Meandering the Meadows - Washington Trails Association

Northwest ExplorerKen KonigsmarkHiker Keith Konigsmark near Kodak Peak. Getting to Dishpan Gap, Cady Pass and other trails in thevicinity requires some ingenuity after storms of 2006 and 2003 wiped out easy access from the north.Meandering the MeadowsA 50-mile trek to Dishpan Gap, Meander Meadow and beyondBy Ken KonigsmarkFor 16 years now, my brother Keith hasflown out from Iowa for an annual 5- to6-day backpacking trip. Moving fromour thirties into our forties and fiftieshasn’t slowed us down much, althoughwe admittedly don’t tackle quite theHerculean journeys we dared in earlieryears. Having seen most of the classicscenic areas of the state in prior trips, weopted last summer to revisit some of theprettiest scenery we’ve seen, which wefirst saw fifteen years ago (1991) during atrip in the Glacier Peak Wilderness.At that time we’d hiked 55 miles viaKennedy Hot Springs up to the PacificCrest Trail (PCT), then south to StevensPass, crossing over Red Pass, White Pass,Dishpan Gap and Cady Pass. We enjoyedspectacular scenery along the entireway. This route is now an impossibilitybecause of trail and bridge damage thathas closed sections of the PCT since thenasty 2003 storm.So, in mid-August 2006 we decidedto take a different route into this areaby starting at the Little Wenatcheetrailhead, where four different trailsoffer multiple options for loops into thewilderness. (Access is via WA 207 northfrom U.S. 2 to 1.5 miles north of theLake Wenatchee Ranger Station. Turnleft on Little Wenatchee River Road#65 and drive to the trailhead at road’send, 14.5 miles.)We planned to hike up from the trailheadvia Cady Creek Trail #1501 up tothe PCT, then head north to DishpanGap. We then planned to veer off hereto do a side loop to explore Blue Lakeand Pilot Ridge, then connect backto the PCT and continue north to theWhite Pass area. We opted to decidelater about which route to take back tothe trailhead.After an easy Sunday drive, we wereon the trail by noon. Cady Creek Trailwas in great condition and offered arelatively easy, steady, uphill grade, muchless strenuous and dusty than the wellused,horse-pounded, steeper optionsof the Cady Ridge or Little WenatcheeRiver Trails.We covered 5 miles and reached thePCT within a couple of hours, taking ashort break at forested Cady Pass beforeheading north. After some elevation gainwe were soon above tree line, traipsingthrough the vast meadows of the GlacierPeak Wilderness as the PCT snakedalong the top of the Cascade Crest.After another 2.5 miles, we reached alarge open basin about a mile south ofLake Sally Ann, where we found a nicestream, large sunning rocks, and manywww.wta.orgAugust 2007WASHINGTON TRAILS

good tent sites. Figuring that most otherswould congregate around Lake SallyAnn, and wanting solitude, we stoppedhere and quickly set up our camp in thispleasant little basin. Courtesy of my dog,Spike, who had kindly hauled a couplebeers for us, we enjoyed happy hour ona large rock in the sun. To our surprisewhile sipping, a large mushroom cloudexploded on the horizon to the northeast.It was a flare-up of the large fire thathit the Entiat River Valley last summer.Lots of trees went up in smoke as wewatched. We then enjoyed a dinner ofstir-fried fresh veggies and chicken, aluxury that can be enjoyed on at leastthe first night of a trip.We were up and on the PCT by 8:30our second day, soon passing Lake SallyAnn and finding that no one had, infact, camped at the pretty little lake.We soon reached the junction with theCady Ridge Trail (#1532) and found alarge crew of Northwest Youth Corpsmembers camped there. The group wasdoing trail maintenance along the PCT.We continued 1.5 miles on the PCT toDishpan Gap, stopping for a break andsome great views of Glacier Peak. Herewe detoured onto Trail #650 (BaldNorthwest ExplorerEagle Mountain Trail), skirting alonga steep slope above the headwaters ofthe Skykomish River for 2.5 miles untilreaching a poorly signed junction withthe Pilot Ridge Trail (#652), just beforeJune Mountain. We dropped quicklydownhill, soon reaching Little BlueLake, where we stopped for lunch. Wethen continued uphill to reach the shoreof the much larger and prettier BlueLake that lies beneath the U-shapedslopes of Johnson Mountain. We founda nice tent site near the outlet streamthat had a westward view over SloanCreek basin. After setting up camp, wetook advantage of some extra hours toexplore Pilot Ridge. We followed trail#652 westward through flower-filledmeadows for about 3 miles and turnedback just as the trail was about to descendinto forest. This is a very pleasant andscenic route, and I’d encourage othersto explore this lonely trail and its superbviews of Sloan Peak. Along the way bothcoming and going, we looked up to see abusy bear rummaging for huckleberriesabout a hundred yards upslope from us.He watched us curiously as much as wewatched him and remained in this spoteating berries during our entire time atBlue Lake. There must have been lotsof good berries there!After a pleasant night by the lake, wewoke up to an anticipated challenge. Asa shortcut, we planned to take the unmaintained,steep bypass trail (#652A)Trip EssentialsCady Pass, Dishpan Gap,Blue Lake, White Pass andMeander Meadow fromLittle Wenatchee trailheadHikable: July–SeptemberRound trip: 35.5 milesElevation gain: 5,400 feetMaps: Green Trails 144 BenchmarkMountain, 112 Glacier PeakTo get there: At Lake Wenatchee,drive past the Lake WenatcheeRanger Station and at 1.8 milesturn left on Little WenatcheeRiver Road, FS 65. Drive 14.5miles to Little Wenatchee Fordcampground and trailhead,elevation 3,000 feet.Ken KonigsmarkA “river” of clouds flows past the author’s camp at White Pass. After hiking in on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT)you’ll find many miles of high country to ramble and explore in this corner of the Glacier Peak Wildernss.WASHINGTON TRAILS August 2007 www.wta.org

