Month: August 2019

Carl and I were going to do McClellan or Granite last week but it was raining so we did a shorter hike on Tiger Mountain. We met this morning at about 6:15 at our usual park and ride and headed east.

I was driving and I was concerned that eastbound exit 38 would still be closed – exit 42 is the exit for McClellan but we wanted to start the hike on the service road, NF9020, skipping the first, and rather boring, 1.5 miles (thereby clipping 3 miles off the hike round trip). Exit 38 was closed but I drove to exit 42, went over the freeway and headed back west and got off at exit 38 westbound. You come out right next to the Dirty Harry’s parking lot, so it was not a problem.

It is a bumpy, dusty trip up the old service roads but we made it to the right place (see track below) and were heading up the trail by 7am. It was a beautiful day and we started early enough to escape the worst of the heat. Plenty of views today:

The peak on the west in the distance is Change Peak and the criss-crossing white lines are the Great Wall and Olallie Bike trails.

Plenty of people scramble straight up that rock but not me – if you slip you die. Period. Falling down this peak is not a survivable experience and I, being an old man, am increasingly judicious in my choice of non-surivable experiences.

All in all a great hike on a great day.

Carl and I had an ambitious plan for today’s hike. We were going to do either McClellan Butte or Granite Mountain. Both of those hikes are challenging.

The weather forecast was for a dry morning and a wet afternoon so we met at the Park and Ride at 7am.

But it was already raining so we decided to downsize our ambitions. We hopped in the cars, headed two exits west on I-90 and parked at the Tiger Mountain High Point parking lot. From there it was a straightforward hike up and down the West Tiger #3 trail.

Even as we parked we thought we might extend the hike by hitting #2 and #1 (see track below) but when we hit the summit:

It was raining steadily so we just headed back down.

Still, it was a fun time and a good workout. I am going to try to get out this coming Sunday, and next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday as a final prep for our Ireland trip. We leave on Sunday, September 1. Carl and I are tentatively planning something for Wednesday.

A picture of our track:

Derek’s family has a long tradition of spending time every summer at Lincoln Rock State Park, in eastern Washington, not far from Wenatchee. The past few years we have joined them and the past two years we have hiked and we did another one this year.

We had planned to go to Lake Caroline, which is a pretty hefty hike, but the temperature was getting into the triple digits so we scaled back our goal. Lake Caroline is a side trail from the trail we were on.

In the moment, I kept looking for the Lake Caroline trail but I missed it. However, on the way back we briefly took a wrong turn, the trail labeled ‘Eightmile Trout Creek’. Looking at the track I see that this is the trail that leads to Lake Caroline. Note this closeup:

You can see a little fishhook-like piece of our track, out of which appears another trail (the switchbackish dotted line). That is the way to Lake Caroline. Good to know.

Eightmile Lake itself is, on a non-fiery day, a fairly mild hike. The first .75 mile section is fairly steep, but after that it is pretty moderate.

Eightmile Lake is the site of an infamous forest fire. Back in 1997 multiple firefighters lost their lives fighting the fire. Evidence of the fire is all around:

Eightmile Lake itself is a beautiful alpine lake – much of the hike is in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The lake and the mountains around it are genuinely awe-inspiring.

The hike was about 6.7 miles round trip. We saw a mother deer with her three does just off the Eightmile shore. They were curious and did not bolt right away. It was fun hanging out to see them in their own environment, just living their life.

Great hike, fun time at Lincoln Rock.

For the fourth year in a row I did the Cedar River Watershed Education Center’s (CRWEC) ‘Among the Ancients’ old growth forest tour, led by the inestimable Clay Antiou. As always, it was an awesome seven hours in the watershed – lots of learning, some hiking, and the rare chance to be able to experience the otherwise off-limits Cedar River Watershed, the water source for about 1.4 million people.

As before, our first stop was in a second growth forest, so we could see the difference. This stand of trees also features a great view point:

We then headed up the road to the Lost Creek old growth stand. I wish I had the words to describe how beautiful and humbling it is to be in an old growth stand:

Clay gave us an overview of why old growth forest has a particular set of fauna that rely upon old growth trees to survive. It is sad that our logging has decimated the old growth, and now human-induced climate change is also having a negative effect. I wonder how long old growth stands will survive at all?

From Lost Creek we traveled up to the area of Findley Lake. The drive there features some bone-rattling, chasm-edged high altitude thrills, with unbelievable views. Just across from where the vans were parked is an impressive peak that looks like it would be a great challenge to tackle:

Part of the group at Findley Lake:

Along the trail to Findley Lake we came across an amazing purple mushroom. No one could identify it so a picture is going to be sent to a mushroom expert and when we get the answer I will update this post:

Another first-class CRWEC tour. I am already looking forward to next year’s crop.

Update 11/23/2020: I circled back with Clay about the mushroom and he sent me this link: https://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Cortinarius%20violaceus

It is Cortinarius violaceus, AKA the purple cort. Very cool, thanks Clay!