[wildernessed]

Location : West of Twisp beginning at the War Creek TH Maps : GTM - Buttermilk Butte, TOPO (outdated) Stats : 16 mi., 6400' r/t

Black Ridge - Snowshoe Ridge - Lake via SF War Creek

We had our eye on both Lower Snowshoe Lake and Black Ridge for some time now, we had done most everything around there and Steve had done a backpack loop and saw where he believed the old trail crossed War Creek and ran up the South Fork of War Creek drainage. The trail is listed as unmaintained / primitive and had different locations on different maps, but it seemed like this adventure was front and center and needed sorting out so we were committed to what might come. With a heat advisory in place we left the War Creek TH around 0815 hr. under mostly sunny skies there were some straggling clouds but they helped shade us from the all ready hot sun, I noticed the humidity which may have been from a passing front associated with them making it seem warmer than the 16% humidity in Wenatchee a day before. The War Creek parking lot was empty, the trail was free and clear and lined with wildflowers until our turn off which took a few minutes to locate. The bridge has long been gone so we forded War Creek which was swift but only up to our knees. Once on the other side we again had to search for a trail and went directly up and found a faint path. We followed this faint path which became more noticeable and were happy for it soon encountering a long section of downfall and always staying to the right of the creek. Once the downfall let up some the trail paralleled the creek under a nice forest canopy most of the time and there were some reroutes due to erosion with one section on the verge of eroding into the creek, we had some nice sections, but always some sort of blowdown to over come and as the miles passed we walked through maybe four meadows that were overgrown mostly below old slide areas. There continued to be a great variety of wildflowers and we even passed through a large aspen grove. Eventually we were completely encompassed by forest which could be the poster child for end stage pine beetle infestation and the dead trees littered the trail and valley by the thousands and all our progress seemed to slow down as we negotiated the mess. The original plan was to camp in the drainage where water was assured go up Black Ridge one day, Snowshoe lake on the opposite ridge another day, camp and backpack out the third day but there was not one spot of flat ground uncluttered from log and debris so we backpacked another 1000' into the basin below Black Ridges highpoint which was a grind in the afternoon sun and behold it was lined with dying forest and debris just like the valley, we did come across an old hunters camp near a stream so we jumped on that and set our camp up there. Now for the sake of brevity the terrain continued as we went up to gain the NE of Black Ridge followed by some open terrain near the ridge crest but as we followed towards the summit it was tree'd, brushy, rocky, and very narrow culminating in several shallow dirty gullys, I made it to around 7504' and the risk / benefit analysis didn't favor any further scrambling and from there I took some nice shots and had some great views of the region. It was a cautious descent then a tedious hike back to camp, but enjoyable. This is wilderness after all. The next day up for early coffee as usual packed up camp and down through the carnage where we headed to the jct. of Lower Snowshoe lakes outflow and SF of War Creek which was an easy ford, we left all our nonessential stuff behind and readied for the near 1500' grind in .9 mile to the lake which we weren't certain even had any fish in it. Wow, just wow that is all I can say that was a mother%&^*#@ of all ascents into a lake through downed everything and basically climbing and using vegetation, skirting cliffs etc..., my advice don't do it, there probably is a better way if you know it this however was the shortest and most technical. We hit the lake and I just hoped we saw something moving, rising, whatever we needed a payoff at some point, then with my $9.99 reel and telescopic pole, using a single colored rooster tail at around 1000 hr. I feasted on some 18 back to back catches of beautiful cutthroat trout around 12 - 18" and ended up reeling in well over 20, Steve had that smile on his face too and had about the same success. It was good, it was great, it was a frenzy. So after we tired, exhausted we took a break, hydrated, ate, and just did not look forward to that descent. In the end we tried to out flank the steep cliffs with partial luck, but we missed the near vertical section (not shown on quads) came down to the creek forded it, ate, packed up, and decided to make it an overnighter instead of a three day, the heat was obscene and we finished what we started, with little hope of finding a reasonable camp and exhausted we just stumbled out of the drainage a little dazed and confused at times, but we made it back to the truck. As far as Black ridge I have heard some people have done it from the South, maybe lets see those summit pics though, and yes the fishing is excellent at Lower Snowshoe Lake which I will never return to, I don't know if an official unofficial fishermen's route exists but I would think coming in the Eagle Creek trail, going over Snowshoe Ridge and dropping in from the SSW would be the easy route. Great trip as usual, good times Steve I am ready for some trail hiking in open country.

This picture pretty much sums up the terrain of the entire trip.

Lower Black Ridge from below.

War Creek crossing.

Aspen grove in one of the meadows above South Fork of War Creek.

Once on Black Ridges crest.

Final summit route to Black Ridges highpoint.

Camels Hump to Canyon Creek Ridge.

Abernathy's, Gardner Ridge, Storey and more from near Black ridge's summit.

Lower section of Black Ridge's summit ridge.

Midnight Mountain

Sun Mountain from Black Ridge.

Midway up Black Ridges summit from the East the fist dirty gully.

10 labels

Alot of stuff in this pano.

Black Ridge between Black Ridges summit heading South towards Sun Mountain.

4 labels

Oval and Snowshoe Ridge with the basins of Upper and Lower Snowshoe Lakes.

Lower Snowshoe lake below Snowshoe Ridge.

Overlapping ridges and peaks. Buttermilk Ridge, Snowshoe Ridge,Sawtooth Ridge, Black Ridge.

Early gully up Black Ridges summit. This topped out and dropped down to a very steep gully so I took pictures below the summit.

Steve resting his arm and catching his breath.

Even though I dirtied him up a bit good color and size,

Lower Snowshoe Lake. Never forget.

South Fork of War Creek drainage between Snowshoe and Black Ridges.

[raising3hikers]

you guys are quite the fisherman or just know where they're hungry

[Abert]

Black Ridge from Sun Mountain and Snowshoe. Farther than I had the time (or energy) for. And that was without the heat.

Black Ridge

Black Ridge

[wildernessed]

[HitTheTrail]

Wow! By wow I mean I am glad I went on an easy hike with Leafguy instead. for the effort and perseverance.

[RichP]

Steve is a veritable encyclopedia of knowledge about old and abandoned trails. He should write a book.

[sooperfly]

Thanks for report, good to see the fishies doing well! - Jackchinook and I planted it in 2011. Oh, and by the way, those are westslope cutthroat, not rainbows. Here's a pic from that September day trip. Your weather looked a lot nicer!

planting-fish

[wildernessed]

[wildernessed]

[Get Out and Go]

I'm exhausted just reading the TR. I had to re-hydrate with a beer and take a nap afterwards.

[wildernessed]

[iron]

the forest travel looked enjoyable.

[wildernessed]

[wildernessed]

Another interesting part to this trip is the trail keeps heading up the drainage and we didn't know why it would we didn't see any old trails on the maps going that far so while we followed it through all the blow down why it was going our way when it was time for us to head up into the basin we took the route we planned arcing up the path of least resistance into the basin we camped at. Along the way we ran into a series of switchbacks and figured the trail eventually turned upward and switch backed up into the basin and onto the ridge. There was no advantage to following the obstructed trail vs heading off trail. Steve figured it was the route up to the Black Ridge Lookout removed in 1952.

[wildernessed]