Summer Trips 2019 Vol III September, October

Upper Klesilkwa River Sept. 6^thto 7^th

Turned down $1400 to $1800 dollars in overtime to do trip. Plan was to go in on route on Paleface that I had scouted weekend before. In my fantasy plan, I would be able to get into the large lake at head of Klesilkwa River and into some large ponds just northwest of it on Friday then hit some ponds on the ridge to the east between the Klesilkwa and Masselpanik Creek the next day. Weather forecast called for good weather on Friday and Saturday with a good chance of showers on Sunday. That was okay by me. As long as weather was good enough to see things when I got to the various places I wanted to visit, I didn’t mind getting a little wet on the way out, assuming I didn’t have to deal with thunderstorms and having to navigate ridges in thick fog banks. Got up at regular work day time (4:30 a.m.) because Sacha needed to get up early to get ready for school. Got started at about 8:00 a.m. Couple of quick store stops and bank stop, then off to Chilliwack Lake and up Paleface Creek. Got to jump-off point at about 1:00 p.m. Little bit tired, long drive and last bit was over some fairly rough road.  Made it into lakes on Paleface trib a little before 2:00 p.m. Sweating heavily. Headband wringing wet. Weather sunny but also seemed pretty muggy. Short rest then started up toward what I though was saddle between Paleface Creek and the Klesilkwa. Got into some large talus which slowed me down a bit. Talus comes in different sizes from small stuff that is difficult to navigate because it constantly shifts underfoot, to just right size to stuff that is so big that it creates obstacles that require some fairly difficult rock climbing to navigate. This talus was just on the big size of just right. Finally got to saddle a little before 3:00 p.m., a little later than I had expected. I looked over the ridge expecting to see the lake at the head of the Klesilkwa River below. Instead I saw an older burn at the top of the ridge and down below was a valley with a talus slope and wetland near the head of it. This wasn’t right. Dug out map and figured out that this was a trib. to Paleface Creek and I needed to get around to the north. Had a feeling the week before that I might regret not checking this saddle out, but, given the time it took me to get here, I might have run out of time anyway. No help for it now. Looked like there was a route I could take to the north along the ridge. Turned out to be a good route. Got next saddle to north without much trouble and looked down to see the lake below as I had expected. Next problem was how to get down to it. Recalled from time I had been to this lake in 2014 that route over ridge on I was on looked pretty easy. Of course, at that time I didn’t have to deal with getting down off the ridge. Where I had ended up was on top of a cliff band. Dropped pack and headed north along cliff top. About a hundred yards along found a chute down into slope below. Chute was right at the edge of what I felt comfortable in going down. Pretty steep and lots of slick vegetation. Definitely doable but only if there wasn’t another choice. Looking south several hundred yards, it looked like ridge broke pretty gently into slopes below. Decided to take that route. Sure enough found good spot to get below the cliff band. Time was about 4:30 p.m. Going pretty good until I got into bigger talus, again, on the big size of being just right to move through easily. Spent a lot of time picking my way through. Pick a route and pretty quickly end up looking into a hole in the rock that I couldn’t get across. Backtrack and pick another route. Quite a few rocks shifted underfoot. This is always a bit scary. Wouldn’t want to get trapped in boulders. Another cliff band below me. Couldn’t exactly see it but remembered from air photos and from looking this area over in 2014. I traveled north and found a likely spot to get down through cliff band but abandoned that in favor of another spot a little farther north. Something didn’t look good about the first spot. Second route proved to be a good one. Getting pretty thirsty though not desperate. Only a little water left in jug but saved it in case I ran into some kind of trouble. Could hear any number of small streams running underneath talus but none on surface where I could access them. A little bit maddening but, again, wasn’t really desperate so I just pushed on. Had bare talus on second route down a good distance and when it petered out into thick, brushy avalanche hammered krummholz trees. Found a gap a little to north that led to another patch of bare talus. Lucked out like this several times before luck finally ran out. Had to struggle 50 yards or so through brushy krummholz to get to another big talus slope. More big, difficult talus but thought I was done with brush. I was wrong. Big ring of brush at bottom of talus with no good way around. Near bottom of this slope saw another open patch of talus a little to the south that seemed to lead farther down. Bashed through more brush to get to this talus only to find I was in same boat. Pretty close to valley bottom at this point. Beyond last patch of brush was more talus on a more gradual slope at valley bottom. Struggled through last bit of brush and was in talus. More big stuff that was difficult to move through. Almost 7:00 p.m. at this point. In my original fantasy plan I was going to get to lake at head of Klesilkwa River and ponds to northwest today. I realized now that this was not realistic. At this point needed to find a place to camp and regroup the next day. Found some water on surface and watered up. No good flat place to camp here. Several wetland flats nearby but these usually too wet for good camp. Looked over several spots at edge of talus but no nearby and no flat ground and it was starting to get dark. Finally found a spot near small pond in sphagnum. Spot just big enough for my tent and on high ground that wasn’t wet. Would have a heavy dew because I was so close to wet ground but good enough. Small stream cut deeply incised several feet into ground nearby. Could get water there. Pitched tent threw line over small tree nearby to hang food