[marta]

The west side was still drying out from the monsoon earlier this week so we decided to go east. Our destination was Koppen Mountain in the Teanaway. We had attempted this in June 2002 but snow turned us back. We got a late start from Seattle (8:30) but the traffic was light on Saturday morning. The fall color was wonderful after we dropped east of Snoqualmie Pass. The vine maples are red at the pass but farther down at Easton, the cottonwoods are gorgeous golden color. There are cottonwoods from Easton all up through Cle Elum and up the Teanaway. The drive up the Teanaway road was smooth as usual. There were many hunters parked along side the road on the paved section before 29 Pines. After turning off, we saw few parked cars and no one was camping along the side or at Beverly campground. There were a few larches right after Beverly that were just turning yellow. We turned off at the horse camp to the De Roux trailhead and campground. There were two other parked cars but otherwise no one was around. The other cars that followed us up Teanaway continued on up towards Esmeralda/Ingalls trailheads. We took advantage of the nice rather new outhouse and hit the trail around 11am. The trail was in good condition considering the rain although there is one section that is pretty muddy. You cross over a creek on a nice bridge and start a gradual climb towards Gallagher Head. There were some motorcycle tracks, an forecast of things to come. After about 3/4 mile, you cross the creek again and come to a junction. We took the spur trail 1392.1 which switched back up in a nice grade with views of Esmeralda Peaks, Iron Mountain and eventually Mt. Stuart peaking around the corner of Esmeralda. After entering the serpentine rock area, we came to a saddle. We decided to take a break and eat our cheese sandwiches. The trail to Koppen is unmarked and goes off to the left from the saddle. It is a faint trail but pretty easy to follow. In sections it go straight up, at other times it runs along a ridge with views in all directions and at other times it drops a short distance off the ridge on the north. Along the sections on the north, there was a dusting of snow and the ground was frozen. In one section, the trail is a little hard to follow, it seems to go off to the south side of the mountain but someone had stoned off the trail. After a short bit of looking, we spotted the cairn marking the path up among the rock. At the top, the views were spectacular. To the north is the Stuart range, to the South is Mt. Rainier. To the west, there were some peaks I couldn't identify and guessed they were part of the Cle Elum range. We signed in the register, enjoyed the views and headed back. No one had been on the summit since last Sunday, 10/19. Along the way back, we heard the roar of motorcycles. We saw the tracks where they had gone up to the saddle but they weren't coming any closer. We guess they were down on the main De Roux trail and sure enough, after we hit the junction, we saw a bit of evidence of the cycles. The muddy section was really churned up but we just slogged through it. We got back to the car around 3:30 or so. Opened a soda and broke open the Tim's potato chips. We ended up seeing no one at all on the trail and only heard the motorcycles. The drive back down was magically as the evening sun shone on the golden cottonwoods at the junction of Stafford Creek. A wonderful fall day in the mountains.

Mt Stuart from near the top of Koppen

View from the top of Koppen

[JimK]

Marta, I bet there was a lot less snow than last weekend. Here is Koppen only a week ago from near Ingalls Pass. I liked the leaf colors so much near Stafford that I posted them on the "Fall Colors" thread.

Koppen Mt.

[marta]

Yes, definitely not that much snow. In fact, very very little. Slight patches on the trail after the saddle that were barely big enough to make one or two footprints. There are a few sections of the trail that runs along the north that are shaded and stayed frozen and this is where the snow was lingering. I checked back on the Fall colors thread and yep, those are the ones I remember. In fact, they have turned just a bit more yellow with a bit of orange. We didn't stop for a picture unfortunately.