Back from our wilderness excursion in the backwoods o’ Warshinton. It was a grand time, but it definitely feels nice to be back to electricity, ELEC-TRICITY and running water. On Friday we headed out around noon, and stopped in Trout Lake for this ginormous village-wide rummage sale. I obtained a pair of decent looking hiking boots for a mere 25 cents, Pat Benetar’s Best Shots on cassette, and a Sting cassette (the title eludes me now). We set up camp at Chambers Lake, which is nice and Wahtum-like. There’s a nifty little floaty raft thing with a bench on it tied to the shore, and I discovered a nice beaver felled tree stump and an old unused lodge. Tim, always the scavenger for unusual souvenirs, quickly made friends with our chainsaw-toting camping neighbor and promised a tanned muskrat pelt in the mail in exchange for this dude’s chainsaw handiwork with the stump. So, yeah..we now have yet another beaver stump for the yard. We pretty much just explored the lake that evening, and I read a David Sedaris story in lieu of the traditional ghost story by the campfire. And of course, s’mores were to be had.
Saturday we got up, had some pancakes, and set out for a hike up in the goat rocks wilderness. Luckily we ran into a forest service ranger before we got there, because he suggested taking the Snowgrass Flat trail up rather than Goat Ridge, due to its gentler nature. It was a fairly easy hike until we started climbing up into the alpine area. It was a gorgeous day, and I regretted wearing black denim and a three quarters length t-shirt. There are expansive meadows up there. We ran into tons of backpackers..it definitely looks like a great place to go backpacking, because it’s so remote and it just screams bears. No sarcasm there..I’d totally be up until the sun sets glassing the slopes for foraging bears. We came to a super small pond, and as I walked along the edge a Cascades frog jumped into the water, so I got a few good photos of it. Soon after the frog, we came to a large rockslide. We heard this incredibly loud whistling, and I was sure it was a hawk or an eagle until Snooks took an interest in the rocks and we turned to see an enormous fluffy marmot bounding over the rocks. It was beyond adorable. There were two marmots visible, and I took off from the trail in hopes of capturing one with my camera. I didn’t get too close before they retreated into the rocks though, so only got some far-away blurry shots. I’ve decided that marmots are usurping the muskrat’s place in my heart as most adorable rodent. We ran into three guys on horses and Tim got to talking wildlife with them. One guy said that the fish and game relocated two grizzly bears from out of state to Walupt Lake, a short drive from Chambers. The area we were hiking in certainly looked like ideal grizzly habitat. We continued hiking, upwards pretty much the whole way for a couple miles, and the trail follows the ridges up to Goat Lake. Jean from the wildlife clinic told me that the mountain goats hang out right around the lake, but on our way up two people coming down said there were no goats up there today. I reached the lake first, which is gorgeous and fills a basin in one of the crags - deep aquamarine and freezing. I looked up in the slopes, there are just a few snow banks left, and spotted a lone goat near one of the snow banks. Mum arrived with the binoculars so we all got to see it fairly well. Once it moved onto the snow you’d never know it was there. We had sandwiches and drinks lakeside, got to pet a super cute husky and then I had one of my pb+j baggies stolen by a german shorthair by the name of Vladimir. We left the lake, more uphill climbing, and then we finally started to head down from the peaks in the late afternoon. On the way back we saw six more marmots, many of them whistling, some just lounging on the rocks. I totally got to see one whistle through the binoculars. And let me tell you, it’s the most precious spectacle ever. They open their mouths real wide and for a good two seconds. I have determined that they are hoary marmots. They're way furrier and grayer than the yellow bellied marmots, and larger too. Anyways, long hike short we finally reached our car a good forty minutes after sundown. It was about 12 miles.
That night it was more Sedaris, dinner over the new gas camping stove, and s’mores.
On Sunday we went to Walupt Lake and hiked towards the creek, which we never found. Lots of fresh elk sign though! And I found the tail of a wild rabbit near the trail..no doubt the victim of an owl. We went down to the lake and mom and I explored the shores. We found one agate, lots of nifty huge old fallen trees with little trees and shrubs growing out of them, and two juvenile Cascades frogs. Mom and Tim went back to the trail, and I just decided to try and go the lakeside route. It worked for a half mile, during which I saw another frog, a chipmunk, and two shed snake skins. I headed up to the trail in order to avoid disturbing a fishing party. We went back to our camp. More o’ the same. I sat on the rafty thing for a half hour in the evening, hoping to see an otter or beaver or something, but no luck.
Today we packed up, spent a little while longer at the lake, visited an old Indian cave where a bunch of deer bones and artifacts were found in the '80s, and went to Packwood where there’s another huge flea market thing going on. There were some overpriced antlers. I got a cowhide wallet to replace the hello kitty one, and I found cheap clean-o-scratches DVDs and CDs. I got About A Boy and Be Here Now by Oasis for five dollars a piece. Royal Tenenbaums still in shrinkwrap from Fred Meyer for five dollars! Now I know why I don’t normally buy $15 movies at Fred Meyer..figures. If only I’d gotten Amelie when I went to The Dalles instead!
