any other hikers here?

[bartruff1]

So was I...white chev pickup with white pastime camper ....

[seacatfan]

Dang it Bart, we could've met?! Bet you have some good stories to tell over a campfire.

[bartruff1]

I was interested in the fire (Jolly Mountain)....I went from there to Chinnook Pass (Norse Peak).....it looks like the Forest Service managed to turn a couple one acre lightning fires that occurred on Aug 11th into .....about 500,000 acres of fire.......that threatened hundreds of homes....... several communities...... dozens of campgrounds ....Chrystal Mountain Ski Area...... a Boy Scout Camp at Bumping...., shut down highway 410, the Crest Trail, part of Rainier National Park for part of a season.....costs many millions of dollars to "fight" and exposed hundreds of thousands of residents to unhealthy air......I hope they know what they are doing..

[seacatfan]

Yeah the pendulum has swung pretty far from put everything out immediately to...let it burn til it gets out of control, at which point it's too late to be able to stop it? I understand fire is part of the natural cycle and complete suppression is bad, but the fire seasons lately have been devastating and it seems like at least some of the fires could'e been prevented from becoming as catastrophic as they ended up being.


Heard recently that a hotspot was detected from last year's huge Eagle Creek fire in the Columbia River Gorge. That thing kept simmering all winter, can you believe it? Probably 90%+ of the trail system around there is shut down and will continue to be so for some time. A judge hit the teenage kid that started it w/ $30 million plus in damages which of course he'll never be able to pay.

[bartruff1]

My maternal grandfather came west to log Cascade Lumber Company lands in the Teanaway.....they would yard the logs to a log jam in the river...... and then in the spring the river pigs would float them down to the sawmill in Yakima.....they also used to range cattle in the Teanaway and that is why I became a logger and a cowboy and a mill worker.....the sheep herding came from my father's family...the Three Brothers Mt is named for them along with Pablo Creek in Meadow Creek/Jack Creek drainage....

[seacatfan]

That's some cool family history bart. My dad's name is Earl, but I'm pretty sure Earl Peak was not named after him.

[bartruff1]

That's some cool family history bart. My dad's name is Earl, but I'm pretty sure Earl Peak was not named after him.

I have never been able to find out who Navaho Peak is named after....the Forest Service doesn't know.....I do know that the Navaho were excellent sheepherders so that is the most probable explanation....you know of course there is a " lost gold mine" in Ingalls Creek....guarded by Big Foot...lol....

One of my favorite walks is on the County Line Trail....the line between Chelan and Kitttitas...and yes, I have heard the Teanaway Wolf Pack from there....one actually wandered over here into the Squilchuck....

Pisses me off when the State shoots the wolves up in the Northeast part of the State from a helicopter..... and now they want to shoot the goats that are not moved out of Olympic NP......I'm writing to Cantwell and Murray and Inslee...getting to be a grouchy old man.

[seacatfan]

I followed the County Line trail very briefly once heading west from Navaho Pass. I've heard it's tricky to follow, just disappears off and on. I didn't try to follow it very far, I was cruising the ridge line and did an alternate approach on the north side of Earl, then descended the normal south slope and hit a connector trail that eventually made a lollipop loop back over to Stafford Creek. The Teanaway is just a great place for rambling around on and off trail, so many possibilities.

There's also unfortunately a Negro Creek in that area, although it's better than another possibility (I'm sure there were plenty of places w/ that moniker that have had to be changed over time; Nickajack Lake in Tennessee is one such example).

Yeah, don't get me started on "management" of wildlife populations. We can't even manage ourselves, don't know why we think we are even remotely qualified to manage any other species. If we'd just stay out of the way they should be able to find equilibrium on their own. But hunting and ranching interests carry a very disproportionate amount of political clout and have for the most part shaped policies throughout most of U.S. history. "The only good predator is a dead predator" and "shoot, shovel and shut up" types of thinking are still very much prevalent here in the Wild West.

[bartruff1]

As you know, Negro Creek was not the original name.....he was a miner named Antoine...... and he also has Antoine Creek named for him NE of Manson..... I like the hike up Negro Creek and the upper basin is something out of Colorado, beautiful...not many hikers in there, some trail bikers.... there is a old mining road that goes up there also, killer avalanches in the winter.....

The problem with the wolf packs in NE Washington is that they kill some cattle that are grazing under permit on Colville NF land....telling Representative Rogers that those are our wolves and our land..... not the rancher's..... is a waste of time...but I do it anyway...

[gu03alum]

My maternal grandfather came west to log Cascade Lumber Company lands in the Teanaway.....they would yard the logs to a log jam in the river...... and then in the spring the river pigs would float them down to the sawmill in Yakima.....they also used to range cattle in the Teanaway and that is why I became a logger and a cowboy and a mill worker.....the sheep herding came from my father's family...the Three Brothers Mt is named for them along with Pablo Creek in Meadow Creek/Jack Creek drainage....

Very cool!

[gu03alum]

I don't like the forecast for Mt Adams this weekend. It looks like it will be very windy the night we were planning to camp at the lunch counter and then it's supposed to snow that night and all day Saturday.

[seacatfan]

Bummer 03. At least w/ Adams you aren't locked into a date w/ permits like St. Helens. Yeah after a real warm May it's definitely Junuary now.

I grew up in White Salmon, not far south of Adams. Locals climbed the peak frequently, even w/ little or no previous mountaineering experience. I definitely fit into that category. My brother dragged me up it right after I graduated high school, I had no idea what I was doing. He'd gotten some climbing experience in college. We made it up and down okay, looking back on it I'm not sure I would've attempted it w/ 2 noobs (his college roommate was also with us) if I was the experienced one. Anyway back in the day (early 90s) everybody did it as a day hike, nobody camped at Lunch Counter. That seems to be fairly standard now, not sure when that changed. It's a long slog for a day but you would start at like 2 a.m. or something and be done by early afternoon.

[gu03alum]

Bummer 03. At least w/ Adams you aren't locked into a date w/ permits like St. Helens. Yeah after a real warm May it's definitely Junuary now.

I grew up in White Salmon, not far south of Adams. Locals climbed the peak frequently, even w/ little or no previous mountaineering experience. I definitely fit into that category. My brother dragged me up it right after I graduated high school, I had no idea what I was doing. He'd gotten some climbing experience in college. We made it up and down okay, looking back on it I'm not sure I would've attempted it w/ 2 noobs (his college roommate was also with us) if I was the experienced one. Anyway back in the day (early 90s) everybody did it as a day hike, nobody camped at Lunch Counter. That seems to be fairly standard now, not sure when that changed. It's a long slog for a day but you would start at like 2 a.m. or something and be done by early afternoon.

I think I want to do it in one day. I will suggest that to my cousin for when we reschedule the hike. Right now we are thinking of climbing Mt Stuart. We have planned to climb Stuart twice already. One time we cancelled due to weather and the other due to fire.

[seacatfan]

Cool! Stuart is another one that some people do as an overnight w/ a camp along Ingalls Creek and some do as a single push car to car. I also did that one in a day. Bivied in my car at the trail head and started around 5 in morning. Stewie is such a cool looking mountain.

[bartruff1]

The weather will have a dramatic change this weekend....snow level expected to fall to 4000'...….people unprepared will be in trouble.

03, the Mountaineer's have book for beginning climbers that might be useful....and

You might enjoy William O. Douglas's book " Men And Mountains ".....about his adventures in the Cascades centered around the area south of Chinook Pass to the Goat Rocks ….