and got out headlamp. Went over to stream to get water for cooking dinner and stepped hip deep into dry stream channel that had been completely covered with brush like a pit trap. Crashed and burned with a big thump. Somehow managed to jam pinky finger on left hand. Took a little time and a lot of effort to extricate myself. Didn’t seem to be any serious damage to my person. Pinky hurt a bit. Found spot to get water and cooked dinner. Almost fully dark at this point. After dinner went to hang food and managed to pull line off tree branch. Had suspected that this might happen and had kept rock nearby that I had used to get line over limb earlier. Tied it back on and threw it back over limb. This time line stayed over limb. With that done, turned in for night. Heard a couple pygmy owls calling in distance. Mind started to wander onto subject of sasquatches and creepy things but got a handle on that pretty quickly so I could get some sleep. At this point in my life I am a pretty strong skeptic of sasquatches but your mind can run wild when its getting dark in the middle of nowhere. Pretty good sleeping spot and slept okay through night. Next morning cold and had hard time motivating myself to get out of sleeping bag. Not a morning person and it is always hard for me to get out of bed. Really hard this morning. This day (Saturday) supposed to be pretty cloudy so I half expected everything to be socked in but it was clear. Abandoned plan to try to get into ponds on ridge between Klesilkwa and Masselpanik. Route up ridge I would have to take into these ponds had looked steep from top of ridge from Paleface day before but from present perspective looked very doable. Probably have to dodge a few bluffs and cliff bands but otherwise ground not too steep. However, my main goal was ponds to northwest. That would probably be enough. Last thing I wanted to do was climb up 2000 feet on ridge after probably fighting my way into those ponds. I probably wouldn’t have enough daylight anyway. Ponds on ridgetop probably better accessed by making camp at spot on Paleface side of ridge (noticed nice spot there not too far from top of ridge) and running ridge to southeast and then back north into ponds on a day trip. This would save dropping a lot of elevation and then having to gain it back again. I could see a route all along the ridge and it looked pretty good, relatively brush free but there was a lot of talus to navigate. It would have to be earlier in year too, probably would need as much daylight as I could get. Anyway, those ponds were out and I needed to concentrate on getting into ponds to northwest which were at about the same elevation I was. By now I realized that this would probably take some doing in itself.  Made my way through small gap in brush into wetland flat and big timber beyond out of the way of avalanches. Going pretty good in timber. Made it to big lake in ten minutes or less. Had traveled on east side of lake in 2014 and recalled that it was pretty difficult and brushy so decided to try west side where timber looked bigger for quite a distance. Talus slope reached down to lake near middle of west side. Talus was overgrown and brushy and presented a bit of a hassle but after that more timber with a fairly bare understory. Route took me along small dry valley just to west of lake outlet stream which was actually the Klesilkwa River but, at this point, the river was only size of small creek. Started heading downslope and I started to worry. In 2014 I had ended my attempt to get to the ponds at the edge of a talus slope. It was taking longer than I expected to come to this talus. Finally I saw a large opening in forest which I took to be the ponds. It was the talus slope. The exact same thing happened in 2014. I figured it would be pretty easy from here on, in fact, it kind of haunted me over the years that I didn’t push it a little harder and try to get into the ponds on the earlier trip because I had been so close. Once again, I was wrong. The talus was again some of the bigger stuff and I had to do a lot of backtracking on my route through. Adding to this, the talus slope was pretty old and had a heavy growth of moss and lichens on it. This stuff was really slick and I had to watch how and where I set my feet or they would shoot out from under me. On the west side of the talus I could see some cliffs and bluffs so I angled down slope to hit the timber below them. When I finally got to the west side of the talus after probably half an hour or more, I saw a solid wall of devil’s club at the timber’s edge. The talus didn’t actually end at the timber. Trees were growing up through it. So I was faced with a wall of devil’s clubs growing up through big holes in the rock all covered with various windfall trees to make things even more difficult. Devil’s club is an interesting plant. It grows on fresh soils, in other words, soil where water is close to the surface but not necessarily on the surface. I would have thought that the talus would have been pretty well drained but apparently not. I took a lot of time figuring out a route through the devil’s club and managed to get through with a surprisingly small number of thorns from the devil’s club and scrapes from the rocks and logs that I had to crawl over. After that I was back in the timber next to a waterfall on the stream flowing from the ponds with regular solid ground under my feet. From here on the going was relatively easy and I got to the lower pond in about ten minutes. Obviously if I had pushed on in 2014 I would have run out of time. It was at least 40 minutes into the ponds from the spot where I turned back in 2014 and, in 2014, it was nearly dark when I got back to camp. There was some tall huckleberry brush and some krummholz trees at edge of lower pond. Lower pond wasn’t much of a pond at all, mostly a sphagnum bog with a stream running through it. Besides the sphagnum, there was a lot of scouring rush and several species of grasses growing in the area. By the waterline, it looked like there was probably more standing water here earlier in year but “pond” was down a foot or two. Worked my way to upper pond. This one was more substantial, probably about 10 feet