07/14/03 Hiking White River Falls Trail(1 mile round trip):
I moved from the Teanaway Ridge area off I-90 up here to the Wenatchee Lake area yesterday. I stopped at the Icicle River first but couldn't find any dispersed camping. No camp, no hike. Too bad because there were several trails giving access to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area. A lot of WW kayakers were out on the Icicle River. Seemed to be mostly Class II-III.
This morning I drove White River Road into FR-64 to White River Falls Campground. White River Falls is just below the campground. Quite an impressive waterfalls. It's not tall or wide but a lot of water moves through a small gorge. I couldn't get a photo from below so went looking for a way to the other side.
I had to go to the end of FR-64 where I found White River Trail and Indian Creek Trail. Indian Creek Trail crossed White River over a bridge and shortly after that I came to a junction for Panther Creek Trail and Mount David Trail. These followed White River back towards the falls on the far side of the river. An unsigned fork appeared 1/2 mile down the trail and I took the left fork towards the river and found the falls.
I shot a few more photos and then climbed down a steep slope hoping for a shot from the bottom. No luck. The angles of the gorge just wouldn't permit a clean shot from the bottom.
I went exploring in the truck afterwards and am now camped on FR-6701. I'm positioned for a couple of hikes farther down the road.
07/15/03 Hiking Heather Lake Trail(7 miles round trip):
50's, overcast at 2700 feet at 8am. I wanted to Hike the Top Lake trail with access to two other lakes but 3200 feet out and 600 feet back is more than this old bod' can handle. The 1300 feet to Heater Lake seemed more reasonable to me.
Mosquitoes were pretty bad as I started up the trail through the woods. Crossed over a couple of creeks using logs that had fallen across the creek and were then hewn to make perfectly adequate bridges. At about 1.5 miles I passed a smaller, but pretty waterfalls and a minute later entered the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness Area. Just after that the trail turned upwards with most of the 1300 feet within the next mile or so.
It seemed humid and in the 60's and I was sweating quite a bit on this steep section. Heather Lake, at 4000 feet, is about 3 acres with a small, granite ridge at the far end and steep, partially forested slopes coming down to the lake.
07/16/93 Hiking Twin Lakes Trail(7 miles round trip):
Upper 50's bright sunshine at 2000 feet and 8:30am. A short, steep climb levels out after 1/4 mile or so. A large granite peak appears rising overhead 700 feet or so. The trail then drops down about 200 feet to a small meadow and pond with yellow buds on lily pads.
After passing through some large cedars the trail turns upwards in a 900 foot ascent. A cool breeze helped dry some of the sweat on this climb. Near the top of this ascent the trail parallels a nice cascading brook. It disappears under a rock slide but emerges in two or three different spots. This is the end of the ascent and the remaining 1/2 mile to the Lower Twin Lakes is level.
The lower lake is a little more than 1/2 mile and 150 yards wide. Slopes and a couple of peaks right next to the lake provide the view. A 1/2 mile hike along the lower lake brings you to the Twin Lakes Cutthroat Spawning Station, an abandoned log cabin built in 1949 and a narrow boardwalk along the lower part of Upper Twin Lake. Nothing much of interest here, just a mile+ long body of water with slopes rising up. Dunno why they call them Twin Lakes. They're as alike as Arnold and Danny DeVitto.