[kitya]

OK, I know there is no connection between these peaks, but I guess both Mount Washington and Mount Roosevelt are named after presidents. Anyway, I was lazy and I wanted to check off some of the more obvious peaks where me and Cookie have not been yet. Mount Washington (the one near to Mount Ellinor) was first. Both forest road #24 and #2419 (mount Ellinor road) are in absolutely perfect conditions, no potholes at all - from either hwy 101 side or from lake Cushman. Both Mount Ellinor trailheads were already full and overflowing at 8am, but to my pleasant surprise the Jefferson Pass/Mount Washington trailhead had no cars. I parked there and followed obvious short trail up to Mount Washington summit. It was super foggy and I couldn't see much, but there were many blueberries and flowers. Also I missed the trail at one spot and started scrambling up 'The Horn' by mistake and had to turn around and traverse steep slopes to find the 'correct' trail instead. Summit had interesting socially conscious register and an interesting view with east side completely in clouds and west side sunny.

On the way back I walked a bit past the washout on the road and found a little pretty waterfall tucked on the side. It has a series of very neat rock pools and great view to the east, but is itself kind of hidden and cannot be seen from the road. Great place to cool down.

Next day I started early and did a short drive to Melakwa lake trailhead. At 7am it was already full and half of the road parking was full too. I guess these days everybody is trying to come early to the popular trailheads to avoid the crowds, so everyone comes early and morning time is actually the busiest time. It is probably better to come in the afternoon. However there are some great improvements. FR 58 is now one way all the way from Denny Creek campground to Alpentral. One side of the road is reserved for parking and other for driving (one way). The old small Denny creek parking lot is gated and only private home owners are allowed in. There is new paved huge parking lot on the side of the road. It used to be a mess with cars getting blocked by other cars all the time, but now making the road one way actually keeps cars moving and allows parking for literally thousands of cars (you might need to walk a couple of miles from your parking spot to the trailhead though). Great to see smart solution to parking issues is implemented. Me and Cookie decided to do Kaleetan Peak -> Mount Roosevelt traverse via white ledges route. Kaleetan (means "arrow" in Chinook jargon) looks super impressive from afar, but is extremely disappointing in person. There is an obvious trail (it is actually marked as "toilet" from the lake) all the way to the summit and it is super busy: Kaleetan is the new Rattlesnake ledge this summer. There were at least 5 people (at least half of them with gopros on helmets) at the summit and so many trail runners everywhere on the trail Sad! However Mount Roosevelt is a lot more interesting! All Kaleetan hordes descended the same trail while I choose to go just around the corner and scramble down white ledges to the pass above Chair peak lake. No defined trail and no people anymore. Also the 'white ledges' have a small patch of snow still remaining at the bottom of the ledges and it was our first snow for the day, which made Cookie very happy. Even though it is lower, Roosevelt was a bit more challenging for me, I first took the wrong gully up, got to the ridge only to get cliffed out, downclimbed back and scrambled the right wet and narrow gully that looks impossibly steep from afar, but revealed a narrow way all the way to the summit. Nobody else was there and it was super nice, real wilderness experience close in distance, yet far in terrain from a very busy area. After Mount Roosevelt summit we went down same way, down to Chair peak lake and out via Melakwa pass. As I expected going down in the afternoon was also a lot more peaceful, many people camped at Melakwa lake, but the trail was almost empty already and all trail runners long gone. I picked up some trash around the lake, watched American dipper birds, pikas an chipmunks and we walked down.