Trip Date: August 28, 2004

Harding Mountain Day Climb

Jack Creek Valley
Meadow Creek
Harding Mountain (7173 ft)

Trip Report Summary

Region: Central Washington Cascades

Sub-Region: Cle Elum Mountains

Area: Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Starting & Ending Point: Jack Creek Trailhead on Icicle Creek Road (Elev. 2850 feet)

Way Points: Jack Creek & Meadow Creek & Harding Mountain Stock Driveway & Harding Mountain summit (trail hike & off-trail hike & rock scramble)

Summit: Harding Mountain (rock scramble via Northeast Slope—Southeast Face)

Approximate Stats: 16 miles traveled; 4500 feet gained & lost; 5.6 hours up; 3.8 hours down.

Full Trip Report

Given the recent “autumnal” weather pattern, I headed east of the crest with Steve and John T to climb Harding Mountain.  I had envisioned approaching the mountain from the Icicle Creek side and doing the northeast ridge, which shows up as a very direct and aesthetic line on the topo map.  Steve, who is an abandoned-trail aficionado, had become equally intrigued by this ridge route ever since he heard about an old trail extending up the crest.  (The trail appears on a 1970s version of the Green Trails map but not on the latest version, nor on my 1973 Forest Service map.)  Although we all liked the notion that an abandoned trail existed along the ridge, we were pretty dubious because none of us could figure out why a trail would have been built up a non-lookout peak such as Harding Mountain.

We started from the Jack Creek Trailhead at 9:00am in mild and partly sunny conditions.  After 5 gradually ascending miles, the well-maintained trail abruptly paused at Jack Creek (2.3 hours from car).  There is no bridge here, but the wide and shallow creek is easily waded or can be crossed on a logjam 50 yards downstream.  We picked up the trail on the far side and followed it another ¼ mile to the crossing of Meadow Creek.  Instead of crossing here, though, we angled southwestward into the forest and soon picked up a faint path.  Steve eagerly took the lead, as he always does when the scent of a trail-abandonment crime hangs in the air.  The path came and went repeatedly, staying on a roughly parallel course with Meadow Creek.  When it eventually faded away completely, we veered left and ascended steep forest slopes with light brush, aiming for Harding’s northeast ridge.

Our hoped-for trail was starting to look like a backcountry myth until we topped out on the sharp ridge crest at 4500 feet (3.2 hours from car).  Steve let out a whoop of delight upon encountering something that looked remarkably like a real trail here!  Sure enough, a well-defined path ran straight up and down the crestline as far as we could see, and a small, rusty sign hung on a nearby tree trunk.  After much scrutiny, we could discern a Forest Service logo and the words “stock driveway” on the sign.  That answered our question as to why a trail would have been built here!

We followed the stock driveway as it went upward along the crest to about 4800 feet and then traversed the left (southeast) side of the ridge for another ½ mile.  A few sawed logs along the way attested to some formal maintenance in times past.  At 5000 feet, the trail died out at the bottom of a talus slope—but it had done its job of getting us to open, subalpine terrain.  We continued up the talus to a pleasant heather basin due east of Harding’s summit, then we headed directly southward to reach a gentle spur ridge at 6000 feet.  Another 1200 feet of Class 2 scrambling put us on the summit about 2:30pm (5.6 hours from car).

The register was a nice big PVC tube containing a new book (placed by Johnny Jeans in 2002) and a few pieces of paper from earlier climbs.  The book and papers listed surprisingly few ascents over the past decade.  We were the first party signing in this year, and only one person (Dick Kegle) had signed in all last year.  Harding Mountain obviously is not a hot-spot among climbers, although it does sit favorably between Mt. Stuart and The Cradle.  We relaxed for a while and enjoyed slowly improving views.  The skies continued to be partly cloudy, but we never felt a drop of rain.

During our descent, we picked up traces of a path through the upper basin but soon lost it in the talus slopes.  Once we regained the stock driveway at 5000 feet, we managed to follow it down the entire length of the northeast ridge.  It becomes less distinct below 4300 feet, but fresh animal tracks (either stock or game) helped us stay on course.  The driveway drops through open forest and never strays too far from the crest until it gets down to the Jack Creek valley;  there, it trends a bit to the right (east), wanders through some swampy meadows, and ends at the creek shore just 100 yards upstream from the aforementioned logjam.  An easy 5-mile hike got us to the car at 7:15pm (3.8 hours from summit), with plenty of time to hit the 59er Diner.

Photo Gallery

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