Iron Horse Trail (Lake Annette Trailhead to S.E. Keechelus Lake)

Iron Horse Trail - June 22nd, 2014

I-90 Corridor

Mileage: 14 Miles (One way)

Elevation Gain: 400 ft.

Dogs Allowed

I mentioned in an earlier post about the grand summer 2014 hiking plan Allison and I created for this hiking season. One of the problems that continued to cause us headaches was the unpredictability of the snow levels in the mountains. The snow level and dates the mountains are finally clear of snow can vary greatly from year to year and unfortunately during the summer 2014 hiking season, the snow did not melt away as early as it had in previous years. This caused us to have to alter our planned hikes for several weekends, including the weekend of June 22nd. 

We had initially planed to hike the Kendal Katwalk. This hike takes its namesake from a football field- length portion of the hike where the trail was literally blasted into the side of a steep mountain. WTA notes, " the name Kendall Katwalk conjures up an image of a narrow pathway blasted out of a steeply sloped rock face, that’s part of it. But the whole package includes old-growth forest, gorgeous wildflowers, and stunning views into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness from both sides of the pass below Kendall Peak, where the Katwalk begins." Needless to say this was on our Washington hiking, bucket list. Unfortunately, by the time this hike came due on the calendar, the snow level was still too high to safely complete the catwalk, so I had to come up with plan B. Although, I'm kind of sad that we didn't get to do the Katwalk. Even though we were initially quite disappointed, it was also kind of fortuitous because it made me find a really exotic hike I may not have discovered otherwise. 

The hike I ended up planning had several very diverse sections, including the most notable, a 2 mile long underground section that followed an abandoned railroad tunnel. The final hike ended up being a 14 mile section of Washington State Park's Iron Horse Trail, a 110 mile path that follows an old railroad track from Ollalie State Park to Cle Elum in Eastern Washington. I picked a section that went from Keechelus Lake through to the Lake Annette Trailhead. As I mentioned before, this hike ended up being very diverse. Starting from the Lake Annette trailhead, the hike begins in lush forests which quickly give way to the original path of the railroad, which is now a large open gravel corridor. This section of the hike offered fantastic views of the cascades and lasted until we got to the mouth of the tunnel. 

The actual underground section of the hike took approximately 45 minutes. For the majority of this time we were in complete darkness. This combined with the temperature plummeting almost 40 degrees and sharing the tunnels with dimly lite strangers made for a slightly spooky journey which was not exactly enjoyable for some members of the hiking group. Luckily everyone made it out alive. Since Iron horse trail was originally a railroad track, it is graded much more gently than almost any other hike in the I-90 corridor, so despite clocking in at 14 miles it was a pretty easy hike. Despite being in the mountains, we only gained 400 feet of elevation, mostly because of the tunnel. 

The final section of the hike took place on the Western bank of the Keechelus Lake. The lake is an irrigation control reservoir and the beginning of the Yakima River. With a water storage capacity of 195,000,000 m³, Keechelus' brilliant blue offered stunning contrast to surrounding peaks of the cascades. This section of the hike was 6.5 miles on a flat gravel path. I forgot to mention earlier in the post that in order to make this into a 14 mile day hike and not at 28 mile overnight, we took two vehicles and broke the our party into two groups who started from opposite ends of the trail. We swapped keys when the groups converged in the middle of the hike and then met back up at the Lake Annette parking lot to regroup before heading back to Seattle.  

Overall it was a really good day and the tunnel section of the hike provided a completely new hiking experience.   Iron Horse Trial is a very bike friendly trail, and if I ever get to go back I think we will try to bike a larger section of the trail rather than hike.