Walks with Moss: A truly horrible day at the Satsop Lakes

The big Satsop Lake on the Church Creek Trail

Video Trip Report

This is a very long trip report; there is a condensed version of it at the bottom in case you don’t feel like plowing through all of this. Scroll down to the italics, but don't scroll all the way down to the bottom unless you want to see very gory pictures.

I was not in the best mood at the start of this hike: I was hoping to go to another lake, but the snow level is still too low, so I decided to salvage something out of my long drive to the Wynoochee side by hiking to Satsop Lakes. I had a hot and scary drive up to the trail head. I did not remember the road being so terrible.

My day started with my having to drive my daughter to school because she missed the bus yet again. When I Finally got on the road, I had to stop to get gas at the Matlock store and then I made a wrong turn. I did not realize my wrong turn until I saw fish hatchery road. Once I was turned around and pointed in the right direction I got stuck behind a big ugly truck.

I used to be a truck driver, so I understand why big ugly trucks are so slow and I give them lots of space. I hoped that the truck was not going to turn on to Cougar-smith road, but it did. Then I was kind of pissed that the truck driver did not pull over and let me by before they started onto the dirt and dust section of Cougar-smith. Why make me eat all that dust when I was clearly capable of traveling faster? What thoughtless jerk. I had to pull over and wait for the blinding dust to settle before I could continue.

Finally I reached the dam and started up the road to the hike I wanted to do, but the road got rougher and rougher and it was looking doubtful. I was a bit frightened. I was high up on a ridge when the road became completely impassible to me in my compact car. I had to turn back. I wished I had a friend with a truck, I mean a true friend with a truck, not a friend with a truck with strings attached to it. Just a friend with a truck.

I did about a 15 point turn up high on the ridge and turned my car around and I headed up the road to Satsop Lakes instead. The road to Satsop Lakes was much rougher than I remembered and my car started to flash a low coolant warning.

Wow, I did not remember having to gain so much elevation to get to the lakes and I remembered the road being a nice one. I had to get out and move rocks off of the road several times. At one point I bottomed out my car crossing from one side of the road to the other to avoid a rock. I also had to drive with my heater on full blast to keep my car from overheating. I was not having a good time at all.

I was already getting hot, I would have much preferred to have the AC on. My car is fine, it was just low on coolant and it was too hot to stop it and put coolant in it unless I wanted to wait an hour for it to cool down so I could get the cap off it. So I kept driving up, up and up with the low coolant light flashing. I knew I would have to stop if my car hit a certain temperature, but I was able to keep the car's temperature down by running the heater and roasting nearly to death in the process.

I began to have second thoughts about going to Satsop Lakes. Maybe it just was not meant to be? Was the universe trying to tell me something? Maybe I should just turn around and go home without doing any hiking. Just how much worse was this road going to get? Finally I did make it to the lake, but that road was right at the limit of what my little car could handle. Strangely, the lake was on the wrong side of the road from what I had remembered. I put a gallon of water on my driver's seat so I would remember to top up my radiator before I drove home.

We started our hike late at about 11am, but no worries, the days are still very long and my planned hike was only about one mile. The brush crash started at the big lake and it took me to a smaller lake. I did have to route find the entire way as it was my first time to this lake, but the route finding was very straight forward. The terrain was a little bit rough with lots of deadfall to navigate around. Just as I was reaching the little Satsop Lake that was my goal, I found a row of pink ribbons that I knew I would be able to follow back to my trail on the shore of the big Satsop Lake.

A giant stone fly on the Lake-shore Satsop Lake is low for this time of year.

Giant Stone Fly. Not a bad macro shot for
a fixed 18mm lens. My first hike with my new camera.

It was a hot day and I was ready for a swim. Patches jumped in ahead of me, but I could not jump in where she did so I headed for the far side of the lake. Patches soon came out of the water and caught up to me.

I found a little beach like area on the far shore and I decided to go for a swim. It turned out that the bottom the lake was filled with muck. It was one of those lakes with bottomless muck made of sticks and many feet of mud. This lake was far too dangerous to wade into.

