Old Growth Forest Walk

Skokomish Upper South Fork

My last hike of the summer.


Today is the Fall Equinox. I've got a cold, my knees hurt, hunters are lurking in the woods, the wildlife gates are about to slam shut, the bugs are gone, there is a chill in the air and the mushrooms are blooming.

After hurting my knee on the Church Creek Trail I had to take it easy this week and do a level hike. Deciding where to do my level hike was easy. Next week the wild life gate will close and access to the Upper South Fork Skok, Church Creek, The Dry Creek Extension and the upper end of the Dry Creek Trail will be shut down for six months. It was time to rescue that travel bug from my Upper South Fork Geocache to prevent it from being stranded there until next May!

There were more cars at the trailhead then I have ever seen here before and I soon learned why. A WTA trail crew was on the trail. They cleared the trail all the way up to six ridge pass. Thank you! Two members of the WTA crew recognized me as "Pest" on the NW Hikers forum.

I started my hike at around 9am and finished up at about 2pm. I forgot my lunch at home so I was good and hungry by the time I got home.

I hiked to startup creek then brewed my tea and turned around. Today's mileage was 8 with only 1,100 feet elevation gain. My knee did quite well and I intend to go on a tougher hike next week.

I did not see as many mushrooms as I had hoped to see but I did find a really nice "Bears head" that I took a few pictures of. I intended to pick half of it when I passed it again on the way back to the car. I was going to leave the other half so it could continue growing and sporulating.

But on my way back to my car I was horrified to discover that someone picked it. I know who must have picked it, I passed the offender just after I finished lunch. I guess she was desperate for chanterelles as every orange mushroom near the trail had been pulled up or kicked over. It was rather disappointing to see the damage she caused. But in spite of her efforts I did find some chanterelles that she missed.


My husband cooked dinner and fried up the chanterelles the moment I walked in the door. The chanterelles were nice but I really wanted to eat that bears head. Lesson learned, pick all mushrooms the first time through. I've never had this happen before so I felt safe leaving it to pick on my way back.

I had a great summer, I went on lots of fun hikes and I really got to explore the South Flank. My $1,400 Christmas Jeep ran like a top. I had a blast driving all the back roads in the Skokomish Drainage. I went on some long tough hikes and I got into really good shape.

But fall is here the high country is about to close down for the winter and the wild-life gates are about to slam shut.

Next week I go back to college. I'm going to take a course called "Temperate Rainforests" and I'll get to play in the woods every Friday as part my class work. I've already done some of the reading and I see that all my experiences hiking and cutting firewood (when I was a child) will give me an edge at the start. I already know a lot of the stuff we are going to learn the first week.

I hope you all had a nice summer too!








Chicken of the Woods



Old Growth Canopy




The Skok is small up here in the fall



Giant Red Russula
(someone kicked this over after I took the picture)



Giant Red Russula Gills



Giant Red Russula Gills. I took great efforts to take this picture
without plucking the mushroom. But someone kicked it over after I
I passed it the first time.





Brewing tea



A nice conk



Dyers Polypore




Avalanche Chute




Doug fir




Bears head that someone else picked before I did.



I was horrified, I tell you horrified to discover this where the
Bearshead had been.




Hypholoma used to be Naematoloma . . . now it's Hypholoma
This one is poison no matter what you call it




Giant Purple Cort



Mmmmmm Old Growth!



Elevation Profile



Track Log

Mount Jupiter

Today was the only day this week I could hike and I was hoping that the weather guessers were wrong, but they were right. It rained and the only view, was the one at the trail head in the morning.

I did not sleep at all the night before the hike, thanks to a large Mocha that I drank at 3:00pm the day before. I'll try not to make that mistake again.

This was a good work out and I'd like to hike it again when it is a clear day. I hiked alone and it was kinda eerie since a guy died on this trail just last week. (He was with a group for all the good it did him.) The thick fog made the forest seem a bit surreal on the way down.

I saw a bunny, lots of bannana slugs, a snail and loads of bear scat.

I spent about 20 minutes on the summit, just long enough to brew a cup of tea. With no view and the wind blowing there was no reason to linger.

4.5 hours up, 2.5 hours down, including the time I spent geocaching on the way up.

That last half mile before the summit was one of the longest half miles I've ever hiked.

I made a mistake and went up the wrong logging road at the start, but then I saw the trail down below me so I headed for it cross country. That added some up and down to my hike.

By the time I got back down to the trail head at the end of my hikd the fog was so thick that I used my GPS(r) track log to find my Jeep. (The way down was slightly different then the way up thanks me my starting on the wrong road.

My mileage was 13.2 and my total elevation gain was 4,400 feet. This trail has some ups and downs. It rates a 27 on The Hike Difficulty Calculator

I feel pretty good today. I am tired but I'm not terribly sore. I hope that I lost some weight on this hike. I only had a few handfulls of trail mix while hiking. It's 12:30 now and I've not eaten yet today because I'm too tired to cook anything.

The first 1/2 mile of the trail was logged by Pope and Talbot last summer.  Pope and Talbot left a huge mess behind.  Pope and Talbot should have cleaned up the trail when they were done savaging the forest.    The trail now starts in a cat track filled with logging debris.   






Track Log of the Drive up



Track log of the hike




Elevation profile



Morning View at the trailhead



Afternoon view at the trailhead




Benchmark at the summit

Spider Lake

I found Spider Lake, we found it before without knowing it when we were looking for the Upper South Fork Skok trail and overshot it by so much that we started seeing signs for Lake Wynoochee.