deep at the deepest. There was a large berm on the northeast side which kind of formed the dividing line between the upper and lower ponds. This pond appeared to be a classic example of a landform called a SAIL (Snow Avalanche Impact Landform). The idea of how these landforms are created is that avalanches hit the valley floor in areas of soft, fine sediment with enough force to excavate a crater. These craters often fill with water so I have encountered a number of them during my explorations. This pond was at the bottom of an avalanche track so it fit the profile quite well except that there was a lot of large talus in the berm and on the bottom of the pond. SAILs usually occur where the soil is fine and therefore more subject to excavation under the impact of an avalanche than large materials like boulders (talus) would be. Of course there weren’t any boulders in the lower pond so maybe the SAIL was created in fine soil and the talus was deposited later from the cliffs above. Interesting find anyway. Didn’t see any fish or amphibians. Good chance there were amphibians in ponds but upper pond deep and dark and lower pond covered with vegetation. Saw some camp robbers (gray jays) on the way out. Always like seeing camp robbers. They are pretty fearless. Used to see a lot of them when I was younger then not any for years. Now seeing quite a few of them again. On way out I skirted mossy talus slope where all the devil’s clubs were and ended up near confluence of outlet of ponds and Klesilkwa then followed Klesilkwa out. Had to drop maybe a hundred extra feet but was much easier going than talus and devil’s club. Made it back up to lake about 1:00 p.m. and worked my way back along the west side. Wanted to try fishing the lake a bit. Had caught rainbows out of it in 2014 and just wanted to check again. Didn’t figure it would change but who knows? Access to lake pretty difficult in most spots. Got down to it at the inlet. From the distance, it looked like there were some pretty big beaches that I could stand on and cast but these turned out to be big mats of bur-reed and or floating leaved pond grass which presented a lot of opportunities to snag my line. Managed to find one open spot and caught another rainbow. Good enough. I noticed some large clouds in distance over the tops of Mount Forddred and Mount Payne to the north. Weather forecast had called for a high chance of showers this evening. There had been no mention of thunderstorms in the forecast I had seen (or at least remembered) but the clouds I was looking at looked a lot like thunderheads. Time to get moving. On way back to camp clobbered myself in the forehead. Brushy mountain hemlock bough about head high. Pushed through it, kind of soft, green whish then WHAM! I saw a few stars stood there stunned for a few moments. There was a big spike knot on the tree trunk head high right in the middle of hemlock bough and I had just slammed my head into it at full walking speed. Luckily it hit right about where the bandanna I had wrapped around my head for a sweatband was thickest. That and my felt hat cushioned the blow quite a bit but I still got a bit of a lump. Stood there for a few moments with that kind of hurt feeling you get when you are a kid and some other kid comes up and punches you for no reason. Well, time to get going. Got back to camp a little after 2:00 p.m. Stumbled across the perfect camp spot 30 yards from where I had camped the night before but I couldn’t have known that the night before as it was getting dark. Had kind of decided to try to get back out of this spot today (Saturday) earlier in day and still thought it was a good idea. Legs were tired and a little rubbery from rock hopping talus and wading through bush all day but figured that there was plenty enough left in them to get me back up over the ridge, even with a full pack. Ate quick lunch and packed up and headed out. Had hoped to get started about 2:30 but it was a little after 3:00 p.m. by the time I was headed out. Process of getting out went in reverse of process getting in. Few hundred feet from camp and I was in talus at bottom of cirque slope. Sky had gotten dark all of a sudden. Then a patch of blue sky and sun opened up again. Along with this was a shower of big, fat raindrops. Watched big puff of spore dust from shelf fungus growing on a log and not a second later another drop hit and another puff of spore dust. Didn’t figure this shower would be intense enough to soak me through at least I hoped not. Would probably sweat more in raingear than I would have gotten wet from rain. Sure enough, rain stopped just before I started into brush between talus on valley floor and next patch of talus up slope. Hoped to follow talus patches up above lower cliff band. Missed middle talus patch in avalanche hammered trees. Came in a little low. Not too bad though. Should be pretty straightforward from here on out with not too much more brush. In second talus slope heard a rumble just as I put weight on rock and it shifted. Hoped it was the rock that made the sound. Two steps later I heard thunder in the distance, no mistaking it. S….t! Now it was decision time. Did I want to turn around and hole up down in the valley bottom or chance having to deal with an electrical storm or two up on that exposed ridge. Thunder was still pretty far off so decided to chance it. Got up into open talus shortly afterward. Could see rain and storm clouds moving up from the south to the east of me. Sky was still fairly clear over me but I was right up against the ridge so I couldn’t see to the west of me and, more than once, I have seen a perfectly blue sky turn into black clouds complete with lightning and torrential rain in less than five minutes when a storm rolled over a ridge I was right beneath. At this point I needed to get above the upper cliff band and I would be on top of the ridge. I was closer to the steep chute to the north of the cliff band that I had decided not to go down on the way in. Decided to go up that way because it would save me some time and, usually, it is much easier and safer to go up a spot like that than it is to go down. Meantime I needed to be careful as I picked my way through the talus. It