Red Mt. Area Cle Elum 8.31.05

With my life lately being a whirlwind of strife I eagerly hit the trail today. My intention was to try for a double summit of Red Mt. and finishing with Thorp Mt.. I had previously been to Little Joe Lake and I remember that a logging road bisects Trail 1330, so my plan was to drive to this intersection and follow Trail 1330 to Little Joe Lake. I figured this would save enough time and distance to make this possible in a relative short span of time. I had no problem finding the proper logging road but was disappointed to find the road undrivable after a half mile. I decided that I would just walk the road until it's end and play it by ear. I decided that the road grade was not taking me to my goal fast enough so I jumped off road and made a direct line to the trail above me. I reached the trail to find that I was much more west than what I was expecting. I just crossed the trail and continued climbing reaching Pt. 5236 easily. Although this point isn't on any list of peaks it was worth the effort with some great views of Chimney Rock and a nice perspective of Bear's Breast Mt. I decided instead of making the long traverse to Red Mt I would instead make my way to Thorp Mt. I was more in the mood for a hike that stayed on trail. The dogs seemed to have some issues with the warmer weather. It wasn't that it was actually that warm I think instead it was more of an issue in difference in temps. I quickly made my way to the climber's trail that takes you to the lookout on top of Thorp Mt's summit. I was quite interested to see that the lookout seems to be used quite often. The views were quite good of the mostly snowless peaks of the Central Cascades. I made my way down via the Thorp Creek Trail forcing me to retrace the last half mile I had driven to reach the parked truck.