2020.5.31. Teneriffe again

5/31, Sunday. Waited for the rain to die down. After lunch, headed to Mt. Teneriffe again, because it's a short drive and a good workout with a nice waterfall. The parking lot is now closing at 8pm.

Due to the late start, met a lot of hikers, despite of the dreary weather. Most were courteous enough to walk by the side. Wasn't raining. Trail was muddy at times (after the heavy rain yesterday and heavy boots). This time, we walked to the west side of the falls, which you can see better. Was careful not to get my boots wet crossing the running creek. The lady in blue was fiddling with her camera on a tripod. Didn't see how she made the crossing.

Above the falls, we only met 4 hikers (2x2) coming down. Only a little bit of snow let at the foot of the rocky summit. Had the summit to ourselves, and it wasn't windy. Too bad, no view to speak of, due to the clouds. Did see Puget Sound at times. A couple of rain drops.

Hiked down the same way this time. I only realized that the trail is very steep until coming down. Slipped once and tumbled face down. Luckily, only bruises. Reached the parking lot at 7:10pm, about 5 cars left in the parking lot.

~8 miles, 3800'.

Couldn't go home. Curfew again at 5pm. (Curfew started on Saturday 5pm-5am. Continued to Monday 6pm-5am).

2020.5.23-24. Flower Hunt in Wenatchee NF

Most national forest trails in PNW finally opened as of Friday 5/22, after 2-month COVID-19 closure. I worried about the crowds on trails during this long weekend, opted to check out some lesser known trails. My other objective is to look for Lewisia Rediviva and Lewisia Tweedy - my favorite wild flowers.

5/23, Saturday, sunny. I knew of Tronsen Ridge as a flower destination. It's better done as a one way hike with 2 cars. First, we drove (almost all the way) to Tronsen Meadow TH (~4300'), as shown in this photo: full of mud pools. Found a pullout ~200m short of the TH, and parked next to a Russian couple. The bad road is only ~1/2-3/4 mile long. Only 10 minutes onto the trail, found 3 flowering Tweedy plants. The flowers are smaller than I remembered. Later saw more, but not yet in bloom. Need to come back in 2 weeks. The trail is open to motor-cycle starting mid June, so it's a bit rutted. Steep at times. Dusty. Some burnt trees (by 2012 Table Mountain Fire). Saw Wax Current, Trillium (mostly purple colored). Saw 2 hikers coming down. In 1.6 miles, it's the junction with Tronson Ridge trail. We continued passed it to NF-9712, and turned right (S) to check out Ken Wilcox Horse Camp (~5600'). Met a couple who drove here. It's 8 some windy miles from Blewett Pass via NF-9716. It's quite flat here, lower than the ridge. We then walked back. Small Naneum Creek flows parallel to the road, quite a lot of Marsh Marigold blooming, and some Shooting Stars.

After crossing the creek, we headed to Mount Lillian. Green grass under burnt trees. Quickly it gets boring in the woods. The trail is mostly flat. No view. Small patches of hard snow. In about a mile, reached a nice rocky butte (~6000'), where we had lunch. Can see Mount Lillian ~1/4 mile south, but looks very wooded. Probably no view. A couple with overnight backpacks came down that way, and sat here for lunch too. Saw Snow Douglasia and Lyall Rockcress here. The east side of this ridge looks like some landslide. View is quite good, north to Stuart Range, east to Columbia River.

On the way back, we took the trail instead of the road. Much nicer. Walked on a slope of sagebrush and a nice meadow of glacier lily. Returned to the junction with Tronsen Meadow Trail and hiked down to the car, looking over Stuart Range through the trees.

Total, met 4 hikers, 4 drivers, ~8 cars.

Drover to the north TH of Tronsen Ridge (~4200'), and took FS-7224. This 3 mile road requires high clearance, bushy, narrow. Sometimes with steep drop-off, and great view. Many lilac colored penstemon on the rocks along the road. 6 cars at the TH.

Saw total ~10 hikers here. Trail is gentle, less rutty here, not burnt. More open. More balsomroot and lupines. Found Tweedy at only two places. Saw Rainier sometimes. We hiked in about 1-2 miles, and when it gets too wooded, we turned around.

Camped by Tronsen Creek. Had sauteed mushroom with asparagus, spiced noodle with tomato and broccolini for dinner, instead of freeze dried food.

Got chilly later into the night, but not too cold. Maybe ~40F. Not enough sky to see many stars. Highway noise never stopped.

