Haven Lake in Simpson / Green Diamond Wasteland

Skokomish Valley

Haven Lake is on Simpson / Green Diamond land.  I’ve been wondering how to get to Haven Lake for a while now, and I’ve tried to drive to it twice with no luck. Today I finally decided to really figure out where this lake was. I was feeling a bit out of sorts this morning, and I was not in much of a mood to hike today, but I had to go today if I was going to go at all this week, because my kids are on half days for the rest of the week.
I started my hike at the end of a dead end road off of the Simpson 800 line, outside of Matlock. I had been down this road before and I remembered that something on this road had abruptly turned me around. I forgot exactly what it was though.

Old railroad tracks

abandoned train bridge

This road is an old rail line, some rails are still there, with trees growing up between them and a well preserved rail bridge is still in place on this road.  

As I approached what I knew was going to be the end of the road, I wondered what I would find. What was it that had forced me to turn around in that spot before? There was dirt mound blocking my view of what ever was at the end of the road.  What was on the other side of this, I wondered to myself? Was it a sheer drop off? Was it a wall of forest?




What is at the end of this road?

 
Nope, it was neither of those things . So what did I find there? 

I found helicopter landing pad. Yep, a helicopter landing pad. What a thing to find out in the middle of nowhere!  The pad has not yet been used, I assume that when it is used it will be used to fly in a new bridge and then when the new bridge is installed the entire area will be clear-cut.   Too bad, its a pretty forest here.

The helicopter pad was at an intersection with a big logging road, upon seeing that road I remembered, it was logging trucks rumbling up and down that road that turned me back at this spot before. There were no logging trucks out today, and the hills were silent other than the sounds of rain and gunfire, so I kept going down the road where I had been turned back before.

After a bit I realized I was not on the road that the GPS wanted me to be on, I was actually 700 feet (in elevation) below where the GPS thought I should be. I did not want to bushwhack up 700 feet of thick second growth forest, so I was not sure if I was going to make it to the lake on this route. But I kept going, because the road I was on was going the right direction, even if it was too low. In about ½ mile I found an intersection that headed straight up in the direction I needed to go to get to the lake.

A snow plow has been here

It was 3 miles to the lake and I was feeling a bit out of sorts,  it was foggy and raining, I was surrounded by stumps , there were no views, and I kept thinking about the time my Jeep got hit by a logging truck not far from where I was parked today.

 I knew I was on a main road and maybe another logging truck would come down the road, so I did not wear my MP3 player, because I needed to hear if any trucks were coming. So why didn’t I just drive down this gargantuan logging road?  Because it’s locked off, like most of the other roads in the area. I don’t think that Simpson wants people out there playing at Haven Lake or on the South end of the Vance creek bridge. But it’s ok to hike out there.

After a few miles of slogging down the logging road in the fog, I reached the lake. Yay! I found the lake. The lake is pretty and it even has a couple of old growth trees on its shores. But, Bubba and friends have been to the lake so there was a lakeside campsite filled with broken glass, toilet paper and empty beer cans. Oh well, it was still a pretty lake. I sat near the lake and nibbled on my lunch while brewing a cup of tea. While I was eating the sun came out and I cheered up a little bit.

Tree Grows out of Log in Middle of Lake.  Carbon goes into tree, not air!

Dual culverts for the outlet stream

Campsite with Bubba signs

After about 20 minutes, I headed back home without doing much exploring of the lake. The lakeshore was too steep to walk around.. On the way back the clouds started to part and I was startled by the views that I had missed on the way up. I found a really good view of the Vance Creek Bridge, the surrounding hills and the Skokomish Valley. Seeing this view cheered me up and made me want to come back and explore this area again. I sat at the view point for about 15 minutes, soaking up the views and taking pictures. As soon as I got up my right ankle flopped over fairly hard, and it still hurts.

Looking down on the Vance Creek Bridge

Vance Creek Bridge, Clear-cut hill and Skokomish Valley

I got back to my car at about 2:30 and I made it home before the kids. All in all not too bad of a day, I hope my ankle feels better tomorrow.

6.5 miles with 700 feet elevation gain

Old Growth Stump

Simpson Wasteland

Big Creek Snowshoe

Just a quick trip up to the overlook and back.  Made it home before the kids!   100% chance of precip today but I saw none of it.  I did get a bit wet from melting snow falling off trees.  My ankle did not flop at all but my knee is sore.  My knee does not like pounding, too many trips up and down Mount Rose I guess.

I put my snowshoes on at the start of the Ellinor connector trail, and I was very glad to have packed them.  They might not have been needed but they certainly made the hike easier.

7 miles
1,700 feet elevation gain

Copper Creek Trail Attempt

Nice new handrails on the Copper Creek trail thanks to the Mount Rose Trail crew

I wanted to get up high enough to get into the snow and out of the rain. Well I succeeded on getting into the snow.  Wow, there was so much snow!   I had to turn around before I reached the loop because route finding was getting to difficult and the snow was getting too icy.  My GPS does not work well in the valley this trail goes through, so it was no help; in fact I think it misled me a bit!    I reached about 2,600 feet, but I never did get out of the rain.  Patches and I both got soaked today!  It never stopped raining.  I only took a five minute lunch break because Patches was shivering.  Maybe I need to get her a coat to wear on these hikes.  I did not realize how cold I was until I got home.  Every layer I had on was soaked!  I even managed to soak my spare "dry" socks inside of my pack!

Ah well, at least I kept my camera dry.  Silly me, I packed my heavy DSLR and external flash all the way up there with me.  I really was hoping to reach some dry snow, where I could take pictures.   There were lots of little waterfalls on the road next to Lake Cushman and the Skokomish river is flooding nicely.

