Forum Index > Trip Reports > Up the Chewuch (Chewack, tomayto tomahto), 7/28-8/2/2011
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marydave
Musical Hikers



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 182 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle
marydave
Musical Hikers
PostSat Aug 06, 2011 2:15 pm 
We punted (alas) on our Wonderland Trail permit as we weren't looking forward to half the trail being under snow instead of wildflowers...so we went with an alternative plan in the Pasayten Wilderness, hiking to Cathedral Lakes via the Chewuch Trail with sidetrips to Four Point and Remmel Lakes. The trail was in pretty good shape. There were no horse trailers in the parking lot, and ours was the third car. In contrast, there were 6-10 trailers at the Andrews Creek trailhead when we drove by it. FS reported that a crew had been through clearing trees, and they hadn't done a 100% job, but the blowdowns that remained could be circumvented or stepped over. There's a rather brushy segment in the mile before the Four Point Lake turnoff, and there are muddy patches and spots where streams run down the trail, but it could be worse.
Logs over the trail
Logs over the trail
The trail's in here somewhere!
The trail's in here somewhere!
The weather was perfect for the entire trip and we didn't encounter horse traffic until the last day as we hiked out (i.e. the horse doots weren't fresh until then). We discovered, though, that within a mile or two of Remmel Lake trails #510 and #565 have been rerouted and no published map has the new route on it. We didn't find out until we saw Remmel Lake on our left a ways past the new junction with trail 565; the map indicated it should be on the right. We later encountered two FS volunteers who were carrying a xerox copy of a 7.5min quad with the approximate new trail routes hand drawn. The woman at the ranger station didn't mention the reroute -- guess I didn't ask the right questions, as I was mostly interested in the trail's condition... After the five hour drive from Seattle including a stop by the ranger station in Winthrop to check on conditions, we hit the trail around noon in sunshine and temps in the 80s. The first seven miles, to Basin Creek junction, were burned in the Thirtymile fire. In the ten years since the fire, first generation trees have started to grow and wildflowers abound. Nevertheless, we were happier when the trees started. We camped at the crossing of Horseshoe Creek, which has a decent bridge, half flattened footlog and half roped together small logs where the second footlog snapped. The Tungsten trail junction is maybe 100 years further along.
Chewack Falls
Chewack Falls
first night camp
first night camp
A mile later, Tungsten Creek has to be forded -- it's a little over knee deep. There's a good looking campsite there.
first glimpse of Coleman Ridge
first glimpse of Coleman Ridge
We turned off toward Four Point Creek, and the Chewuch ford was only slightly deeper than Tungsten Creek, but we got our first foreshadowing of....mosquitoes! We got our boots back on as quickly as possible and the bugs faded as we climbed the hill.
We had Four Point Lake almost to ourselves. We saw one or two people on the far side of the lake when we were setting up camp, but they had gone by the time we awoke from an afternoon nap. However, we had a lot of company of mozzies, and headnets, heavy socks and raingear were de rigueur. We had brought 100% DEET along but never used it during the trip; the raingear, headnet mostly did the trick.
The next day we returned to the junction and headed upriver. There's a great looking camp at Cathedral Creek, and a small but usable stick bridge. The way got dry and hot, but the lupines were incredible. However, the trail seemed to go on and on past the expected junction with trail #565 -- this is where the reroute fooled us. When we finally saw Remmel Lake on our left at a junction signed "Remmel Cutoff Trail 494."
We found the old retired trail on the way down; here's the fork.
We found the old retired trail on the way down; here's the fork.
I had heard Remmel was too horsey to bother with, but we decided to check it out since the GPS said we'd done ten miles and we were hot, tired, and perplexed by the extra distance we'd hiked. Lo and behold, we found a fantastic camp near the lake which became our base for two nights, and we seemed to have the lake to ourselves. It was Saturday night, perhaps the outfitters pick up new folks on the weekends and are there only during the week?
The next day we hiked to the Boundary Trail (#533) and headed toward Upper Cathedral Lake, passing junctions with the Lesemis Trail (#565) and a spur to Lower Cathedral Lake. We were at last in the high meadows with views in every direction, and we had it virtually to ourselves! We crossed a couple of small snowpatches, but they were no problem until we encountered a relatively steep patch over talus just west of Upper Cathedral Lake. There was one set of prints across, but without ice axes we didn't like the look of the runout, so we bypassed it below, then scrambled over talus to regain the trail on the far side (we found an alternative way on the return; more later).
After regaining the trail, we met the two FS volunteers who were talking with a party of three who were hiking the Boundary Trail from Iron Gate to somewhere west (I didn't catch where). They were talking at a junction with a trail labeled only "Not Maintained." The volunteers were spending the summer doing an inventory of campsites in the Pasayten and Chelan/Sawtooth, waypointing them on a GPS and entering data about vegetation etc. We went to the lake which was beautiful but had the most intense mosquito activity of the whole trip, so after lunch and a nap in raingear and headnets, we headed out, but not before encountering a couple of mountain goats close up (not being Oly NP goats, I wasn't concerned about them and they kept their distance).
We decided to try the Not Maintained trail to bypass the snowfield and to see if it led to Lower Cathedral Lake. It met the other trail from #533 at a creek crossing, and with the help of the GPS we figured out where the lake was (it wasn't obvious at the junction; we found a small cairn that apparently marks the final descent to the lake). After a few snaps of the lake without bothering to descend to test the water, we hiked up the signed trail and returned to camp the way we came.
Lower Cathedral Lake
Lower Cathedral Lake
Part of the trail was stream
Part of the trail was stream
A ranger we encountered on the way back said there was a party of two with three horses on the far side of Remmel Lake, but we hardly saw or heard them. Two Border Patrol folks came by our camp on horseback on their way to do a little fishing; they were camped along the Lesemis Trail somewhere above the lake. Otherwise, we were delightfully alone. Two days hike out, camping at the same spot on Horseshoe Creek enroute, and we were done and very happily having lunch and dark brews at the Old School Tavern in Winthrop (formerly the Winthrop Tavern). One odd thing, though. One of us had a GPS and kept breadcrumbs of the whole hike. The distances on Green Trails and the signs were consistently low by 10-20%. It doesn't seem to me that GPS's could overestimate distance, but can they? If not, we did 60 miles in 6 days...

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BeyondLost
Crazy Bob



Joined: 07 Jul 2007
Posts: 3601 | TRs | Pics
Location: Whidbey Island, WA
BeyondLost
Crazy Bob
PostSat Aug 06, 2011 7:25 pm 
Did the GPS run continuously? I've noticed that when I stop and do not move my GPS Garmins 60 csx continues to track and since it can give readings that are 3-12 feet off on repeated readings I continue to accumulate mileage slowly without moving. If you leave it on for long breaks you can add a fair amount of mileage.

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Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker



Joined: 16 Dec 2001
Posts: 23956 | TRs | Pics
Location: Cle Elum
Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker
PostSat Aug 06, 2011 7:34 pm 
Thanks for the report. Great beta for us. Nice pics too.

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!



Joined: 27 Mar 2003
Posts: 16874 | TRs | Pics
Slugman
It’s a Slugfest!
PostSat Aug 06, 2011 8:25 pm 
Good thing you didn't try to steal the monkey statue or that Indiana Jones boulder would have gone rolling down the trail after you...... embarassedlaugh.gif Sweet report and pics, thanks for posting. up.gif

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