Mildred Lakes trail to Huckleberry Lake

Alpenglow on Mount Pershing

The night before, I decided to  torture myself by going up the Wagon Wheel Lake trail, so I  packed really light, even leaving my mushroom knife at home.

Then I remembered that the Hamma Hamma was open again and how pretty the fall colors are there and I changed my mind.  I decided to hike the Mildred Lakes “trail” to Huckleberry Creek and back. 

That would be too short of a short hike.  Then I remembered the lake off trail near the creek and made that my destination.

I don’t like to go off trail alone all the time, so I invited Phil and he quickly said yes.  He had been wanting to see the lake and the forest around it. 

Phil was running very late so I started my hike without him knowing that he would catch up eventually if I hiked slow and took lots of pictures.

Shortly after I crossed the Creek I heard Phil calling me.  A quick cup of coffee at the creek and we were off, off the trail to look for the lake.  The lake was easy to find and it was pretty but with no nice shore line.  While we were off trail I found a very nice buck knife to make up for forgetting to pack my mushroom knife.  We also found two Mylar balloons.

After we bagged the lake we decided to explore the forest up Huckleberry Creek.  The forest was Beautiful!  So beautiful that we had to turn back before we wanted to. 

The days are getting short and the Mildred Lake trail is not fun to do in the dark.  I have done the entire length of it from the creek to the car in the dark before and I did not like that.  I’ve also done the last half from the creek to the car in the dark and that is not too bad.

We ended up needing our headlamps for about half an hour.  My headlamp batteries were low, but I did not have to change them since Phil had good batteries in his.

I always have a spare set of batteries for my headlamp in my pack along with a small secondary light source that I can use to see while changing batteries.

When we got near the trailhead we encounted two men who were preparing to climb Pershing in the morning.

The woods are very dry this fall.  There are no mushrooms to be found.  I am sore today.

That poor old lady is still missing on the creepy Putvin trail.  

6 miles with 1,300 feet elevation gain on a very rough trail.  I slipped a few times and bashed my left knee cap into two logs and I tweaked my right ankle.  I’m having a clumsy week.

Gomphidius mushroom, not good to eat, but not poison

dried up tarn

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Bucket with a bag full of shit and piss and a tin can.  The overflow crowds from Seattle
are coming to destroy the Olympics.

Huckleberry Creek

Sage trying to not get shot during hunting season

Spahgnum moss

Deadly poison?

off trail in the oldgrowth.  

Angel Wings, some have died after eating it, but they had bad kidneys 

Honey mushrooms, so peopel have a bad reaction to these

Fig Newton time

Our route

Big mushroom

Amanita vaginata