Carl and George and I joined about twenty other tourists yesterday for the Cedar River Watershed Education Center’s Old Growth forest tour.
I did this last year with its guide and guru Clay Antiou and I loved it and wanted to do it again this year. I talked it up and Carl and George were interested and they loved it as well. Every one of the CRWEC tours I have taken has been great and yesterday was no exception.
We visited a second growth stand – a stop that included a great viewpoint – and Clay told us what distinguishes second growth from old growth in great detail. It is the ‘great detail’ that makes these tours so educational and fun.
We then stopped at the Lost Creek Old Growth stand and it is awe-inspiring:
There were plenty of sights along the way – we bumped along in a couple of big vans – and wound up in the vicinity of Findley Lake. This area used to be the site of a University of Washington research facility, finally closed down around 1989 due to lack of funds. Too bad, it would have been good for science to continue the work.
There was a great-looking climb just across from where we parked the vans for the hike up to Findley Lake. Looks like it would be fun to give it a try, but it is in the watershed and therefore off limits.
I took the Garmin along so we could see where we went. Here is the track:
https://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/djhiker/old-growth-forest-tour-8-5-2017#.WYcPh1GQypo
And here are screen shots from what our track looks like on Google Earth. The top image is a longer shot of our entire route, the bottom image is a close-up of Findley Lake and the peak in the photo above. Impressive, what nature can do.
Update: George del Campo sent a nice panorama of Findley Lake:
