Vance Creek Bridge and Spider Lake

Today I told my husband to put on some warm clothes and get in the Jeep. He surprised me by obliging me with no questions asked. So I surprised him by taking him to the Vance Creek Bridge. When we got out of the Jeep I did not tell him or either of my kids where we were hiking to, so they were all surprised when the bridge came into view.

Many of the wooden ties in the middle of the bridge are burned so I did not walk across the bridge. These burns could have been from lightning strikes. I am convinced that one day someone is going to die on that bridge as the ties get more and more rotten and people go out there to get drunk.

After the bridge we decided to see where the snow level was on Forest Service 23. I guessed it was ½ mile from the turn off for Spider Lake; my husband guessed it was two miles. We were both wrong. We drove all the way to the lake without seeing any snow on the road. At the lake some kind person had left a small bonfire and a few pieces of wood just for us, so we got out and enjoyed the fire.

We don’t know who started the campfire, why they left it so quickly after starting it, or why they left wood behind. I proclaimed that God must have lit that fire there for us because s/he knew we where coming. My husband disagreed, but what the heck, it was a nice surprise









Later my oldest and I wandered down to the lake while my youngest and my husband enjoyed the little fire. The lake was mostly snow and ice covered but one part was free of snow and showed a beautiful reflection of the snow covered trees on the bank. I’ve never seen Spider Lake looking so good. It was too cold to walk all the way around the lake so I just took a few pictures and then went back to the fire.

After we left the Lake we drove all the way to the high point of the pass between the Skokomish and Wynoochie watersheds. There was a light dusting of snow on the road but nothing that my Jeep with studded snow tires could not handle. I’ve never been able to get that far up the 23 at this time of year before. Snow started to fall on us at the pass and sun set was getting near so we decided to turn around there and call it a day.

All in all it was a really wonderful day to be in the mountains.