Still, I was too hot and I wanted to swim. I kept my shoes on and I found a log to hold on to and I held myself up on the log until I was out deep enough to float while holding the log. By doing this, my feet did not have to touch the bottomless bottom. I floated until I cooled off. I might have floated for longer, but I did not want to get sunburn. I floated until all the heat and misery of my drive had vanished and I felt somewhat human again.

Back on the lake shore I took off my shoes and tried to figure out how I was going to get all the muck off my feet while I brewed a cup of coffee. I had a nice long coffee break while Patches begged for my lunch. After lunch I decided to place a geocache up on the hill and then head back for my car.

I placed the geocache and was about to pack up and leave when I noticed that Patches had blood on her. I investigated and found a truly horrible wound. Patches had filleted herself just under her hind leg. I knew she should not walk out with such a terrible injury. I could see her leg muscles and her fat layers exposed to the air. At the time I thought I was looking at her guts, but now I realize it was a fat layer.

What was I going to do? Patches needed to be carried out, it would be too dangerous to make her walk with such an injury. But how could I carry her out 1/2 mile over rough old growth terrain with no trail and then get her back down that awful road and to a vet in time? I could not. I knew that we needed help. I used my Delorme to signal my spouse for help, but he did not answer. I was in a bowl and it took a good ten minutes before my signal even went out. I waited and waited for my signal to go out and then I waited and waited for my spouse to answer. An answer from my spouse never came. Patches was beginning to shake and shiver, she was going into shock.

So I tried Facebook and then I really pulled the trigger and sent an SOS signal with my Delorme. It took quite a while to get through to Delorme and get my help messages out due to being in a geologic bowl down at the lake.

I sent a message that I needed someone with a truck to come help me carry Patches out and that they should also bring a bullet for Patches just in case. The situation was really looking bad and I did not want Patches to suffer more than she needed to.

The folks at Delorme called my spouse and they called 9-11. 9-11 said they do not do search and rescue for dogs but would send Animal rescue out to render aid. Knowing that help was on the way and rain was expected in the night, I thought about pitching my tarp for the long haul. Instead, I went back down to the lake because Patches was thirsty.

I waited at the lake and after exchanging a bunch of confusing messages with my spouse, a friend and the Delorme folks I found out that the Grays Harbor Sheriff had cancelled animal rescue. I did not know why they had cancelled animal rescue and I could tell that my spouse was very upset.

I also got a message that the Sheriff was coming, but I was expected to leave Patches at the lake and hike out to the road to meet the Sheriff. The Sheriff would then go back and get Patches. What? Leave Patches behind with a gaping wound? That was not going to happen. I would of had to of tied her up to get her to stay behind. She would be so upset by my leaving that she might have bled to death barking for me and fighting to get off the rope. No way was I going to leave Patches to die alone on the end of a rope. Also would a lone sheriff with no GPS, really be willing to do the required amount of brush crashing to find Patches and carry her out?

Patches needed to be carried out, walking her out could cause her to bleed to death, but no one was going to reach me in time to help her. She could bleed to death waiting for help. I had to make the tough decision to try to carry and limp her out of there. At least I would have some ribbons to follow out. I was not happy about having to carry Patches out, but it was clear that I was going to have to at least try. Patches and I were on our own and it was up to us alone to get out of there.

Patches waiting for help that was not to come

So I did my best to try to carry her out with a gaping wound, one half mile cross country over fallen old growth in and out of a clogged drainage while navigating back to the trail and then another 1/2 mile to my car. Patches had to walk some as I could not carry her all that way, especially in that kind of terrain.

The going was rough. I had to try to find the easiest route for Patches on a tough route. There were a lot of fallen logs in the way and there was a lot of brush on the ground. I don't know how many times I had to lift Patches up onto a log, then climb over the log myself and then lift Patches off the log and put her on the ground. I carried her as much as I could. It was hard to carry her without touching her gaping wound.

I could not carry her like a bundle of firewood as that would have irritated her wound. I had to wrap my right arm over her back with my hand under her ribcage and kind of hold her up on my hip. My left hand went under her neck. This was an awkward way to carry her and it made it hard for her to breath. Several times I almost dropped her, several times I almost fell and one time I tweaked my ankle.

