steep uphills More rain and cold. Juanita Lake was a beautiful campsite but very cold. I'm pretty sure this was taken from the campspot.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVhspN5CI/AAAAAAAACvQ/_qv4wZ9FliU/s800/IMG_0223.jpg
Finally the third day was better weather. Sunny with no clouds and not as cold. Summit trail down to Prince Creek. We stayed at a trail intersection near Surprise Lake. We hadn't seen anyone since camping the first night with a family. Then we ran into some horse campers (don't see that much on the east)... after seeing one group of them, it was pretty surreal to be walking in a meadow and hear some horses run around with bells and THEN singing off in the distance.. real cowboys I suppose. Unfortunately had no time to stop as we were trying to reach our camp before dark (next time out west - TEN MILES PER DAY!!!)
Zoomed:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVpT17MwI/AAAAAAAACwI/DEOqkngm5B0/s800/IMG_0231.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVnZYJ0kI/AAAAAAAACvw/mZPYwdwUiXY/s800/IMG_0227.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVtfYWkBI/AAAAAAAACwg/wtxB62uYzp4/s800/IMG_0234.jpg
Day Four: Prince Creek Trail to Lakeshore. Prince Creek trail was very overgrown and fighting through the brush and up and over the blowdowns made for a nice challenge. The Bridge at Prince Creek is still umm.. not "up", but fording with sandals along the bottom was easy.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdV0DnSMHI/AAAAAAAACxc/7YVOoZHlrhk/s800/IMG_0241.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVxizYAeI/AAAAAAAACxM/m4icnrhiry8/s800/IMG_0239.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdV1bYHt7I/AAAAAAAACxk/oKpkcHdpZP4/s800/IMG_0242.jpg
A word about the Lakeshore trail - beautiful views but not ideal to do in late afternoon. Sun is shining right on you and despite my expectation of a beach walk, there are a lot of ups above the lake. It's also pretty dry after starting from the lake.. we were able to make a sharp descent down to the lake, but it wasn't easy
Day 5 - pretty tame 10 miles into Stehekin. Blisters are starting to be painful by now, but food and nice folks in town cheer me up. Check this out - in the 4 hours I spent in town, I met a PCT thru that I met in Vermont last year (she was doing the AT then). She remembered my name and everything. Crazy
http://lh5.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdV5_aShII/AAAAAAAACyM/akYLu9IyAUQ/s800/IMG_0249.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdV67tGh4I/AAAAAAAAC08/JJmFFWLjwZo/s800/IMG_0250.jpg
The original plan was to spend a night in Stehekin and do 18 miles up Purple Pass the next day. That was impossible with us being wiped out and my blisters, so we had to leave Stehekin early and go up Rainbow, eventually retracing out steps on day 1.
I saw a couple marmots on the last day and we made it back.
Overall - great trip.. certainly learned a couple important things for my next long trip out west:
1. Expect long days of rain and cold and bring plenty of clothes for those conditions. don't just rely on a warm sleeping bag
2. Don't try new socks for this trip (long story.. well not really, but I I think that was the main reason for my blisters.. I went with a little more durability over something that has been proven to work)
3. Most important - plan less miles. You can't cover the same amount of ground as out east. Besides, there's a lot more to see.. we wanted to check out lakes, peaks, etc., but couldn't because of the schedule.
Hope you enjoyed...
http://picasaweb.google.com/jjs6791/WashingtonState
This trip was in the eastern part of the North Cascades.. appx 5 hrs NE of Seattle. Lake Chelan National Recreation Area (where Stehekin is) is part of the North Casc. Nat'l Park and administered by the NPS. The route also took us in the Lake Chelan/Sawtooth Wilderness area, which is USFS
This was my first trip out of the Appalachians and in the big bad west. I got the route from the Trekking Washington (http://www.mountaineersbooks.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=532).. We were planning to do an aggressive, 85 mile sort of loop in 5-6 days. The trail details are here
http://www.terrapinstats.com/trip.jpg
On Tuesday Aug 19th, we flew into Seattle and drove up rt 20 to the trailhead. Quick stop with some friendly rangers in Marblemount to get our camp permits and (an unexpected) Natl Forest parking pass. Then after we got through the park, we stopped in Winthrop for dinner. Interesting that it was "re-converted" into a Western Town in 1970s.. on the way back we took the more southern route to rt 2 and drove through the "authentic" Bavarian Leavenworth.