Then we went back to Trout Lake so mum could get cheap work shirts for a dollar a bag. And then, Taco Del Mar for dinner. Nantucket Nectars Blueberry Apple is freaking excellent. It actually tastes blueberryish.
All in all, it was a pretty nice trip. Photos shall be posted.
Saturday we got up, had some pancakes, and set out for a hike up in the goat rocks wilderness. Luckily we ran into a forest service ranger before we got there, because he suggested taking the Snowgrass Flat trail up rather than Goat Ridge, due to its gentler nature. It was a fairly easy hike until we started climbing up into the alpine area. It was a gorgeous day, and I regretted wearing black denim and a three quarters length t-shirt. There are expansive meadows up there. We ran into tons of backpackers..it definitely looks like a great place to go backpacking, because it’s so remote and it just screams bears. No sarcasm there..I’d totally be up until the sun sets glassing the slopes for foraging bears. We came to a super small pond, and as I walked along the edge a Cascades frog jumped into the water, so I got a few good photos of it. Soon after the frog, we came to a large rockslide. We heard this incredibly loud whistling, and I was sure it was a hawk or an eagle until Snooks took an interest in the rocks and we turned to see an enormous fluffy marmot bounding over the rocks. It was beyond adorable. There were two marmots visible, and I took off from the trail in hopes of capturing one with my camera. I didn’t get too close before they retreated into the rocks though, so only got some far-away blurry shots. I’ve decided that marmots are usurping the muskrat’s place in my heart as most adorable rodent. We ran into three guys on horses and Tim got to talking wildlife with them. One guy said that the fish and game relocated two grizzly bears from out of state to Walupt Lake, a short drive from Chambers. The area we were hiking in certainly looked like ideal grizzly habitat. We continued hiking, upwards pretty much the whole way for a couple miles, and the trail follows the ridges up to Goat Lake. Jean from the wildlife clinic told me that the mountain goats hang out right around the lake, but on our way up two people coming down said there were no goats up there today. I reached the lake first, which is gorgeous and fills a basin in one of the crags - deep aquamarine and freezing. I looked up in the slopes, there are just a few snow banks left, and spotted a lone goat near one of the snow banks. Mum arrived with the binoculars so we all got to see it fairly well. Once it moved onto the snow you’d never know it was there. We had sandwiches and drinks lakeside, got to pet a super cute husky and then I had one of my pb+j baggies stolen by a german shorthair by the name of Vladimir. We left the lake, more uphill climbing, and then we finally started to head down from the peaks in the late afternoon. On the way back we saw six more marmots, many of them whistling, some just lounging on the rocks. I totally got to see one whistle through the binoculars. And let me tell you, it’s the most precious spectacle ever. They open their mouths real wide and for a good two seconds. I have determined that they are hoary marmots. They're way furrier and grayer than the yellow bellied marmots, and larger too. Anyways, long hike short we finally reached our car a good forty minutes after sundown. It was about 12 miles.
That night it was more Sedaris, dinner over the new gas camping stove, and s’mores.
On Sunday we went to Walupt Lake and hiked towards the creek, which we never found. Lots of fresh elk sign though! And I found the tail of a wild rabbit near the trail..no doubt the victim of an owl. We went down to the lake and mom and I explored the shores. We found one agate, lots of nifty huge old fallen trees with little trees and shrubs growing out of them, and two juvenile Cascades frogs. Mom and Tim went back to the trail, and I just decided to try and go the lakeside route. It worked for a half mile, during which I saw another frog, a chipmunk, and two shed snake skins. I headed up to the trail in order to avoid disturbing a fishing party. We went back to our camp. More o’ the same. I sat on the rafty thing for a half hour in the evening, hoping to see an otter or beaver or something, but no luck.
Today we packed up, spent a little while longer at the lake, visited an old Indian cave where a bunch of deer bones and artifacts were found in the '80s, and went to Packwood where there’s another huge flea market thing going on. There were some overpriced antlers. I got a cowhide wallet to replace the hello kitty one, and I found cheap clean-o-scratches DVDs and CDs. I got About A Boy and Be Here Now by Oasis for five dollars a piece. Royal Tenenbaums still in shrinkwrap from Fred Meyer for five dollars! Now I know why I don’t normally buy $15 movies at Fred Meyer..figures. If only I’d gotten Amelie when I went to The Dalles instead!
Then we went back to Trout Lake so mum could get cheap work shirts for a dollar a bag. And then, Taco Del Mar for dinner. Nantucket Nectars Blueberry Apple is freaking excellent. It actually tastes blueberryish.
All in all, it was a pretty nice trip. Photos shall be posted.
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