Northwest Explorerthat climbs up the slope to the south ofBlue Lake and crosses Peak 6562 to intersectback with the Bald Eagle MountainTrail (#650) that we’d taken the priorday. Instead of a 3.5-mile trip back tothe PCT, this would cut the distance toonly 2 miles. But we would be paying aprice in steep climbing. As it turned outthis was well worth it. The bypass trailwas a bit rocky and steep in places, butthe scenery it provided, particularly uponreaching the crest, was worth every dropof sweat. We paused at the crest to catchour breath, to take pictures, and to baskin the scenery. I would again encourageothers to try this if so inclined.We were soon back on the PCT atDishpan Gap after our day’s detourloop and again headed north. Thisstretch of the PCT offers some of thebest country to be found anywhere; it’sall above treeline and wanders throughlush meadows, with rugged mountainscenery in all directions. Looking downon Meander Meadows, rounding theshoulder of Kodak Peak, dropping toIndian Pass, then Kid Pond… all broughtback memories of 15 years earlier.We kept going all the way to WhitePass, with some difficulty finding wateralong the way. At the pass, a campingarea lies just below and west of the PCT.However, there were already severalgroups there, so we chose to turn easton an unmapped, un-maintained trailthat branches off the PCT at the passand heads east towards a basin we couldsee in the distance. We found a flowingstream there, a grassy tent site, and ledgetopviews south to Indian Peak.After setting up camp, and curiousabout where the faint trail led, wecontinued walking for 2.5 miles almostto the edge of White Chuck Glacier.We wondered if this could be a bypassroute for PCT thru-hikers to cut acrossthe southern fringe of Glacier Peak anddown to the Suiattle River trail; for thosewho wanted a shorter and more directroute than the established bypass thatfollows Indian Creek trail. In any case,it was a scenic side trip. I climbed to thetop of peak 7987 (listed as such on theGreen Trails map) to get a 360-degreeview. I was shocked upon reaching thetop to look down into the White ChuckGlacier basin and see how little snowand ice remained compared to what Iremembered from 15 years earlier. Wehad climbed up and explored the basinin September at that time and foundlarge areas of snow and ice. Now, evena month earlier in the year, it was mostlyrock. Another sign of global warming?As we returned to camp, clouds beganThe author’s trusty dog Spike amidfalse hellebore, near White Pass.to form and spill over the edge of WhiteMountain. We expected worse weatherthe next day.For some reason I woke up at 5 a.m.and as I stepped outside was greeted byone of the most amazing natural wondersI’ve ever seen. I stood just above anunending, fast-moving “river of clouds”that was flowing up and over White Passlike a tsunami of gray. To the east, otherclouds flowed across the ridgeline anddropped into the White River basin. Wewere in an island of open sky surroundedby rivers of churning clouds flowing overthe ridgelines around us. I climbed upthe slope of White Mountain and just satthere for a couple of hours to absorb thebeauty of it all, with the clouds changingcolor and form as the sun rose. AfterKeith woke up, he joined me to climbto the top of White Mountain where, insunshine, we were on top of the worldKen Konigsmarklooking down on the fast-moving riverof clouds.We enjoyed that respite, knowingthat we soon needed to pack up andbegin backtracking south on the PCT,right into the middle of the “river.” Aswe expected, the clouds held rain, andthe poor souls who had camped belowthe PCT were stuck in the drippy wetnessof it. We found that the cloudsdissipated soon after rolling over thecrest so as we walked along the PCTwe would weave in and out of cloudsand sprinkles depending on which sideof the crest we were on. We had hopedto spend a final night near Kodak Peak,but found drippy clouds still huggingthe slopes here while further below wecould see Meander Meadows in brightsunshine. We opted to take the LittleWenatchee River Trail (#1525) downto the meadows as our route back tothe trailhead. We intended to camp atMeander Meadows, but found severalgroups already in established camps.So we decided to continue on, hopingto find a campsite along the trail. Well,that plan didn’t work; in fact we foundno suitable campsite anywhere as wecontinued plodding along—ultimately,all the way back to the trailhead. Wealso found that this trail, unlike the CadyCreek Trail, had been heavily rutted andpounded by horse traffic, thus generatinghuge dust clouds with every step. Thetrail is also steep, very brushy in manysections, and just plain unpleasant.Avoid it if possible, especially if goinguphill. The other routes into this areaare much better.After what seemed like an unending15-mile, dust-clogged journey, we finallyreached the trailhead where we’d begun.With side trips, we figured we coveredalmost 50 miles in a four-day period,seeing some of the best of the GlacierPeak Wilderness. With the 2006 winterstorm damage it’s unknown if this sametrip is even possible at present (see tripreport on page 37). For those seekinga moderately strenous, scenery-filled,multi-day trip, this is a great option. Ken Konigsmark is a WTA advisoryboard member from Issaquah.www.wta.orgAugust 2007WASHINGTON TRAILS