Church Creek

This sign has been missing for about a year

I expected solitude up there but were happily surprised to see the Mountaineers doing some trail work.  As far as I know the Mountaineers are the only group that works on this trail.   I snapped some pictures of the trail crew and then waited for them to get started.  But they soon stopped so I passed them.  I could still hear them hiking behind me all the way up to the road so I decided to explore the road a bit and come back to the trail later.

The road has been badly decommissioned, it‘s a real nightmare to hike on.  I did find Tetraplodon mnioides moss on this road.  T. mnoides is everywhere if you know where to look for it.  There is peat moss on the Skok side of the pass but none on the Wynoochee side.

The lake was quiet and lovely.  The hike back was very fast.  The Mountaineers were gone when but they had made a good start at getting rid of a large log over the trail.  The log will be much easier to cross over now. 

I think we started hiking at about 10 and finished up at about  7:45.

7.4 miles with 2,400 feet total elevation gain on this up and down hike.

Track and elevation

Mountaineer with an axe

Mountaineer with an axe

Log that the Mountainers worked on

This log crossing was under the lake the last time I was here

This log is not underwater now

Satsop Lake

Someone was camping nearby but I never saw them