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.
