Silver Creek - Mineral City, Silver Lake - Monte Cristo — Sunday, Sep. 11, 2022

Three day/two night trip to work on the long-abandoned Silver Creek Trail from Monte Cristo.

Day 1: 9/9 - Rode my bike from Barlow Pass to Monte Cristo, hiked up to base camp at Silver Lake, dropped off my overnight gear.  I found the trail a couple days ago and did some work, got another 6 hours in this day.  About as bad as any I have worked on, officially unmaintained for at least 50 years, and it showed.  Thankfully little with thorns.  Back to camp above the lake, my campsite was only hundreds of feet from the trail I was working on.

I hadn't thought out my water situation well, didn't bring a filter, but didn't want to drink the lake water without.  I had fuel to boil it, but that didn't make sense for the water I was going to drink cold.  So I ended up walking back down the Silver Lake Trail to the only stream you cross, about half way down.  This is spring-fed, just be sure and get it from the falls and not the pools at the bottom, sediment in the lower water.  Back up to camp, used lake water to make tea and dinner, saving my precious cargo for work.

I only brought a 9 x 12 painter's plastic, made kind of a tent with it in case it rained or there was dew.  Blew up the pad, fluffed up the sleeping bag, and laid down to listen to the radio, comes in pretty well here.  Moon took forever to come over the ridge, I was asleep before it cleared the trees.

Day 2: 9/10 - I could see the sun was shining across the lake, up at 7:30 and walking by 8:30.  More clipping, and a little raking, tiny bit of sawing.  This is an awesome trail, dates back to the 1870's, 150 years ago!  Beautiful Old Growth Forest, some ten foot diameter trees, about as big as they get at this elevation, lovely meadows.

Picked up all the flagging I saw on the ground, removed it from the branches I cut, some with more than one!  I left all the years worth of other flags still hanging, if not for them the trail would have already been lost.  Hit turn around time, back to camp.  Made good progress today.  Had the lake to myself this night.

Day 3: 9/11 - Awoken by the sound of rain on my tarp, only lasted a couple minutes, went back to sleep.  Again, this time harder, time to get up!  Rained off and on for half an hour, then nothing for the rest of the day.  It was warm enough the bushes were dry when I got to cutting them.  But it brought out the bugs, and frogs!

Super smoky today, could barely see across the lake.  Good weekend for trail work, no point in climbing to no views.  More clipping, can't believe I didn't get any blisters!  I stopped working at the end of the hanging valley, where the trail switchbacks down.  There is a flat spot here for possible camping (needs clipped out, no water), above Minnehaha Falls.  Seemed like a good spot for it to end for now, I didn't have time to fix up the switchbacks today.

Took me 45 minutes back to the Silver Lake trail working a little.  Monte Cristo Guide says this is only half a mile but I believe it is more.  Either way, it will need no more work.  You have to come see, from unwalkable to perfect in a matter of days, it'll bring a tear to your eye.

As I biked out I passed another unprepared group wearily making their way up the road.  "Is the townsite up here?"  Yeah, about two and a half miles more.  They didn't have packs, clothes, even water!  People underestimate this.  Don't know if they turned back.

Driving out, I hear on the radio there is a fire in the Index - Skykomish area, right down the valley from where I was!  No wonder it was so smoky today. 

When I got to Granite Falls I went to get gas, someone had pried open my gas door at the trailhead!  Thank god I also have a locking gas cap since I have had this happen before (in Ballard), looked like they took a screwdriver to it as well but my key still worked.  Talk about low, steal your gas and leave you stranded 40 miles from the nearest station.  Scumbags!

Now that I have started this, I am obligated to finish!  When the weather is good again for a few days, I will head back and pick up where I left off.  Message me below if you are interested and you can help!

Tips:  1) If possible, don't carry a bunch of water at the start.  Know the water situation beforehand (I spaced this trip!) and only carry what you need to get to the next source, plus a little.  A liter of water weighs 2.2 pounds, plus the container.   2) If you have another device with the time, leave your watch at home.  My battery died so I started looking at the clock on the camera, don't miss the watch.  Only a couple ounces, but it adds up!