West Lake Mills — Thursday, Apr. 13, 2017

Olympic Peninsula > Northern Coast

Be aware there was a black bear hanging around the old boat launch parking lot all day. It made itself a spot to hang out no more than 50ft off the trail. There is not much room to circumvent this to get to 50+ yards away due to the thickets of willow and alder the trail goes through so PLEASE BE COURTEOUS, CONSIDERATE, AND SAFE! My WCC crew was brushing and working tread in a few sections further down the trail all day and passed the bear a few times (perhaps a few more without realizing it) on our way back and forth from our truck. He was sleepy and shy but also a little photogenic. Overall, as I find with most bears in the park, he was relatively uninterested in our passing presence. As for the trail, the few spots where the tread was sloughing off have been improved. Overall the trail into the old lake was already in great condition. We plan to return next week to remove the 2 trees at the start. Flowers include red current, salmonberry, willow trees, red alder trees, yellow violets, broad leaved stonecrop, and horsetails(not a "flower" technically but they're reproducing now too).