Wyeth to North Lake 1-23-11
Posted: January 24th, 2011, 11:49 pm
Well I got far too much sleep on Friday night and was a bundle of energy at 5am on Sunday Morning, unable to fall asleep. I decided to take advantage of this late night energy and packed a winter pack for North Lake, some place I had always wanted to go. After a bit of caffeine at the trailhead I hiked up from the Wyeth campground and hit the Wyeth Trail about 8:30.
Obviously things were quiet and I didn't see anyone at the campground or the trail. There was minimal trail damage from the recent storms and floods, just the normal occasional winter blowdown and some rocks that had washed onto the trail. It got cloudy at about 1000.'
I ran into a good looking secondary trail that crossed the main Wyeth Trail. It was unmarked but this looks just too good to be a game trail, does anyone know what trail this is?
The only spot of significant storm damage is right before the springs along the trail near the 3000' level. It appears the floods washed some slide alder/vine maple and devils club mess into the trail. It was easily negotiated but someone needs to spend a couple hours up there with a hand saw. I haven't ever done the Wyeth trail prior to this so maybe it's always this way, but I doubt it given how nice the rest of the trail is.
Luckily I reached one of the few and hardly noteworthy viewpoints on the trail just in time to catch some light and cloud shows. With a long enough camera zoom, you can find a decent picture in almost every situation.
And now the creeps-you-out-part. I found this "camp" at around 3200.' This is what I found, just like this, about 20 feet off the trail, in plain view. Is that an emergency blanket back there? Right at this spot on the trail there was a bunch of candy wrappers and beef jerky packaging litter. I yelled to see if anyone was around and needed help, but there was no response. Rather than dig around and investigate I decided it was best to proceed and I set off. With the half assembled tent it seems like someone got away from this camp fast once they heard me coming up the trail (I was singing a bit as I hiked)? I figured it would be gone on my way down but 3 hours later as I passed by the scene was the same. Weird!
Shortly afterwards I heard a hiker behind me, I was half-expecting some creeped out dude coming to beat me up after I discovered his camp but it turned out to be a friendly woman on a solo day hike. She was setting a blazing pace and after exchanging a few words she was on her way.
The snow started soon after as the trail began to level out. Soon it was about a foot deep and after taking my first post hole it was time for the snowshoes which I was glad I hauled up. I brought the smaller snowshoes that belong to my friend along - she's about 50 pounds lighter than me but they were perfect on the consolidated snow, snowshoe win!
In a bit I caught up with the young woman who had become bogged down in the snow. At this point I learned she turned out to be none other than portlandhikers own jessbe! Cool, I was glad to meet her, I knew she was cool from reading her trip reports! After this we hiked together in search of North Lake and became hopelessly lost.
Eventually I broke out my GPS which I had marked North Lake on and headed towards it. Jess broke off along the way opting to follow her footsteps back down. I was about to give up but only a couple minutes later I stumbled upon the lake. It made a nice lunch spot.
I them stumbled down the trail and started to feel the all-nighter punishment set in, but at least this viewpoint provided me with some great clouds over the gorge!
When I arrived at the car I drank my just-in-case energy drink I keep in the back (=9 cups of coffee! ) and safely drove back home to a nice shower and about 12 hours of sleep before work on Monday!
Obviously things were quiet and I didn't see anyone at the campground or the trail. There was minimal trail damage from the recent storms and floods, just the normal occasional winter blowdown and some rocks that had washed onto the trail. It got cloudy at about 1000.'
I ran into a good looking secondary trail that crossed the main Wyeth Trail. It was unmarked but this looks just too good to be a game trail, does anyone know what trail this is?
The only spot of significant storm damage is right before the springs along the trail near the 3000' level. It appears the floods washed some slide alder/vine maple and devils club mess into the trail. It was easily negotiated but someone needs to spend a couple hours up there with a hand saw. I haven't ever done the Wyeth trail prior to this so maybe it's always this way, but I doubt it given how nice the rest of the trail is.
Luckily I reached one of the few and hardly noteworthy viewpoints on the trail just in time to catch some light and cloud shows. With a long enough camera zoom, you can find a decent picture in almost every situation.
And now the creeps-you-out-part. I found this "camp" at around 3200.' This is what I found, just like this, about 20 feet off the trail, in plain view. Is that an emergency blanket back there? Right at this spot on the trail there was a bunch of candy wrappers and beef jerky packaging litter. I yelled to see if anyone was around and needed help, but there was no response. Rather than dig around and investigate I decided it was best to proceed and I set off. With the half assembled tent it seems like someone got away from this camp fast once they heard me coming up the trail (I was singing a bit as I hiked)? I figured it would be gone on my way down but 3 hours later as I passed by the scene was the same. Weird!
Shortly afterwards I heard a hiker behind me, I was half-expecting some creeped out dude coming to beat me up after I discovered his camp but it turned out to be a friendly woman on a solo day hike. She was setting a blazing pace and after exchanging a few words she was on her way.
The snow started soon after as the trail began to level out. Soon it was about a foot deep and after taking my first post hole it was time for the snowshoes which I was glad I hauled up. I brought the smaller snowshoes that belong to my friend along - she's about 50 pounds lighter than me but they were perfect on the consolidated snow, snowshoe win!
In a bit I caught up with the young woman who had become bogged down in the snow. At this point I learned she turned out to be none other than portlandhikers own jessbe! Cool, I was glad to meet her, I knew she was cool from reading her trip reports! After this we hiked together in search of North Lake and became hopelessly lost.
Eventually I broke out my GPS which I had marked North Lake on and headed towards it. Jess broke off along the way opting to follow her footsteps back down. I was about to give up but only a couple minutes later I stumbled upon the lake. It made a nice lunch spot.
I them stumbled down the trail and started to feel the all-nighter punishment set in, but at least this viewpoint provided me with some great clouds over the gorge!
When I arrived at the car I drank my just-in-case energy drink I keep in the back (=9 cups of coffee! ) and safely drove back home to a nice shower and about 12 hours of sleep before work on Monday!