Looking for Carol Ferguson part II

Hood Canal is green again

Went back with my robotic camera to have another look at the red object I spotted with it last fall.  Could not find it this time.  I had not anticipated the trees all leafing out and blocking the view.

We went right up a creek bed rather than walking the road.  Going up the creek bed would put us on the other side of the washout and keep us from a brushy and dry road walk.  The creek was running here and there and that was a good thing since it was very hot.  Ticks are so bad this year that I'm really scared to go in the brush.

Sage stopped and drank and soaked her paws wherever the creek was flowing.  Going up the creek bed was challenging, but not bad.  We have gone up worse ones and going up the creek bed made the hike much shorter.  Getting up to the road from the creek took some planning, but we found a pretty good way to do it.

The last time we went up to this spot we saw a climber coming down the creek bed when we were on the trail.  I looked it up and saw this was the route up Mount Bretherton.  The climbers route goes up the creek to avoid the big washout.

Once on the road I manged to find a tiny spot to launch my remote camera.  I flew it all around the area and I spotted the log where the red thing had been.  I could not see anything on the scene or when I got home to review my footage.  I have no real reason to believe that Carol ever went up the road, just a nagging urge to double check it.

Based on the ribbons that SAR left behind the search for Carol was extensive.  My best guesses as to her where abouts are either she fell into Boulder Creek even though the trail never goes near the creek, or she wandered even further off trail than SAR searched.  Poor carol.

If I go missing on a trail at the age of 83, don't grieve for me.  Know that I died doing what I loved.   I hope that Carol was not suffer too much.  I hope that she is found someday.  I know that there are rumors that she was getting senile and pehaps she wanted to avoid becoming senile and opted to die in the woods.

I will upload raw video footage for folks to look at.  Also all of my photos of the area we explored are here:  https://flic.kr/s/aHskA5Kb7c  .  Some photos were over exposed on purpose to try to bring out the shadows.

There were no ticks on this hike inspite of all the brush we brushed up against.  I'm thinking ticks are more prevalent from Staircase and south of staircase.  I had a horrible experience with lots of ticks in Shelton on a power line last week.  I did not get bit but I flicked one off myself and lost count of how many I flicked off of Sage.  One bit Sage.    This was on the power line above Lake Isabella.  I hope those horses are protected.

2 miles with 1,000 feet elevation gain

Phil locked his keys in the ignition and used the tools he had on hand to get his
car door open.  I knew there was no way he was going to call a locksmith

Trees have leafed out now

View from the washed out road

We had to go up and down here

Mossy mom pack version 3.0 still going strong, I love everything about it

Going down is alway harder than going up

Our route today

Phil goes caving near parking

Hamma Hamma River on the drive home

Hamma Hamma River on the drive home

Searching for Carol Fergusion near the Putvin Trail

Parking next to the Hamma Hamma River

83 year old Carol Ferguson has been missing since mid September.  She looks familiar to me, perhaps because she was a Monday Hiker and I have hiked with the Monday Hikers a few times.  I can't keep up with their pace, so I don't go with them very often.  

"We're so laid back, we laugh at our mistakes," says Carol Ferguson of Bremerton, one of the youngsters of the group at 59. "It's the most fun group I've ever been with."

Monday Hikers "laid back"?  Maybe they are laid back at lunch time.

Perhaps I've seen her on the streets of  Bremerton too:  Carol Ferguson knows what rots the teeth and brains of Bremertonians.


I had an intuition that told me Carol Ferguson wandered off of the Putvin trail and onto the old road that crosses the trail.  

  I’m not psychic, I’m not even sure if that is a thing, but I could not shake my intuition about this familiar looking woman.   I asked search and rescue of Mason County if they had searched that road and they refused to tell me.  They said they could not comment on an open case and that I should call the Bremerton police department.

 I never called the Bremerton police.

It seemed like the snow levels were low enough to search the old road, so I asked Phil to go search the road with me.  Who wants to go on a search like this alone?  Phil was up for it of course.  He loves going on adventures off the beaten path.

There was more snow on the drive in than I expected.  I had to park ¼ of a mile from the Putvin trail along with a bunch of other cars.  The days of finding sweet solitude on the Putvin trail are gone.  The Lena Lake crowd has arrived.  The fragile meadow is getting stomped to death; this makes me sad.

I was early, so I flew my camera a bit searching up and down the Hamma Hamma river next to the road.  If Carol had fallen into the river maybe there would be some sign.

Phil arrived and we headed for the trailhead.  We saw search and rescue flags (SAR from here on in this blog post).  SAR had done a grid search.  We could tell by the flags and by the week that I spent training to be in SAR years and years ago.  I never finished my training because they started charging for the training.  I think they have changed that policy since and the training is free again.

The snow on the road was nasty, we were post holing about every four to five steps.  Miserable.  We searched the woods opposite the trail head first, in case Carol had never made it to the trail and because the area is pretty.  I found an old memorial marker that I could not read.  The writing was too faded.

We then looked at the SAR ribbons on the road some more.  They all seemed to be dated 11/18, I did not realize that they had searched that recently.  My understanding from reading the news articles was that they only searched for four days.

