Zena Creek ridge divides the Secesh River and the South Fork Salmon River.
- August 2, 2020
- Team: Tuesday Dave
- Blue Lake Creek Peak, 8260'
- Zena Creek Peak, 8002'
- 10.4 miles, 3693' gain, 7:20 car-to-car, Class 2
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
As usual, Lick Creek Road gave my truck a thrashing, but the eight miles of Zena Creek Road was in wonderful condition. It's quite narrow and very scenic. So after our two-hour drive, we were on our feet right at 8am. Nice and cool. The trail follows an old logging road for a mile or two, then starts into singletrack as it continues working in a series of steps up Zena Creek. On several of the 'steps', the valley forms pretty little meadows. And someone had recently cut out the whole trail. |
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But despite the greenery, the burn is always in evidence. Here, we have gotten high enough that most of it is burn. That's our first peak of the day, Blue Lake Creek Peak, just left of center. |
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Looking back the other way, Zena Creek Peak. Note the little pointer on the peak just left of center. |
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Another meadowy area. Ruby loved that she could go swimming at least once every half mile. |
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The most interesting thing of the day. Click to see the lake. It seems to be entirely dependent on the grassy verge. |
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Dave on the verge, Ruby swimming for the camera. |
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When we left the trail for our summit, it didn't look good. Deadfall piled into pickup-stick formation. But we threaded the bad spots, stepped over a few down logs. Not bad, really. But it had gotten hot so the UP part was starting to take a toll. As a defense, we tried to walk in the occasional shade of any tree left standing. And then we were on top, and looking down into the Secesh. We thought we could just barely see a corner of Loon Lake. |
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We could definitely see the Yosemite-like wall of Storm Dome. |
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And over there on the far left, Whangdoodle Mountain. |
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But only a filtered view of Blue Lake, right under the peak. This was taken about half-way down to the lake. It's true: it's blue! We hadn't seen a single fish jump or any other sign of fish life, so the rods stayed in the packs. But the clothes came off and we found it a wonderful spot for an extended swim session. Note: Upon getting out of the lake I found a surprise on me; what I believe was a leech. |
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But of course, as we sweated our bushwacky way back up the hillside (now fully dressed) we noticed fish jumping. Dang- lesson learned! And yes, that's Blue Lake Creek Peak standing above the lake. |
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Back on the trail and heading back, we were soon looking at our second peak (again). That sure looks like a lot of downfall to cross. |
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| Again, we were able to find a passable route through it and were soon looking down into the South Fork. |  |
And there's our summit. Fortunately, we got occasional breezes, because now we were sweltering. |
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| This peak, thanks to it's position, has really marvelous views. Despite the haze, we took lots of (slightly photoshopped to clear them up) pictures. The is the amazing ruggedness of Hum Ridge. |  |
| The nick in Nick Peak. Yep, that's snow! |  |
| I think this was called the Davis Ranch, now the Willey Ranch? |  |
And this is the Yellowjacket Ranch, near the bottom of the Elk Summit grade. Okay, Ruby needs water. Time to pick our way back down through the pickup sticks to the trail. Death gurgle. Pump water. |
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Down, down, down. Creeks. Views of Zena Creek. A profusion of wild flowers. Good thing the hikiing was downhill, because when we got back to the truck at 6100', it was 91°. On a wonderful hike with a good trail, outstanding views, and possibly even some fishing, we did not see another soul. Another successful day of social distancing. |
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