(Click on any picture for larger view and slide show)
“Just annoyed”. That
was the answer I received from my son Colby, asking him if he was ok, as I rousted him at 5:30 in the
morning to go hiking. That phrase would pretty much
describe the rest of the day in the Boulder Creek Wilderness, the location of
my first official spring hike.
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| Mt. Thielsen and Mt. Bailey from Cinder Prairie |
As is sometimes typical, my first official hike of spring
began with attempting a tad too high elevation a tad too early in the year. Result:
We couldn’t make it to the trailhead due to the snow. Just annoyed. So we went
with my backup plan, which was to hike to Cinder Prairie and continue north to
Skipper Lakes and return.
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| A rocky break |
The bright summer-like day in April gave promise to a great
hike. The hike began on an ill-maintained road for about ¼ mile. Upon reaching
the actual trail, it wasn't long before I saw that trying follow any
resemblance of a trail would be nearly futile.
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| Down is easier than up |
Nonetheless, like the consummate
boy scout, I always hike with my GPS and a map of the area. This would be one
of those rare times that if I didn’t have either, I would not have continued on
with this hike. So, trying to stay on the “trail” was quite difficult, as I was
constantly referring to the map and gps. Just annoyed.
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| Spring snow melt... still melting |
The reason for the lack of any visible trail is due to the
fires that happened back in 1996 and 2008. As it states on the Umpqua National
Forest website, “Expect
rapid brush growth and persistent blowdown in the years to come".
These
fires have created a great change in the landscape, opening up many views, but
also obscuring many of the trails with the aforementioned brush growth and blowdowns.
Add to this no trail maintenance, and the result can be a bush-whacking, log-dodging
experience, which my friend Richard is quite fond of, especially the
bush-whacking part. (Ok, neither of us are fond of the log-dodging) Just
annoyed.
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| View of Boulder Creek Wilderness, courtesy of fire |
As we continued along the uphill ghost trail, we had plenty
of time to catch our breath as I continually paused to check our position, or
stopped to tie ribbon on trees to help guide any other foolish hikers who may
want to attempt this part of the wilderness.
Finally, upon reaching the wide open, grass covered Cinder
Prairie, we were afforded a south-facing view of Mt. Thielsen and Mt. Bailey.
We paused to soak in the view.
A little exploring brought us to what appeared
to be a dilapidated water trough, perhaps for livestock back in the day. It
looked as if it was fed from an underground spring, but had obviously seen
better days.
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| Not for human consumption |
On the downhill side of the Cinder Prairie, we were faced
with more snow. As I was thinking about the troublesome trek we’d have to make
back up this snow-laden hillside, I noticed something that was even more
worrisome. The fairly fresh and disconcerting cougar tracks in the snow made
the pending walk in the snow seem rather trivial. Just annoyed. And this is why
I carry Mr. Springfield and his dozen “kids” with me whenever I’m hiking in
remote areas… just in case.
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| Big, scary cougar tracks... |
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| ... going the same direction we are! |
The large feline tracks went straight downhill, the exact
same direction which we had to go. Without trying to think about it too much, we
tentatively but quickly made it to the bottom of the hill, without any big
scary cats prowling about. With cougar tracks and cold snow out of sight and
out of mind (mostly), we continued on to Skipper Lakes without nary a trail in
sight. With only my instincts and gps to guide me, and more bush whacking and
log-hopping (just annoyed), we arrived at a body of water!
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| "Large" Skipper Lake |
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| Ahhh! |
We made our way to the sunny side of this very small tear-shaped
lake, which was quite relaxing after all that we’ve been through. We ate our
lunch, relaxed on a log a bit and took a few pictures. And like any hike, you
must do the hike in reverse if you want to return to your vehicle.
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| A smaller, frozen Skipper Lake |
Amazingly, as we made our way back, the elusive trail
revealed more of itself than it did on the way up. So our path back was a bit
easier, thanks to staying mostly on the trail, learning from my mistakes, and
going mostly downhill also helped. We still had logs, brush, and some snow to
trudge through, but we made much better time on the way back.
On we trekked, through the snow fields, up the scary cougar-track
snow-covered hill, back over Cinder Prairie, along the tree-lined ridges to the
truck we go!
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| Cruel father makes son climb scary Cougar hill in snow. |
As we reached the road leading back to the truck, Colby rejoiced,
knowing the whole bush-whacking, log-dodging, cat-avoiding journey was behind
us. That’s not to say he still wasn’t “just annoyed” at the overall experience.
