Cora Lake via Big Creek Trail — Friday, Nov. 7, 2008

South Cascades > White Pass/Cowlitz River Valley

This is the short side of the trail, a 1/2 mile hike to the lake from the 8420. I made this trip fully knowing I might not be able to complete it solo due to the extra-heavy rains on the 6th. (The Carbon & Nisqually Rivers were well over flood stage on the 6th) The trail has mostly become a stream bed. When it's not draining off a heavy rain from the surrounding hill, like today, it's still gullied and generally not very pleasant to work around. The trail crosses Big Creek twice towards the end as it switches back up the hill, and this crossing has gotten progressively worse. The first crossing is near a drop-off on your left, so be extra careful. Even the crossings themselves are inconsistent and uneven. On this particular day, for example, the stream and falls were lovely to behold in their awesome power, but I did not even consider attempting to cross because it was simply WAY too dangerous, and I am fairly experienced in hiking and stream crossing. I have put in a request to the FS to at least add a guide-cable or something on the lower crossing due to it's proximity to a steep drop off. I have also requested them to consider the feasibility of an official reroute so that the trail doesn't cross big creek twice, but realistically, given the terrain, that's probably not going to happen. In the meantime, be careful on these crossings. The stream can be a trickle in summer, but in the Spring and Fall it can be a monster.