would be bad enough if I ended up getting trapped by some moving rock. It would be even worse to be trapped and have a bunch of electrical storms roll over me. I occasionally heard a rumble of thunder off to the east which helped spur me on though I tried to stay calm and be methodical about working through the talus. I figured that, if a storm did roll over me, I would have to find a hole in the rocks to hunker down in and hope for the best. My uncle Bud told me about that happening to him on the talus slopes below Hidden Lake Peaks. From the way he had described his experience, I didn’t want to have a similar one myself. Got to the spot that I thought was the chute up through the cliff band, a line of green vegetation leading up out of sight around a corner in the rock. Pretty steep but okay as long as I was careful. Peeked around corner and saw that this wasn’t chute, it ended in cliff. If this didn’t work out I could see a spot a little farther north and a little higher where I could definitely get above cliff band. Another corner a few yards farther on. This one was the chute I wanted. Saw open path all the way to top of cliff band. Steep but doable. Was on top of cliff band in about ten minutes. Walked a little farther south and had good almost 360 degree view for miles. Lots of storm clouds to south and east and several rainbows. These storms were probably ones that hit some of the guys I could have been working with this weekend. They were about 40 miles south of where I was, working on Diablo Dam and they got hammered with rain and wind. Clouds were more broken over rest of sky with lots of patches of sunlight but it looked like lots storms were brewing. Fortunately, I didn’t see anything immediately heading in my direction. Time was a little after 5:00 p.m. If I could get to lakes below on Paleface Creek at least by 7:00 p.m. I should have enough light to get the rest of the way out on the trail, figuring it would take me about half an hour to get the rest of the way out. Was hoping to get there by about 6:30. Made several stops to take some photos. Missed my route around ridge. I was a little low so had to backtrack a bit. Got to spot where I came past big bedrock outcrop/cliff and saw where I had come through about a hundred feet higher. At same spot saw a likely route straight down into valley, a little steep but doable. Always tricky going down in a place like this because you could end up cliffed out and have to backtrack up hundreds of feet. Figured that I had enough time to chance it so headed down. Had to navigate one really steep spot by backtracking a bit but otherwise found good, if steep, routes down to valley. More talus to navigate and then finally I was in the relatively flat ground above the lakes on Paleface Creek. Checked out a more direct route from lakes onto ridge between them and Klesilkwa and most of them looked really steep with a lot of bluffs and cliffs. There was one likely spot with what was potentially a sketchy spot at top. So, it appeared that I had stumbled onto what was probably the best route up on to ridge into Klesilkwa on the way in. Stopped and took a pics of Foe Peak and was on my way. Time was about 6:45. By time I got on trail in timber between the mostly cloudy sky and time of year, it was getting pretty dark. Had to take time and really look for flags because they were pretty hard to see. Several times had to pause for a few minutes before I picked up trail again. Wasn’t really worried about getting lost. Still enough light to travel in timber safely (old-timer once told me that if it gets dark in on you in the mountains, you need to stop and hole up for the night because you can easily step off a cliff and not know it). Trouble was, if I got off trail I wasn’t sure where I would wind up. Wouldn’t be end of world but might entail more work and difficulties. If I could stay on trail, I knew exactly where I would end up. Managed to stick with it to logging unit where I had plenty of light again. When I got back to rig, clouds were painted pink where setting sun shone through holes in the clouds to the west. Time was about 7:50 p.m. Put pack in truck and made a few adjustments and was on my way. Trip out pretty much dry. Road down from Chilliwack Lake a little disorienting. Have driven this road a number of times in the daylight but this was first time in dark and I had a hard time recognizing a lot of the reference points along the way on the road. Got into Chilliwack a little after 9:00 p.m. Stopped for something quick to eat and was on my way. Didn’t really run into any rain until the border. Light showers as I got into line to cross. Wait wasn’t that long but raining heavily by time I got across. Just as I rolled into Sumas there was a big lightning strike and the town went dark for a second before a number of lights came back on. Whole trip back through Nooksack Valley was punctuated by numerous lightning strikes and flashes, some that lit everything up almost like it was daylight, and heavy rain. Was glad that I had been able to get out of mountains. Got home after midnight. Didn’t want to freak Sacha out because she wasn’t expecting me back until next day (actually, since it was after midnight, I guess it would be later in this day). So got my emergency blanket out of pickup and carefully sneaked into house and laid out on couch. Figured I would really freak her out if someone tried to get into bed with her when she thought I was still in Canada. Next thing I knew I hear her saying, “Pat? Is that you? Why don’t you come to bed?” Apparently I had started snoring and woke her up. She also apparently recognized my snoring because she didn’t seem to be too freaked out. Anyway, crawled into bed and slept rest of night/morning there. Funny thing, right hip and knee and left knee had been bothering me off and on all hiking season. Absolutely no problems or pains during the whole of this trip. Weighed pack at end of trip, 66.4 pounds. Ironically, I had taken measures to try to lighten it up a bit. Possibly the little bit of rain I got on it and the wet brush after the shower added a pound or two. Didn’t know it at the time but this was my last major trip for the year. 

