COUGAR — Road No. 25, a main north-south route through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, will open for traffic on Friday.
Repair is nearly complete on a large slide that damaged the road south of Elk Pass, closing the road between the Muddy River and the intersection with road No. 99 to Windy Ridge.
Road No. 25 connects the Pine Creek-Northwoods area at the upper end of Swift Reservoir with the Cowlitz valley at Randle.
Road No. 23, another key north-south route, suffered complete washouts between mileposts 12 and 24 in two places and partial washouts in other places.
Due to the complexity and cost of the repair, that portion of the road will not open this year.
A 9.5-mile road improvement project on road No. 23 near Cispus Learning Center has a preliminary completion date of Sept. 19. That project will improve the pavement and replace culverts, providing better fish passage.
During construction, drivers can expect a maximum 20-minute delay.
Construction will not interfere with travel on holidays or weekends from 6 p.m. Fridays to 6 a.m. Mondays.
The road from milepost 2.71 to 5.27 will be closed from 10 a.m. July 25 to 4 p.m. July 28.
Forest notes — There is a washout on Panther Creek road No. 65 north of Four Corners (the junction with road No. 60). Hikers are advised to use road No. 6507 to reach the popular Thomas Lake No. 111 trailhead leading to Indian Heaven Wilderness. Patches of snow remain on Thomas Lake trail near Blue Lake.
• Road No. 88 is closed at milepost 19.7 due to a washout. This means it is not possible to drive the route from Trout Lake to its junction with Lewis River road No. 90.
• Tillicum, Little Goose and Little Goose Horse camps are scheduled to be open by the weekend.
• Divide Camp trail No. 112 and Killen Creek No. 113 have not been cleared of down trees yet for the summer. Expect to find snow patches at the upper ends of these trails leading into Mount Adams Wilderness.
• High Camp trail No. 10 and High Line No. 114 in the Mount Adams Wiilderness both have snow.
• Snipes Mountain trail No. 11 on the south side of Mount Adams is covered heavily with down trees and not recommended until cleared. Hidden Lakes trail No. 106 and Sawtooth No. 107 also have not been cleared yet.
