Thursday Sep12 at the hairpin-turn-PriestLk-overlook
photo-ops of patchy fog on the lake, and clearing skies, made a few
more photo-stops before getting to the main road along the lake,
headed north directly to the FT58TH for the next northbound section o
ICT along the east shore of Upper Priest Lk, just north of the Lions
Head Unit of the State Park. The TH turned out again to be one of
those unmarked decommissioned jeep trails, this one barricaded by
large boulders and surrounding felled trees, and no parking turnout
til a few dozen yards further up the road, I think this is to
discourage ATV usage. The irony is I had on my visit to the State
Park Visitor Center picked up a flyer describing the trail, with
detailed directions to its TH location, so any ATV-er doing the same
would have found the same trail, although they would have had to work
to get around the barriers (although there turned out to be several
roads branching back to the road intersecting the trail further north,
whether all of these had likewise been obfuscated/barricaded from the
main road I don't know - I didn't notice these roads when I drove the
main road up to Caribou Hill the previous day.)
Packed my waist-pack and camera for a forecast mostly sunny full day
out&back to the north end of Upper Priest Lake, climbed around and
over the barriers and was immediately confused by an intersection with
two north-bound trails (In addition to a road branching left
(presumably circling back south towards the Lions Head campground.)
The flyer describing the trail had general guidance "if in doubt, take
the northbound route." Tried the right one of the two, and soon
discovered that the left trail merged back into a single northbound
route. After a short walk through a deeply shaded mixed
Cedar-Fir-hardwood grove there was a sign "Trail" pointing left toward
the crossing of Caribou Creek, the flyer had warned "don't be afraid
to get wet at this crossing", and indeed it was a barefoot wade
across, although easy with smooth flattened golf-ball to
softball-sized cobbles. Continued on with a few mild ups and downs in
deep woods without distant views but plenty of fresh mushrooms and
such to keep my camera busy, finally getting glimpses of water, the
Upper Priest Lake, and the trail wove back and forth from the shore
and away, then, primarily on the northern part of the lake, passing
through large campground areas provisioned for horses and boaters,
with small pebbly beaches, some with outhouses, one with an
un-barricaded mining tunnel that I could have crawled into, though
probably didn't go far, one beach occupied by a boat and tent.
Came to a last small beach at the north end of the lake before the
lakeshore curved west, where there was a sign indicating the start of
FT302 which continued north along the base of the same ridge to the
east, and now a marshy densely shrubby flat wetland instead of the
lake, the map showing a meandering Priest River flowing through into
the lake. Also by the sign was a 2" diameter pipe stuck in the ground
with a USGS survey-plate on top. Photographed the USGS placard, the
sign, a pano of the beach, sat down for a few minutes for water and a
snack, just started back when two men about my age came by, talked to
then for a few minutes - they had taken canoes through the
"Thoroughfare" segment of deep slow-moving waterway connecting the
lower and upper lakes, constructed historically for lumber transport,
maintained for sportfishing boaters now. They were camped along the
lake (I hadn't noticed them on my way up. They were continuing up
FT302 to explore the marshy area - had earlier taken the canoes up the
river as far as they could, assumed I had come down from there, I
explained I planned to do that to here tomorrow. We compared maps of
that area. There seemed to be a trail winding around the meandering
river then crossing it when it stopped being navigable, heading
eventually to a road at a mine complex on the north-west side of the
lake. We then went our separate ways and I hiked back with few
further photo-stops.
Back at the car, decided I had enough time to drive the long way down
to the south end of the lower lake, get some gas at a small general
store/bar in the town of Coolin there while it was still open, then
drive north up the west side of the lakes, on SR57 then FR1103 then
FR1013 then finally a right onto FR655 to the trailhead at the north
end of FT302, and find a place to overnight. Got $20 gas at like
3.50/g at the general store on Coolin, then found there were several
gas stations along SR57 on the west side, around the larger town
Nordman there. Oh well. Found the trailhead just about at sundown
without problem with a large campground across the road in a deep dark
cedar grove, all to myself, to increasingly overcast skies, tomorrows
forecast with a chance of rain.
Friday morning it had rained some overnight, the sunbeams hitting the
damp woodsy ground inducing geysers of steam. Out of curiosity and to
warm myself some, I decided to drive further down the side road to
what I thought was signed as a larger campground and trailhead to
Trapper Falls, with possibly an outhouse, but the road just continued
up the ridge, came to a branch where I finally looked at the map and
realized the right branch would take me from the other side back up to
the ridgetop by Caribou Hill that I had overnighted at the first night
in the area. I went a bit further on that branch hoping to find a gap
in the trees to get a view of the flat marshy valley I would be hiking
the edge of later this morning. Not much luck. Just caught a few
glimpses of the ridge to the west of that valley. Back at my original
campsite, readied myself for what I thought might be a half-day hike,
though I'm getting a late start. Wore my Frog-Tog rain-pants,
expecting damp vegetation to push through.
