My good friend Jim scoped out Kachess this past weekend. His trail report is below.
June 27, 2010
Kachess Ridge (#1315)
Location: Snoqualmie Pass-Snoqualmie Pass, Cle Elum Ranger District
Guide books and Maps:
Green Trails Kachess Lake No. 208
Permits: Northwest Trails Pass
Current conditions:
With everyone up at Winthrop this weekend racing I decided to ride up the forest road to see if Kachess was in yet. I parked at the power lines and it was a beautiful morning. I rode up Kachess dam road and enjoyed the early morning solitude. At mile 6 the climb started. My legs were tired from yesterdays biathlon where I ran 6K, so I decided to just spin my way up. I am convinced that no matter how hard or easy you do the climb it is still hard. At 4100ft there was a very minimal amount of snow on the trail. About a mile from the top there was one downed tree over the road, but the road remained clear of snow.
At the saddle where you drop onto the single track there was a minimal amount of snow on the road. However, I turned back at this point because you could look across and see the hike-a-bike section that leads to the pass just prior to the decent and see that is was still snow packed.
My report basically showed that north facing aspects above 4500 feet are likely to still have snow on them. However, the snow is thinning quickly and with any luck we will be able to ride these aspects soon!
Jim
Scatma
Get out there!
thanks for the report, looking forward to riding this soon
I assure you that there is snow for several miles on the other side of the saddle. Unfortunately, I know this from experience. 6 hours of hike-a-bike, post-holing is not fun.
Thank you Scott. We were planning on doing that this Saturday!