White River Camping and Mt Sauer - May 11-12, 2013

Derrick and I ended up with an unplanned 3-day weekend and decided to head out for some car camping. Although things are starting to melt out it was a little challenging to find too many longer hikes that were snow free. The weather was also a little bit rainy so we decided to head east of the mountains.

Our original thought was to camp at Fish Lake right near Lake Wenatchee. However, we were unable to find any camp sites near the water that weren't already taken. Our next thought was along Lake Wenatchee, but a big storm in December has left many roads closed due to blow downs. We perused a few other forest service roads that pushed the off-road limits of the civic. Then we checked out our map and decided to head up the road along the White River.

I'd never been back in this area before and it was much more scenic than I had imagined. We drove for a ways and decided to see how far back we could get on some of the forest service roads. We almost made it to the very end of the road before hitting a patch of snow that blocked access. We then headed back to the turn out for Auto Tour Stop #4 and found a nice campsite along the roaring river. We thought we were going to have it all to ourselves until a family with a camper pulled in. Luckily they were pretty far away and the river drowned out any noise. It looked like we might have been the first people to camp there for the season as the site was littered with fire wood.

Our campsite by the river

We had a relaxing evening, grilled some burgers, and sat by the fire til turning in for the night. The next morning we debated for a while on our plan of action. We decided to check out the other three auto tour stops along the drive. One led us up a long winding road to what we assumed would have been a look out, but we were stopped after several miles by a large blow down. Then we considered the grooling hike up to dirty face lookout, but weren't sure about the snow. We settled on Sauer Mountain in Peshastin, not too far from Leavenworth.

Flowers along Sauer trail

Sauer was a nice hike and actually a bit steeper than I imagined. It was a nice climb through lots of meadows of flowers. Arrow leaf balsam root, indian paint brush, and lupine were all putting on a nice show. At the top we had good view of the Enchantments and the south end of the Glacier Peak wilderness. After the hike we made a quick stop in Leavenworth then headed back to Seattle.

Lupine

Arrow Leaf Balsam Root and Lupine

Our lunch break a little bit below the summit

Panorama from the top

Clouds moving in over the Enchantments

More flowers

Penstemon

Derrick at the top

Me and Leavenworth down below

Heading back down

Lochsa River Adventure

For the last weekend in May we planned a 3-day camping, hiking, hotspringing, and rafting extravaganza. We left early from Bozeman and made the scenic drive out to Highway 12 where we set up camp along the rushing waters of the Lochsa. We found a nice campground between Weir and Jerry Johnson Hotsprings which we had basically to ourselves. We explored around a little, made dinner, and headed to the Weir hotsprings. It was a short walk in along a rushing creek to a nice set of springs with a few campsites along the way. We shared the spring with one other group and soaked until it began getting dark.

The next day we headed over to the DeVoto Memorial Cedar Grove where we checked out the giant trees. Then it was across the river to the Jerry Johnson falls which we really impressive at the high water level. After that we looped down to the hotsprings for some more soaking. The lower springs (the ones closest to the river) were completely submerged, but the upper springs were nice.

Now that's a big cedar!

We found this super creepy hand stuck in one of the trees

Crossing the Lochsa

The Falls

Jerry Johnson Hotsprings

Reflection in the springs

Then the next morning it was up early for our adventure down the raging Lochsa. The river was running nearly at peak and created an exciting ride. Lochsa Falls was especially roaring. Luckily our group managed to stay in the raft. Can't say the same about the group before us. They had a wave surge on them and the entire raft flipped. Everyone was fine though. It was a great weekend.

How to raft the Lochsa

How not to raft the Lochsa