On June 3 a couple friends and I hiked to Lake Stickney, somewhat at the base of Mt. Stickney in the Sultan Basin. The logging road has grown over quite a bit but is relatively free of obstructions. (And the huge beaver ponds at the lower end of the road are gone!) At approximately 3000 feet we started getting into patches of snow. Once off the road and onto the trail we experienced even more snow, sometimes 3-4 feet deep. Following the old trail was basically impossible so we headed in the general direction and found bits of trail here and there. To our surprise the lake was still mostly frozen! 10 miles total RT with 1800 feet of elevation gain. Headed back up for a couple nights near the end of June, hopefully it will thaw by then.
Glad you made it up there, that area stays snowbound for a long time. Hiking Partner and I did some trail work up to the snow line last winter in hopes of avoiding the target shooters who converge on the road when the weather warms up. Be careful because we have had to dodge bullets!
Nancyann thank you for the trail work. The higher we got the better the road was (less brushy). You are correct with the target shooters. I made it a point to listen for shooting when we got back down, and sure enough we heard some. Luckily it was from just up the Sultan Basin Road, but the road/trail spits you out right in front of the targets!
It’s a beautiful and remote area to explore, but treacherous at the beginning. One time we hiked out in the dark, hoping the target shooters would be gone, but instead they had a big bonfire going and were happily shooting their automatic weapons off in the pitch dark. Apparently they weren’t wearing ear protection, because they heard me screaming at them as we approached the gate, and they jumped in their pickup and took off. Another time, we drove past the gate on the way up to Olney Pass and came upon three idiots shooting DOWN TOWARDS the road you would have been walking on! We stopped them and they said they didn’t know there was a road down there!
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