On August 23 & 24, 2008 Jerry, Alex and Carrie climbed Mt. Maude.
We left Seattle at 7:30, drove to Trinity and found the gate closed. Drove to the parking area on Phelps Creek and found lots of cars. Left the car at 10:00 and hiked 2 1/2 miles to Leroy Creek trail. Climbed the steep sheep drive to the basin, got there about 1:00 and found lots of tents. Traversed around the basin on the abandoned trail and found a steep fresh gully to cross. Climbed to the saddle between Leroy Creek and Chipmunk creek and found no water. Climbed a couple hundred feet up the shoulder of Maude and at about 7,200 ft. and 3:00 found a flat spot. Dropped down to the headwaters of Chipmunk Creek and found a spring.
We got up in the morning to high clouds and left camp at about 7:00. We climbed to the Ice Lakes saddle, descended snow and then hiked the “trivial” route to the summit. We found it cold and windy. We were back to camp by 10:00. We packed up and left at about 11:00. We met a couple of hikers at the Chipmunk Creek saddle who were also intending to take the Leroy Creek – Carne Mtn. trail. We lost the trail just after crossing Chipmunk Creek and mistakenly trended downhill. We followed stretches of what looked like constructed trail around a ridge and into the headwaters of Box Creek. Eventually we realized the our choices were to 1) climb a thousand feet and look for the trail we’d missed, 2) traverse around Carne Mountain and look for the trail descending from the lookout on the far side, or 3) bushwhack down Box Creek to the main trail at the bottom. Laziness prevailed and we descended. At about 1:00 it started to rain. The brush wasn’t too bad but the terrain was steep. About 500 feet above the trail we found a cliff band that took some manouvering to get through. We hit the trail at about 3:20 and were back to the car by 4:00, wet and dirty but unbowed.
That changed at Goldbar where we were stopped by fair traffic backed up all the way from Monroe. I finally gave up and took Ben Howard road out of Sultan and SR 203 to the Duvall-Woodinville road and dropped Alex and Carrie off at 7:30. Welcome to climbing in the Cascades.
Here are the images.