Webhill Lookout

3 mile round trip up an old logging road to the site of a long gone lookout.  The outhouse and the benchmark are still there.

Parking

Down the outhouse hole

Outhouse

my handmade pack

4 Stream

Usnea longissima  lichen hangs off of an Acer Macrophyllum tree at Staircase campground

Up the upper 4 stream trail after fording 4 stream.  Nice old growth on this never finished trail.  The day was bright and dry and cold.  Trail is not traveled much, so there is some stuff to climb over and sometimes you have to think about the route a little bit.  In one place a tree fell over the end of a switchback and you might not see that the trail switches back there and you might keep going straight.

Patches was still limping from Lena Lake so I had to leave her at home no matter where I went.  She should not have been limping after such a short hike, but she is getting older.

Pop goes the electric bill!

7 miles with 1,200 feet elevation gain

This area was dug out and flattened

The trail ends here, you can go around the rock but it's just a way trail
that is covered in wind throw after this

Looking down the trail from the end of the trail.
Here the trail has been chipped out of a cliff face

Lower Lena Lake

  I did the Dosewallips road walk this week but I forgot to put a battery in my camera so I did not take any pictures of that hike and I did not blog about it.  For this hike I decided to take it a little bit easy and just go to the far side of Lena Lake.

The weather was forecast to be crisp and dry, so I packed my down coat for insulation and put two coats on Patches.  I do like cold dry weather, it's so much easier to keep warm when you are dry even if it's 40 degrees cooler.  When I left the house the temperature at home was 17F or -8C  It took a while to get my car thawed out before we could leave the house at 7:15 am

The trail head was empty when we arrived.  I hung my parking pass and crossed my fingers that I would not get a parking ticket anyway.  We headed up the trail at 8:30 and were at the lake at 10:30.  We did not stay on the rock long since the sun was shining in my eyes.  We headed over the log bridge and to the far campsites to have lunch.  The campsite I had in mind was well under water.  The lake was the highest I have ever seen it.  There were icicles everywhere on the hike up.

Patches had a power bar and I had a cup of tea and then a hot meal and then another cup of tea. I hate having my peaceful lunch and a ruined by a whining begging dog. Patches begged and whined for my lunch and would not let me relax until I took drastic measures to force her to go lay down.  After she laid down and was quiet for a while I gave her a third power bar as a reward for not harassing me.

We made it back down to the trail head at 3:30 and got home just before dark.

backed up and stopped to get this shot during the drive to the trail

Found a can of stew and fed it to Patches when we got home
second time I have found canned food left here

Tea time

Alder trees with wet feet

Patches begging?

Best picture ever of this waterfall by me just wish
that there was less water on the lens

Snow on moss on rocks

Wearing orange until I am sure that hunting season is over

The fancy composting toilets are still broken in spite of
all the parking fees raked in at this trail head every year

Fissidens dubious I found near the lake, first fissidens I have confidentially ID'ed