GAIN SOME ELEVATION
The first order of business was to gain some elevation and see the surrounding area-which includes the some of the most rugged mountains and ranges Washington has to offer. We stopped on Sweetgrass Butte, which sits at a little more than 6,100 feet, so we gained nearly 4,000 feet from the sno park in no time at all. It's an easy ride via the trail to the crest of the butte, which offers a sweeping view in all directions from its bald top. To the west you can see into the Sawtooth Range. A little southwest and there is Goat Peak (elevation 7,001 feet), on top of which is a lookout that is visible from miles around. Goat Peak sits between Sweetgrass Butte and the Sawtooth Range. Many of the mountain peaks you see to the north of Sweetgrass Butte generally mark the southern border of the Pasayten Wilderness, a sprawling Wilderness area that makes up part of northern Okanogan County and is off limits to snowmobiling.
A particularly striking view from Sweetgrass Butte is down the Goat Creek drainage, which leads the eye to the Sawtooth Range in the distance. That drainage is east of Goat Peak. A groomed trail follows Goat Creek up the drainage from the Goat Creek Sno Park, where you can eventually get to Sweetgrass Butte over Banker Pass.
We pretty much ditched the trail after leaving Sweetgrass Butte and made our way through parts of "The Burn" as the locals call it. The Burn is a section of the forest that was ravaged by forest fires more than a half dozen years ago. The limbless trunks left behind by the fire make for a stark contrast to the white blanket that surrounds them. We stopped on the edge of yet another creek drainage that provides an outlet for the several feet of snow (nearly 10 feet this past winter) that melt each spring and flow to the various rivers nearby. At that stop we were looking squarely into the Pasayten Wilderness, which sat behind McLeod Mountain (8,099 feet), one of the tallest peaks along the ridge that marks the Wilderness boundary. After a short ride, we rode up the ridge to just below McLeod, where we sat on the edge of the Wilderness and again got a stunning view of the surrounding ranges and peaks, including dozens inside the Wilderness. There's some fun hillclimbing and boondocking on the non-Wilderness side of the forest near McLeod.
From there it was back to The Burn where we played on several hillsides and boondocked through the sticks that were formerly trees. The Burn has created some wide open riding opportunities that will be appreciated by boondockers who like to ride the trees.
We meandered our way back to the truck, crossing Cub Pass and playing on the hillsides, just generally enjoying the snow and exploring the terrain, which is as easy or as hard as a rider might want it to be. The Burn has actually made some of the terrain a little less challenging as it has opened some hillsides up, but it has also provided access to some areas that were pretty tough to get to prior to the fire.