[Roy Jensen]

Regret the delay in posting trips reports. Recently my brother and I have been focusing on lost, abandoned, and neglected trails in the North Cascades. We have hiked all the popular gems now we are having fun focusing on the "lessor" gems. Several more posts to follow. Our goal was to hike to the practical end of the trail. The trailhead is located along the road to Diablo townsite accessed off of Highway 20. Trailhead is on the north just after bridge crosses the creek and there is parking area on the south side of the road. Starting elevation is about 900 feet. The trail passes between the creek and a house and then travels along a levee, which keeps the creek from flooding the town. The trail leaves the levee and follows a line just above the creek, which has washed out parts of the trail.

Trailhead

Trail on Levee

Trail runs into Cliff There a cliffy area which presents several choices either going high on the slope or following a line just above the water, which I expect is doable depending the level of the creek and rock scrambling ability. Regain the trail, take four short switchbacks and then gradually climbs through the woods. There was evidence of recent logging and grade work. We crossed 13 creeks along the trail. In about 2 miles we reached a “Trail Not Maintained” sign (elevation 1500 feet), which seems to be in the wrong place since it does not end in a logical destination. Beyond the sign are several large logs, which you can make the choice to go over or under. The maintained trail should be continued to at least Camp Dayo Creek making a logical end to the trail. There is a old campsite at Camp Dayo Creek. The trail does continue beyond Camp Dayo Creek reaching a small creek at about 3 miles (elevation 1700 feet), where the obvious route vanishes. Several maps show the trail continuing to climb steadily up the valley to a point just short of Torrent Creek (elevation 2000 ft). The total mileage of the trail is said to be 4.5 miles.

Creek Crossing

End of Maintained Trail - Why? After crossing the small stream, we searched for any evidence of a consistent path, blazes, cut logs that would tell us which way the trail route continued but could not find any. We wanted to travel to the next obvious stream and searched for a possible trail crossing but came up short after running out of energy and time. The are many large diameter Cedar and Doug Fir trees beyond at the end of the trail. Very impressive. The hike might be worth it just to see the giant trees. Interestingly near the end of the trail we came across a large stump with springboard notches and next to it a large saw cut tree on the ground.

Stump and cut log near the end of the obvious trail - History?

Creek at end of obvious trail

View of Davis Peak from trail Conclusion: Good early season hike through nice old growth woods. Big trees at end. Worth another early season visit to find additional evidence of the historical trail. Attached is a map with the trail alignment shown based on our April 2019 GPS tracks.

GPS Track April 2019 Historical notes: USGS 1898 map -“Skeedadle” Creek labeled but no trail. FS 1914 Map – “Stedattle” Creek labeled but no trail. FS 1922, 1926 - Stetattle Creek but no trail. Trail constructed in 1930 4.5 miles and in 1938 additional 1.5 miles completed (6 miles total). FS Map 1931 - Trail shown extending to the approximate area of Torrent Ck (not labeled). Azure Lake is shown. FS Maps 1935, 1936 - Trail shown extending to Torrent Ck (not labeled). Jay Creek is labeled. FS Map 1939 - shows the trail extending beyond Torrent Creek. FS Map 1942, 1949, 1953 - Torrent Creek is labeled. Trail shown extending to just beyond Torrent Creek. FS Map 1962 – Labeled as trail #761. North Cascades NP Map 1973 - Listed as 3 miles. North Cascades NP Map 2017 - Listed as 2.5 miles.

1949 FS Map

1962 FS Map AAJ 1962. Ed Cooper. First Ascents in the Southern Pickets. “On our approach to the northern cirque wall we left from Diablo Dam and hiked six miles up the Stetattle Creek "trail” which ends in the eastern headwall of the McMillan Spires, the eastern bastion of the Southern Pickets. The first three miles of the trail are relatively good, then it virtually disappears at a creek soon after the three-mile mark. Blazes were cut early in the summer of 1961 on the next three miles and they may be followed through brushy areas, with some difficulty, to the six-mile mark. Here one encounters a solid cordon of brush at a giant slide area.” Name origin. Stetattle Creek: “Stetattle Creek rises in Azure Lake a mile east of Mt. Terror, in southeastern Whatcom County and flows southeast to the Skagit River just west of Diablo Dam in the southern region of the northern unit of North Cascades National Park. The name was given to this creek by British Columbia Indians who fought with local Indians in the area. The creek was a boundary line between coastal Indians and those of the interior. The name means wild

[Kim Brown]

Thanks so MUCH for the history on this report.

[Sculpin]

Thanks for figuring all this out! And beating your way back in there! For all those nattering nabobs of negativity who think that all the stupendously scenic places in the Cascades will eventually be overrun by instagrammers, I got two words for you: Azure Lake! Go get it!

[Waterman]

Great work! Look forward to more reports of abandoned trails.

[RichP]

[puzzlr]

Love the map and placename research. Thanks for writing that up. It's nice to know there are places like this that are getting wilder at time goes on. The Cascades have many places like this now that solo prospecting and hunting for a living have gone out of style. Nice to see the big wall of Davis from this angle too.

[Brushwork]

Awesome exploring! Thanks!

[Roy Jensen]

The Park Service put the EOTM (End of Trail Maintenance) sign probably in 2008. That was 12 years ago and very little official maintenance since then. C P, a certified "Trail Angel,"has done a stellar job of clearing the trail in recent years.