All the while my spouse was sending me desperate messages over my Delorme and I was trying to answer him, but typing out a message on a Delorme is VERY, VERY tedious (not to mention expensive) and it was taking at least ten minutes for each of my messages to get out. There seemed to be a lot of confusion about where my car was and where I was. I don't understand why, as my Delorme was transmitting my exact GPS(r) coordinates and my spouse knew exactly where I was on the map at all times. I think a friend of mine was confusing them.

At least I had a nice row of pink ribbons to follow, so route finding was not too bad. Then I lost the line of ribbons in a really rough spot and I knew I was on my own. But as luck would have it I found the ribbons again. As we got near the lake I started calling out for the Sheriff, but no one answered. I knew that both my friend Mitzi from Monte and the Sheriff were headed to the trail head to help me. The messages from my spouse got less desperate as he saw I was nearing the trail and was at the trail head that he had told the sheriff to go to.

I was so happy and relieved when we reached the Big Satsop Lake again, but we had one last hurdle to get, a gully choked with salmon berries. We walked across a log that was up too high for comfort only to have to walk back across it again. I was getting tired and starting to make poor decisions. I was glad the ordeal was almost over and I had found my way back through the woods to the big lake without getting lost or hurt. Patches was slowing down but still doing okay.

Patches had a big drink of water at the lake and I let her walk the rest of the way to our car from the lake since the going on the trail was easy and my arms were too weak and tired to carry her another inch.

When I got back to my car it was a little bit after six PM and a sheriff's car was parked there next to my car. I Sure was happy to see it, but the sheriff was not in his car or anywhere nears his car! How could he have missed me? Did he go the wrong way up the trail? I could hear the radio in the sheriff's car and they were talking about me and I could tell the sheriff was way up the trail in the wrong direction. I could also sense that the sheriff and the dispatcher were getting frustrated. I heard the sheriff say that he was giving up and that Search and Rescue should be launched to find me since it was about to get dark and he did not think I was going to leave without my dog.

There was nothing I could do but wait helplessly and listen to them talk about me, while trying to send another Delorme and Facebook message to let them know I was at the car. I was in a deep bowl and getting out my Delorme messages was taking too long. In the mean time Patches was bleeding and I was at my car. Should I wait for the sheriff to come back or should I just put Patches in my car and go back down that horrible awful road and try to find medical care for Patches?

I wished I could get into the Sheriff's car just long enough to get on his radio and tell his dispatch where I was. I peered into the car and saw a big dog on the back seat and the big dog growled at me so I backed off fast.

After what seemed like an eternity, my Delorme message got out and a bit after that, I heard the dispatcher tell the sheriff (over his portable radio)that I was at his car. I also heard a female Sheriff say she was just ten minutes away and she would come to get me.

While I waited for her to arrive I put water in my car and put a blanket on the ground for Patches to rest on. I hoped that the sheriff who was coming had a truck so she could get Patches to help quickly. It was going to take forever for me to get Patches back down that god awful road in my compact car.

Shortly I heard and then saw a big white sheriff’s truck come roaring up the hill towards me. Funny that the truck was coming from the wrong direction, or was it? I was so hot and tired and confused at that point that I did not question it much.

The sheriff was happy to take Patches and rush her down to an animal hospital, but only after making sure I was okay. I did not realize it at the time, but the sheriff was an animal patrol officer in an animal patrol truck. That explained why she was so willing to take Patches.

I knew that my friend Mitzi was on her way too and I figured we would pass each other. I got in my car and started to drive down the same way that the sheriff went with Patches; even though I thought I had come in the other way. Soon my friend Mitzi arrived in her truck. She stopped and offered me a hug and a sandwich and then she escorted me all the way to the animal hospital in Brady.

The road out was so smooth and had little lakes and lots of bridges that I did not remember. I stopped my car and said to Mitzi, "this is not the way I came in, this is a nice road". She explained that the road is loop and she seemed a bit surprised by the route I had taken to get there.

