[cascadetraverser]

Carne Mountain-Phelps Ridge High route (9/7-9/11/2021) After several fun but not terribly adventurous fall and winter trips (I guess if keeping an active fire going in pouring rain is an adventure, then I should speak otherwise) my hiking buddies Eugene and Bret (aka Route Loser) had planned a September traverse for quite a while. Unfortunately, I had suffered all summer from a sore knee and it had significantly hampered a traverse attempt earlier in July; in addition, Eugene was nursing a sore knee from a leg pivot on soft snow that didn`t go well and Bret had a very sore foot after an 20 mile reconnaissence trip the week before. We had planned big (hopefully that trip will happen in the next 1-2 years) but had to scale back. After some minimal hand ringing, we ultimately settled on a less strenuous Glacier Peak trip. Day one: After a leisurely start we arrived at the Phelps creek trailhead to a relative minimal number of cars (hordes on return) and I was pleased at my sub 40 pound pack (for a 6 day trip) at the start (kudos to Bret and Eugene for all their advice to make this happen). After the turnoff, we made pretty quick work to the first basin. Lovely spot with a cool visibly emerging spring and creek running off from it. Nice clear skies and an early bedtime as we were all weary (me for sure) from all the stresses and long hours of civilized life.

GPW trip

Day two: Rained all night and woke up to drippy, moist air but no rain. After breakfast and high quality coffee from Bret, we hiked the trail up to the cutoff to Carne Mountain and followed the relatively quick summit path to the top. Nice views of our next two days travel. We dropped down some lovely meadows directly back to the Carne Mt trail and followed it west. First, it drops and then traverses a spectacular series of basins, now highlighted by red and yellow foliage change but no yellow larches yet. We hit a nice pass looking directly at Freezer pass and had to decide whether to cross over the divide to Ice Lakes or continue west. Figuring best to not overdue things we dropped down and then resumed traversing west. At some point, we could have continued high across a bunch of scree slopes or drop down below. Bret being the youngest and strongest was the lead guy and dropped down. Seemed like an interesting choice to me but hey, why not…. It wasn`t long before we started a big long sideways brush bash over to Leroy Basin. I surely do not mind brush but generally avoid it, Eugene behind was cussing a fair bit over the change in terrain, while Bret crashed and zipped effortlessly through it all with no signs of perturbation at all! I had never met a backcountry traveler who enjoyed a brush bash so much! After an hour or so of brush and minor cliff avoidance, we landed into the lovely Leroy basin and to a couple of parties there. Really beautiful place. Watched it get dark and then to bed…..

GPW trip

GPW trip

GPW trip

GPW trip

Day three: Woke up to blue skies. Today we would travel to a place I had always wanted to visit. An old sheepherders trail to meadows rarely visited. No real peaks of special note and I couldn`t recall much beta on the trip. In other words, nobody goes there, Yay!!! First, we dropped down the Leroy basin trail to Phelps creek. Then took a right upstream for a bit trying to gauge the best way across the river. Scouted an easy log crossing and went for it. At first, the cross country was low angle, low brush and easy and when it angled up, got a little harder, but nothing horrible. Tabor and Crowder`s notes suggest to angle over to the river at around 5300 feet which we did and then meandered up the stream bed for awhile, till we reached a smallish meadow with nice views back towards Spectacle butte, Maude and SFJ. There was traces of a very old camp and a fire pit; not the best tent sites however and Bret insisted on being the probe unit and check out what was above. The basin above turned out to be bigger, more varied and still with great views. We opted to camp there. I bet we could have gone further, but it felt like such a rarely visited, unspoiled area and it begged us for an overnight stay. A nice creek served up a nice bathing spot. Everything was so undisturbed; I don`t think a whole lotta of wind storms made major impacts there, as few trees were down and the downed wood decayed undisturbed. You could definitely imagine a bunch of sheep grazing with the herders chillin out nearby; a fire pit was there, but like so many on this stretch of cross country, seemed used in the distant past with plenty of green plants regrowing in the old ashes.

GPW trip

GPW trip

GPW trip

Day Four: Up early with a scramble up to an unnamed pass to the other side of Phelp`s ridge and then a long traverse through basins and occasional steep trees towards the old mining site. Passed another old sheepherders site and then after a bit of a schwack around a prominent rib we made our way to a particularly nice and oft used camp that immediately connected to the old road, now a trail. From there things got easy for a bit as we followed the road to Chiwawa basin. At some point, the road/trail ends and the CC starts up again, but is lovely through Chiwawa basin, a picturesque place with a real North Cascades feel. I had been there almost 30 years prior and had remembered a stream of clouds flowing over the Cascade divide from east to west. We settled for camp this time on a prominent rise and rain and cool clouds prevailed yet again and sure enough a few hours later as the rain let up the clouds streamed once again west to east.

GPW trip

Day Five: The original plan was to cross via the Fortress High route over to the Buck creek side and follow the Massie HR to Massie Lake (and we stared at it and it looked fun; my recall was, it was, so long ago). Eugene`s knee had swollen up and we decided instead to bail down the Chiwawa. It was initially down some steep forest with some minor veggie belaying, but once down into the upper cirque we found a nice way trail that first meandered down creekside and then followed a ridge down to the lower cirque and campsites to the main trail. After lunch we headed down the river valley trail and enroute I saw two martins scurrying in some pine trees above. One was curious and stared quite some time at me while the other growled at me continuously. Late, I peaked at the “route” up to Massie lake and hope to make it up there sometime (I am pretty sure we missed NancyAnn up there).

GPW trip

GPW trip

[Route Loser]

Marc, great report! You are not supposed to tell people that I prefer a cross-country route over a perfectly good trail. I will have no partners. Great trip. Can't imagine two better guys to get stuck with under a tarp or in a tent, or on a magnificent alpine ramble.

[HitTheTrail]

This is a rather unique trip as high routes go, I have not heard of this particular traverse. Thanks for posting. My hiking buddy Steve's main hobby in life is researching and hiking/exploring old sheep driveways. I have a short day hike planned with him tomorrow and I am sure this TR will be our main topic of discussion. Also, since I like basins as much or more than peaks, I have been mentally planning a trip up the Chiwawa to the basin below Fortress/Chiwawa/Red for a long time. This may be the boost I need to get me off my butt and do it next summer.

[timberghost]

Nice trip

[Nancyann]

Beautiful area to spend five days in! Good choice to not go down from Massie with a swollen knee.

[cascadetraverser]

Thanks RouteLoser! Whatever your NWHIKERS name is, I am happy to follow you and your route finding skills into the deep wilderness anytime 😀 GOAG, you and Steve would love this trip. A fun, challenging but not over the top in difficulty. Don’t hesitate to PM me or RL with any Beta questions but its pretty straightforward and I bet you wouldn’t have any problems with it…. Nancyann, gotta make it over to Massie Lake someday, but a tiptop knee for that decent will be a must. Prosit, a horticulturist he is indeed. He is not too bad up in the high country either but I guess there are plants up there too!

[HitTheTrail]

I met Steve for our hike today, he said he knew about that sheep drive route and had hiked parts of it but not the whole thing. He doesn't always follow NWhikers very close and had not read your TR because he didn't know it was about a sheep route, but he will read it now. And we both may be interested in some beta for future reference.

[raising3hikers]

Looks like you guys had a good time in a very nice place.