 So up the trail we went and there was less snow than on the road, so the going was easy other than the steepness of the trail.  When we got to the old road the snow was nasty again with intermittent post holing.  It was not bad enough for snowshoes, but it was bad.

The old road walk

I was leading the way and before we rounded a certain corner I told Phil, the spot where my intuition tells me she was, is just around the corner.  I braced myself a tiny bit just in case my intuition was right.

A snow and debris avalanch across the old road

We rounded the corner and we found a gaping ravine where the road had washed away.  There was a rope going down into the ravine and another rope going up the other side.  There was a creek in the ravine.

It felt it was too dangerous to continue on those ropes.  Did Carol hike this old road and try to go up and down that rope?  Did Carol even hike on this road?  No way to know.  

Phil was fine with going up and down the ropes, but I was not.  I would want a harness and crampons for that job.  The rope was so skinny, I’m sure my hands and arms would get tired and maybe I would lose my grips and fall backwards into the 30 foot deep ravine.

A much smaller ravine on the trail

I pulled my flying camera from my pack and scoured the creek bed as best I could.  It is not easy to fly a camera in a ravine, if  my flying camera lost its GPS signal in the ravine it would crash, so I kept my camera mostly above the trees tops. 

I control my flying camera with just a little phone screen and it is hard to see any details until I get my footage home and look at it on my computer.

Just down from where the ravine took out the road, I did see something on the footage.  It is probably just a bit of wood and not a red backpack.  I wish I had a clearer picture.  Should I go back and risk my flying camera by trying again or should I call the Bremerton police and potentially waste their time?

Here is the photo:

It’s not clear if that is anything.

Since  we had hit a dead end we had lunch and then packed up and headed back.  On the way back we ran into a climber who had just summited Bretherton!  He was coming down a ravine that was right next to the ravine where we had to turn back.  He had avoided the awful roped up ravine by going straight up the ravine next to it instead.

The climber looked absolutely exhausted.  What an insane route he took to climb Bretherton and apparently he was solo?  Saner climbers normally go up Bretherton via Upper Lena Lake.

When we got back down to the main road we walked up the valley a bit to try to find the ravine where it met the road.  The ravine has no water it where it must meet the road and we could not really find it.   The water must go underground before it reaches the road.

I would like to check out the ravine where it crosses the old road on the switchback that is nearly parallel to the switchback in the trail.  We did not walk that section of the road because we were sick of post holing in the snow.

We did not find anything,  but we had a good hike and my  nagging intuition is gone.

only 5 miles with 1,000 feet elevation gain but I am really sore this morning.  Intermittent Post holing took it out of me.

On the way home I got stuck on 101 where a tree had fallen across the road.  When 101 is closed there is no real way around it and it can be closed for hours.  

 I don't like sitting in long traffic jams and breathing in exhaust fumes, so whenever I get stuck on 101 now, I leave the line and go relax somewhere until the road is open.

I went back to Hoodsport and hung out at the library parking lot until the road opened.  I used the library wifi, brewed a coffee and ate some yummy survival rations while I waited.  The parking lot has a great view of 101 so I knew right way when the road was open again.

Hamma Hamma

The ravine where we had to stop.  We are in this photo.

Same ravine but up stream from the road

Ravine where it crosses the old upper closed road

SAR ribbons on the FS 25 road

We did not enter the wilderness at all,
we were below the wilderness at all times.

One of the first people to perish on this trail

Sage was a real PITA at lunch time howling for more and more food 

A wild cherry tree

Someone lost their glove on the FS 25 road.

LOTA Fall Colors

Used to be able to come here for solitude and now it is a freaking zoo.  Another nice place getting loved to death.  ONP is going to need to enforce quotas and a reservation system in this fragile habitat.

I won't come back here on a weekend ever again.  All of Seattle seems to know about it now.  I felt like I was at Serene Lake or Lake 22.    I won't be naming this lake or trail ever again on my blog or in trip reports.

14 miles RT with 5,300 feet elevation gain

LOTA foggy

Lake of the Angels

We headed back up the Putvin trail for a second time this year.  The first time was to help get us in shape for Mount Adams.  This time was so we could see the lake when it is not covered in snow.

Another hike that Patches was not allowed to go on.  In all the years I hiked with her, I only cheated twice and for a total of about two miles.  Not bad.  Both times I cheated where when the hike started in the forest and I forgot that it ended in the Park, so even those were not planned.

We hit the trail at 10:10 and made it to the lake by 2.  We spent a fair amount of time taking pictures and eating berries.

The lake was totally socked in with fog.  This was a lot of effort for no view.  Up high the flowers were blooming while fog was settling in all around.  It felt like two season's had collided.  Fall fog with spring flowers.

We made it out shortly before sunset.  We have to increase our speed or start hiking earlier in the morning as the days are getting shorter.

The second headwall climb is a bit more treacherous than it used to be.  Part  of a long tree root that used to aid climbers has broken off leaving very little to hold on to.

We parked at the old road since we both think it is pretty and we appreciate the gentle grade.

7 miles round trip with 3,600 feet elevation gain.  That's steep.

Termites were busy adding to this pile of sawdust

Climbinb up the headwall