Methow Valley/North Cascades

July 2009

View from Goat Peak

Since we loved our 2007 and the 2008 trips to the Methow Valley and North Cascades National Park so much we decided to return for a third summer in 2009. Once again the Freestone Inn was our basecamp for day hiking and fly fishing.

The Freestone Inn - Early Winters Cabin

We enjoyed the cabin so much last year that we decided to go the cabin route again this year but chose Cabin #2 which we felt was a slightly better location than #1. With the heat (though cool by Seattle standards this week) our routine was:

Get up before dawn and go hiking.
Return around 11, eat lunch. Then Catherine then did yoga while I went fishing.
Meet at the pool around 2:30-3:00.
Do massage around 4:30-5:30.
BBQ fish tacos, aside from the night we went to the East 20 Pizza for the best pizza anywhere
Read until exhausted.
Sleep and repeat.


Our cabin	Hanging at the pool

Sunrise on Freestone Lake

Goat Peak Lookout

This was a hike that we'd always wanted to do but didn't do the last few years so our "warm up" hike became the 1500' 2.5 mile climb up the 7000' Goat Peak. The climb was fairly steep in places and the ascent made me worry a bit about the descent but it ended up not being a bad first hike. At the top we were greeted by Lightening Bill Austin and his dogs at the lookout where we hung out and listened to some of his poetry and talked about the Kerouac life-style of lookout living.


First glance of the real summit from the false one	The lookout & Lightening Bill

Us in the lookout

The Freestone from Goat Peak	Goat Peak from the Freestone

Maple Pass Loop

Maple Pass was one of our favorite hikes last year so we decided to repeat it this year as our second hike. Again we did the loop counter-clockwise figuring it was better since the book recommended it that way. This hike is a 7.5 mile loop that has about 2000' of elevation gain.


Tim at Heather Pass	Last switchbacks to Maple Pass

Panorama at Maple Pass

Lake Ann in the sunlight	At Maple Pass

"Nice Marmot"	Twin waterfalls feeding Rainy Lake on the return

Copper Pass

Wanting to return to the Rainy Pass area but also wanting to try something new we opted to head up the Copper Pass trail the third day. We didn't have the Stehekin map (No. 82) at the time we made this decision or maybe we would have never trekked up the barely maintained trail that is the Copper Creek/Copper Pass trail, the dotted line would have been a giveaway. Once we got past staying on the trail, climbing over about 20 fallen trees, and enduring what seemed like endless evil and steep switchbacks we hit the meadow and were in a paradise that we had all to ourselves. We spent over an hour traversing the meadow only to stop occasionally to listen to rockfall off Stiletto Peak or take in the vastness of the meadow we were in and the views that we had to ourselves. That paradise came to an abrupt end when Catherine got stung in the ankle by a wasp and we turned around at the 4.5 mile mark when the pain ended but the swelling kept up.


The bridge over Bridge Creek	One of many obstacles to cross

Morning meadows on the way up

The meadow and views on the return

Cedar Falls/Cedar Creek

On our last day we had planned to hike either Cutthroat Pass from Rainy Pass or head down south PCT from Rainy Pass. Instead we found Hwy 20 blocked due to a rockslide just outside of the Freestone. Leaving little Hwy 20 options we chose to hike up Cedar Creek which was just a few miles from the lodge. The trail was very easy for the first two miles to Cedar Falls and got a bit steeper and less maintained afterwards. We didn't do the entire 9 miles to Abernathy Ridge but instead stopped about half way for an 8-mile walk.


Cedar Falls	Gardner Mountain from trail

Fishing

Since we hiked early each day I got in quite a bit of fishing on this trip. I fished Freestone Lake on the first and second evenings and did well, landing 6-8 trout each evening in an hour. I also fished it the last morning and got an even dozen fish in an hour including my best fish of the trip - a 20" rainbow. I caught pretty much equal numbers of rainbows and browns in the lake. The fish were not rising well due to the warm weather so I stuck with a #14 BH Prince Nymph which took all the lake fish.


Freestone Brown

I also fished the creeks and rivers the other days. My first afternoon I fished Boulder Creek north of Withrop, an old favorite, and caught brook trout and cutthroat up to 13" in the small stream. The last afternoon I fished Robinson Creek outside of Mazama and was again amazed at the size of the cutts in this small creek, fish up to 12". The only fly I used on these creeks was a #16 Royal Stimulator.


Boulder Creek Brookie	Robinson Creek

Robinson Creek Cutt

I fished the Methow itself above Withrop three days and did very well on it. The first two days I landed over a dozen rainbows and cutts including one huge 18" cutthroat. The last day I tried some new water and got about a half-dozen fish but all nice 13-17" trout. I also got one 18-19" whitefish when I decided to try to nymph one deep run to see what was lurking in there. The only fly, other than the nymph, I fished was a #10 Yellow Stimulator.

Nice trout pool on the Methow