Smoked out on Mount Rose

Over-ripe chicke of the woods

I left my house at 9:05 and we met up at 9:15.  As soon as I left I realized that the socks I wore for this hike were not long enough to be comfortable under my ankle brace.   I also remembered I had taken the socks out of the shoulder straps of my GGG pack.  So we stopped at the only store in the county and I bought two pairs of socks.  My pack holds socks in the shoulder pads.  This saves a bit of weight and uses the sock for two purposes.  I’ve been using this pack for a few years now and I’m quite happy with it.  But I wonder if it is wearing out?  It does not hold the weight as well as it used to.  Maybe it is sagging?  I had to sew the metal frame into place, it’s held with Velcro so it can be removed but the Velcro got dirty and quit working so I just sewed it into place.

We hit the trail at about 10:30, the dirt road to staircase is in great shape and I had no trouble doing the speed limit in my little car.  One person pulled in behind us, but the mobs of idiots seem to have left for the summer.  We only saw one other person on the trail.  There is still a lot of toilet paper and garbage on the mountain but I could tell that most of it had been removed.  The Mount Rose trail crew cut out a few logs and covered up some illegal fire pits.  I could see no sign of the big trashy fire that some idiot had on the meadow at 4,000 feet.  Fires are not allowed above 3,500 feet in the Olympics.   The trail crew also had to do some work where folks have been cutting switchbacks.

There was a fresh fire pit ON the summit rock... WTF??  There were signs of another fire pit in the middle of the trail much lower down and garbage strewn all around it.  There were several spots where the herds had been cutting switchbacks.  But the Mount Rose trail crew fixed it all up.  I wonder what they thought when the saw the mess up there.  Hoards of idiots descended on Mount Rose this summer because the Forest Service closed the nearby Ellinor trail and failed to put up a closure sign.  So people drove all the way in to the dirt roads before they found out the trail was closed.  Why can’t the forest service put up signs out on highway 101?  Also why those goats can’t be removed or shot?

Anyway we summited at about 2 and stayed on the rock until about 3 when the only other person we saw that day arrived.  She was a young German woman who was travelling.  Germans sure get around.  I wish I had been that brave when I was young.

The view from the summit was poor due to forest fire smoke coming in and filling up the valley from the East.  I wonder where all that smoke came from?

Very smoky view

The mountain through the smoke

 The trip down took just as long as the trip up because I was hiking with someone who is just starting to get into shape.  Because we hiked down so slow I noticed a few things that I don’t normally see such as a possible eagles nest.

The trail was very dry thanks to the summer drought.  I think it was the driest I have ever seen it.  The weather was pleasant, it felt like about 70 degrees F at the top.

When we got back to the car we found that while we were out hiking the outhouse had been removed.  Summer is over, thank goodness for that!  I feel pretty good today, I’m sure I could have done another 1,000 feet in elevation gain, so next week I’m going to tackle something a bit more challenging. 

6.3 miles 3,200 feet elevation gain

 

 

Bridge over dry creek

More Chicken of the woods

Mouth of Dry Creek.. the lake level is starting to go down

One of my favorite forests

German visitor on the top.  The Hoodsport Visitor Center told her to hike Rose

The old horse camp for the Mount Rose Lodge

Strange growth on this Vanilla leaf

Air qaulity was bad

Tree at the summit



 

Burnt Cars at the Duckabush Trail Head

Rainbow touches the Hood Canal at Triton Cove on the drive home

We met at 9am and headed for the trail head.  I guess we reached the trail at about 10.  I felt a bit dissociated all day long so I'm not too typeative tonight.

We were surprised to see the shell of a burnt out car at the trailhead.  Then I remembered reading something about several cars having been torched there.  There seems to be a spree of vehicle arsons in Jefferson County, maybe this was related.  When I got home I googled on arson and Duckabush and came up with the blog of a person who beloged to the burnt out car. 

The hike in was uneventful other than finding a couple of lobster mushrooms and some tiny chanterelle buttons that were not worth picking.  We did not find Big Hump proper so we turned around just as the trail started to go downhill.

The WTA did a lot of trail work here to open this up after lasts years’ fire.  I did not see any fire morels, I guess they only come up in the spring and this trail was closed in the spring.