Photo of my itinerary for this trip on white board in kitchen at home so Sacha would have some idea where to tell people to look if I didn't show up. I had been writing these out on paper but found the white board to be a pretty good method, though not very permanent. The scribbles on the right are a hand drawn map. The large pointy things are Phoebe practicing writing the letter "M". 

Looking west from ridge between Paleface Creek tributary and Upper Klesilkwa River. 

Looking northeast from ridge between Paleface Creek tributary and Upper Klesilkwa River. Lake at head of Klesilkwa River in valley in foreground and Mount Payne, Sumallo Peak, Rideout Peak and Silvertip Mountain (mostly hidden by ridge in foreground) beyond. 

Mushrooms near lake at head of Klesilkwa River. 

                                   

Obstacles encountered at the edge of the talus slope on the way into the ponds northwest of the lake at the head of the Klesilkwa River. Devil's club (Oplhopanax horridus), downed logs and large holes in the rocks. The holes in the rock presented some pretty significant obstacles that aren't well represented in the photo. 

Looking west from near the outlet of the lower pond which was more of a  very wet flat with a stream running through it. 

Another view looking west from the lower pond. 

Inlet stream of lower pond/outlet of upper pond. 

Looking northeast at lower pond from inlet. 

Sometimes as I move through thick vegetation in wetlands I see small brown rodents swim away. I had never gotten a good look at one and assumed that they were some kind of water vole or most. This trip I actually got a good look at a rodent I spooked. It jumped into the stream between the two ponds and swam to a rock and stayed there for a minute or so. From the looks of it, this rodent, at least was a deer mouse (Peromyscus spp.). 

After hanging out on the rock for a bit, the mouse took off and continued swimming across the stream and into the scouring rushes on the other side. 

Mound between the two ponds from the stream between them. 

Looking northeast at the lower pond. 

Upper pond looking roughly east. Berm on left side of frame. 

Probably a wolf track. 

Upper pond looking northeast. 

Upper pond looking north at berm. Large boulders obvious. If this pond was created by a SAIL landform, maybe these large boulders were deposited later or the theory (at least as I understand it) of how SAILs are formed is wrong. 

Upper pond looking west. Clerf Lake is on the other side of the pictured ridge. I had entertained a plan to try to get to these ponds from Clerf Lake for a few years. Looking at it from this side, if I had somehow been able to get over the ridge from Clerf, the route down to these ponds would have been a nightmare bash through brush and avalanche scrub. 

Looking north at lake at the head of the Klesilkwa River. Mount Payne visible on the horizon. There are no obvious thunderheads, but the look of the sky at this point had me a bit worried. It looked like thunderheads were brewing. 

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) caught at  lake. 

Looking southeast at ridge between Upper Klesilkwa River and Masselpanik Creek on my way out of the head of the Klesilkwa. The thunderstorms missed me for the most part but they were right there. 

Looking east at ridge between Upper Klesilkwa and Masselpanik Creek from about same spot as previous frame.  

Looking northeast from about same spot as previous two frames. 

Looking northwest at ridge between Upper Klesilkwa and Paleface creek on my way out of Upper Klesilkwa. The chute where I got up on the ridge is at about center frame. 

Looking northeast from ridge between Upper Klesilkwa and Paleface Creek. Rainbow (barely visible) over Silvertip Mountain. 

Looking north at ridge between Upper Klesilkwa and Paleface Creek. 

Looking north at ridge between Upper Klesilkwa and Paleface Creek. Lakes at head of Paleface trib. where my route ran at left lower frame. Foe Peak center frame.

Sep 14th and 15th

Weathered out this weekend. Get together Sat. the 14^th. Went into Tupso Lake with Sacha and the kids earlier in the day. Good trip. Looked like we might get rained on but weather held. Got a few blueberries, starting to get overripe but not too bad. Ended up catching a couple of fish-first I had ever caught out of Tupso even though I have fished it a number of times. Really rainy on Sunday the 15^th. Plan was to walk into Day Lake from road system on Pilchuck Creek side. Hoped to at least keep in shape. Walked about 15 miles round trip. Rained steadily pretty much all of the way. Got into pass between Day Lake/Creek and Deer Creek but didn’t quite make it to lake. Closer route from Cumberland Pass for foot but this route would be good for bicycle. Pretty much flat for most of way. Trip maybe ill advised. Wore inserts to protect bottom of feet from gravel road but when feet got wet, socks rubbed toes because there was less room in shoe because of inserts. Rubbed several raw spots on toes. 

On the way into Tupso the first meadows. 

On the trail. There were berries which often means bears which also means bear hunters. We were a bit concerned with making the girls highly visible and it turns out that regular pink works as well as blaze orange in making someone stand out. 

Hot pink was another hunter color I remember from years ago but haven't seen in a while. The girls are just wearing regular pink and they are quite obvious. 

Fruits of the trip berries and fish, the first fish I have ever caught out of Tupso even though I have fished it a number of times. 

