Bear Creek Mountain, Goat Rocks Wilderness

Aug 4-6, 2013

Wildflowers near Chinook Pass

It's been decades since I've visited the Goat Rocks; it would have been my first trip with Explorers Caravan back in 1966 (?) when we packed into McCall Basin. This trip was partly inspired by a report of the XC pilots flying from Bethel Ridge above Rimrock Lake. Then, when I was in the library, the hiker's kiosk had a book about the best wildflower hikes in Washington. I glanced at it thinking about returning to Mt. Rainier where the wildflowers had been so good at Paradise, but my eye was caught by a hike to a mountaintop with a view into the Goat Rocks as well as a more distant, but still close, view of Rainier and Adams. C.J. thought it sounded good even if the distance was right about at the limit of what her healing foot could take. The predicted wildflower peak season was the last week of July to the first weeks of August, so we were right on the best time.

4 Aug, Sun - We decided to leave on Sunday afternoon to avoid the crowds and take our time. Allowing four or five hours gave us plenty of time to stop at Costco Covington for gas and lunch, and also make stops at scenic pullouts along the way. The weather cooperated nicely with warm but not hot temps, and blue sky

Clear Creek Falls

with some afternoon towering cumulus development. Our first scenic stop was at the Palisades viewpoint on US 12 not far from its intersection with SR 123. At White Pass we pulled off the highway for a quick glance at the ski slopes before starting back down. We passed White Pass CG (at Leech (!) Lake) and stopped to drive through the small CG at Dog Lake with Spiral Butte above. At Clear Creek Falls we wandered alongside the fence above the quite spectacular falls. In the distance we could see part of Rimrock Lake and our first view of Kloochman Rock, a jagged, 1200-ft-high cleaver written about by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in Men and Mountains. We turned off US 12 on to FS 1200 Tieton Res. Rd. and then took the left fork to Clear Lake CG North. There were two small campgrounds across the street from each other and we chose the one that had no other campers. C.J. and I had decided that for a one or two night stand in summer weather it didn't make sense to take the Aliner, so we quickly set up the tent and put on the rain fly in case the overdeveloped cu's decided to drop some rain. Then we took a scouting drive past the Clear Lake Dam and the Clear Lake CG South (where we saw a sign for potable water). Back on FS 1200, we drove down to Rimrock Lake passing the turnoff for Section 3 Lake which would take us to the trailhead for tomorrow's hike. The drive was somewhat disappointing because the road was separated from the lake by a wooded ridge so the views were not spectacular until we reached the shore. Then we could see a couple of nice islands, Goose Egg Mtn and glimpses of Kloochman. We could also see Bethel Ridge in the distance. Passing the long emergency airstrip (looked like a good LZ) we returned to US 12 and turned west back toward camp. The road ran along Rimrock Lake for much of the distance and we stopped once to read the history of the dam that impounds the lake and provides irrigation water to the Yakima valley. Back at camp C.J. prepared a surprise dinner of stir-fried fresh veggies, garlic, bacon and parmesan cheese (in lieu of the carefully prepared sauce left behind in the refrigerator) served with angel hair pasta. The bugs and bees were a bit of a nuisance and we ended up hiding out in the tent before it was fully dark. Fortunately the temperature cooled right down in the evening and the conditions were right for sleeping.

5 Aug, Mon - Thinking that we had a fairly long drive to the trailhead followed by a fairly long hike (for us), we started getting ready around 0630. I heated up some water for tea and cocoa but we had cold cereal instead of taking the time to make and clean up oatmeal. The route started off as good gravel (FS1205), became gravel with water bars (FS1204) and then became big, angular gravel for the last few miles. Somewhere along the route we were surprised by three large female elk bounding across the road in front of us. On a sidehill stretch of the road we took a couple photos of a snaggletoothed extension of Pinegrass Ridge before finding the parking area empty at Section 3 Lake/Bear Creek Mountain trailhead (1103). I think we were there by 0830 and on the trail at 0845 but the first mile was slow-going as we climbed a few hundred feet through the forest, almost immediately passing into the Goat Rocks Wilderness. The next mile was mostly at the same elevation through forest and meadow. We crossed Bear Creek at two miles amidst a profusion of wild flowers and began to climb through rocky and sandy/ashy scree gaining 1000 ft in less than a mile to the ridgecrest. Once on the ridge the trail wended through scrub pines with a view southwest to the

