Upper South Fork Skokomish River — Saturday, Sep. 27, 2008

Olympic Peninsula > Olympia

Lake 3995 Wonder Mountain Wilderness The Skokomish River Trail is in rough shape. The second bridge, the one over the Skok River, is gone. There’s a tree that has fallen across the river that makes a suitable bridge if you’re at least a little cat-like. The trail itself is washed out in at least three places up to the point we departed the trail. The creeks that were flowing heavy in the spring have cut deep and wide into the trail. We left the trail 2½ miles from the trailhead and turned northeast following the draw up the hillside. There are surveyor’s ribbons all over the place that seem to go nowhere, I recommend ignoring these until you reach the top. If you follow the draw up it will lead right to the saddle above the lake. Follow the ribbons through the saddle; they can help you find the best route through. It took us six hours of climbing before we reached the pass, then some more ups and downs until we spotted the lake shining through the trees. It was 6pm when we dropped our packs and started fishing. I quickly caught (and released) two trout in the 16” range, and fat ones at that. We set up camp in the dark by headlamp, ate some dinner, and bedded down for the night. In the morning, we continued fishing, catching several really nice trout, even before breakfast. When the fish stopped biting we explored the area around the lake. The lake sits on a shelf with a steep ridge to the west (the one we climbed over) and steep drop off to the north and east. There are no feeder streams into the lake; it seems to be filled entirely by snowmelt and rain. There is an outlet on the eastern side near where we camped, but it only provides for overflow. At the northern end of the lake we found some bear scat that was still glistening wet, our stink probably scared it off during the night. The views are absolutely spectacular. The area around the lake is awash in blueberry shrubs; these were the sweetest blueberries I’ve ever tasted anywhere. They even seemed to have a Red Delicious apple aftertaste. We grazed on them all day as me moved around the lake. We figured we should be heading out around noon if we were going to get out before dark, but it was difficult to leave. It was past one when we finally slung our packs and headed out. I believe we are the last visitors to the lake in 2008 since the wildlife gate closed three days after our visit. I know I’ll be back next year, and intend to spend a few days enjoying the stunning beauty and solitude of this wilderness lake.