We got back to our parking spot at about 6:30 we only saw four other people on the trail. 

8.5 miles with 1,500 feet elevation gain. 

 It felt longer, I think I’m coming down with my first illness of the school year. 

Basidia.. wow mushroom microscopy seems easier after six months of moss microscopy.. Maybe, just maybe I can do a gill cross section now. The nice thing about shrooms is that you can squash the heck out of them. You don't even need a razor blade, just a good eraser and smooch the fungi between the cover slip and the slide as hard as you can with a big white eraser without breaking the coverslip.. I think thise might be rather big basidia as this is only at 400x.. This is from an unidentified toothed fungi.

Not a good place to park it seems

Patches

Color me stupid

Ranger Bruce was here

way too much horse poop on the trail

Jeff in the picture for scale

"Bonfire moss" Funaria hygrometrica

The last green area before the burn

Grand Ridge

My GPS(r) battery was dead.  I think I went about 5 miles with about 300 feet elevation gain.

Landscape

Crowded trailhead

Pink edged mushroom

Bryoria and Usnea lichens

Hawk flower

Letharia columbiana

Swarms of yellow jackets on Copper Creek

I’m juggling with my needs for exercise and my kids needs to get ready to go back to school this week.  I left the house without breakfast so I could get a quick start so I could be back in time to do stuff for the kids.  I think I made it to the causeway at about 9am.  It felt a bit strange for me to wander off into the solitude and silence after living in the chaos of Panama City for 20 days.  I was a tiny bit creeped out, but I got over it quickly.

 I found that the washout near the trail head has been repaired and now crews are working on the washout at elk creek.  Copper Creek was completely dry at the trail head and at the bridges.  It was looking like I was going to be thirsty and I was thinking of turning back when I heard water.  Water emerges after the bridges but well before the trail heads up.

I made it to the top at about noon and spent about 20 minutes taking in the tiny view before I headed back down. 

On the way up and down I found baby Western Toads  (Anaxyrus boreas) where the trail runs next to the river.  There were many, many baby toads.  I’ve never seen this before.  Copper Creek must be the breeding area for Western Toads.

Anaxyrus boreas Two sitting on my hand and one in mid jump

 

I wished I had read the trail head register before I started so I would have known about the yellow jacket nest at the first bridge.  On the way up we had no problems with yellow jackets but on the way down we had serious yellow jacket trouble.

First I got stung, no big deal, I’ve been stung plenty of times and I felt a bit lucky to have only been stung once.  After I got stung I quickened our pace but at some point I stopped and noticed that Patches face was crawling with yellow jackets.  I was horrified.  My poor puppy!  I tried to brush them off her with my trekking poles but that did not work at all.  Next I tried to brush them off with a stick but they kept falling off and then landing on her face again.  So I started smashing them against Patches face with a stick. The smashed yellow jackets fell off and probably died.  That finished we resumed our hike, I could not tell if Patches had been stung or not, but I kept a close eye on her.  Then I noticed that Patches had a yellow jacket attached to her rear so I stopped and kill it. 

Then about ¼ of a mile later a yellow jacket tried to sting my shoulder but my shirt prevented it.  I still felt it try though.  I brushed that wasp off and thought it was all over. But then some large buzzing creature started to circle me.  It could have been a horsefly, but it also could have been a yellow jacket, so I swatted at it with some brush until it went away.

I still can’t tell if Patches got stung or not.  She never yelped and she seems fine now, so maybe her double coat of hair protected her.   I’m not sure what is worse, the swarms of people on Mount Rose with the Ellinor trail being closed, or the swarm of yellow jackets on Copper Creek.

I got home at 3pm and I feel pretty good, so I guess I did not lose too much of my conditioning while on vacation. 

6.5 miles 2,500 feet elevation gain with the added road walk thanks to the causeway bridge STILL being closed to the public after all these years..

Dyers Polypore



Car crash on 101 at Purdy Cutoff

Rhytidiopsis robustus

Start of route up Lightning Peak

My lunchtime SPOT spot

Others have been stung

 

Gas was $4.12 a gallon

Why?

Lake Cushman is still high

Simpson wood, or simpson road work?

Culvert repair, but why if they are going to leave the gate shut?