Beaver Lake trail
30 May 2011 22:33![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nwhikerThis should normally be the beginning of of the hiking season, when you can just get into slightly higher elevation trails, and also when, yeah, you might find some of the white stuff on some trails.
This year? Snow everywhere. Now I know it doesn't bother some people, but for a few miles on snow, and not snowshoeing? Not so much. So we've been limited to low land hikes.
One of which we went on today: Beaver Lake, off the Mountain Loop Highway. It's flat, parallels the Sauk River for much of the way, and was muddy, but not as terribly muddy as it could have been.
Right at the beginning on the trail, there was a... something. Big metal box, but the side of the river, solar panel, antenna. Hell, yeah, we went to explore. It was a stream monitoring station, and dh and I spotted a nice beach with plenty of rocks. Bookmarked for the way back.
The trail was level, flat, and muddy. The river was beautiful.
The kids humoured me for a photo. Perry is not standing up straight.
There was a bad muddy patch, and Linnea was NOT pleased with having to go through it. If you were very careful, lucky, and quick, you could get through without too much muddy ickiness, but Linnea was too busy wailing and panicking at the thought of getting her boots dirty (WTF?) to be quick. At least she is light, so she didn't sink down too deep.
The "destination" was Beaver Lake, a lake pretty much created by beaver architecture. There is a bridge crossing it, so you can get a good view of things. Check this out:
It's perhaps hard to see in the photo, but the water is on three different levels. Very cool.
We continued to the end of the trail! It dead-ended at the Sauk River probably... oh 1/2 mile beyond Beaver Lake.
On the way back, we stopped at the beach we'd spotted. Rocks, to throw! We started with just regular rocks, and dh managed to throw his the other side, and hit a rock he'd told us he was aiming for.
Then we skipped rocks. Dh, over-achiever than he is, managed to skip a rock 90% of the way across the river.
Then we threw BIG rocks into the water. Does anyone want to speculate on who managed to throw the biggest rock and get the loudest Sploooosh? Yeah, him again. Hee.
Dh got a good shot of AC's rock just hitting the water!
Linnea found a pretty rock, and a stick.
Before we left, she tossed the stick into the river, saying 'bye bye, Stickie, you have to stay with nature!'. Yes, but hello anthropomorphization!
After the hike, we drove the Mountain Loop Highway until it was impassible, a few hundred yards of deep sloppy snow from Barlow Pass, and then turned around to go back home. The "Highway", btw, at that point, is a one lane dirt road. Just to be clear.
Another view of the Sauk River, from the road.
As always, the full set is on flickr
Total trail length both ways was about 5 miles, entirely flat
This year? Snow everywhere. Now I know it doesn't bother some people, but for a few miles on snow, and not snowshoeing? Not so much. So we've been limited to low land hikes.
One of which we went on today: Beaver Lake, off the Mountain Loop Highway. It's flat, parallels the Sauk River for much of the way, and was muddy, but not as terribly muddy as it could have been.
Right at the beginning on the trail, there was a... something. Big metal box, but the side of the river, solar panel, antenna. Hell, yeah, we went to explore. It was a stream monitoring station, and dh and I spotted a nice beach with plenty of rocks. Bookmarked for the way back.
The trail was level, flat, and muddy. The river was beautiful.
The kids humoured me for a photo. Perry is not standing up straight.
There was a bad muddy patch, and Linnea was NOT pleased with having to go through it. If you were very careful, lucky, and quick, you could get through without too much muddy ickiness, but Linnea was too busy wailing and panicking at the thought of getting her boots dirty (WTF?) to be quick. At least she is light, so she didn't sink down too deep.
The "destination" was Beaver Lake, a lake pretty much created by beaver architecture. There is a bridge crossing it, so you can get a good view of things. Check this out:
It's perhaps hard to see in the photo, but the water is on three different levels. Very cool.
We continued to the end of the trail! It dead-ended at the Sauk River probably... oh 1/2 mile beyond Beaver Lake.
On the way back, we stopped at the beach we'd spotted. Rocks, to throw! We started with just regular rocks, and dh managed to throw his the other side, and hit a rock he'd told us he was aiming for.
Then we skipped rocks. Dh, over-achiever than he is, managed to skip a rock 90% of the way across the river.
Then we threw BIG rocks into the water. Does anyone want to speculate on who managed to throw the biggest rock and get the loudest Sploooosh? Yeah, him again. Hee.
Dh got a good shot of AC's rock just hitting the water!
Linnea found a pretty rock, and a stick.
Before we left, she tossed the stick into the river, saying 'bye bye, Stickie, you have to stay with nature!'. Yes, but hello anthropomorphization!
After the hike, we drove the Mountain Loop Highway until it was impassible, a few hundred yards of deep sloppy snow from Barlow Pass, and then turned around to go back home. The "Highway", btw, at that point, is a one lane dirt road. Just to be clear.
Another view of the Sauk River, from the road.
As always, the full set is on flickr
Total trail length both ways was about 5 miles, entirely flat
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 1 Jun 2011 02:23 (UTC)We've been having snow in town - but it's fake snow, for shooting a movie. They were supposed to be making it outside the art studio tonight at 9 PM, but they hadn't started when I left just before 9:30.