There had never been any need for me to take a route that bottomed out my car or required me to stop and move rocks. The route out was nice and smooth but the drive to Montesano was much longer than I remembered. Now I truly understand what the locals mean when they shake their heads and say “can you believe they paved the road all the way out to the dam?”

All the way to Montesano I wondered if Patches would live, how much pain was she in bouncing around in that truck and how much was the bill going to be? My Delorme was beeping and beeping with message after message too. I could not stop to read them but I began to do the math, every two messages cost me one dollar. How much was my Delorme bill going to be?

Patches was not at the first veterinarian we went to she was at a different veterinarian in Brady. I was so glad to have Mitzi guide me to both of the veterinarian’s offices. I'm not very familiar with that area and I was not in the best mental state at this point. Mitzi saved me a lot of time an aggravation by being there for me.

By the time we arrived at the second veterinarian, Patches was all stitched up and ready to go home. That was very nice, I did not have to make any decisions, and it was all done for me. All I had to do was pay the bill. The bill was less than half of what I expected it to be based on the last time Patches needed emergency treatment. The total was $195.00. She had been given IV fluid, stitched and stapled and had a drainage tube put in. Even all stitched up; her wound looked so awful that I could not bear to view it. The vet said that Patches had gone into shock and her gums were a bit pale, but she did not lose enough blood to die and she should recover okay.

Heroines with Patches

The animal control officer was there with the vet and the four of us Mitzi, the Vet the animal control officer and I all had a nice happy conversation because what had been a seemingly dire situation had turned out well after all. Even the vet was impressed with the size Patches wound. I have no idea how she got hurt, other than maybe when she was getting out of the lake with the bottomless mud.

I drove home on the Brady Satsop road as I was in no mood to drive through the horrible ticket trap called Mc Cleary. I finally got home at about 9pm.

Throughout the entire ordeal Patches never really let on that she was in any pain. She will be on pain meds and antibiotics for a few days. Her drainage tube is to come out in about 5 days and her stitches and staples are to come out in about 10-14 days.

A big thank you to the Grays Harbor County Sheriff and Animal Patrol, the Brady Veterinary Hospital and to my Friend Mitzi and a couple of other people ( you know who you are).

------------------------------------------------------------------

Condensed version of the same story:

I was at a small off trail lake (mud hole) with Patches when I noticed blood on her. I investigated and found an awful wound. She filleted herself just under her hind leg. I knew she should not walk out with such a terrible injury.

I could see her leg muscles and her fat layers exposed to the air. I signaled my spouse for help but he did not answer, I then tried Facebook and then I sent anSOS signal with my Delorme. The folks at Delorme called my spouse and called 9-11. 9-11 said they do not do search and rescue for dogs but would send Animal rescue out. But something went wrong somehow and finally a message got back to me saying that only a sheriff was coming and I was to leave Patches behind and meet the Sheriff on the road.

No way I was leaving Patches to die alone, so I did my best to try to carry her out with a gaping wound, one half mile cross country over fallen old growth in and out of a clogged drainage while navigating back to the trail and then another 1/2 mile to my car. Patches had to walk some as I could not carry her all that way, especially in that kind of terrain.

When I got back to my car a sheriff was parked there but he was not in his car, he had gone the wrong way up the trail. I'll never understand why they could not figure out where I was based on my precise GPS coordinates. I could hear the radio on the sheriff car and they were talking about me and I could tell the sheriff was way up the trail in the wrong direction. Nothing I could do but try to send another Delorme and Facebook message to let them know I was at the car. I was in a deep bowl and getting out my Delorme messages took time.

The message got out and an animal patrol who was just ten minutes away said over the radio she was coming. She came and took patches down to Grays Harbor as she could do it much faster than I could. Then Mitzi came and gave me a hug and a sandwich and led me out of there in her truck while I followed in my compact car. The route out was nice and smooth.

I guess my route in was wrong, I had to move rocks and bottomed out my car once on the route in. Thinking I had to take that route back out, I knew that I needed help from someone with a truck. By the time I got to the vet Patches was all stitched and stapled up. Even the vet was impressed with the size of her wound. I have no idea how she got hurt