[Joey]

Yesterday I posted some pics in the “Name that lake” thread. Dayhike Mike and Tom correctly identified the North Star Creek Pots. Since the pics were from 2006 this TR is a bit tardy. To help get your juices flowing - here’s a rerun of the pics plus a couple more.

North Star Creek Pots - tarn below lake 4,420

North Star Creek Pots - lake at ~4,420

North Star Creek Pots - lake at ~4,420

North Star Creek Pots - lake at ~4,420

Pot peering

North Star Creek Pots - tarn above lake 4,420

North Star Creek Pots - tarn above lake 4,420

Above the larger Pots

The Pots are at the south end of Ragged Ridge and within the Wild Sky Wilderness. Find them on the map by locating the village of Index and then looking a bit north till you spot North Star Creek. Most of the Pots are near the top of that drainage, although they are not named as such on most (any?) maps. Here are two pdf maps with our GPS track which begins at a locked gate. The red dots show our hiking route along the main road and then a logging spur road. The solid red line begins where we left the end of the logging spur. Topo map, 1.4 MB Combined aerial & topo map, 2.6 MB Driving mileage 0.0 2 miles east of Goldbar (MP 30 on US 2) turn left onto Reiter Rd. Reset your trip odometer. 0.8 Continue straight, do not turn left 3.9 Turn left onto gravel road. This is FS road 6010 which goes up thru Deer Creek Flat. 6.0 Go through open gate 8.8 Park at locked gate at ~2,200. This gate was erected in 2006 to protect a new communication tower built by Snohomish County. From the gate it is 1.7 miles to point ‘Jct’ (see above maps) where we used to park. At ‘Jct’ the main road turns sharply left but you continue straight on a logging spur and go to the very end. There you should find a rough boot path heading steeply uphill. This path quits around 3,100 at the edge of a gully. From here to about 4,250 is a challenge. Hope you are up for no trail, steep, wooded and brush. Did I mention no trail? You will find that some lines of travel are a bit less brushy than others. At ~4,250 you will thankfully come to a flat wooded area with relatively little brush. As you head NE along this flat area you will soon see a very steep boulder field. Pass to the left of that and enter a thicker stand of trees and start looking uphill. With a combination of good fortune and keen observation you just might detect remnants of a boot path. It basically goes straight up. IIRC there is a ‘tuning fork’ tree near the top of this section. By the time you get to ~4,600 the faint path should be obvious. That path will deposit you at the Pots. Alas, we timed out on our day hike just a bit below the ridge. If we could have driven up to ‘Jct’ we easily could have made it up to the ridge above the Pots. No, they are not melted out yet. This trip was in the summer of 2006.

[Backpacker Joe]

Thanks Joey. Great beta.

[Movenhike]

Beautiful, just a couple more months....

[Slugman]

Excellent. With an early start and a mountain bike for the road section, this looks very doable as a dayhike or a single-night BP. Thanks.

[Tom]

IMO, it's not worth the effort now with the gate. Before the gate it was probably a toss up. Only reason I'd want go back is to visit Dollar Lakes but it's not very high on my list. The real adventure is driving thru Reiter Road on the way in and out - quite the culture shock. A first timer would probably think they stumbled onto the set of Beyond Thunderdome.

[Schroder]

You could go in from Index for a variation in culture shock...

[Dayhike Mike]

Ditto Tom's comment. If there's an extra 4 mile road walk at the start and finish, I'm not sure I'd be all that gung ho to return. For what it's worth once you leave the trail that takes you in (flat from the road) and start heading up, the boot trail fades pretty quickly and it ends up being a combination of light brush and small mossy talus fields up STEEP slopes. Once you hit the ridgeline, it's relatively interesting route finding til you're on the main plateau. Also, make sure you keep track of your elevation and don't miss that flat trail on the way down. It would be very easy to go too far left (toward the creek) and drop a ways past the route home before you realize you've gone too far. No fun to regain elevation on steep and brushy slopes.

[Slugman]

I've never driven an inch on Reiter road. I happen to crave scattered, tiny lakes like these the way sore feet craves waterfalls. Cutthroat lakes near-ish to Mt Pilchuck is one of my favorite places. So, even if it is "not worth it", I think I will go anyway. I'll probably spend the night up there so I can milk the area of all its juice in one trip.

[captain jack]

[GeoHiker]

[borank]

I've had the misfortune of walking the road all the way out to the highway and part-way to Startup when we dropped down the hill from these pots in '72 and found my buddy's car on blocks and the rear wheels missing.

[Layback]

Beautiful Joey. Thanks for sharing that.

[Dayhike Mike]

Ouch, borank. Sorry to hear it...that's a loooong walk out.

[Justus S.]

Cool Joey! Thanks for the TR. Brought back my trip to the area in sept 05. I got in when the gate was still open since they were still working on the towers. I didn't take many pics of the tarns so nice to see yours. One of my few tarn pics.

[Joey]

Nice tarn pic Justus. Too bad the season is so short when the snow is gone and we can visit places like this. I've been to the Pots 4 times over the years. Good news - my ride has been intact at the end of each trip. Bad news - Due either to lack of time or lack of interest among the party I never made it up to the ridge crest.