Spider Lake has a lovely old growth forest on it's shores. All the surrounding hills have been savagely logged by Simpson aka Green Diamond, but the lake has been spared.

The original trail dates back to the 1920's and there used to be a shelter there. Once upon a time (Before Simpson AKA Green Diamond) savaged the land a trail extended from the lower south fork skok trail all the way to Spider Lake and beyond. It was a 15 mile long trail but now it's only .3 of a mile. This information is in the "Olympic Mountain Trail Guide" by Robert L. Wood.

I found evidence of really old campsites there. I was struck by this lakes similarities to Lena Lake and wondered if it was formed the same way. I looked it up on the internet and learned not only was it formed the same way it was formed at the same time by the same earthquake.


http://www.geocities.com/buried_forest/ortingspiderintro.htm:
The subfossil trees in Spider Lake, below, are an example of a submerged forest. The trees were growing in the valley of a tributary to the Middle Fork Satsop River, however, about 900 years ago a large rock avalanche thundered into the valley bottom and dammed that tributary, drowning the forest, and forming Spider Lake. Spider Lake drains into Cedar Creek to the Skokomish River. The trees are preserved below the level of the lake and are exposed during times of drought. Several nearby lakes, Lower Dry Bed, Lower Lena, Elk, Jefferson Lakes, and others bear subfossil forests of this same age. The outer annual growth rings of trees at several of the sites have matching tree rings, thus indicating that the trees were killed at the same time, probably as the result of a large earthquake. One of the lakes, Price Lake, is dammed by a fault.



I walked around the lake twice, once alone and once with my tot while my husband rested near the shore.

Getting out to these backwoods location is much easier now that we have and old beater of a Jeep. I just hope we don't get stranded going so far in such an old Jeep.

The best access to this trail is at N 47° 24.854 W 123° 25.695 . To get there take FS 23 past the turn off for Upper Skok watch for the lake below the road. If you see the lake you have gone past the nicest access point, turn around and find a little unmarked road to the right the best trail head is at the end of this very short road. Here is a PDF File from the Forest Service.



900 Year old Stumps







Deer Mushroom









Slime Mold








Blueberry Bush








Track Log

Copper Creek and Shady Lane

With near record heat expected today I did something I rarely do.  I left the house at 6:20 am and started my hike at 7:10 am.  Copper Creek trail is nice and I think it will be a very good winter hike.   RT mileage 4.5 elevation gain 2,200.  The first mile is very steep.  

I finished up my hike before noon.












After that hike I had enough energy to do the 2 mile RT Shady Lane trail. I went straight up a scree slope to the forest service road above and then walked down the forest road to the Shady Lane trail end thus making a sort of a loop hike.

I found three old mine shafts on the forest service road. I want to hike or drive to the end of that road and see where Ralf the Bear used to live.

















An old trail marker tree?

Duckabush and a Tree or two or three

Spring flowers have arrived. I'm having trouble with my "A" series Canon Camera, it's a lemon. I've already had it repaired once. These are the last pictures I will upload from that camera:


Pink flowers


Out of focus slime mold on the move.


Trilliums




The Duckabush trail is tougher then it seems. With all it's up's and downs my elevation gain was 3,100 feet in 12.3 miles.



This is a lovely flat section between the two humps




With much effort I found this terracache and got 200 points for it. I was first to find on this cache that has been in place for over a year.




The Duckabush River


A fly agaric of the panther variety. Hallucinogenic!

Upper Big Creek to Lower Ellinor

Today I started out on the Upper Big Creek Trail and hiked up it to the Ellinor Connector trail and then continued on to the Lower Ellinor trailhead. from he Lower Ellinor Trailhead I walked down the road about 500 feet to an abandoned logging road that joins up with the Ellinor connector trail. I went back down the Ellinor Connector trail to the Upper Big
Creek Loop and instead of hiking right back to my car I completed the Upper Big Creek loop.



The only snow I saw was on the road that goes up to Mount Ellinor. There was no snow in the forest and I was a bit shocked to see so much snow down on the road. There were 4 cars parked at the lower Ellinor trailhead.

Kudos to the Mount Rose Trail Crew, they have been very busy on the Upper Big Creek Loop. I only had to step over one fallen tree (way up near the top of the connector trail) and there was all kinds of evidence of recent work done on this trail.

I took my lunch break at the troll bridge. The troll had a big smile on his face, it seems he found a wife last year. Now there are two trolls at the troll bridge. Normally I take my lunch break at the lake cushman overlook near the top of the Ellinor connector trail but I had no water to cook lunch with. I was very surprised to find that my usual water source was all dried up.

The forest at the Lower Trailhead (the top end of my hike) was shrouded in mist and was rather uninviting. Most people pass by the lower trailhead and start at the upper Ellinor trailhead when they summit Mount Ellinor. They miss a wonderful walk on a forested ridge by passing up the lower trail head. I think the forest on that ridge is climax old growth.

While I was walking on the short section of abandoned logging road I found one of my youngest daughter's beanie babies. It was an elephant and it must have fallen out of her jogging stroller when I took the girls up there last fall. That elephant looked good for having spent the entire winter on Mount Ellinor.

I did not pass anyone else all day long, excluding a couple of groups in the Big Creek Campground. Mileage 7.61 Elevation gain 1,800 feet.

Blogger is doing crazy things when I run the spell check that is why some of the fonts are different.