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2010 Off Week, Off Trail, No-notice, HOM

Criminal

By Criminal
in Northwest

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LandRover

+LandRover

Posted
Posted

This is really short notice. I’m planning on hiking in to Bunch Lake to try the fishing tomorrow (Monday). This is a lake in the Colonel Bob Wilderness, northeast of Lake Quinault. The lake sits just north of Elk Lake, near where Ironman has a geocache hide. We came in from the other side when we placed the caches near the ONP border. Because the lake is in the ONP, I don't think you need a fishing license.

 

The hike in is only about two miles one way, however, there are no trails of which I’m aware. I haven’t been able to find a trip report of anyone else heading in there either. I’m not even sure where I’ll be able to park. I intend to spend the night just down the road at the Fletcher Canyon trailhead, then head over in the morning. If it proves to be a bust, the alternate plan is to explore the Fletcher Canyon Trail, since I’ve never been up that way.

 

If you’re in, plan on being there at sun-up.

 

Bunch Lake: 47° 30.244 W 123° 41.137

Well Dang, I'm on vacation this week but I'm in Baltimore/DC doing the tourist thing. Will be back on Thursday though.

Criminal

+Criminal

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The canyon hike to the lake didn't work. It took an hour and a half to do .15 of the 2 miles. Getting all mathy I figured it would take better than 16 hours at that rate, just to get in. Turned back, did some fishing in the river, killed an hour and a half chatting with a Park Ranger about ham radio, guns, bears, cougars, Jeeps, Starlifters, government employment and more. Then switched over to the back-up plan and hiked the Fletcher Canyon Trail to the end. Stopped for a few minutes at Ironman's house to see the paint job on the drive home. Long day.

Criminal

+Criminal

Posted
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Posted (edited)

Looks like snow on Saturday, if you get up high enough. There (probably) won't be enough snow on the ground for snow shoes, but the snow should be falling while we're hiking.

 

I'm looking at either:

 

Big Quilcene

Mt Ellinor

Mt. Townsend

Tunnel Creek to the ridge top.

Mt Walker (the gate is closed so you have to hike it)

 

Or this short-&-sweet hike:

Mt. Zion (~4 miles RT)

Edited by Criminal
BrewerMD

+BrewerMD

Posted
Posted

Wish I could join you but I will be up at a meeting at UBC. I am going to find a mountain on Sunday, just can't stay away! We have snow up here on Baker if you are looking to play in the snow. :anibad:

Criminal

+Criminal

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It looks like the weather was wrong, yet again. I only got a little snow falling on me near the summit of Mt. Walker, then blue skies. Today it's snowing, exactly the opposite of the weather predictions...

 

Snow on the summit was 6" to 8" deep, with a foot in some spots. Not enough to justify snowshoes though. TR posted.

 

SnowMt.png

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Criminal

+Criminal

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Hey, I got some of them! I'm game!

What time can you be in the Silverdale area? If someone else is actually going to go (for a change) I'll set an alarm and get up early.

Criminal

+Criminal

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Posted

Hey, I got some of them! I'm game!

What time can you be in the Silverdale area? If someone else is actually going to go (for a change) I'll set an alarm and get up early.

 

Early. First boat is at 4:05am. Name a place and a time & I'll be there!

Meet by the Barnes and Noble over on the Northeast side of the Kitsap Mall. 0800 sound good?

Criminal

+Criminal

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I really wanted to sleep in this morning....REALLY. I'll have the radio and will try to call out on either Northbend or one of the Tiger Mountain repeaters from time to time. The trail head is almost at 3000' elevation, so there may be snow right from the start, but I'm not sure. I figure we'll hike up as far as we can, and as far as looks safe. See you at the Noble bookstore!

 

I'm poking the cursor around the map on this website to check elevation weather.

Edited by Criminal
Criminal

+Criminal

Posted
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Posted (edited)

Wow! We had falling snow, sideways blowing snow, blue skies with falling snow…it was a beautiful day!