Sep 21^st

Weather iffy this weekend so worked Friday and part of Saturday. Weather pretty  nice Saturday afternoon so went into Tuckaway Lake which isn’t too far off Blue Lake Trail. Tuckaway drains to SF Nooksack so wasn’t part of Skagit project but it always kind of intrigued me.  Got in pretty easily though almost made mistake of following small stream down from small pass starting at Blue Lake Trail. Fortunately spied flat where Tuckaway Lake sat and headed that way. If I had stayed with creek, I would have ended up in Wanlick Creek though I would have probably realized my mistake before too long. Tuckaway Lake nice enough spot. Pretty gloomy and overcast. No fish that I could tell. Didn’t catch any or see any surface. No amphibians sighted at lake though saw a bunch of long-toed salamanders in small pond in sphagnum along aforementioned creek. Rained all day Sunday. Spent most of that day fixing the back gate to the pasture. 

Looking north from near the outlet of of Tuckaway Lake. 

Looking roughly south or southwest at Tuckaway Lake. 

Dead dragonfly spent after breeding. I think this particular dragonfly is a blue darner (Rhionaeshna/Aeshna multicolor).

Looking roughly west, southwest. 

Sep 28^thand 29^th Eaton Creek 

Weather again iffy but decided to do a scout up to Eaton Lake. Eaton Lake drains to Silverhope Creek and ultimately the Fraser River but was route I planned to take into some lakes on Sumallo/Skagit River. Decided to do this when I scouted possible route up Potter Creek on Sumallo earlier in year and discovered it would be pretty rough. Had a lot to do at home but wanted to do this one last trip. Whole summer pretty disappointing as far as trips into mountains went. Weather forecasts indicated that the weather on Sunday might be decent in Hope though I didn’t see forecast for mountains. Watched Vashti’s basketball game Saturday morning and helped with a household move before heading up to B.C. Got to Hope at about 6:00 p.m. figured had a little time before dark so scouted up Highway 5 and Coquihalla River. Wanted to see if Sowaqua Creek Road was in use. This would be another possible access route for some future trips. Looked like the road was still in use though I didn’t go up it very far. Headed back to Hope and up Silver/Skagit Road up Silverhope Creek. Pulled over in wide spot a little above Eaton Lake trailhead and sacked out in back. Slept pretty well though hard to get neck comfortable. Woke up about 6:00 a.m. shortly after it started raining. Ate breakfast and drove to trailhead. Parked on Silver Skagit Road because I didn’t know what was up the Eaton Creek Road and I had often seen cars parked down on main road in summer. I assumed that there would be some parking up the Eaton Creek Road but probably not a lot so people had to park down the main road. Started up road. Sure enough there was parking where road ended about a quarter mile up. This time of year in this weather there was plenty of parking, only one rig there but I could see where this area  would get filled up pretty quickly on a busy summer day. Headed up trail. Trail looked like it was well used which I had expected. Steep at bottom which I also expected. Rain wasn’t heavy but was steady, a little heavier than a mist and it was pretty cold. Snow level down pretty low. Wasn’t dressed to spend much time in snow, especially sloppy wet snow. Changed plans. Had a lot of stuff to take care of at home and I didn’t really want to get cold, wet and miserable before heading home to arrive too late to take care of the things I needed to. At first decided to go to lower crossing of creek and call it good. Nice waterfall at lower crossing. Something about trails, kind of compel me to keep going if I haven’t reached destination. Hate to quit before reaching destination. So decided to go at least to spot where tight switchbacks started. Trail grade was fairly low past lower crossing of creek. Got to first switchback and stopped. Still felt compelled to push on. Got to next switchback and finally forced myself to call it good. Whole summer pretty disappointing.  Got back to rig a little before 9:00 a.m. Wrote some quick notes (saw vanilla leaf Achlys triphyllaalong trail which is interesting because apparently this species, which is common west of Marblemount, doesn’t occur, at least on the Skagit, until you get to the north end of Ross Lake). Headed home. Sure enough, weather was pretty good in Hope and down the Fraser. Partly sunny with only a few light showers here and there. Quite a bit different than up the mountain valley, which isn’t surprising. At home mowed the lawn and took care of some chores with the cows. In looking at map, I didn’t actually get to the start of the tight switchbacks. I only traveled about a mile or so, maybe a little less up the trail. Disappointing, though I probably gained more by taking care of stuff at home rather than continuing up the trail. 

Waterfall on Eaton Creek. The trail to Eaton Lake passes just below this waterfall. This was my first and best photo. It was raining/misting hard enough that the subsequent photos were pretty blurred from water spots. As it is, there are even a few water spots on the lense in this photo. 

