Cascades

Frog Mountain and the Upper Beckler Watershed

Oct 26

Having studied the weather forecasts, Saturday was projected to be a dry day as a lull between storm systems. The snow level would also drop so I figured some early snowfall shots might be in order. During my visit last week, I noticed a mountain just east of Jacks Pass which had red tinted meadow slopes near the summit. The mountain is named Frog Mountain and, from looking at maps, it could be scaled halfway on a series of abandoned logging roads.

On my way to Jacks Pass, I could see that portions of the very top did have fresh snow and the weather seemed to be clearing out more. I was hoping that some visual navigation would be possible once the old roadway faded away. The first challenge was finding the entry point of the road. From Jacks Pass, the old road begins clearly but that leads to a huge open area littered with way too much target practice debris- shell casings, clay pigeons.

This made me very nervous because I didn’t want to be heading back only to be BEHIND some people firing guns. Anyways, I found the entry point which had grown over, making it less obvious. Once on the old road, however, it was still fairly well defined. Young alders are filling in the road surface but the going isn’t too bad. Without signage, some decisions had to be made at a few of the road spurs but I made good time along the road section.

I reached what I decided was the end of the road in short order but was not encouraged by what I saw. Above me, the more mature forest above the regenerating clearcut I was in was pretty thick, and there was no direct line of sight to the upper slopes. Being alone and without my GPS, I thought better of continuing. After that decision, I did spy a road spur that continued further upslope. I determined that one spur dead ends in a clearcut but the second spur is promising. I will have to check it out some other time.

I made it back down fairly quickly and still had most of the afternoon so I explored some of the other Forest Service roads in the area. Always good to know what’s out there for future pursuits!

The next storm system starting making its appearance in the late afternoon and on my way home, I across two rainbows at two different locations. Pretty cool!..

Rapid River

Oct 25

I wanted to do some additional exploration of the Beckler River area so I headed towards the Rapid River road. Surprisingly, the wonderful fall colors of last weekend were largely gone. In a week’s time, lots of leaves fell and those that remained had morphed into more faded colors.

Soggy Cascades

Oct 19

Despite the 100% certainly of rain, I ventured into the Cascades for a forest hike. The heart of the Central Cascades and the end of Forest Service Road 63 is what attracted my attention. At the end of that road are several trailheads: West Cady Ridge, North Fork Skykomish River, and Quartz Creek. Of those options, I decided on Quartz Creek after some research on the web. The normal access to this area is provided by the Index-Galena Road near the town of Index (also identified as Forest Service Road 63) but an alternate route is now required due to the 2006 flood damage.

Access is now achieved via the Beckler River Road (Forest Service Road 65) which goes up and over Jack Pass (2,000 feet) and then intersects FS Rd 63. This was my first visit to this area and it’s simply amazing. Fall color is now really taking off all along the Beckler River as well as the upper North Fork Skykomish River valley and the road is in really great shape. In what seemed like short order, I arrived at the trio of trailheads.

I was surprised by the absence of rain at the trailhead. After gearing up, I headed out on the trai, which was also in great shape. The Quartz Creek trail makes its way up the valley towards Curry Gap, a distance of about 4.5 miles. Not too long after starting, the rain began and alternated between stronger and lighter cells.

During my research, one of the trip reports I read mentioned a log which was large enough and hallowed out that it allowed someone to get inside of it. After finding it along the trail, I decided to get in for a photo opportunity:

I pushed further along on the trail and was taking some additional photos when thunder and lightning made an appearance. It was loud and it was close so I immediately packed up and scampered back to the trailhead. Since I had some extra time, I looked a little closer at the surroundings as I headed home. I was so impressed by what I saw, I returned the next day to take more photos (which I’ll post later this week).

Elliott Creek

Sep 07

Washington’s weather has settled back into its normal pattern- sunny weekdays and cloudy/rainy weekends. Plan A was thwarted once again by the weather so I had to find a Plan B. Given the 100% chance of rain, I tried to keep in the forest and at lower elevation. After rejected a few options, I settled on returning to the Goat Lake Trail off of the Mountain Loop Highway. I had hiked this trail many years ago and remembered that it paralleled Elliott Creek for much of the way to Goat Lake. It seemed like the best option given the 100% chance of rain.

The trail to Goat lake is five miles long and actually has two options- an upper trail and a lower trail. The upper trail follows a decommissioned road while the lower trail follows Elliott Creek. About halfway in, both trails merge and continue onward to Goat Lake. On this day, I focused just on the lower trail and Elliot Creek. It gradually gains elevation as you head up valley and always stays within earshot of the creek. A nice added bonus is that the forest along the lower trail is very diverse and lush, offering even more to look at.

On this particular day, it rained steadily the entire time and both myself and my camera gear got drenched. Thankfully, Pentax makes cameras and lenses that are built to take these kind of conditions! As these outings tend to go for me, the destination wasn’t as important as the trail to it so I only managed to make it a fraction of the way in towards Goat Lake.

Return to Cougar Divide

Aug 22

With my abbreviated trip earlier in the week, I decided to take advantage of it by heading back to Cougar Divide to wait for sunset. I thought the coming low pressure system might bring in some clouds to add some flavor and interest for sunset. The pending storm system actually traveled quicker than I had expected and left me with mostly gray skies for sunset. I had the entire ridge to myself this evening with the notable exception of mosquitoes. I was somewhat surprised to discover that the bugs on Cougar Divide were just as ferocious this evening as they were during my last visit several weeks ago. This is definitely one of the buggiest locations I’ve visited here in the Pacific Northwest..

