[Sore Feet]

First of all, I'd like to thank Jeff Renner, Steve Pool and Andy Wapler for the turbo-awesome weather. Now, having been planning this trip for a while, and getting bummed out by last saturday's weather (which turned out to be better than today's), I hooked up with Rob and Paul of 2drx, and headed up to the West Fork Miller Road for an attempt on the Cleopatra Basin and Mine(s). We got an early start, so questioning the weather, we stopped for a quick 45 minute stint to the Mohawk Mine and Mohawk Falls, about 1/4 mile north of the West Fork trailhead. After photographing the falls and running in and out of the mine, we booked it for the West Fork th, making it by 9:00. At this point, the weather was pretty good. Moderately warm, the sun was starting to creep through the clouds...little did we know that we were in for some classic Washington weather (*dun dun dun*). We hauled up the trail, and got to Coney Creek around 10:15, where we spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to get across without having to freeze out feet. Fortunately, the creek was somewhat low, so we were able to creatively rock hop, and crossed dry. Another 45 minutes put us at Cleopatra Creek, where the real fun began. We debated over a snack break whether to follow a line of alder trees which could be the old roadbed that was fabled to head up to the basin, or to just start thrashing up the side of the hill. It started to sprinkle lightly . Paul decided to follow the alders, Rob and I started thrashing. Turns out Paul chose a much saner route, because Rob and I spent a good 1/2 an hour swathing through some of the most disgusting brush I've ever seen, going maybe 500-600 feet in from the road. After radioing Paul, who was already several hundred feet above us, we promptly decided to book it towards the more open forest close to the creek. Upon entering the open forest, we shook our collective fists at the heinous brush, and just went straight up through the open forest next to Cleopatra Creek. Turns out, this is exactly where we wanted to be, because we soon encountered an old tread which switchbacked steeply up the hillside for about 500 +/- vertical feet to where it intersects the old roadbed which, at one time, led to the mines in Cleopatra Basin. Looking out to the valley from under the trees, the sprinkling was picking up now. After picking up this old roadbed, the route heads south briefly, then turns west into the basin proper. At this point, at about 2800', the road all but disappears, and thrashing once again ensued, this time through cedar saplings and salmonberry(?) bushes. Fortunately, it didn't take long before we broke out into the open, and could traverse boulders covered with foliage mashed into the ground by the receding snowpack. By now we were thoroughly soaked from the rain and the wet brush, but we were close enough that we had to keep going. Precipitation getting heavier... Another 10 minutes put us at roughly the 3000 foot mark at around 1:45, where we parked ourselves under some trees and ate lunch and debated the location of the mines. We were seeing significant scattered snow patches at this level, and fairly constant coverage another 300 feet above, so travel to the mines was not really something we wanted to do (especially since it was no longer just sprinkling, it was raining). Being drenched through and through we had about enough, so Rob and Paul make notes of the general area of the mines, I made notes of the several waterfalls in the basin (all but one low-volume one were presently snow covered), and we headed out, still in the constant rain. Our routefinding skills not exactly being on top of their game today, we worked back down to the old roadbed as best we could, and just plunged down into the forest, descending straight down to the West Fork trail wherever it was plausible. Once we reached the ungodly brush near the road, we decided to take the most direct route back to the trail, and forded the creek among devils clubs, slide alder, and general unpleasantness...but it worked, and we got back to the trail rather quickly. So, in recap, those of you interested in heading to Cleopatra Basin, hike in to Cleopatra Creek, follow the creek's north bank until you get to open forest, then head more or less straight up until you find an obvious route. Hiking back to the car was painful to say the least, and still raining, it was not exactly the kind of thing I'd look forward to doing again. I don't think I've ever been so happy to get in a nice hot shower. BTW - Still picking devils club needles out of my hands as I type this. General Trail Conditions: The West Fork Miller Trail is in pretty rough shape for a trail. Extremely rocky in several sections, getting a bit overgrown, though still passable. There were several windfalls, including one stretch where there were 5-6 trees over the trail in maybe 30 feet of trail. Good news is, the barriers at the trailhead seem to be working, because there wasn't any evidence of any recent 4x4 use of the so called "road". (Replace the emoticons with the explicative of your choice )

[-lol-]

[lopper]

SoreFeet and 2drx: Thanks for that stupendous report. Alpine Lakes brush-thrashing at its finest! I suspect that the WFk Miller is wired with a special weather-trap circuit that triggers mist and rain whenever hikers approach Coney Creek. And the thing about the devils club needles. Who hasn't spent hours of fun digging those pesky darts out? Delayed hike gratification.