Early Season Creek Ford

In May, Even though the high country is buried under feet of snow most of the valley trails into the Cascades are snowfree. Unfortunately, most of those little streams that in late summer are mere trickles are raging torrents. This was the first outing for a number of new scouts and they were taken aback when they had to ford this stream less than a mile from the trailhead.

The temperature of the water is just above freezing, and your feet feel like blocks of ice when you get to the other side. The new scouts took it all in stride and had a good first outing hiking a total of 10 miles and gaining 1100 feet.

Camp at Meadow below Navaho Pass

Navaho Pass is on the eastern side of the mountains near Cle Elum, so it does not get the snowpack that the western slopes do. Since the trail climbs up the south side of the mountain slope, it opens up a lot earlier in the season.

Bill & Jon at Camp

After a steep climb out of the valley, a small meadow appears at the side of the trail where a cozy camp may be made. This early in the season, there were still snow patches around the edges of the camp.

View Just Below Navaho Pass

From our camp it is about a mile to Navaho Pass. Near the pass the trail passes through this "lunar" landscape of rocks and sand. The amount of snow remaining on the ridges in the backgound testify to the fact that it is early in the season.

High point along Ridge

The trail joins the vague County Line Trail at Navaho Pass. This trail generally follows the ridge which runs east to west. We hiked along the ridge to this high point which gives this view to the southwest. It was a good conditioning hike with about 14 miles and 3800 feet of elevation gain.