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

Mount Lincoln Way Trail

Decided to head up to Big Log without the dog.  Dog’s are not allowed in the National Park.  Kind of dreaded my decision the night before.  Such a long boring hike in a tunnel and I knew I would be tired and hurting at the end.  So why do it?  It felt nostalgic.  I kept thinking of the one winter my mother came to visit for Christmas and the hike I did while she was visiting.  4 stream in the snow and I lost the trail not knowing it crossed the stream.   My mother is dead now and the visit did not end on a good note, so mixed feelings, but mostly just wish she was still alive.

A song from Rudolph and the Island of the misfit toys came on my radio just as I reached staircase.  The movie was playing a lot in my home during that Christmas visit from my mother.

I’ve been wanting to go up the Mount Lincoln way trail for a while but never was in good enough shape to deal with the elevation gain last year.  But now my iron stores are up and I can tackle the hills again.  Still the snow level was low.  Was beginning to think I might need snowshoes just to make to big log.

Hit the trail at 9am, that is a respectably early start for me.  The snow was melting, should I go up the Mount Lincoln way trail instead?  I read that the views were good and it was a wonderful sunny  day.  I made up my mind to change my mind.

The trail was very easy to follow at first, even in the snow.  Views opened up pretty quickly too thanks to the Beaver Fire.  These view s will not last though as the trees grow back.  I made it up to 2,000 feet before I lost the trail.  I had a little family of deer breaking the trail for me but then I lost their tracks.

Just before the going was about to get rough I took a long coffee break.  During my break trees kept throwing snowballs at me.  I was lucky that they did not knock over my coffee.

Trees throwing snowballs at me

I was pretty sure that there was a switch back where I lost the trail but the way was just not clear and for whatever reason I was starting to feel a bit spooked.  Perhaps my coffee break at a view point was to blame. 

The views were great, the sun was out and I had  lots of fun in the snow.  My feet stayed perfectly dry in my La Sportiva boots.  Gortex boots do keep my feet dry if they are well made and don’t leak.  My Solomon brand Gore-Tex boots and shoes were all leaky and horrible.

I will go back this summer maybe and see how high I can get up that trail before it becomes too technical.  Need to hurry and get up there a few times before the trees grow back and the views are gone.  Always nice to find a “new” trail in such an old place.     

I would have gone up that trail a long time ago if I had known it was so easy to follow.

7 miles with 1,500 feet elevation gain.

coffee break

Lost the trail near here

log hidden under snow is the trail

Grisdale Hill Crawling with Ticks YUCK

Why does this gate say private property when it's on forest service land?
Green Diamond land actually starts 1/4 of a mile behind the gate.

 I went up Grisdale Hill with my daughter, for probably the last time today.  The once lovely view is now gone due to the trees growing on the east flank of the viewpoint. 

It's an Okay workout and it's close to home and the view was once very,  nice.  Now it's just a work out close to home with no view and the place is infested with ticks in the spring.

When I reached the summit I was afraid to sit because it looked like it could be a tick area.   Then I found a tick on my leg.  Then I looked at Patches and found she was crawling with ticks! 

With the summit infested with ticks and no view, we opted to skip tea and head right back down to the car.

 Patches has been treated with flea and tick shampoo and has been exiled to the back yard until I can get her groomed.  The shampoo bottle said it takes 1-2 days to kill the ticks and we can't risk my spouse being bit and getting a tick born disease.

The minute we got home my daughter and I went straight to the laundry room and put all our clothes in the washing machine, then we went into the bathroom and took a shower together and checked each other for ticks.  We were tick free.

We had thought about drinking here
before Patches did this!

After our shower we found three ticks crawling on the laundry room floor!  They must have come in on our clothes.

My daughter lagged behind me all the way up but she stayed right with me all the way down.

4 miles round trip with 1,000 feet elevation gain