Forum Index > Trip Reports > Chikamin Tie TR #1561, Lk Wenatchee area 10/23/07
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GeoHiker
Rocky Walker



Joined: 26 Feb 2005
Posts: 6033 | TRs | Pics
Location: Off the Deep End
GeoHiker
Rocky Walker
PostThu Oct 25, 2007 12:30 am 
I'm sitting around the campfire and having the time to post a TR, so here's one from my yesterdays wandering. It was such a beautiful day I poked around in the morning catching trout and by the time I decided to head for the hills it was after 12pm. Having been up the Chikamin valley before I knew it was an out of the way not so visited spot. This area is off the Chiwawa Road about 10 miles up. The road was in much better shape than my last time up in late May. All the trees have been cleared and it was snow free to about 1/4 mile of the TH. I came around the last uphill corner and hit about 4 inches of compact snow and ice. It was about 70 out so the road was a slick water slide. My Honda starting spinning out, so I backed down the road and parked. It's way too early to get stuck. I forgot my shovel back at camp, so I wasn't going to chance it. The TH starts off at about 4,500 ft. and is a multi use trail, motorcycles, horses, mtn bikes etc. It's actually in pretty good shape with some cycle rutting but wide and even in most spots. Snow was sloppy and I mean SLOPPY. There were mini rivers of sludge and slush running down the trail. It was nice hiking in the warm sunshine in a t-shirt with snow all around. I wore my Stabilicers and was happy for the extra traction. I didn't really have a destination in mind and was thinking if I could reach the ridge at 6,500 I might head over to Garland Peak. I wanted to get in some larch hunting and see how they were fairing. At about 1.5 miles I jumped off the trail and headed up hill in mostly timber then steep open meadow. Tons of deer tracks everywhere. The heavy wet snow started off about 4 inches and went to about 12 inches at the 6,000 ft. level. My first larch sighting up close was a huge gnarly one. No whimpy butt larches up here no sir. These were old patriarcs that have lived for hundreds of years and were 100 ft or more. I was inspired after my first larch and gave a good push for 10 mins or so. Man, this deep wet heavy snow is not good. I kept looking at my watch and my turn around time was 4pm. I was still a good 1/2 mile and 800 ft. from the ridge top and it was already after 4..... I could see all the larches waving to me on the ridge top, so what the heck I'd hike out with my head lamp and GPS. I made the ridge working my way around several rock outcroppings and finally made the top at just after 5pm. Wow, way cool views up the valley towards Trinity and over to Garland Peak and lots of those elusive larches. It's about a week or two past prime time, but there were still some in decent shape. Snow was about 12 inches at the 6,600 ft level and melting fast. I poked around for about 30 mins grabbing some pictures and wishing I had another 2 hrs to hike over to Garland. The late afternoon sun was lighting up the larches, so it was very hard to leave when I dragged myself down at 5:45pm. I took a different route down that was much steeper and more open slope. I would have killed for my skis, what a ripping ride that would have been. My Stabilicers saved my life more than a few times as I literally flew down the slope. I hit the heavy timber and was cruising along when I stepped on a freaking rabbit!....It must have been sleeping or was just spaced out, but it screamed and exploded under my feet and scared the living $%^& out of me. Stupid rabbit what are they doing out in the woods!....smile.gif I hit the trail about 1 mile up and made it back to the car as it was just getting dark. Nice looking almost full moon coming up over the ridge. I noticed at the TH on the way out there was a fire closure sign up.....hmmmmm, it was from 2003,so I guess I was ok. dizzy.gif About 3 miles and 2200 ft. for the hike. On the way down the Chikamin Rd there was a medium size tree that had come down across the road. I jumped out with my Stilh and cut up some firewood for the nights campfire. Gotta have a chainsaw don't you know. smile.gif Here's a few pics that I threw together. I'm still camping out at Fish Lake with my laptop, so this will have to do. Edit, pictures aren't coming up on flicker and it's too late to mess with. I'll see if I can post some tomorrow. Nevermind they are working now......
Chikamin TH
Chikamin TH
Heading to the Ridge Top
Heading to the Ridge Top
Big Knarly Larch
Big Knarly Larch
Valley view looking South
Valley view looking South
Looking towards Entiat Ridge
Looking towards Entiat Ridge
More Larches and Garland Peak
More Larches and Garland Peak
Big Larch
Big Larch
Towards Garland Peak
Towards Garland Peak
Looking across to Chikamin Ridge
Looking across to Chikamin Ridge
Valley View from Ridge Top
Valley View from Ridge Top

You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye......Eagles
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peltoms
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Joined: 13 Jul 2006
Posts: 1760 | TRs | Pics
Location: Worcester MA
peltoms
Member
PostThu Oct 25, 2007 4:37 am 
Great day, but to get the true essence we need a campfire picture with you tapping away on the trip report.

North Cascade Glacier Climate Project: http://www.nichols.edu/departments/glacier/
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Roald
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Joined: 06 Aug 2007
Posts: 367 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle
Roald
Member
PostThu Oct 25, 2007 10:14 am 
Chikamin TH
Chikamin TH
This pic makes me drool. It is the start of one of my all-time-favorite mountain bike rides, up and over the ridge to Mad Lake. It's an annual pilgrimage. Riding (or, I imagine, hiking) over golden larch-sprinkled trails is like Rumpelstiltskin and his spinning wheel were there. Even better, though, is the image of you typing away at a trailhead. How do you get an internet connection? And then with a chainsaw in the truck too! Man, are you prepared. agree.gif

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wildernessed
viewbagger



Joined: 31 Oct 2004
Posts: 9275 | TRs | Pics
Location: Wenatchee
wildernessed
viewbagger
PostThu Oct 25, 2007 10:26 am 
up.gif Awesome. To the North and on the East side of the ridge near Myrtle / Larches Lake we had 1' of snow at 5000', and 2-3' beyond to 5800' last Sunday. I expect we will start getting "realtime" live TR's, both written and via video at some point. agree.gif Whose gonna start summitcam.com ?

Living in the Anthropocene
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Forum Index > Trip Reports > Chikamin Tie TR #1561, Lk Wenatchee area 10/23/07
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