Meander Meadow - Kodak Peak - Indian Pass

August 14 - 16, 2010

I've nicknamed this trip the Magical Mountain Meadows trip.  This area is just full of meadows of wildflowers nestled between forested ridges and snow-capped mountains.  Of course, where there are lots of meadows, there also tend to be lots of bugs, and these lovely meadows were no exception.  I generally don't have much of a problem with bugs, and often don't even bring bug spray, but I had heard that they could be bad so we brought an entire can of Deep Woods Off, the 20% Deet variety, tucked handily into the outer pocket of my pack, and by the end of the trip we had used nearly the entire thing.  

We got a lucky break as we started out on our hike -- we ran into a couple just coming off the trail who warned us that the Little Wenatchee River Trail was completely overgrown, and that bushwacking your way through without much shade cover made for tough going.  I'm always a bit skeptical of warnings passed on at trail heads -- people have vastly different abilities and expectations and sometimes if a trail is a little unkempt people get their panties all in a bunch, but this couple seemed like seasoned hikers and we took heed.  (Thankfully, as it turned out.)

The alternate route, the Cady Ridge trail, wasn't a joke either.  A half mile into it, and the trail was a steep up, up, up.  2300 feet of elevation gain in just three and a half miles.  After that it leveled out to a much more gradual incline for the next couple of miles, but by then we were so tired that even that felt like a struggle.  We were attempting to do a test run of the equipment we will be carrying next month on a ten day hike on the Wonderland trail, so our packs were fully loaded.  I was grateful for my new trekking poles, which I had finally broken down and bought, because they made the uphill slog surprisingly easier, and also because getting used to them provided a much needed distraction from the misery of the climb.

At last, we came out into an alpine meadow that looked like something out of the Sound of Music.  The way leveled out, and life was once again good.  After just a mile, we came to a junction with the Pacific Crest Trail.  We decided to head south on the PCT for just a half mile or so, to Lake Sally Ann, to make camp, since we had gotten such a late start and it was already getting dark.  

For being out in the middle of the wilderness, Lake Sally Ann was a real Saturday night hot spot.  All the tent spots directly around the lake were taken, and walking through as dusk was coming on, we got a sort of "no room at the inn" feeling.  So, we explored a little further beyond the lake, and found a little path that went way above and to the south of the lake where we found a sweet private spot with a great view of the mountains.  

Lake Sally Ann

Since we're prepping for the Wonderland trail next month, we are trying to expand our backpacking menu options, so we tried  out a new meal -- dried cheese tortellini from the grocery bulk bins.  We jazzed it up with some olive oil, Parmesan cheese, and garlic powder, and I think it may be the best back country meal I ever had.  Definitely several steps up from your run of the mill mac and cheese.  I think garlic powder is the magic camp spice. 

When it came time to put our food away, we realized that we had just a little too much food for the bear canister, and there were no bearhang-worthy trees, so Michael rigged up a "rock hang."  It was impressive, but I don't know that it would pass muster with a real critter. 

"Rock Hang"

We had an amazing view from our camp of one of the most incredibly clear night skies I have ever seen. We could make out every single star, and even thought we could see a little of the Aurora Borealis.   We fell asleep watching for shooting stars.

We woke up the next morning to a blazing sun.  Our tent was pointed east, and it got pretty toasty in there fast.  For a while we tried to burrow into the corners of the tent to sleep a little longer, but eventually it was just to hot and we had to get up. We had a sort of slow, lazy morning -- making breakfast, drinking coffee, and doing a lot of tweaking to our new gear and new loads.  After pumping some water, we packed everything up and got back on the road.

