Boulder Creek Wilderness: Cinder Prairie and Skipper Lakes

(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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Big, scary cougar tracks...

... 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!

"Large" Skipper Lake

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.

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!

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.