5/24, Sunday. Partly sunny. 77°F in Wenatchee, but feels much warmer:(
First stop is Peshastin Pinnacles State Park. It reminds me of Smithrock, just smaller and less dramatic. Still a fun place with a great view of the Stuart Range. The parking lot was closed. Together with 2 other cars, we parked in the orchard next door. Very dry and sandy, exposed. 3 picnic tables in the shade next to the parking lot. Trails well maintained. A good variety of flowers.

We drove to Wenatchee Confluence State Park, occupying both sides of the Wenatchee River as it enters Columbia. Campground is closed, but everything else is open. Grass newly cut in the large lawn with few shade. A kiddie pool. Many rose bushes in flower along the river, so were Russian Olive, giving off not-too-pleasant fragrance. At noon, it felt hot. We went into the town, and bought a case of cold beer.

Drove up Burch Mountain Rd, passing the new housing development in Wenatchee. The road soon turns to "primitive". At least this bad road is wide, allowing traffic of both direction. Quite a few ATVs and young people.
As we gained elevation, the scrubby desert slope gave away to tall trees. True oasis. Cooler, breezier. Some tree branches even covered with moss. Parked at the Burch Mountain TH, and walked to Eagle Rock. Green grass under the trees, dotted with flowers. Many Balsamroot and Lomatium nudicaule. I'm very happy to see many Bitterroot. Also found Geum Triflorum, Larkspur, Phacilia. Once on Eagle Rock, great view of the Stuart Range, Wenatchee River entering Columbia, and the city of Wenatchee below. Yes, also the cell towers on the next hill. No hikers, only target shooters and ATV riders.

My next destination is Keystone Ridge near Entiat. It's supposed to have a dense population of both Lewisias, as well as white larkspur (endemic to Wenatchee Mountains). Oh, and rattlesnakes. Mills Canyon Rd is really bad, windy and narrow. We gave up ~3 miles in. Didn't see any boot path up the slope, all along seems fairly steep. Probably should just walk up the road at the creek crossing. Mills Canyon Road is interesting, in the sense that it's very lush, in this hot and dry locale. Quite a lots of flowers along the road too, including a lot of Scarlet Gilia.From reading the trip reports, seem there's another boot track from Hwy-97, to enable one way hike. But I didn't see anything obvious. I did see 4 goats on a cliff, brown color. I may try this again early in the day, when it's not so hot.

Having been baked in the sun all day, we decided to hike Ingalls Creek for some cool shade. We were not alone. There were at least 2 dozen cars at TH at this late hour (after 5pm already). Big iris right by the outhouse. A camp site right there, vacant. The rushing creek is refreshing. Ate a light meal by the water before heading onto the trail. Saw another tent site a few minutes into the trail, vacant. However, later campsites were all taken. We walked about 3 miles in. A surprising amount of flowers lined the well maintained trail. Both wet/west side flowers like Service Berry, Solomon's Seal, Vanilla Leaf, and dry/east side flowers like delicate Mariposa Lily, Prairie Star, Death Camas, tall Fernleaf Lomatium. Tons of Arnica, Paintbrush from yellow to crimson with all shades of orange in between. Found one plant of Rock Clematis with 3 flowers. Saw quite many hikers, and biker, and a note warning about rattlesnake. I may have heard one on the way out.

Drove home before the rain on Monday. Spent the Memorial Day ID-ing flowers and sorting photos. I'm very pleased with all the flowers we saw in the two days, and not too much crowd. Total about 10 miles + ~2000' on Saturday, 8 miles + 800' on Sunday.

2020.5.16. Mt. Teneriffe + Mt. Si

5/16, Saturday, light drizzle. 3 of us met at Mt. Teneriffe TH a few minutes ~7am. A big new sign states that this trailhead parking opens from 7am-5pm. By the time we started hiking ~7:05, already ,~15 cars! Not good for "social distance".

We headed to Teneriffe Falls first. First 0.3 miles is nice easy trail. Then it connects to some old decent gravel road till the junction of Mt. Teneriffe trail. Then it's a gravel trail, quite a bit of rocks (seems recently made). Already met 4 people coming down before 8am. It was muggy. I was wearing just a T-shirt, with my fleece wrapped around my waist. Met ~3 parties at the falls. It's bigger and prettier than I expected. Quite tall. You can scramble up and down a bit to get even closer. Too close to take a photo of the full waterfall.