Deer Hunt 2019

Worked opening weekend. Went out after work several nights. Only saw one deer, small doe. Ironically saw her from close distance, about 20 feet away and watched for half an hour or so. Downwind so she couldn’t smell me. She knew I, or something was there but couldn’t figure it out because she couldn’t smell me and I was standing still. Didn’t want to spook her because I wanted to look over small rise nearby and, if she spooked, might scare away anything that might be there. Pretty cool. Watched her browse and nose the wind trying to catch my scent. Never see deer this close for this long when all I have is a camera. Have quite often seen them this close for extended periods while hunting with rifle in hand. Went on long hunt second weekend of season, actually on Friday. Same place I got deer previous year. Saw lots of sign but no deer. Next day, Saturday was Vashti’s last basketball game so went out early and looked at a few places before going to game. Headed out after game to try another spot where I got deer in 2014. Good spot, always lots of deer but pretty long walk in. Had game cart this year which I hoped would help get deer out if I happened to get one. Had gone a couple of miles in direction of that spot when I realized that I had forgotten to pick up new alarm clock at hardware store. Was cutting it close to get a hunt in where I had planned to go but needed that alarm clock so turned around and got it. Also made another stop. Raining heavily. Good weather for blacktail hunting. Got to takeoff spot at about noon. Had to walk from there a mile or two into area I wanted to hunt. Rain hitting windshield was a little chunky. I was still wearing converse with an extra pair of wool socks. Feet would definitely get wet and probably cold. Had cotton/wool long underwear on and a sweatshirt under rain gear. Maybe a little underdressed. Would get wet under rain gear but should be okay as long as I kept moving. No extra clothes so if I got hurt somehow, would probably be in trouble. Had lighter and matches so theoretically could start a fire but that would be a challenge as wet as everything was. Mostly planned to keep moving. Dropped game cart off not too far from pickup. Hid it in some thick reprod. Lower end of road I was walking was in pretty good shape but getting brushy at top. Had to fight through quite a bit of brush. Could feel that clothes underneath raingear were slightly damp, couldn’t tell if it was from sweat or rain water soaking in around neck and cuffs. Still warm enough even though the rain occasionally was chunky sleet. Felt crusher thoroughly soaked by the time I reached spot I was planning to hunt. So wet that when brush pressed against it, it squeezed water dyed red and salty with this last summer’s sweat down into my face. Kept my head quite warm though. Wonders of wool. Very windy and foggy when I got to hunting spot. Could see that someone who had key to gate below had driven through earlier but it had been a while ago, mud was mostly settled in puddles. Could see from vehicle tracks that they probably hadn’t even gotten out of their rig, just road hunting. Cut down through newer logging unit. Unit so new that there wasn’t much growing there for deer to eat. Saw lots of sign but figured that that was from deer moving through the area. So foggy that I couldn’t see more than a hundred yards or so. Wind was swirling. Not best conditions for hunting. Have quite often had deer under such conditions wind me and run off before I can see what it was. Kind of frustrating. You can hear them running off but you can’t see them. Started up road towards spot where I got a deer in 2014 and saw more in 2015. Went around corner and there was a deer there in the road about 30 yards away with its head down feeding. Dropped to knee and tried to flip scope cover off. Discovered that brush had scraped the rear cover off. Hoped scope wasn’t fogged up so badly that I couldn’t see through it. About that time, deer looked up and I could see that it was a buck. Went to flip safety off and discovered that it was already off. Don’t know if I had already flipped it off and forgotten about it or the brush had flipped it off. Felt kind of weird but no time to think about it. Took aim and discovered that I couldn’t see anything through scope. Though it might be fogged up but looked and saw that front cover hadn’t flipped off when I had tried to remove back cover. This all happened in a matter of a few seconds but I felt like I was wasting a lot of time. Deer was going to bolt any second. Flipped front cover off and was relieved to be able to see deer’s side through scope. Quick aim and fire. Good shot. I didn’t flinch for once. Saw bullet hit and looked like good solid killing shot. Deer took off immediately and ran around corner. Took my time following. Left spent cartridge in chamber of rifle, safer that way but otherwise was ready to inject another shell in chamber and shoot again if need be. Walked down road and saw one big splotch of blood. Usually good sign. I hit one once and there was a lot of blood but I eventually lost the trail and never found it. Usually if there are only a few big splotches of blood means you got good hit and they are bleeding out internally. Got around corner and went up small rise and there was the deer, dead. From shot to this point less than 30 seconds. Thank goodness. Relatively quick kill with little suffering. Walked up to deer cautiously until I could verify that it was really dead. Eyes open and glazed and it wasn’t moving. Took a moment for reflection. Sorry for deer but glad for me. Lots of meat.  