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Snuffy
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Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Posts: 315 | TRs | Pics
Location: Everett, WA |
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Snuffy
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 Sun Oct 04, 2020 2:25 pm |
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While everyone else was streaming up towards Little Giant and Carne, we drive up to Chikamin Tie and did a loop that included the Upper Mad River now that the trails have reopened. Didn't see a soul until the last .75 miles out, just a handful of bikers.
It was interesting to see where the fire had scorched and where it had not, and where they had cleared for a helo pad on a knob below Shetipo. The larches were in a range of transformation, some still limey and others more amber. For multi-use trails, this was one of the best maintained we'd been on.
Very little of the trails themselves had been touched. Most of Shetipo's summit was blackened but there were a few untouched spots to scramble up. Carried out a cast iron pan...
We finished the loop by dropping .75 miles down the Chikamin Creek drainage which I personally will not do again. And not just because there were bees and nettles somewhere along the way...
You don't find yourself standing at the top of a mountain without having started out in the valley.
You don't find yourself standing at the top of a mountain without having started out in the valley.
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HitTheTrail
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Joined: 30 Oct 2007
Posts: 5455 | TRs | Pics
Location: 509 |
Great beta  Thanks for posting on an area some would consider not spectacular enough to warrant a mention. BTW, how is the road to the TH nowadays?
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Snuffy
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Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Posts: 315 | TRs | Pics
Location: Everett, WA |
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Snuffy
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Mon Oct 05, 2020 6:48 am |
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| HitTheTrail wrote: | | BTW, how is the road to the TH nowadays? |
Thank you! I would say the first 7 miles were good, just a few potholes and ruts due to runoff in the beginning. The last mile was different, a lot of sharp rock. It was my first time up there so I don’t know what used to be there but there was a huge widening of the road at that 7 mile mark where I would have parked instead of driving up to the end of the road. But overall, definitely not the worst forest road I’ve driven.
You don't find yourself standing at the top of a mountain without having started out in the valley.
You don't find yourself standing at the top of a mountain without having started out in the valley.
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HitTheTrail
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Joined: 30 Oct 2007
Posts: 5455 | TRs | Pics
Location: 509 |
| Snuffy wrote: | | there was a huge widening of the road at that 7 mile mark |
OK, thanks for the update. Did they also widen the parking area at the Basalt Ridge TH (at about half way up the road)? Before it would only accommodate about 2-3 cars at most.
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Snuffy
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Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Posts: 315 | TRs | Pics
Location: Everett, WA |
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Snuffy
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Mon Oct 05, 2020 9:11 am |
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| HitTheTrail wrote: | | Did they also widen the parking area at the Basalt Ridge TH (at about half way up the road)? |
Nope. Just as tiny as before. 🙂
You don't find yourself standing at the top of a mountain without having started out in the valley.
You don't find yourself standing at the top of a mountain without having started out in the valley.
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HitTheTrail
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Joined: 30 Oct 2007
Posts: 5455 | TRs | Pics
Location: 509 |
Too bad, Basalt Ridge is becoming the best way to get into Larch Lakes since the Entiat valley access routes all went back to nature! 
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Snuffy
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Joined: 28 Dec 2012
Posts: 315 | TRs | Pics
Location: Everett, WA |
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Snuffy
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Mon Oct 05, 2020 9:45 am |
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We visited Larch Lakes last year about this time, it really wasn't that bad. We took the connector from Myrtle and hiked up the Larch Creek Trail. Definitely WAY easier than Ice Lakes this year. Here is more information, just scroll down to the report 10/2019. 
https://www.musthikemusteat.com/eastern-wa/entiat-river-myrtle-lake/
You don't find yourself standing at the top of a mountain without having started out in the valley.
You don't find yourself standing at the top of a mountain without having started out in the valley.
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