Failure at Lost Creek Ridge

Aug 21

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Plans don’t always come together like you intend. For me, I had planned on a five day exploration of the five mile long Lost Creek Ridge within the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Subalpine meadows, lakes and constant views of Glacier Peak sounded like a great combination for photography. It stands to reason that you have to GAIN the ridge to enjoy these sights. Several years ago, I day hiked up to the ridge so I already had some familiarity with the trail and what to expect.

The trail starts at 1800′ in the North Fork Sauk River Valley and, for the first half mile, affords a very rich forest understory. Water is common during the first half mile but only early in the season (bone dry during my trip). After the first half mile, the switchbacks begin and just don’t seem to stop. The steepest portion of the ascent does end with your arrival at Bingley Gap, a forested ridgeline 3 miles in at 4400 feet.

From Bingley Gap, additional switchbacks and 500 vertical feet finally reward you with your first unobstructed views of the Sauk River Valley. Leaving the forest, the trail contours the steep slopes and enters the subalpine meadows. About five miles in from the trailhead, you reach a fork in the trail which leads you to Round Lake, a beautiful lake tucked away in a bowl below the ridge. Excellent camping exists at the lake but they must be accessed by a steep 0.7 mile long trail down into the bowl.

My plan was to access the ridge on day one, hike across to the east end on day two, spend day three exploring the area around Lake Byrne, hike back across the ridge for day four and then hike out on day five. Forecasts called for sunny conditions (including a brief warm up during the week) the entire week. Unlike previous summers, I would be doing this trip solo (a first for me). My backpack seemed heavier than normal this year and weighed in close to 60 pounds. Unlike last year, I expanded my camera gear to 3 lenses along with other accessories.

The full pack, constant barrage of bugs, and underestimation of the trail with a full pack wore me down and I arrived at Round Lake much later than I would have originally expected. This trip was one of commitment and by the end of my first day, I knew that I just “didn’t have it” to make the full trip as I had planned. The wilderness is no place to be foolish and so I headed back out the next day. Disappointing to be sure, but there’s always tomorrow. Here are a few additional shots from the ridgeline overlooking Round Lake..

Mount Rainier Wildflowers – 3

Aug 02

[Part 3 of 3]

Due to my extended stay at Chinook Pass, I was running a bit behind schedule so I raced to Reflection Lakes as soon as possible. This was to be my first trip up Mazama Ridge and based on some research of the topo maps, I had an idea of where I wanted to be for sunset. As I quickly learned, topo maps only tell part of the story and so I had to venture further and higher up the ridge than I had originally anticipated.

Sunset this particular evening was nothing special and a report estimating peak wildflower blooms in another week also seemed true. Still, several locations had magnificant displays of wildflowers..

Around the official time for sunset, I finally reached higher and more open ground. I scrambled to find a nice foreground and found this stretch of lupine in bloom. It was getting dark and I had to use longer exposures along with a graduated neutral-density filter to balance exposures for the sky and foreground. Bugs were still quite active making for a hasty session. While these photos looked good during a very quick review in the field, they didn’t not live up to their potential once I was back home. Still an amazing place to experience..

Mount Rainier Wildflowers – 2

Aug 02

[Part 2 of 3]

After finishing up at Tipsoo Lake, I took the log bridge over Highway 410 and started out on the Naches Loop Trail on the backside of Naches Peak. Wildflower conditions along the trail (which is also part of the Pacific Crest Trail) were also in prime conditions. Due to time constraints related to my last stop of the day, I only traveled about a mile to a wonderful small, unnamed lake alongside the trail..

Once I finished up, I quickly raced over to my last stop of the day: Mazama Ridge for sunset.

Cougar Divide

Jul 27

What’s worse than forgetting your camera?

Forgetting the memory card AND bringing the camera. Such is the reality I dealt myself this weekend as I arrived at the trail to Cougar Divide. More on that later..

This trail lies at the end of Wells Creek Road at about 5,000 feet and is only accessible for 4 short months of the year. I use the term accessible loosely because the road receives little to no maintenance (particularly after the bridge over Wells Creek). Still, as of this writing, the trailhead is still accessible with only one stretch of road that could unnerve the average driver or someone in a full size pickup.

Only one other car at the trailhead but TONS of mosquitos which should have been my first omen. I had sunscreen but no bug juice. Somewhat annoying but how bad could it be? Uh, BAD. Just 15 minutes in on the trail brings you to a viewpoint which would make any other hike worth it:

In this open subalpine forest, there are many interesting geological features:

After a brief open stretch the trail plunges back into forest before reaching meadows. On this particular day, however, my journey ended here in the woods:

Taking that three photo panorama resulted in my legs being devoured by mosquitos. Given the fact that I couldn’t use my primary camera, I decided to turn around and save the rest of this hike for an upcomming weekend. So what do you do when you can’t use your camera? In my case, I decided to press on and use my iPhone 3GS so every photo from this blog post is an iPhone photo. I thought it didn’t do that bad a job, though I did lighten the photos up in Photoshop. Live and learn!..

Deception Creek

Jun 22

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I decided to stay closer to home and explored Deception Creek. This creek is the source for the popular Deception Falls located between the town of Skykomish and Stevens Pass along Highway 2. I’ve made a few trips to Deception Falls (as I’ve posted before on my blog) but I’ve never visited the trail that travels up up the Deception Creek valley. The trail generally stays within earshot of the creek but I decided to stay much closer to the creek during my exploration.

Within a short distance, the trail enters the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and soon climbs up and away from the creek. I decided to leave the trail at about the point where the log bridge crosses the creek. I have to say that this bridge is one of the most “elegant” I’ve seen out on the trails!