Down from the Entiat

Internet access is a lovely thing to have. I am parked on a side street in shade of tree in Chelan, WA. Lots of ties to Lake Chelan area from introduction back in ’70 on Safety Harbor fire and many subsequent visits for backpacking along upper shore of Lake Chelan to numerous mtn bike rides. Hot & dry w/ lots of sunburned / tanned tourists.

2 days ago I drove over the divide between Leavenworth & Entiat, an OK logging road system that spared me 40 miles of pavement. Drove to end of Entiat River road and then 4 miles up logging road to Entiat River TH. Too late in day to ride so I hiked 3 1/2 miles in on trail that I would ride to get a feel for a ride. these trails are closed to motorized travel so the tread should be in better shape, or so I reasoned. Hikers and horses pulverized the ground exposing roots and the pumice dirt underneath. Deep dry woods. My Sporttiva shoes are an open mesh upper. When i removed my shoes my shocks were dusty and my feet looked like I had been walking barefoot. Tomorrow’s ride could be slow and dusty.

I drove back down the road and found a spur road that was level and camped.

Wed Am I drove back up to TH and same cars were still in parking lot. Geared up & headed out. Trail was faster than I expected. Passed where I turned around yesterday. Trail climbed and I started hike a bike more frequently & longer. I reached the intersection of the dead end trail up to Pyramid Peak and stopped to access my desire. The trail climbed another 2300′ in 3.6 miles. I decided that I did not need to see the view from it’s summit. The trail climbed up to Grouse Pass @ 7400′ after pushing my bike over rocky sections. Up near the pass the tree cover changed to larch which to me is pretty. In the fall the needles change to a golden color and fall off. Too early for that this time. Trail dropped off pass. My reading of the small scale Green Trail maps indicated the trail would be mostly a traverse to trail junction dropping down the Entiat. Small scale maps lack detail and I paid the price as the trail had a few more ups. Sketchy ST bench cut into hillside w/ a bit of exposure. Pretty country.

Made the trail dropping down the river.  Made it back to TH unscathed. No berries at all.

AT TH my solar shower was hung off my van in the sunshine awaiting a toasty shower. The outside of the bag was hot, later I learned that the h2o was tepid even after soaking sun for almost 5 hours. Something about the air temp robbing some of the heat. I decided that nobody would be arriving @ the TH so I took a naked shower. I was soaping myself up when a white FS truck w/ lights on came around the bend. I covered myself w/ my towel. the guy waved @ me and said Hello. I asked if he minded and he said no so I dropped the towel and continued. He parked just out of the way and left me alone. I later thought that he might be writing me a ticket for nudity. He left and I sat in sun drying off.

I was planning on riding Devils’ backbone the next day from either Entiat or Chelan side. I figured I could ride up Lake Creek some 4000′ climb to access the ridge. I remember a nasty talus slope that we climbed up when I rode the backbone previously. It was serious carry a bike and I did not want to deal w/ that again. But I would ride out till that spot and turn around. Today when I drove down off the high point I decided that I didn’t really want to do this massive ride. I chose to drive to my next ride up above Twisp, Foggy Dew.

My memory of where I was during the fire of ’70 never gelled. I stopped @ the Entiat RS and asked for info on the fire. Tom, the rec staff guy about my age offered info. He said that I was there. An empty field was turned into a fire camp where we were flown by Chinook helicopter out to our spike camp. I don’t know where we dug line and camped for those 9 days and he didn’t either. Further conversation he told me the FS guy from yesterday told of interrupting a guy taking a shower. I introduced myself. I learned a bunch of stuff about protecting our forests from all kinds of user groups.

I stopped @ a produce stand and bought some tasty things and talked to 2 people working there who were interested in my adventures.

Shopped @ Safeway in Chelan and you are now caught up.

Off to Foggy Dew. I will drive to the upper TH saving myself a multi thousand foot steep logging road climb. Cheating, maybe.