Stevens and Rose Lake AB

The catastrophe has already happened, we are the survivors

I first noticed Stevens and Rose Lake a few years ago.  We managed to make it to Stevens Lake by going up the road in the newly destroyed forest that used to be part of Potlatch State Park. 

At the starting point we found a sign that made it seem like we should not be there and Sage rolled in human feces at that sign.  I've not been back since.  It make me so sick that the tribe destroyed that nice forest above the Hood Canal. 

Recently Rose Lake came onto my radar again and I realized there was a way to reach it from the Skokomish River Road.  I made a plan to park there at a decommissioned road and walk to both lakes.

I would rather be hiking behind the gates up in the National forest right now, but there is still too much snow up there.

At home the week before, I treated Sage's coat and my pants and socks with pyrethrum bug killer.  I'm going to treat my shoes next.

March is always the start of the worse of the tick season and decommissioned roads are especially tick infested.

We parked at 9 and started hiking.  The first part up a decommissioned road was ugly, but not too hard since it was the older style of decommissioning where they mostly just ditch up the road a bit.  The road dropped down into a dry creek bed and then back up.

 Presumably the road was taken out to protect the creek. But with climate change, the creek is gone, so there is nothing left to protect. 

The forest on either side of the road has been razed.   Trees are a huge carbon sink and deforestation has a big role in climate change.  The catastrophe has already happened and we are the survivors.

Next, the road climbed up to a gravel pit on an open road and then it traversed a nice second growth forest.  I'm sure that forest will soon be gone.

We quickly found Rose Lake and saw that it was impossible to reach the shore, so I sent my flying camera up to see it.  The lake is pretty!

I made my new pack in December and I made it a bit bigger than my old pack so it could easily accommodate my flying camera.  The new pack worked out well.

Next, we hoofed it to Steven's Lake, where it is also very difficult to reach the shore.  On the way to the lake we ducked into the brush as two cars passed by.  We also found a fair amount of litter on the road and a few campfire pits.  For a being locked behind a gate this area has a lot of litter.

 When we reached the lake, we had lunch next to an old pile of elks bones near the shore.  Lunch was noodles and vina cafe.

After lunch I flew my camera bit more then we headed out.

On the way out we tried unsuccessfully to reach the shore of Rose Lake.  The lake was too high and the shoreline too brushy. We ducked to hide for a couple more cars that were together, on the way out.

Back on the decommissioned road, I stopped to check Sage for ticks and I found a little black one on her coat, it was then that I noticed a black and red one on my pants leg.  I flicked the ticks off.  That was all the ticks I found but Sage is sure to have more than that.  One jumped off her at home and landed on my kids phone.  I guess the heat coming off my kids phone attracted the tick.  Sage soaked in pyrethrum now and she needs her summer haircut.

6 miles with a little elevation gain