The Story is in the Adventure...: US Forest Service Road 4330- 6.16.12

US Forest Service Road 4330 (from Cle Elum)- Snoqualmie Pass
Hike #13, 10 miles, 100 ft elevation gain

Made a pit stop in Roslyn and stopped in to Maggies Pantry. Great place to stop in and grab some local produce, fresh made muffins and coffee before heading out for camping/hiking. From Roslyn take Salmon la Sac Road past Cle Elum Lake until you past the old ranger station. Before the bridge there is a fork, take the dirt road on the right Forest Service Road 4330.

It's really slow going as you climb a very rutted and potholed 2 lane dirt road. Be on the alert as some 4 wheel vehicles can be coming up or down this road rather quickly around the sharp turns.

It is quite beautiful as you follow the creek along the valley for the 10 miles to the end of the service road. On this day it took about 25 minutes to travel the 5 miles to reach the camping area just below the Tucquala lake. It appeared this was the stopping point as I could see in front of me a 3 foot lingering snow pile and a very unhappy crew of people trying to dig out the sad little subie. So I parked my car, grabbed my pack and headed over to see what I could do to help.

It wasnt too long of digging and trying to jack up the car before a large truck approached on the road and was able to pull the little car out in no time.

At this point as I headed down the road I realized that today was going to be more of a scouting mission rather than a destination hike. It appeared by assessing the map that I was still 5 miles from Deception pass and cathedral rock TH. As I gauged the snow levels around the peaks I wondered how late in the season would the snow be lingering this low? Each trail I came upon looked un-tracked. Scatter Creek and Paddy go Easy did not appear to have any tracks yet this year. And the snow was heavy which lead me to believe if no one else has been traveling them than neither would I.

Scatter Creek was flowing strong and over the road fairly swiftly. With a high clearance vehicle would have been no problem but for me I had to head down stream and make my way over a fallen tree. It was at the moment I was crossing the creek I realized I had a friend quietly following me. This deer was quite curious with me and followed me, shockingly close, for at least a 1/4 mile.

Eventually I parted with my walking buddy and continued down the road passing many open meadows and rambling creeks. The clouds were out but still had a nice view of Cathedral Rock.

Once to the Lake it was a quiet walk another 2 miles to the trail heads. I attempted to give each trail a try to see how far I could get. I started on Cathedral first. I made it about 15 min on a boot trail over what looked to be about 6-8 ft of snow. Soon though the boot trail became faint and totally disappeared. The snow was giving way in some spots and was my cue to turn around.

Made my way over to Deception pass and made it a little farther before the snow level got heavy. Again the boot tracks just stopped. On my return as I reached the forest service road I ran into the kids from the stuck subaru. They looked a little defeated as I told them the trails were not passable yet after they had just spent 3 hrs digging their car out and hiking along a road to head into the mtns to camp. They mumbled something like "worst backpacking trip ever" just as it started to rain.

As I made my way back I stopped for lunch along the lake and watched the rain and clouds move in and swirl around cathedral rock. Despite the lack of actual trail time I was getting excited to plan out some future trips with the many trails that can be accessed from this secluded camping spot.