We retraced the short spur back to the main trail, and took Kamikaze trail towards Mount Teneriffe. I really like this trail. Yes, steep, but once you reach the ridge, you get slices of view through trees from both sides. At ~4300', solid snow, compact by hundreds of boots. The slope was gentler. I put on my fleece. The view to the south (across I-90) opens up gradually. The very top is rocky, no snow. Excellent view, even on this cloudy day. Drizzle, I put on my rain jacket. Wind from east, so we sat on the west side of the top for lunch (east side has better view), looking over to Mt. Si. We were alone for only ~5 minutes.

Once down from the rocky summit, we followed Mount Teneriffe Trail. More of less flat. Compact snow down to ~3800'. We put on spikes so we could walk faster. A runner ran by us in T-shirt and shorts! All along, no view, almost flat, quite boring. The lower portion feels like a gravel road. At one point, I glissade down a short drop, hit a short branch sticking out of snow. That knocked me out for a good few minutes. Luckily nothing broken, just a big bruise.

Next junction, we headed to Mt. Si, gaining back ~400'. An easy 0.8 mile gravel road. At the base of the Haystack, saw a few hikers having lunch. It was about noon. No view to speak off. At the wooden bench here, I put everything inside my pack (including the water bottle and hiking pole. Should have just left my pack at the base), to prepare for the scramble. At the saddle (where this photo was taken, with the view of Teneriffe), the wind was a bit too strong to be comfortable. So I waited for my hiking buddies here. Two boys came up, and continued to the top. So I went up as well. Thankfully, this 10m scramble wasn't windy. Great view on the top (not as good as top of Teneriffe), but not enough safe space to take a photo without anyone. Windy. I went down to the saddle, couldn't see what was going on the cliff. So, I started down climb. In the middle of the cliff, I was surprised to see one of my friends tossing his shoes off. I scrambled beside him. He was frustrated with his soles which were not grippy. But I think it's more difficult with just socks. Anyway, we made it down safely, one step at a time. By then, quite a few folks arrived and ready to climb. Not sure how many did.

Back on the same road to the junction. Continued down along Mt. Teneriffe trail. It's very boring but easy walking. Feels like walking on a gravel road. The half mile west of the junction to Teneriffe Falls trail is flat and nice. 3 substantial bridges across small creeks (one totally dry), and a couple of easy creek hoping. Back to the parking lot at 3pm. ~60 cars!

Total ~13 miles, ~4600'. I like going up to the waterfall and Kamikazi trail, and the scramble of Mt Si's Haystack. The rest of the trail is boring.

2020.5.9-10. Cle Elum snow adventure

Unseasonably warm weekend: 62-86°F in Seattle on Saturday, 87°F on Sunday. Nice to escape to the mountains.

5/9, Saturday. 3 of us drove to Cle Elum Lake's north end, for Domerie Peak trail's north end, hoping to bag French Cabin Mountain's three peaks. We could see the rocky west peak from last Sunday's hike.

~9:30, we parked the cars right after the junction of NFD-4308 and NFD-4312, about half a mile before the turn of spur road 115. There were 2 other cars parked nearby. Snow on road off and on, up to one foot. After turning on 115, we waded cross French Cabin Creek, ~1 foot deep. Cold enough that I felt the pain. Later in the summer, maybe you can drive over here. On the other side, we stood in the sun waiting for our feet to dry. It's a small meadow-y area by the logging road. However, very quickly, ants crawled up our feet and then legs. They have red belly and they bite:( Continued walking the road. Did some bushwhacking to cut two zigzags, steep at times. Here's the TH. Road beyond is broken by this rock pile.

The trail is rugged and somewhat steep. 10 minutes later, we reached the an opening with nice view to the south.

Half an hour later, we reached the first butte at ~4500', with good view of Cle Elum Lake to the east. The baldy butte had quite some small flowers.

From here on, we couldn't see the trail any more. After losing ~100', and catching the ridge, went up along the ridge to the next peak. Somewhat steep, and under soft snow. I post-holed quite a few times, up to thigh high. This unnamed peak is rather wooded, but you have a glimpse of the mountains in the gaps of trees. Had lunch here.

From this peak, a nice true ridge for maybe a mile, with somewhat steep slope on both side. We could see the trail from time to time. However our ridge walk was stopped by some big rock. Too steep on both sides. I was giving up. My companions wanted to continue. We backtracked a bit, and detoured lower to be closer to the track on my map (without seeing any trail), for a safer traverse, to go around this rock butte.

