[rubywrangler]

A friend and I had planned a midweek trip to the Chelan Sawtooths but she couldn't escape from work. Not wanting to make the long drive from Seattle alone, but also not wanting to miss out on what looked to be a perfect forecast ahead of an impending storm, I headed for Clark Mountain. I had been thinking about doing a loop over Luahna to B. Butte but wasn't feeling that excited about a) lugging my full pack over two peaks or b) a solo, late season glacier crossing (with dog). I brought crampons & ice axe, intending to decide about the loop later based on timing and how the Pilz was looking. These ended up being dead weight. Ruby and I arrived at the roadblock on White River Road at about 11:30am Tuesday. A quad pulled in right behind me, paused until I began to unpack, and then turned around and sped away. Maybe making sure I wasn't going to drive through the closure? Creepy, anyway. We hoofed it up the road, only to find a Ford Escape parked at the trailhead. Well, at least they had their NW forest pass on display(?) A USFS status report at the trailhead noted that the Boulder Pass trail has been brushed out all the way to the Napeequa this year.

closed

washout

?

After stopping to ogle (me) and sip (Ruby) the river's milky blue-green water we continued up the White River trail. The river is so pretty, and the forest has lots of huge cedars and firs to keep you entertained. Including a bear-face tree. Lots of spiderwebs in the brushy sections though. We made quick time to the Boulder Pass trail junction, where I proceeded to soak both shoes in a rock-hopping failure getting to lunch spot on a sunny gravel bar in the river. After lunch, we started up the soft trail. More spiderwebs. The upper Boulder Creek crossing is easily passable but has deep, wet mud between branches of the creek. I slipped into this muck on the way down. Entering the basin the trail becomes brushy, and then intermittently muddy, as it heads toward the pass.

white river

bear face tree

frog in the river

We took the sheepherders trail from the upper basin, then headed NW off the trail just before it crossed a stream around 5760'. We followed another stream up to a basin at around 6400', and found a flat spot to camp at around 6550'. In fading light I identified "the notch" as I chowed down on packit gourmet tuscan beef stew with parmesan polenta (by far my fanciest backcountry meal ever). My willingness to get up at or before sunrise decreases proportionally with the morning temperature, so on chilly Wednesday we got a late start, which basically eliminated any chance at the butte loop. Since I was running low on fuel, I decided to move camp to the meadow campsite/toilet in case I needed to make a fire to boil water for dinner. We set off for the notch around 10am with a 2:30pm turnaround time. I knew there was a bootpath to the notch, but I didn't see it immediately so we just headed directly across the crumbly slope, sidehilling upward. After a couple hundred yards I saw the path below me and eventually intersected it. The path takes off to the right of a small rockfall path at about 6750'. The notch looked scarier in photos than it actually is. Past the notch, the route was pretty straightforward: up a grassy/rocky ramp, across a shallow snowfield for few hundred yards, then an easy walk/scramble to the summit from the SE.

heading to the notch

climbers path

first summit sighting

Right after we exited the snowfield I looked up to find a large goat on a ledge guarding the summit. We had a brief staring contest before he wandered away. Permission granted, we made the final push to the summit. We arrived just after noon and I spent a good 45 minutes drinking in the views of B. Butte, Louis Creek falls and basin, the upper Napeequa, and the peaks beyond. And considering who I could persuade to join me on the Louis Creek HR next year.

gatekeeper

looking southwest from the summit

glacier + luahna

walrus

butte-eeful

thunder basin

across the napeequa

Although I realized that we probably wouldn't make it to Luahna by turnaround time, I decided to give it a shot anyway. We headed down Clark's SW ridge to the gully at ~8450'. The gully exits onto a steep, loose slope, which I traveled across very, very slowly. In retrospect I would have been much better off going straight down to the snowfield at 7700'. Once we finally got onto snow we quickly made our way to the col of Pt 7970, but from there it was more traversing loose slopes. Slowly again. At 2:15 we were just rounding the SW ridge of Pt 7970 so I called it. We backtracked a bit and scrambled up to the top of Pt 7970 for a snack and a last look around before starting back at 3pm.

luahna from just below pt 7970

rare selfie

louis creek larches

Instead of going back up the gully and over Clark, we stayed on the snowfield and crossed Clark's SW ridge at ~7600'. I knew it was possible to get from the SW to S ridge, and I had with me a GPS track of a dog-friendly route from a friend's previous trip. Still, the slope is quite steep and occasionally terrifying. I had to backtrack several times and take a higher path, but after a stressful hour-plus we arrived on the S ridge at ~7700'. Apparently Ruby was feeling stressed too; she immediately collapsed into a power nap. For a few minutes I gawked back at the slope and tried to pick out the line we had taken across. Then we continued around the S ridge, to the lower ramp, and finally the notch. A dozen or so goats were hanging out on the slope above the ramps in the late afternoon sun.

we crossed that?

crash

david, jonathan, whittier

We were back to camp at 6pm with not enough daylight left to relocate. I crossed my fingers and fired up the stove, running out of gas just as my water hit boiling! Lucky. We headed out around 8:30 on Thursday morning, stopping often for photos, huckleberries, and to take in the fall colors. We were back at the car by 2:30, after passing a lone runner heading up White River Road.

yawn

fall colors

basin pano

More photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHskHWdL5w Nagging question: why is it called sheepherder's trail and not shepherd's trail?? *edited to add/fix dates

[ale_capone]

Why not the Shepherds' trail? Had to be more then just one.

[Sculpin]

[Gimpilator]

Nice solo trip! My group also hoped for Luahna and possibly Buck, but we only got Clark.

[Brushbuffalo]

Your pictures are stunning, especially the extras on the link. Thanks! Ruby is quite the climber. So are you!

[RichP]

Had you gone on to Luahna and dropped down to Thunder Ck on the way out, you would have experienced one of the most mind numbing bushwhacks the area has to offer. Great photos

[silence]

Awesome!

[Nancyann]

Great trip report and pictures, rubywrangler, including many beautiful ones on your Flickr link! Nice to see the fall colors still looking good up there. I wonder if they will ever fix that road, the damage looks similar to the Tunnel Creek PCT access road, only you can still drive up that one.

[wildernessed]

[ChinookPass]

Cool. Thanks for posting this.

[joker]

Great trip! Thanks for sharing. Ruby is a good sport!!

[Kenji]

Nice colors!! Thanks for TR

[iron]

[Brushbuffalo]

[Distel32]