Winthrop Dinner @ Three Fingered Jacks:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVKLgS7aI/AAAAAAAACr4/uSyPEwbAnxo/s800/IMG_0188.jpg
Even though the trip was only last week, my memories are a bit hazy. I normally never get blisters but had a bad bad case of them this trip. It was a struggle to make the 14-17 miles a day.
First day, we awoke from the South Creek campground on Twisp River RD and went up the South Creek trail.. very nice grade and smooth as well. This was the dark dark evergreen forest I was expecting...
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVQzIPE3I/AAAAAAAACs4/xvidceT-cnE/s800/IMG_0196.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVNLvv8XI/AAAAAAAACsQ/P_-UE9FZkkk/s800/IMG_0191.jpg
The weather did clear up for a bit around McAlester Pass
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVUAvCWbI/AAAAAAAACtg/GpuoZG7svtY/s800/IMG_0202.jpg
We made it past the swinging bridge to camp at Rainbow Bridge
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVasgA4FI/AAAAAAAACuU/SDBOV3RgT-Y/s800/IMG_0211.jpg
Second day was Boulder Creek trail the whole day. Lots of steep uphills More rain and cold. Juanita Lake was a beautiful campsite but very cold. I'm pretty sure this was taken from the campspot.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVhspN5CI/AAAAAAAACvQ/_qv4wZ9FliU/s800/IMG_0223.jpg
Finally the third day was better weather. Sunny with no clouds and not as cold. Summit trail down to Prince Creek. We stayed at a trail intersection near Surprise Lake. We hadn't seen anyone since camping the first night with a family. Then we ran into some horse campers (don't see that much on the east)... after seeing one group of them, it was pretty surreal to be walking in a meadow and hear some horses run around with bells and THEN singing off in the distance.. real cowboys I suppose. Unfortunately had no time to stop as we were trying to reach our camp before dark (next time out west - TEN MILES PER DAY!!!)
Zoomed:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVpT17MwI/AAAAAAAACwI/DEOqkngm5B0/s800/IMG_0231.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVnZYJ0kI/AAAAAAAACvw/mZPYwdwUiXY/s800/IMG_0227.jpg
http://lh3.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVtfYWkBI/AAAAAAAACwg/wtxB62uYzp4/s800/IMG_0234.jpg
Day Four: Prince Creek Trail to Lakeshore. Prince Creek trail was very overgrown and fighting through the brush and up and over the blowdowns made for a nice challenge. The Bridge at Prince Creek is still umm.. not "up", but fording with sandals along the bottom was easy.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdV0DnSMHI/AAAAAAAACxc/7YVOoZHlrhk/s800/IMG_0241.jpg
http://lh6.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdVxizYAeI/AAAAAAAACxM/m4icnrhiry8/s800/IMG_0239.jpg
http://lh4.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdV1bYHt7I/AAAAAAAACxk/oKpkcHdpZP4/s800/IMG_0242.jpg
A word about the Lakeshore trail - beautiful views but not ideal to do in late afternoon. Sun is shining right on you and despite my expectation of a beach walk, there are a lot of ups above the lake. It's also pretty dry after starting from the lake.. we were able to make a sharp descent down to the lake, but it wasn't easy
Day 5 - pretty tame 10 miles into Stehekin. Blisters are starting to be painful by now, but food and nice folks in town cheer me up. Check this out - in the 4 hours I spent in town, I met a PCT thru that I met in Vermont last year (she was doing the AT then). She remembered my name and everything. Crazy
http://lh5.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdV5_aShII/AAAAAAAACyM/akYLu9IyAUQ/s800/IMG_0249.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/jjs6791/SLdV67tGh4I/AAAAAAAAC08/JJmFFWLjwZo/s800/IMG_0250.jpg
The original plan was to spend a night in Stehekin and do 18 miles up Purple Pass the next day. That was impossible with us being wiped out and my blisters, so we had to leave Stehekin early and go up Rainbow, eventually retracing out steps on day 1.
I saw a couple marmots on the last day and we made it back.
Overall - great trip.. certainly learned a couple important things for my next long trip out west:
1. Expect long days of rain and cold and bring plenty of clothes for those conditions. don't just rely on a warm sleeping bag
2. Don't try new socks for this trip (long story.. well not really, but I I think that was the main reason for my blisters.. I went with a little more durability over something that has been proven to work)
3. Most important - plan less miles. You can't cover the same amount of ground as out east. Besides, there's a lot more to see.. we wanted to check out lakes, peaks, etc., but couldn't because of the schedule.
Hope you enjoyed...