Now work started. Raining steadily but didn’t want to get blood and guts all over new rain gear so took coat and sweatshirt off and rolled up sleeves. Put sweatshirt inside raincoat to keep it dry. Took about half hour to gut deer-some people can get this job done in a few minutes but it always seems to take me longer. Saved heart and liver. Knew some people who liked heart and liver and weather was cold so should be able to preserve them well. Last year it was so warm and it would take me so long to get heart and liver out in a plastic bag that I didn’t even try. Ravens, crows and coyotes got a nice bonus that year. Put sweatshirt and raincoat back on and dragged deer back out to road. Found a place to hide it in some brush under a bushy silver fir tree. Camouflaged carcass with silver fir boughs-didn’t trust that someone might come driving along and decide that they would take the deer. If this happened, I would also lose my tag because I had notched it to indicate the day’s date and month and attached it to the carcass. Started back to retrieve game cart. Took about an hour to get back. Stashed and hid rifle in rig and started back with game cart. Feeling pretty hungry and little weak from low blood sugar. Ate a snickers bar from lunch stash as I walked along and it helped a lot. Realized quickly that I should have taken cart a lot farther along with me. Used up a lot of time going all that way back for the cart. Had killed deer some time after 1:00 p.m. Got back to rig and started back with cart at about 2:30 p.m. Got back to deer a little after 3:00 p.m. Loaded deer on cart and lashed it down as best I could. Retrieved heart and liver-had left in sack with mouth of sack open to let heat dissipate. Knew it would be long haul back so ate more food was using lunch bag from summer hiking trips and whatever I hadn’t eaten from those trips. Ordinarily would have been pretty good but I was wet and getting chilled the longer I stood around-wind had picked up quite a bit and increased wind chill factor (made it feel much colder) to something that was probably pretty close to freezing. Wolfed down cold food and drank some water and started on my way. Cart much superior to wheelbarrow that I had used to bring out deer the year before and way better than dragging. First hundred yards I thought it might not be too bad. Then I started uphill. Quickly realized that this was going to be a lot of work. Found I could only progress about a hundred yards at best without having to stop and rest. Wind howling, swirling rain and sleet. Was working so hard that I didn’t really get cold. It was cold enough that I didn’t really break a sweat either. Finally reached flat ground. Going much easier here but handle of cart kept my arms at weird angle and I could feel a lot of stress on my shoulder joints. Got to brushed in side road that I had come in on and dove off on it. Fighting brush even harder while pulling deer on cart. Discovered a lot of ground that I had thought was flat was actually uphill-nothing like pulling a heavy weight to make such things obvious. Brush squeezed water, sweat and dye out of my hat and into my face. Spots where sleet/snow on ground. Sleet/snow stuck to everything, especially feet which quickly got painfully cold. Bad traction in spots where sleet/snow accumulated. Slipped every other step and completely slipped and fell numerous time, once slamming my knee hard. Knee hurt and had to pause for a bit but not too long because feet really started to ache from cold if I quite moving for too long. This went for breaks too. Could go about 100-200 yards between breaks and breaks a little shorter than I wanted but had to keep moving. Finally got to downhill spot. Made mistake of trying to go down in front of cart which just about ran me over. Discovered that if I stayed above it, it was actually pretty easy to maneuver downhill. Figured wheels would be big enough to roll over a lot of stuff, especially going downhill with whole weight of cart behind them but found that they were stopped by surprisingly small obstacles created by rocks, roots and holes. Had to fight cart over each one of these as I encountered them. Had to stop and readjust deer on cart several times. Baling twine that I had used to tie it to cart kept slipping and letting deer slide almost off cart. Finally tied some around base of its antlers and to handle. Worked best of all the tie-ons but still had a tendency to slip. Was dreading several spots ahead where large ruts had been washed into road. Getting dark by the time I reached next big uphill stretch. But this was also last big uphill stretch. Would be downhill after this except for last little bit to rig. Only other large obstacle was large tree across road. First rutted section was on first downhill stretch. Navigated that pretty well. Had to fight wheels out of rut several times. Pretty smooth going after that. Still pushing through a lot of brush. One spot going downhill my feet started sliding and it was too slick to stop. Able to glissade several hundred yards down road behind cart. This was quite easy. Wished it had been that way all the way out. Discovered a few spots where I hadn’t noticed that it was actually uphill on the way out. Discovered these spot quickly as it was pretty difficult to push cart uphill so I had to switch it around and pull it. Finally got to tree across road. Last obstacle between me and rig. Had hoped that I would be able to get cart, deer and all, over the tree but no dice. Couldn’t get enough leverage to get wheels to roll over trunk and cart frame probably hanging up on protruding limbs. Finally had to cut deer loose and drag it over before lifting cart over. Pretty dark by the time I got that done. Dragged deer back on cart and tied antlers to handle and didn’t tie anywhere else. Discovered another rutted spot in road and had to fight this for about 5 minutes before I could get cart rolling again. Good going from here on out. Had to stop several times to gather up tie strings that I had cut and let hang loose. They tended to get wrapped up in cart wheels or I was constantly stepping on them. Had to stop a few times on last uphill stretch to rig but finally I was there. Full dark by this time. Dropped pack and got out of rain gear. Still raining but easier to move around without rain gear and I had another fight ahead. Really tired but almost done. Another fight to get deer into back of rig. Though cart might help with that but it didn’t. Finally got into back of pickup and braced my legs and pulled until I got front shoulders over tailgate then kept pulling and another brace and extra pull to get hind legs in. Loaded cart and hopped in pickup. Time was about 7:15 p.m. Started down road but realized that I couldn’t see it. Couldn’t tell at first if inside of windshield was fogged up because of my wet clothes and because I was still steaming with exertion or if the fog was so thick I couldn’t see more than a few feet. Turned defrost on high and quickly realized that it was mostly that the fog was so thick I could only see a few feet. Crawled along in first gear for quarter to half mile before got out of fog. Really disorienting. I have driven that road quite a bit but it was completely unfamiliar in the thick fog. Pretty good going after that but hit another thick fog bank near bottom of hill and had to slow down again. Got home a little after 8:00 p.m. Since deer was already field dressed, waited until next day to skin it.  

Venison for the year.