We weren't sure where exactly we were going to camp that night.  We wanted to go north to White Pass, but we heard there wasn't much water up that way, and wanted to camp near water so Cody could refuel.  We decided to just head in that general direction and see how things went.  So, we got back on the PCT, this time headed north.  We headed through Ward's Pass, and soon came to Dishpan Gap, the trail version of a 4 way intersection -- Bald Eagle Trail heading northwest towards Blue Lake and Johnson Mountain; North Fork Skykomish, heading southwest along the Skykomish River; and the Pacific Coast Trail running both north and south of the intersection.  All of these trails are supposed to be phenomenal.

We continued north on the PCT, and in another mile we were at the 6121-foot summit of Kodak Peak.  Speaking of Kodak, the whole day, we were stopping to take pictures of one amazing view after another.  It was almost surreal how we were wandering the wildflowers of alpine meadows, but all around us were  evergreen trees and mountains.  Looking around me and at the map, I was impressed with just how much wilderness there is out in the Cascades.  You could easily hike for a couple of weeks constantly exploring new trails, lakes, and mountains, just on the map we had.

We headed on towards Indian Pass, and decided to head up the Indian Creek Trail to find a good camp spot.  We hiked in a half mile or so, but only found some mediocre spots.  We had been hoping to make camp there, head up to White Pass, and then come back to camp.  So, we went back and forth a while on  what to do, and finally decided to head back down to Meander Meadows.  We had heard that was a nice place to camp, and we were tired.  Though we would miss some of the views higher up, it would be nice to get into camp a little earlier and be able to spend some time in the meadow.

So, back down the PCT, and this time when we got to Kodak Peak we broke off onto the Little Wenatchee River Trail.  We began a hot and dusty decent for a few miles, before coming to a sign to the Meander Meadow camp area heading down into the middle of the Meadow.  There were a group of tent sites within a cluster of trees along the happily bubbling little Wenatchee River.  I got assaulted by mosquitoes pumping water (the mosquitoes were a little more ferocious in the meadow), but other than that we passed a rather pleasant night wandering around the meadow, taking in the views, and looking at the moon.  We had the entire place to ourselves on a Sunday night, which was a nice switch from the night before.

Little Wenatchee River near
Meandering Meadow Camp

We were again awoken by a blazing sun.  It was even hotter than the morning before.  Michael pointed out 3 deer about 50 feet from our tent, munching on grass in the meadow.  Like I said, magical meadows.  When we couldn't take the heat ant longer, we got up and made some breakfast.  We were faster than the night before, but we spent some time wandering around with our coffee, taking in the beauty of the place.   Staying up high the night before was amazing, but I think there's also a case to be made for staying low and looking up at all the mountains surrounding you.  And, there was an open air toilet in the camp which we decided had the best view of any toilet we had ever seen.

We also made an unfortunate discovery: the field mouse we had heard during the night had nibbled a hole in each of our hip belt pockets.  Michael had left a Clif bar wrapper in his, and I had inadvertently left a few chocolate crumbs in there from a melted bar that had been in there earlier.  Our packs are definitely broken in!

We expected a quick hike out, but the trail was incredibly overgrown.  The couple who had warned us about the trail in the parking lot were not exaggerating.  Vegetation was completely covering the trail in places, and it was often head high.  And the thick vegetation trapped heat and humidity, so bushwhacking through the overgrown trail with no shade cover in the heat of midday became pretty brutal.  Some of these tall bushes were berry bushes, so I'm glad we didn't surprise and bears out snacking.  It took a lot of fortitude to wade through the long stretched of overgrown bushes between sadly short bursts through shady trees.  The parking lot was a very welcome sight.

Directions: From Everett head east on US 2 for 85 miles to Coles Corner. (From Leavenworth travel west on US 2 for 15 miles.) Turn left (north) onto State Route 207 (signed for Lake Wenatchee) and proceed 4.2 miles to a Y intersection after crossing the Wenatchee River. Bear left onto North Shore Road. At 7.6 miles, after passing the ranger station and crossing the White River, the road becomes Forest Road 65. Continue west on FR 65 for 14 miles (the last 2.8 miles are rough gravel) to the road's end at the trailhead (elev. 3025 ft).