Trail #541 Fish Creek Mountain & High Lake July 13, 2013

[shawjr]

Fish Creek Mountain has been on the “to-do” list for a while. Today JM and I decided to get it knocked off the list. This trail (trail # 541) is mostly shaded by forest the entire way, which makes it a nice choice for a warm day. The trailhead is a few miles up the 4620 road that starts at Indian Henry Campground. Trailhead coordinates N45*03.040’ W122*07.218’

We started at the trailhead at a decommissioned road just off the 4620 road.

Temporary trail sign near where we parked.


From the trailhead the trail climbs steeply for about 6/10 of a mile, and joins a decommissioned road. There is a large rock cairn to identify where to turn when you return. You hike the decommissioned road for about 4/10 of a mile where the 541 trail starts up the ridge. The road splits here at the start of this part of the trail.

Part of the old road.


Trail sign.


The trail switchbacks its way along the top of the ridge, gaining elevation all the way to the summit. Since there used to be a fire lookout on top of the mountain, we would spot the occasional communication line insulators along the way.

Old insulator.


This was one of my favorite spots on the trail. It was a sharp ridge top completely surrounded by forest.


There are a number of rock outcroppings along the trail that just have to be climbed on…




Some of these rock outcropping have views to offer.


Found one of the oldest bench mark discs I’ve seen on one of the rock piles.


There were numerous ant hills along the trail that were not as tall as they once were. It looked like maybe a bear looking for a snack had torn all of them apart..


We came upon one portion of trail where a large rotten log had fallen into the trail. We took a few moments, and were able to get it rolled off to the side of the trail.




Once at the summit, we signed into the Geocache that is there and spent some time looking around the remnants of what is left of the old lookout site.


The only old photo I could find of the lookout tower.


After spending a little while at the summit, we decided to drop down to High Lake and have some lunch. We saw the trail split back down the ridge a ways, but we were feeling adventurous and took a more direct approach to the lake. We followed the talus slope below the summit straight down to the lake. We followed the trail back up.

High Lake.




After goofing around at the lake we hoofed it back up to the ridge top and headed for the car.

[RobFromRedland]

That 1913 bench mark was a cool find!

Just curious if you saw the plaque up at the lookout site? I haven't been there since it was put there, but it was put there by the family of two of the early lookout staffers. There is a transcription of the diary that the wife made while at the lookout, which is really interesting, if you are interested in the daily routine of a lookout:

http://www.trailadvocate.org/wp-content ... final-.pdf

Thanks for doing a little trail clearing - other than that log, how was the trail? Last time I was up there the trail down to high lake was getting a little brushy.

[shawjr]

That 1913 bench mark was a cool find!

Just curious if you saw the plaque up at the lookout site? I haven't been there since it was put there, but it was put there by the family of two of the early lookout staffers. There is a transcription of the diary that the wife made while at the lookout, which is really interesting, if you are interested in the daily routine of a lookout:

http://www.trailadvocate.org/wp-content ... final-.pdf

Thanks for doing a little trail clearing - other than that log, how was the trail? Last time I was up there the trail down to high lake was getting a little brushy.

I missed seeing the plaque, which surprises me. We usually sniff around and find all kinds of things while at these old lookout sites. The diary is a good read, very interesting to read about thier daily routine especially during that era during the war...

The trail was in excellent condition.. I was especially impressed with the obvious amount of log clearing at the bottom end by the trailhead.. That must have been a mess when all those big trees fell/ blew over!! There was a little brush on the 541 near the top, but not too bad. I probably only noticed because I was in shorts.. We cleared several other large branches off as we went. There is one big set of branches near the summit that could use a saw, I didn't have mine. The trail back up from the lake had a couple logs we had to hop over, but didn't seem too brushy.