Spring on the Lewis River

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drm
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Spring on the Lewis River

Post by drm » May 1st, 2014, 5:56 pm

Every spring I try and find the time to backpack the Lewis River trail during an early hot spell like we're having now. Although the trail is 14 or so miles long one way, the best backpacking camps are on the western-most section, within 4 miles or so of that trailhead. So if you want to cover more miles than that, you can use on of the eastern trailheads. I started at the Middle Falls trailhead and camped at Bolt Camp, which was about 10 miles. There is very little net altitude change but lots of up and down. Nonetheless, the trail follows close to the riverside a fair amount of the time. And there were a few mosquitoes there! No bites but I did do a few of them in.

There was no snow anywhere on the hike and the trail was mostly dry. There were a number of creek crossing with tricky hops to keep my feet (mostly) dry. There were a few patches of snow going over Old Man Pass from Carson to get there.

Lewis River
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Lewis River Trail
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Bolt Camp
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Lewis River at camp
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food hang
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and of course - Lower Falls of the Lewis River
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bobcat
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Re: Spring on the Lewis River

Post by bobcat » May 2nd, 2014, 7:58 am

Nice report. If I can get a whole day I'd like to go up there this spring. Have you ever determined where the Speed Trail connects with Trail #31?

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drm
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Re: Spring on the Lewis River

Post by drm » May 2nd, 2014, 8:47 am

I'm not familiar with the Speed Trail. I hiked up to FR 93 last year on the Bluff Trail. That was in pretty good shape (no apparent motorcycle usage), jcn just below the FR 90 junction. The Wright Meadows trail is well-signed just below Middle Falls - never been up that way.

Since I usually hike this trail in Spring, any trail which goes the other direction, requiring fording the river, would not be of interest to me. Even in relatively low water, you might want a horse to get across the Lewis.

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