[Schmidt Altitude]

• Date: Sunday, July 19, 2009
• Crew: yukon222, Schmidt Altitude team (Babe, Row, Kief, Dude)
• Summits (in order that we climbed them): Hard Cheese 5766', Hard Knox 5841' (#45 Home Court 100), Thorp Mountain 5854' (#44 HC100), French Cabin Mountain 5724' (#48 HC100), French Tongue 5400+', Kachess Ridge 5525 (#61 HC100)
• Location: Kachess Ridge area of the Alpine Lake Wilderness
• References: Randy's 2002 Hard Knox-Kachess Ridge-French Tongue trip report, Type E's Hard Knox trip report

We'd been kicking around the idea of visiting the peaks in the French Cabin Creek area for some time. After Dude cut his finger at work Saturday night, thus making him unable to hold an ice axe, we scrapped what we had planned on doing Sunday and switched to this trip.

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GPS route courtesy of yukon222

We drove up the Kachess Dam Road and series of Forest Service roads to park on Kachess Ridge in the low spot between Hard Knox and the ridge summit. We almost felt guilty about starting out at 4900' - almost. We made our way over to the trail (the USGS map has it wrong, it comes much closer to the road than indicated) and headed north. Before going by Hard Knox the trail passes by Point 5766. Since we were so close, we wandered over to the highest point and took a pictures on the "summit". Since this point lies between Hard Knox and Kachess Ridge, Dude dubbed it "Hard Cheese" (sounded a little better than Hard Chess). Onward we went, first down 200' and then up to the summit of Hard Knox (a.k.a. South Thorp). Various maps have the west summit being higher but it didn't look any higher to us and looking back from various angles throughout the day seemed to indicate that the east summit is indeed higher (sorry Type E).

Tagging Hard Cheese

Hard Knox and Thorp Mountain

Yukon goes to the school of Hard Knox

Hanging at the summit

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Hibox to Daniel behind Thorp Mountain

Hard Knox summit pic

Our original plan was to turn around and do all three French Cabin summits but from our vantage on Hard Knox we could see that the South and North summits are just treed bumps. Thus, we decided to continue north onto Thorp Mountain instead since Yukon and the whippets had never been there and we hadn't visited since 2002. Thorp Mountain is a popular place and we bumped into many parties going up, coming down, and on the summit. At the lookout, Roughneck recognized the whippets and came over to introduce himself.

Alpine blooms and Mount Stuart

Babe and blooms

Dude at the Lookout

Mount Stuart from Thorp Mountain

Lemah, Chimney Rock, and Summit Chief

Bears Breast, Hinman, Daniel

Babe gets her shot

Mount Rainier

Panoramination

Thorp Lake

Thorp Mountain group shot

Jeremy and Tisha at the Thorp Mountain Lookout, 07/19/09

Jeremy and Tisha at the Thorp Mountain Lookout, 07/17/02

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Pano looking northerly from Thorp Mountain

Stuart to Rainier from Thorp Mountain

After taking our fill of pictures on Thorp Mountain we beat trail back to the truck where we exchanged our water bottles with the ones left on ice in the cooler. Then we made our way south over to the 5000' pass west of the French Tongue and down the Silver Creek Trail. Shortly after crossing the creek, we connected with the trail that heads west towards the French Cabin Mountains. ~5,200' we came to a sharp switchback with a group taking a break next to it. This is the key jump off point and we headed uphill to the French Cabin Mountain (a.k.a. West French Cabin Mountain) summit.

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Kachess Ridge, Mount Rainier and our parking spot

The French Tongue

Yukon leads the way to French Pass

Dude on the way up to French Cabin Mountain

Yukon almost to the summit

View W-NW from French Cabin Mountain

Mount Rainier from French Cabin Mountain

Vicious flowers ready to bite!

Columbia lewisia

Smiling on the summit

Mountain Goat hair mustache

French Cabin Mountain gathering

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View of Stuart to Rainier from French Cabin Mountain

View North to East from French Cabin Mountain

We retraced our steps all the way to the pass below French Tongue (a.k.a. Cyclops Spire, a.k.a. Little Pecker Peak) where we found a climbers path heading up its slopes. The path faded quickly but we made our way up circling around its south and west sides to a small col just west and about 100' below the summit. Randy's trip report stated that they climbed up a class 4 section directly from the col but found "easier rock" on the way down. Dude went ahead to scout the way up. He followed a partially hidden ledge around to the south to a scrubby tree and then climbed up a section with great handholds (class 3+) before walking up to the summit. It was much easier that it looked from below. Yukon and Babe went to follow but the dogs started freaking out about being left behind so we decided one person summitting for the team was good enough.

Bear Grass

Now it's time for French Tongue and Kachess Ridge

Rowena takes a dirt bath as we rest at the pass

Yikes, the French Tongue looks intimidating from here

Scrambling around the French Tongue

Dude walks along the ledge looking for the route up

Where's dad going?

French Tongue summit pano

After Dude rejoined the group, off we went towards our final objective. We found a faint climbers path on the ridge crest that led us up to Point 5525, Kachess Ridge, our fourth Home Court peak of the day. It is worth noting that we didn't find a single register on any of the peaks we climbed this day so if anyone is in the area they might want to bring some with them (something we've said we're going to do but never get around to it). Instead of going back down to meet the trail at the French Pass we followed the climbers path that ran down the ridge directly back to where we parked the truck. Awaiting us in the cooler was our end-of-the-day treats, ice cold Mike's Hard Lemonades. A perfect way to end a great day.

French Tongue in front, Mount Stuart behind from Kachess Ridge

Kachess Lake and Mount Rainier from Kachess Ridge

S-Team on Kachess Ridge

Another angle of the French Tongue from our way back to the truck

Babe leads the way back to the truck

A toast to a great day of peakbagging

Full flickr set here.

[yukon222]

More pics!!!

DSD_2732 Alti-Babe picking out peaks from French Cabin West Peak summit

DSD_2751 Columbia Lewisia - tiny 1/2" flower

DSD_2766 Alti-Babe enjoying French Cabin West Peak summit

DSD_2778 "Why'd you wake me up?"

DSD_2783 Alti-Dude climbing French Tongue

DSD_2786 Alti-Dude topping out on French Tongue

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DSD_2811 French Tongue's Class 3+

[gone]

Cool trip, lot of great info and pics! I've been eyeballing the French Cabin Basin for a while, thinking to perhaps come up from the creek, wondering whether it might make for a nice fall hike. Thanks for sharing all the details!

[Type E]

Great, now I have to go back and do Hard Knox again. That area is so much nicer than one would think just looking at a map. Maybe I will have to go back and mount the Little Pecker since I will be so close.....maybe mounting isn't the right word. E

[Roughneck]

Nice to meet you and thanks for the trail info. Your photos are great! I'll certainly have to go back and spend some more time in the area.

[Go Jo]

[Schmidt Altitude]

[DIYSteve]

Cool mini-high route. I scrambled the knob you call "French Tongue" back in the early 90's with a guy who lives near there, but I never expected to see mention of it in a TR.

[Magellan]

Just about exactly seven years since the first photo. I like the concept. I think time has been kind to you two.

[she hikes in beauty]

Nice pics. Heading up that way this weekend....Been out that way before but will try a different route this time. Hope the weather is nice!

[EastKing]

Nice TR! It is good to see you'll still knocking them down!!

[puzzlr]

Nice trip - an underrated area. Can you add some hints about how you drive up to where you started? Did you consider going out to Pt 5418 east of Hard Knox? When I was near Thorp this spring it looked spectacular.

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I was surprised to see such rugged terrain in this part of the cascades. The rock in the middle is marked Pt 5418 on the topo maps, but it deserves a name. French Cabin Mountain is the long ridge in the back.

[yukon222]

Sure, Puzzlr. Exit 70 at Easton, over I-90, left on road so you are heading back to the north. Go past 3, maybe 4 roads/driveways on your right until you see Forest Service Road 4818 on your right (it is also the road that gets you back towards Thomas Mtn, Silver Creek, etc). Stay on this 4818 for several miles as it wraps around the east side of Lake Kachess. You'll go past a bunch of cabins, then look for FS Road 4824 off to your right to get up the ridge. Up until that point, the road is in decent shape. 4824 is narrower and a few more potholes. A car could make it with careful driving. Halfway up the ridge around 3300', turn right onto FS 115. Follow that the rest of the way to the ridge. On the first Topo map Alti-Dude posted, my truck was parked at Waypoint 006. He also has that map labelled. I've attached another map with the road numbers. The ridgeline hiking up there was excellent. Steady breeze, mix of trees/sunshine and consistent good views. Dude mentioned the rocky point you are talking about. In fact, he said it was "Puzzlr's Point" as he thought you had climbed it before. Didn't really consider running over to tag it as we had a full day planned already. Think the day was 13 miles and 6500' vertical.

french cabin roads