Mt Gilbert from Bear Crk Mtn

G climbing to ridge

Goat Rocks and Mt. Adams. Once we had reached the rocky summit the view opened to the northwest where Rainier dominated the horizon. Both the major volcanoes were partly shrouded in clouds but Mt. Gilbert, Ives Peak and Old Snowy were clear in the near distance (about four miles). We signed the summit register and noted that there had been a bunch of people up there the day before. While eating lunch (a little early since we had reached the summit by 1130), we were joined by the only other hiker to climb to the top (and his young dog). After trying to take a panorama photo with my phone camera, we started back down - much easier at first but then more difficult as my knee began to hurt and C.J.'s foot likewise. Nevertheless, we were back at the car by 1545 - about 6 hours to do 7 miles, but that's including 45 minutes of lunch and summit time. Along the way, at Bear Creek, I tried to purify some water with my SteriPen Traveler but the power light did not illuminate - perhaps the batteries were too old. I last used the SteriPen in Arizona when we were down there staying at Pine Top and Flagstaff. [Should have checked the batteries before dumping out the last of my water.] We met one other couple on the trail about a mile from the trailhead and ran into the guy and his dog who had taken a cross-country route down from the summit.
On the way back to camp we tried to find the water faucet at the south Clear L CG and finally noticed that there was a pump. Unfortunately it produced pretty brown water so we would use it only for washing. We also stopped at the Clear Lake dam and walked to the shore - nice lake! Back at camp we heated a pan of water and hung up the solar shower so we could rinse the day's sweat off. Dinner was soup and salad - could have used some cold beer, for sure, after that long, dry hike. We relaxed in our little camp chairs before the bugs got bad until we were ready to get some sleep.

6 Aug, Tues - Since there wasn't any great rush, we got up a little later and by the time we had oatmeal cooked there was some sun in the campsite. We were still on the road shortly after 0900 and headed for

Clear Lake Falls

closer views of Kloochman Rock. On the way we stopped at the falls just below the Clear Lake dam, and checked out some alternate camping sites. Various maps, paper and electronic showed us a route to the east side of Kloochman [FS 1202, 571, 570 and unnamed spur]

NW spires of Kloochman Rock

and we drove on steadily narrowing roads until we reached the end. Apparently there is no close approach to the base of Kloochman on a road. We had to settle for glimpses of one section or another of the rocky ridge. When we returned to US 12 we turned east and almost immediately came to the turnoff for Bethel Ridge (A sign indicated that FS road 1500 went all the way through to SR 410 (at Nile) but it looked like a long drive on gravel.). By the time we had reached the junction with 410 we were in a more typical dry E WA ecosystem with lots of columnar basalt lava flows. According to Roadside Geology of Washington Cleman Mtn is a tightly folded anticline and 410 runs in the syncline between it and the next ridge to the south. Our first stop was just

G in Boulder Cave

beyond Cliffdell at Boulder Cave and picnic area (USFS). There were a surprising number of cars in the small parking lot considering that it was a Tuesday but we were lucky enough to have the 400-yd-long cave to ourselves. It was 0.25 mi or more uphill paralleling a deep slot canyon to the cave entrance. The cave resulted from the collapse of a big chunk of undercut lava flow and the stream still flows along the floor of the cave. Farther along 410 we stopped at a viewpoint for Fife Peak (Tom Fife was a local miner according to the information posted). Around 1300 we reached the Chinook Pass area and it looked like we were definitely back in the crowds we had experienced last week in Mt. Rainier National Park. Still, we found a place to pull off the road almost beneath the pedestrian overpass/entrance arch to the park. We grabbed lunch and our "sit-upons" and headed down the PCT trail toward Tipsoo Lakes. Wildflowers were present in profusion and we selected a place to sit in a little meadow where we could enjoy the color of glacier lilies, magenta paintbrush, pasque flowers, lupines and many others. [The loop trail around Naches Peak looks like a good bet this time of year for a reasonable (4.5 mi) wildflower hike without any major ascents or descents. Parking is also available at Tipsoo Lakes.] Back in the car we drove down the switchbacks on the west side of Chinook Pass remembering why it wasn't advisable to attempt to ski that road. We took the detour around the east side of Enumclaw to avoid city traffic. We stopped to shop, get gas and buy an ice cream bar at Costco and then headed for home arriving around 1600.