Backcountry Beauty

Last week I went backpacking with my best friend, Scott, up into the Mad River drainage between the Entiat Valley and Lake Wenatchee.  I've been there a couple of times before with scouts and this time was decidedly more quiet than when I've been with scouts.  Go figure.

We headed up from the Chiwawa Valley to Maverick Saddle and the trail to the upper Mad River.  The road to Maverick Saddle was better than I remembered and later found out they'd taken a blade to it when a fire was burning in the area.  The final 1/4 mile of the road to the trailhead had been washed out a few years back so we parked short and hiked that as well.  Very passable on foot.

We were about nine miles from Mad Lake, our destination, and this is a multi-use trail.  We had five motorcyclists pass us heading in and two heading out.  We arrived at Mad Lake mid-afternoon and established camp.  A forest service work crew was camped there as well.

Our campsite at Mad Lake

A Mad Lake cutthroat trout

When the work crew returned from their bridge building, I saw all five of them at the lake and they were catching a few fish.  I decided since camp was set up and we weren't ready to eat dinner yet, I should, of course, rig up the rod and see how the fish like my fly this time.

A rather large yellow Stimulator was what was already on my 1wt flyline in the reel, so I figured that could be a good place to start.  As soon as it hit the water, a fish jumped completely out of the water and came down on the fly.  I set too soon and pulled it away before it had the fly. I immediately put the fly back and had that airborne flying fish as a repeat and again pulled it away before he had it.  Third time and I again set too soon.  (I could hear the voice of my brothers in my head, "Farmer!")  Back on the water a fourth time and this time I waited and then strip set.  The result is in the photo above--a nice high-country cutthroat trout.  Since the trail crew was nearby, one of them was kind enough to take the photo for me.

Lots of fish very interested in the fly and lots to hand.  Lots of trail crew interested in the fly and "where can I get one of those" comments.  Enjoyed casting until dinner.

The following day we hiked up to the lookout at Klone Peak to view Glacier Peak and points north, then on to the Tommy Creek (Entiat) drainage and Two Little Lakes.  We traveled another 8 miles today.  We stayed at Lake Louise, one of the two lakes, and I hiked back a short distance to where I'd seem some fish in Tommy Creek as we were hiking past.  A dozen nice cutthroats in a short time made that another successful body of water.

We saw a backcountry ranger at Lake Louise when we arrived but encountered nobody on the trails we were hiking today.  The ranger left shortly after we arrived and went by motorcycle to patrol other trails in this area before he headed home.

Our campsite at Lake Louise

 After breakfast we started our hike home.  We had eight miles of trail back to Scott's car.  Heather and her family have come to visit and I want to get home to see them.  We passed a man on horseback with three packhorses in tow and just before we got to the trailhead, another two motorcyclists were heading up the Mad River trail.  Relative solitude for most of our trip.  Quiet.  Fish.  Friendship.  A great "final hike" of summer.