 

We did have to remove a blow-down tree across the road with a hand saw and an axe just to get in.

Much like the time I said, “You don’t need a tent in August, it never rains!” or the many times I said, “It’s a three hour hike!” or the several times I said, “We’ll be out before dark easy!” – my plan that we would get at least midway up the trail before we would need snowshoes was WAY off. We hit deep snow in several places miles from the trailhead, and had to stop at the Y in the road to the upper or lower trailheads. We decided not to try to go any further and park there. The Jeep was high centered on its skid-plates and it took some doing to get it pointed downhill again. We snowshoed up and started walking to the trailhead, and after a bit over two miles we arrived, ate lunch, and turned around again. The snow was deep! We arrived back at the car as dusk was falling, and drove out in the dark. We stopped in Silverdale for burgers and beer.

 

I’ll post up more details and some pictures tomorrow.

 

Sign2.png

 

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Breaking.png

Edited by Criminal
Criminal

+Criminal

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Heres a few more pictures from yesterday, just to rub it in a bit. The TR is posted.

 

Kevin axes the log if it would kindly move out of the roadway:

Log1.png

 

It refused, so we went to work on the other end:

Log2.png

 

Lead change, Kevin moves around to take the lead breaking the trail:

2Hikers3.png

 

A beautiful day:

1Track.png

 

Parked in the deep snow:

JeepSnow.png

Edited by Criminal
Criminal

+Criminal

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Again, nice pics. I am envious, looks like it was a heck of a good time. I am shooting for Feb to be out again playing like usual. Keep the eye candy coming!

Are you sure you won't be better by Friday? I'm shooting for one last hike before the end of the year, or maybe a first for 2011, if I can reach the trailhead. The feds have Friday off (for some reason) so either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

 

Mt. Zion is pretty short at under 2 miles, but it's pretty steep.

Criminal

+Criminal

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Is the parking lot by the Barnes & Noble in Silverdale at 0800 too early? We can always slip it an hour if you need more time. If there's only the three of us we can take my Jeep.

 

JeepSnowCropped.png

LandRover

+LandRover

Posted
Posted

Even though I'm Off on Friday I can't make it.

The Belfair CM is Sunday and Andrew and I will be heading over that way on Saturday to try and knock off some of Ironman's caches though. I'm going to be bringing bikes for at least the Vista House cache. Not sure how feasible they would be for Psycho Vertigo...Doin' it Ironman Style! & The Lost Railroad though, not sure I want to be pushing / carrying bikes over abandoned RR trestles.

ironman114

+ironman114

Posted
Posted

Even though I'm Off on Friday I can't make it.

The Belfair CM is Sunday and Andrew and I will be heading over that way on Saturday to try and knock off some of Ironman's caches though. I'm going to be bringing bikes for at least the Vista House cache. Not sure how feasible they would be for Psycho Vertigo...Doin' it Ironman Style! & The Lost Railroad though, not sure I want to be pushing / carrying bikes over abandoned RR trestles.

 

Bikes work for Vista house. although you may have to push them uphill for a major part it is all downhill going back.

 

They will work for part of Psycho as it is an old RR grade, but two culverts have been removed and the one closest to the cache would be impossible to take a bike through. I would lock the bikes if only taken part way.

 

Ironman style isn't a long walk. Lost RR depends on which way you approach.

 

Have fun.

Criminal

+Criminal

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The girlfriend and I talked about this and decided neither of our cars could easily make the conditions that are probably up on those forest roads. Maybe next time :)

We just need another 4x4 to get you in. Since we're meeting in Silverdale, we can leave the low clearance cars there and 4x4-pool to the trailhead (assuming we can get that far).

ironman114

+ironman114

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I'll be coming via Shelton. Either to meet you in Silverdale or taking my truck up 101 to Quilcene to meet. I'll have to see about fuel costs.

