[deconinc]

There's not many reports on this one, so I'll try to be informative. I wanted a workout, and the weather forecast for Marblemount looked good. So I decided on going up Kindy Ridge (29 in Manning and Spring's 100 classics), which I hadn't done yet. Now, the hike is in the classics book, but it is not in any of the regional books. This made me suspicious about the state of the trail. Left Seattle at 6am, got to the trailhead a little after 8am. The trailhead is now at the fork of forest roads 1570(1) and 1570, instead of a little further along 1570, which is what's described in the book. The road to the trailhead is doable, with care, with a family car, but not a lower sports car. There are a number of creek crossings I had to take slow, but they were no problem. There were 4 other vehicles at the trailhead, all SUVs or trucks. At the junction of the forest roads, the hike to Kindy Ridge or Found Lake goes right, on 1570. You walk the road a little over 2 miles. Felt more like 3. Pretty close to the start there are 6 washouts to cross, all easy by foot. None of them had water in them. The road is seriously overgrown in parts, so prepare on getting wet in the morning. In the last mile there were several parts were you're hunched down for an extended period to avoid branches which kind of make a gothic cathedral ceiling, that is unfortunately too low. I tried to photograph it, but it was too dark. There was still blooming foxglove! Talk about a messed up summer... At the end of the road, there's a little clearing. You could conceivably camp here, and people have done so. So far, you've gained about 1300'. The next section gains 2300' in 2 miles. More than 1/2 mile is a level meadow/ridge walk and there's also some up and down at the end. Figure out the steepness for yourself. It may be the hardest dayhike I've done, it is definitely the steepest. Think of the worst part of mailbox, but without reprieve. The "trail" was indicated with a pink ribbon on the left of the clearing. It starts with a grade of about 50 degrees, and keeps that for a while. If the grade initially is difficult for you, consider turning back. This is by far not the worst part. The trail initially is also VERY overgrown: you have to look at your feet to see where you're going. The good news is that in the morning you're getting a shower as you work out. If you find the bushes annoying, press on. They don't last too long, about 300' up, is my guess. But they are worse than anything I've seen. After coming out of the bushes, the trail consists of roots and mud. I was nervous about having to come down it. BTW, I loved my hiking poles on this one, both going up and going down. I made a point of taking a food break with every 500 ft up, to make sure I'd be able to keep on going. Here's where I took my first break:

First break

You always keep Found Creek on your right, until you lose it. The trail is generally easy to find, with an occasional orange ribbon marker, and sometimes a piece of white twine. Not many markers, but they were not really needed. At some point you get close to the creek, which has a little waterfall. This is around 4000'.

Found Creek

A little beyond this I saw people coming down. Turned out it was a group of 10 (3 vehicles at the TH; never saw whomever belonged to the other one). They had camped at Found Lake and done a little exploring in the basin. They were spread out, so I saw one or more of them almost all the way to the 4800' saddle. At some point you leave the forest and enter a meadow:

First meadow

You can go left or right hear. I went right, which was wrong; but it appears you can go on for a while. Go left instead, in the worst mud of the trail. Soon you enter a larger flat area, which you'll be in for about 1/2 mile. After that, you get to the 4800' saddle, but not before dealing with some annoying steep ups and downs, for good measure. Here's the saddle:

4800' saddle

There's a big rock marking it. My pack and poles are on it, for scale. At this point you've gained 3500' or so from the car. The wooden thing on the trail/mud is shaped like an arrow. At this point, you have to make a decision: up 1000' to Kindy Ridge (BTW: pronounced kin-dy or kind-y? I assume the first one.) or down to Found Lake, meaning follow the arrow. I went to Kindy Ridge, turning left at the arrow. Initially this trail is a little confusing, but soon becomes obvious. It is as steep as the previous stuff, but mostly in more open terrain. After some seriously steep stuff, things level at as you approach the top, at View Larger Map Now, the weather. Sunny it was not. Which was OK going up. But now it would have been good to have sun breaks. I decided to stay a while, hoping for better views. I napped a little, sent a spot OK message (OK, fancy tool alert; but without it I wouldn't have proceeded on my own). The top has some cool rock gardens. Occasionally you have to be careful not to fall in any huge rock fissures. It took me 3h15m to get up here.

Rocks

Here's a shot of the basin shortly after I arrived:

Snowking basin

I stayed about 2 hrs, moving around to stay warm and to hope for an occasional view. You're supposed to have a 360 view: Forbidden, Eldorado, Hidden, etc. Nada. Luckily, I had some views in the basin, and occasionally I saw a lot of Snowking. You can see 5 lakes, with Snowking Lake dominating with its awesome turquoise. The meadow above it looks spectacular.

Snowking Lake

But that's not Cyclone Lake. It's a little lakelet in front of it.

Kindy Ridge top

Snowking flank

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Snowking basin

As you can tell, the weather improved a little, but not much. At some point I got snowed on for 30 seconds. Around 1:30 I packed up and started the grueling descent. I had only two mud/butt slides. Better than I expected. I felt my knees for the first time in a really long time on the way down, but the road walk shook that off. At some point I felt the call of nature, only to discover I was obeying this call 2 ft from this.

Wasps? Hornets? Poodles?

It was cold, so not much activity. But it was a live nest. Back to the car in 3hrs. Definitely have to go back with an as-light-as-possible backpack to overnight near the lakes and do some exploring. I have to say that even with the bad weather, the view of the lakes and Snowking is one of the very top grand panoramic views I've seen in the state. The pics don't do it justice. I think it rivals the view of the Lyman lakes from Cloudy Pass, or the view south from Sahale Camp. That one is probably the best one in terms of bang for the buck. This one has a lot of bang too, but it requires a lot of buck!

[wildernessed]

There are quite alot of TR's on Kindy Ridge, but many will fall under some form of "Snowking" being in the title. Snowking via Kindy Ridge

[deconinc]

So "not many" is relative.

[wildernessed]

[kyle d]

That certianly is a very scenic area, one of my favorites so far. Thanks for all the details about the route, I tend to be lazy and leave them out of my trip reports (My snowking report), but I certainly appreciate them for trying to plan trips. I doubt you will be dissapointed if you make a return trip in a little better weather.

[touron]

Nice set of pictures! When I hiked this road several years ago, it seemed the road walk was maybe a mile, and there were some cars that made it to the parking area. Am I right in thinking that a minimal amount of road improvement would make the whole road driveable once again?

[wildernessed]

The road stops here.

A overgrown section of the road walk to the trail.

[Bloated Chipmunk]

[Dayhike Mike]

Welcome to the site and thanks for the TR! I love the tree where you took your first break. I remember trying to balance on the steeeeep slope while trying to take a picture of it myself. Regarding ribbons, this is the kind of crap I always hate seeing:

[#19]

[Mike Collins]

[deconinc]

Actually, a lot of work would be needed to repair the washouts. "A lot", just like "not many" is subjective, but the washouts are serious. Nothing like on the Dosewallups road, but nothing trivial either. My impression was that the ribbon marked the return trail, not the trail up. The ribbons weren't terribly necessary, but they would be with snow. As I wrote, there were only a few, so it wasn't too offensive. Thanks for the ID on the hornets nest.

[#19]