It feels good to be home and dry!  My legs are aching so I know I got a good work out.

It was about 6 miles with about 2,000 feet elevation gain.    Four of those six miles were on snowshoes in sloppy snow.    The snow ate one of my snow-baskets and I had to do some digging to get it out.  Note to self: carry and extra snow basket.  I had to do a lot of tricky foot work today and  I fell to my knees several times. I  also tweaked my right ankle in every possible direction.  Three of the times that I tweaked my ankle were painful, but my ankle does not hurt now.  I hope that I built up some ankle strength and did not do any permanent damage.

When I first got to the trail head I was surprised to find two trucks parked there.  No one can park at the trail head without a key. It turned out that the Mount Rose Trail crew was up there hard and work making handrails.   Those guys are my hero's!   One of the crew members recognized me as Mossy Mom.  Another member warned me of a steep snow bank where I dare not slip unless I wanted to fall into the river.

I found that snow bank all right, plus several other hazards.   Then on the drive home the wind started howling and a stick came down and hit my windshield. Yep, me and Patches had quite an adventure today.

The GPS said I went nine miles, but it was not working well in the valley with the barometric pressure changing fast.  So I'm guessing on my mileage. My legs felt like they went closer to 14 miles, but I think I only went 6 miles.

I've been home about an hour and a half and I'm still cold!

6 miles
2,000 feet elevation gain

Today's track log is in red, it's not very accurate, the track points that are way off the trail have nothing to do with where I went.  The blue track is the real trail.  It looks like I missed the turn to start going up.

Where oh where, is the trail?

I don't normally have to duck to go under this tree

Snow hat on a tree

My snowshoe tracks

Cold and wet dog ready to go home

Nirada Falls

My class ended with a field trip to Mount Rainier.  Hiking with other people was really different for me.  The hike was tediously slow, but that gave me ample time to take pictures and the company was good.    The camp robber jays up there were much more aggressive than I am accustomed to.

The snow conditions were very nice. I enjoyed hiking in such dry snow.  I might go up there again on my own, but it's a long drive.

It was  a bit cloudy, but we got a good view of Pinnacle Peak and some other local views.

 We did a fun glissade at the end of the hike.

4 miles
600 feet elevation gain

Poles and shoes

Shoes

River

Trailhead

Camprobber Jay

Pinnacle Peak

pretty pointy tree

Sick as a dog on the Dosewallips

The road ends here

I woke up at 5am with a headache and could not fall back to sleep until after I got up (about 6am) and took some aspirin.  Then I had to get up again at 7:30 to get my little one off to school.  After getting the little one off to school I then had to decide if I should hike. I felt too ill to hike, (fever, headache, lightheaded and with the runs) but I could not pass up the opportunity to get out, so I went anyway. Even though I did not have a migraine and actually have some sort of cold or flu, I stopped in Hoodsport and bought some migraine medicine.  That medicine, some positive thoughts and a cup of coffee enabled to me to hike in spite of being ill.

I reached the “trailhead” at about 11:00 and made it to the ranger station by 1:00. I felt good hiking, but the second I sat down for lunch I felt terrible. It’s interesting how moving makes me feel better when I’m ill. I took a short lunch because I was worried about being so ill 5.5 miles into the “backcountry” all alone, on a weekday. I was also nervous at my lunch stop because I discovered that my first aid kit was not in my backpack and my personal becon was not working so had I left it in my car.  All those things together could have added up to disaster, but they did not.

My lunch spot with the Dosewallips trailhead sign in the back right

I headed back for the car at about 1: 20 and finished my hot lunch-time tea as I walked. I walked slowly and carefully on the way back so I would not injure myself with my nervousness. My perception was certainly a bit altered today because I was ill. I saw quite a few things that I had never noticed before, such as electric insulators on a tree and a huge dip in the paved road on the way to the trail head.

I met a local on the trail when I was about about a mile from my car, he had a Cajun accent and he said that he has invented a perpetual motion machine and once he gets a shed built he will start working on making his machine. He had an interesting dog with one blue eye and another eye that was half blue and half brown.  The local said that he sees a certain kind of wild life at the campground all the time.  I won't say what the wildlife is becasue I don't want hunters to be able to google on it.


Speaking of wildlife, I saw a giant heron lift up out of the riverbed when I was hiking in.

I got back to my car at about 45 minutes before sunset.

I drove home very carefully, immediately pulling over to let all tailgaters go by, I was too ill to cope with being dazzled by headlights and I know the drive home is statistically the most dangerous part of any hike. I had to stop and put some water (from constance creek)  in my car at Triton Cove because two lights on my dash were blinking. While I was putting the water in, I noticed that the overflow tank says my car needs some kind of special coolant. I never noticed that before, I guess I should find out what that is about and quit topping my car up with water.

I ran up a nice calorie deficit today and now I’m going to go to bed early. I wonder how I will feel in the morning after ignoring my body and hiking in spite of being ill?

My bad ankle did not flop over at all today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11 miles 1,100 feet elevation gain

It's the next morning and I feel pretty good, in fact I am less ill than I was yesterday.  But I am sore from my hike.

other times I have blogged this hike

Jan 09, 2011
Jan 29, 2010
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Wednesday, December 27, 2006


11 miles with
1,100 feet elevation gain

This campground is getting wilder by the week

The road is giving way here because a tree on the bank just fell

Mossy Rock

Insulators that I never noticed before

Contance Lake TH... maybe someday..

Constace Creek

This is the road!

Ten MPH sign is getting funnier all the time