[RichP]

Last week we tried to reach this summit from the low end of the ridge off of US 97. https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8027146 Trying a different route proposed by Ragman, we parked on the Old Blewett Pass Highway about 2/3 of a mile south of the former bridge crossing of Etienne Ck. We walked the crumbling road to the location of the long gone bridge and found a short, steep trail down to a log crossing.

Parking along a section of The Old Blewett Pass Highway about 2/3 of a mile south of Etienne Ck.

The road soon narrows.

Site of Etienne Ck bridge.

A spry 77 year-old shimmying across Etienne Ck.

This gave us access to the road that goes up Etienne Creek. We knew we'd have to ford the creek at some point so we brought along extra pairs of shoes for that.

Walking the road up Etienne Ck.

A giant drill bit.

Our only ford of Etienne Ck.

We passed several mining claims with assorted equipment scattered about. It looks like there hasn't been much activity in recent decades.

Carving on tree at Ceder Grove Campground site.

Bridge over Etienne Ck.

Claim staked in Aug '27.

Etienne Ck.

At one point we avoided a double crossing of the creek by ascending a couple hundred feet up and over cliffs which worked out quite well.

We climbed up a couple hundred feet to bypass a cliff and avoid two creek crossings.

After this section we arrived to the road that Roger had spied that would take us up to Point 5170 on the ridge below Three Brothers, East. This completely avoids any of the narrow, rocky ridge that had stopped us the week before.

The ridge up to Point 5170. An old road comes up from Etienne Ck below and climbs about 1000.'

We were surprised to find a trail past Point 5170.

Some nice larch stands on the ridge to Three Brothers, East.

Summit in view right of center.

The road switchbacks up about 1000' and ends at some adits. Beyond this the terrain is easy to the top of the ridge where we were surprised to find a pretty good trail in sections. The final bit to the summit requires some easy scrambling and there are several options. I chose the south side and a broad gully, the others came up the east side. On the way down Barb and I walked around the north side which is easiest.

The open gully I chose up.

BarbE on Three Brothers, East.

Three Brothers Middle Peak from Three Brothers, East.

Rodman and Ragman arriving to the summit.

The lower part of the ridge that we hiked up the week before. We were stopped by the rocky section in the center.

It was a long day for us all and we walked the last two miles out with headlamps but we were glad to have finally reached the third and distant Brother. 14 miles RT and 5200' of gain.

[ragman and rodman]

Mama's don't let your babies grow up to do the east summit of Three Brothers via Etienne Creek. A very long day... 14 hours car-to-car... 7.5 hrs to the summit, a 30 minute summit visit and 6 hours back to the car... 14.4 miles roundtrip, gaining 5221 feet of elevation. This peak has been on my radar since August, 2015 when BarbE and I had stood on top of Point 7169 (the old lookout site) thinking that we had done all three of the brothers... however, Tim Hagan suggested that we had only done the west peak (7303'), a sub-summit (7232' per my GPS) of the west peak and the middle peak (the old lookout site)... pointing out that the USGS map for the area clearly shows the word "Three Brothers" underneath Point 6427... making the old lookout site the middle peak and 6427 the east peak. I suggested parking at the end of Ingalls Creek Road and then hike FS-7312 to where it ends and becomes a trail that follows along Etienne Creek... however, RichP had done a lot of research on this hike and mentioned that there had been a fairly recent landslide that wiped out a large section of FS-7312 near the gate at the end of Ingalls Creek Road... perhaps making it impassable even for hikers... so RichP suggested that we start from a very subtle parking area that is located 10.8 miles east of Blewett Pass on Hwy 97. The first 4 miles of the hike stayed near the floor of the valley... including two stream crossings (one by log and the other by foot) and a couple of detours that each took us more than 120 feet above the valley floor to get around trail that had been eroded by Etienne Creek. The last 3 miles of the hike were cross-country... using an overgrown and abandoned miner's road that got us half-way up to Point 5170... where we hiked west along a ridge that took us to the east summit (6427') of Three Brothers. Photos, trailhead directions and downloadable GPS track for our visit to the east summit of Three Brothers. --

[raising3hikers]

way to go back and get it

[BarbE]

A long, hard and memorable trip. Finally got this one off our radar!

Yeah, a bridge!

Ridge climb

Ridge walk

Huge Ponderosa

brother #3 in sight on the right

Richard on the summit

summit selfie

summit views

Leaving false summit

Ragman indicates what he thinks of this hike

Richard checks out route to Big Brother #2

Headlamp creek crossing

Etienne Creek crossing

Are we having fun yet?

[Get Out and Go]

Great you found a way to make it up there! Looks like a fun group. Whenever I drive past the mouth of the creek, I think about exploring in there a bit. Didn't hear any banjo music, huh? I've heard that a few people get a bit touchy about their "claims." Most are just friendly hobby miner enthusiasts.

[puzzlr]

Wow, I'm so impressed you tackled this route and even more so that you stuck it out all the way to the summit. That's a good one to check off your list. I might need to get it by camping by Navajo and coming in that way. I've learned there was a reason I was feeling worn out -- I'm catching a cold. That 14 hours would have done me in!

[RichP]

[wildernessed]

[some names]

Thank you for the route description and all the information from the other route attempted. The pictures are great too. We are weighing camping at Navaho vs your route. East Brother has been on the list for years.

[RichP]

[ragman and rodman]

Here is a little more beta on accessing the Etienne Creek area. A couple days ago I did Serpentine Hill. After finishing the hike I drove a little further down Hwy 97 and parked at the end of Ingalls Creek Road... where I crossed the creek to do some recon on the condition of FS-7312 to see if it would give a person access to the Etienne Creek drainage. While the road has been trashed by two landslides (one of them more than 500 feet wide), a hiker or miner can still easily use the road to reach the Etienne Creek drainage. The downside to using this route to reach the east summit of Three Brothers is that the round trip would be 17 miles and 6000 feet of elevation gain as opposed to the 14.4 miles and 5200 feet of elevation gain that we did on May 29... and that would be a hard pill to swallow just to avoid a log crossing of Etienne Creek. Photos, trailhead directions and downloadable GPS track for my recon mission on Forest Service Road 7312. ..

[RichP]

Very interesting, Ragman. Thanks for checking that out. The slide doesn't look nearly as bad as it does while driving by from the highway.

[puzzlr]

Thanks for the clear photos and explanation. It's good to see it from the ground instead of via Google Earth