Mount Thomas lies on a ridge just east of Kachess Ridge above Lake Cle Elum. The trail starts climbing up at the Kachess Trailhead and has great views of Kachess Lake
I’m a little distressed that there was snow when I hiked here in early June and now the foliage is already starting to show fall colors. You can see the ridge where Mary, Richie and I ate lunch when we hiked Kachess Ridge in July. Our plan was to hike along the ridge on the right, drop down to the valley , link up with the Kachess Ridge trail and follow the trail back to our car. It was a good plan.
We had been climbing for about two hours and gained 2500 feet of elevation and I thought we were approaching the top, until I turned the corner and saw the final 500 feet up heart break hill to the top of the ridge
Little did I know that we would climb another 3000 feet before the hike was over. But once on top, we got great views of Lake Cle Elum and could see the power windmills in Ellensburg.
The trail was hard to follow in a lot of places because the wind hand snapped off the trees and obliterated parts of the trail.
We, kept hiking for several more hours along the ridge. The views were always tremendous, but there were a lot of ups and downs.
Late in the afternoon, we figured out that we would run out of time before we completed the loop, so we turned around and headed back to our car.
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