 

I have room for 4 in the truck. 5 if you real buddies ;)

Edited by ironman114
Criminal

+Criminal

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Just in case we get some last minute joiners, and for everyone else, we're meeting at the Kitsap Mall near the Barnes & Noble bookstore (west side of the mall) at 0800. If you're coming from the south (thru Bremerton) take exit 45A and turn right towards the Kitsap Mall. If you're running late, give one of us a call so we'll wait.

 

Be watchful for black ice! :unsure:

ZeroHecksGiven

+ZeroHecksGiven

Posted
Posted

The girlfriend and I will be meeting up with maggie in port orchard, carpooling from there to B&N. At that point, we can figure out how to get us all to the snow. We can pitch in for gas, snuggle up, ride on roof racks, whatever it takes. See y'all in the morning!

Criminal

+Criminal

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probably to late to ask but what 2 M freq will you be using. The SPOT is working fine. Dick

I had pretty good luck on Bremerton 146.620 last time. I don't remember the PL tone though. I'll be calling you this afternoon Dick. We'll probably all push VHF common 146.520 while we're walking.

Criminal

+Criminal

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All I can say is....WOW! This turned out to be a fantastic hike! We barely made the trailhead due to deep snow, and I was glad Ironman had his higher clearance truck along. Oddly, the lower part of the trail itself was almost bare, but it got deeper as we went up. It turned out we didn't need snowshoes at all, and we made the summit in two hours. My radio battery was dead, but TL was able to raise Dick on the Bremerton repeater, although the signal was poor. The cache is deep under the snow so we spent very little time on that. The summit is forested so we only had good views to the north, and peek-a-boo views to the east. We had lunch and coffee and started down, making the trailhead in only an hour.

 

Trip Report posted.

 

ZJeep01.png

SummitGroup.png

DustinDani.png

Greg.png

Maggie.png

KevinRests.png

DustinEmerges.png

Fe1.png

OnTop.png

ZionProfile1.png

Edited by Criminal
W7WT

+W7WT

Posted
Posted

TL was very loud on my old equipment on 146.52. Should be almost line of of sight. Before my operation, I lowered the antenna. Give me another month and I will have a good rig online..Dick

BrewerMD

+BrewerMD

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Posted

Can't wait to see the pics. The reason for my lack of outdoors is that I tore my cartilage in my knee and had surgery about two weeks ago. The knee is immobilized until the end of January. But the good Doc tells me I will be in full hiking mode come spring hiking. Can't wait, until then I am living vicariously through you all. Keep it up!

TotemLake

+TotemLake

Posted
Posted

It was a great hike. I was really pleased to see the turnout. Good laughs on the way up with great views at the break in the trees as well as at the summit. It was a balmy 23 degrees out and the only time we really felt it was when the wind broke through.

 

Thanks, Criminal, for setting this one up. It was sure good to see you again after a long spell.

 

Dick, I was finally able to start picking you up over the static by positioning my antennae a real specific way. I guess I need to speak with a slightly softer voice eh? :)

TotemLake

+TotemLake

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I sure wish I had figured out how to snap those snowshoes onto the backpack a lot earlier. My left knee is giving me grief today. Lessons learned, the straps are now permanently in the backpack instead of laying about.

Criminal

+Criminal

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I had a lot of trouble with the pictures of the snowman at the trailhead- it's tough to see due to the lack of contrast. Here's a couple shots. Someone spent a lot of time making it!

 

SM1.pngSM2.png

 

And a crop of one of the summit group shots (I took three):

 

SummitGroup2.png

 

Lens.png

Edited by Criminal
ironman114

+ironman114

Posted
Posted

What a great day and a great way to end the year. I got to try my new tires in deep snow, make a good hike and had sunshine all day with some good summit views.

 

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164049_188924431123456_100000177009675_757168_1354139_n.jpg

Late afternoon sunlit trail

 

What more could you ask for than good friends and good health. I had those on this trip too! My new valve seems to be working fine. Seat belts still bug me on the incision but pack straps don't.

 

162994_188916181124281_100000177009675_757132_3626039_n.jpg

Dueling JetBoil stoves making hot lunch and some hot coffee.

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