Finally, we scrambled up to the North Peak. The view on the top is almost 360°, well worth our combined effort. Spent 40 minutes here. Perfect temperature, not windy.

Naturally, we didn't push onward to the south and west peak. Retraced our steps almost all the way back, but walked the road portion. Waded the creek again. Total maybe 8 miles, 3500' gain. It was a challenge. Didn't see anyone else on the trail.

A truck was stuck on the softer snow not far from our cars. The young driver was shoveling snow in front of his wheels. We offered help pushing vehicle, and collecting cones and branches. The tires were spinning off the ground. Good that I vetoed V's suggestion of driving further.

Back to the car ~6pm. Looked for a campsite along NF-4309 by Cle Elum River. I was very surprised to see so many families camped here. Every nook and cranny was occupied. On the order of 100 vehicles. Finally found a decent site. A faint path with many trillion leads to the river side. It's wide and swift. My water filter plugged. First time using it this year. Should have cleaned it on Friday.

After dinner, saw 3 deer by one tent. No stars tonight: near full moon. Warm. Unzipped my sleeping bag, and fell asleep.

5/10, Sunday. The night grew colder, and I zipped myself in my 20°F bag completely. Not too cold. Maybe lower 40°s. My rainfly didn't get too wet. Got up at ~6am. A hummingbird. Around 7, it already felt warmer than yesterday. My boots and outer socks were still damp from yesterday's snow.

The Howson Creek trailhead is close by, but no sign. A car parked in the large pull out and the occupants were sleeping inside. We drove up the rocky slope and on for ~0.5 mile, until it's impassable. A sign says "trail". Maybe ~2500'. We followed the faint dusty trail to Howson Creek. Had to take off our boots and wade over a bit upstream. The water is mid-calf deep, and running fast. No ants here.

The trail we picked up quickly deviated from the trail on my Gaia map. We were in between it and AllTrail's track. Soon after, couldn't see any trail. The slope here is covered with pine needles, many deer footprints. Trees are not dense, so it's easy to see. Once awhile, patches of flowers. I decided to head to NFD-128 where the slope is not as steep. We hit the road at ~4100' and intermittent snow. Oops, forgot my gaiter in the car! Saw a couple walking down with their dogs here.

The road is fairly wide, and open. Great view of the Cle Elum River valley and the mountains to the west. Can see Rainier for the first 10 minutes. At the next road junction, saw snowshoe track, and we followed. Very open terrain, great vista to the northwest. Blazing sun, little shade. I couldn't find my sunglasses! Hot.

Soon, the snowshoe track deviated from the GPS route I saved on my phone. We followed my map, going along Little Salmon Le Sac Creek uphill, even though we couldn't see any creek, nor track. Then we departed from the map, and headed up to the saddle between Sasse Mountain and Not-so-Sasse Peak. Here, you can see the column shape of the rocks on Not-so-Sasse. At the saddle, you can see Rainier quite well.

From the saddle, we turned left (east) and up to the Sasse Ridge. Here all trees are burnt. Once at the ridge, turn left again (north) to Sasse Mountain, not much higher. Lots of burnt trees here obscuring the view. Looking at Not-so-Sasse, it's much steeper. We didn't attempt it. Had lunch here. Saw the first and only hiker today: a guy in snowshoe. I don't remember how we started talking about his 60L Osprey Levity backpack. It's really nice, sub-2lb, but no hip pockets. The guy is staying in his vacation home in the area, during the Covid-19 lock-down.

We retraced our own steps back to the car. Felt much easier on the way back, since we knew where we were going. The temperature was much higher. It was refreshing to wade the water, and wash off some dust and sweat. Guess what, found my sunglasses here! As we were packing up, met a family walking with a curious toddler. Total maybe 7 miles, 3000' EG. Not as difficult as yesterday.

On the drive back, took a photo of this tree in the rusty car at the little town of Roland. Saw a lot of people along the shore of Cle Elum Lake. After a gas stop at Cle Elum downtown, we drove back. A lot more cars today on I-90 compared to last Sunday.

It was really hot. The car's AC wasn't working. I was dropped off at the P&R. Thankfully, the bus had good AC. I forgot to put on my face-mask until we reached Seattle:( Hopefully I didn't catch any virus. Back at home ~6:30pm.