FT302 turned out to be another walk in deep cedar forest, a bit
unexpected, I thought it would be along a marshy shrubby wetland, but
very pleasant, with lots of mushroom photo ops - amazing the different
color variations I saw, not sure if actually separate species or just
different phenotypes due to differing substrates or what. No need for
the rain-pants, not much undergrowth besides the fungi. Just toward
the end as I was approaching the lake where I had turned around
yesterday, did the vegetation change, with a lot of dead or dying
white-barked poplars covering the ground under larger shading cedars
and firs, a successional phenomenon, I think, possibly as a historical
clearcut allowing the poplars to take hold, but then overgrown by a
new crop of larger shading firs and cedars. To the wesst of the trail
in the marshier land, a more dense growth of shrubby hardwood. At the
lake, took anther panorama probably identical to the one yesterday
except for a cloudier sky. Turned back and got to the car with more
than enough time to set myself up for tomorrow's hike, about a 4-mile
drive away, to the FT308 trailhead to Upper Priest Falls, an 8.5 mile
trail along Priest River to the falls a half-mile from the Canadian
border.
I was torn between beginning that evening or just sitting around by
the trailhead for several hours before dark. It was now raining, but
the forecast called for a short clearing window tomorrow, then a
wetter system coming in, although it was described as a slow-moving
system, there was mention of the system stalling over the Cascades. I
got my backpack ready for a possible overnight on the trail, either
tonight or tomorrow night. Packed some extra lightweight plastic
painter's sheeting along with my rain fly and Frog Togs and two pair
of extra socks. AT 6pm it had stopped raining and I decided to go for
it, figuring it would be more efficient to hike with backpack for two
hours tonight getting about 3 miles of the 8.5 miles done, then able
to just side-pack out&back tomorrow, then either tent-overnight a 2nd
night or, more likely, continue to the car with backpack if I had
another two hours daylight available. Hiked the two hours getting
about 4 miles in, I think, mainly because in those deep dark cedar
woods at the end of the day with the heavily overcast sky, I chose to
postpone all the photo-ops, hoping for better light tomorrow. Finally
set up my tent in the dim remaining light, deciding to spread the
plastic sheeting out first, the tent on top, folding the fly half way
open because it wasn't raining, assuming it would be clearing
overnight but able to just reach up and pull the fly over if it did
begin raining. Then I decided to roll up the sides of the plastic
sheeting to just beyond the base of the tent, to avoid water pooling
under the tent.
Woke up in the middle of the night to rain, pulled over the fly and
went back to sleep. Woke up later, still before dawn, to a damp
sleeping bag. Got up and pulled out the culprit plastic sheeting from
under the tent, that had collected water which pooled under the tent.
The tent bottom had one puncture hole that I had a long time ago
"patched" with duct tape, which had partially "unraveled" (also,
probably other areas of the bottom of the tent were not completely
impermeable to pooled water.)
Decided I'd just abandon that damp sleeping bag, get dressed and start
walking, to get warm. My damp long johns would dry underneath the
loose-fitting Frog Tog rain-pants, or at least I'd be warm enough from
the exercise. Ate one Cliff bar for breakfast. I walked for about a
half-hour (probably still before sunrise) when another hiker
overtakes me. He has a long shaggy goatee beard, long unkempt hair.
"You must be hiking the ICT", I guess. Yes. He indeed was hiking
continuously the trail from just south of the Sawtooths. I tell him
I've just been doing mainly day-hikes, and still have a few gaps to
splice up. "So that's your Subaru back there" He guesses. Yes. I'm
walking too slow for him. "I'll see you later at the falls" he says,
and goes ahead.
It was still raining, or maybe off and on but constant drip from damp
tree tops most of the rest of the way. I had my camera's ISO at 2000,
then 1000, then 800 as the morning brightened some. Passed two trail
branches going west - one of these was the PNT - the Pacific Northwest
trail, which traverses east-west just south of the Canadian border
from the Olympic Peninsula to Glacier National park. I had before
encountered it while on the PCT and while hiking in Glacier Park on my
roadtrip first year I started the PCT. There were signs stating
that that trail had lots of tree-fall blocking the trail. I had
earlier considered taking a side-trip on the PNT from this section of
ICT west to the Washington border. Not today. Still was making
plenty of photo-stops this morning, assumed I'd probably soon meet the
oterh kker again on his way back. But I got to the Falls, he was
there sitting under an umbrella, applauding me for finishing the
trail. "No, I still have a bunch of gaps to fill". We sat there and
talked for about an hour, took pictures for each other. I offered him
a ride- his car was in Mullan, east of CdA, I thought I might be
headng tho CdA to use the library Sunday. but thought that would not
be til tomorrow morning, suggested he could overnight near the
beginning of the trail, I might do the same after I catch up with him
later today. He agreed and moved on back down the trail. II again
planned to take my time catching up up the photoops I'd postponned
from the day before, but then my camera shut itself off, presumably
from the rain, so I made good time, packed up my tent, and ended up
back at the trailhead about noo. He was sitting there under his
umbrella. "Let's drive to Mullan today" I said. OK.
Library is closing. Might be another few days, hope to hike tomorrow.
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