I led a Sagebrush Ramble Campout for the Cascadians to the campground at Lakeview Ranch near Odessa Thurs to Sun. Many of the lakes in this area, including Pacific & Bobs Lakes, have been dry for at least a decade due to a lowering of the water table by agricultural wells, but with the very wet spring in 2017, Pacific Lake had water, so we didn’t know what to expect. When we arrived, we found that the lake not only had water, but was quite full. After having lunch & setting up camp, we drove over to the Odessa Craters and hiked both the Cache Crater and the Odessa Craters Loop Trails.
On Fri we did a variation of the Bobs Lakes hike in the Best Desert Hikes book. Instead of taking the 2-track west to the lakes, after about ¼ mile we went south on another 2-track for about ¾ mile and then west to the rim of Lake Creek Coulee. Here we were greeted with another surprise. There was so much water in the coulee that it was no longer Bobs Lakes, but Bobs Lake. There was just one long, sinuous lake down the coulee from near Delzer Falls to below the Odessa-Lake Creek Trail Bridge (which was close to being under water). The sparkling lake below the dark basalt cliffs was awesome. I had hoped to go farther south to get a better view of the Odessa Towers, but the going looked a little rough and one party member was till recovering from knee surgery, so we decided to head north along the coulee rim to the 2-track mentioned in the hiking guide. We made our way about 2/3 of a mile north to a high point and had lunch with spectacular views up and down the coulee. Afterwards we walked to the 2-track and headed west towards the lake. At the fork in the road we turned left and walked south along the coulee bottom until the road ran into the lake, then retraced our steps back to the fork, where most of us went west to the lake. We came out at a very narrow constriction of the lake with a good view of Delzer Falls to the north. Like the lakes, this waterfall has been dry in recent years, but this day it was gushing with water. After taking photos and a brief rest, we headed back to the cars.
On Fri night the predicted 20 – 30 mph winds arrived. On Sat, after a cool, windy breakfast, we did a variation of the Lakeview Ranch hike described in the Best Desert Hikes & Hiking Eastern Washington books. We followed the 2-track past Walter Lake and up a draw with California Hesperochiron in bloom to a large lake. We then followed the marked trail past a couple of other lakes. But instead of climbing all the way up to the Odessa – Lake Creek Trail, we cut southeast down a small coulee that brought us to the point where the main trail comes down to the cliffs of Lake Creek Coulee. From here we followed the trail down to Waukesha Spring and up onto the promontory just south of the spring, where we found a nice sheltered spot for lunch with a spectacular view down Lake Creek Coulee. After lazing around for an hour or so, we retraced our steps to the lake at the head of the draw with the Hesperochiron. From here we decided to go down the next coulee to the north as it has Lakeview Crater at its mouth. When we got to the south arm of the coulee, however, we could see that much of this arm was full of water, so we decided to try for the north arm. After crossing a small rise, we came out on the brink of a 50’ cliff dropping into the coulee. Luckily, it was not far around to the head of the coulee where we found an easy way down. This arm was dry, but once we were at the junction of the two arms we still had small lakes and marshes to navigate. We finally made it out to the 2-track, but never were quite sure where the crater was. As we were in small coulees much of the day, we escaped the brunt of the wind, but it was windy & cool back at camp and we were all grateful that there were party members with campers where we could all hang out.
Except for 2 RVs, we had the campground to ourselves and we saw no other hikers, though there were a few fishermen on the lake from time to time. Other than a few deer and lots of birds, we didn’t see any wildlife. At night, however, we were serenaded by both frogs and coyotes. We did pick up a few ticks, but encountered no rattlesnakes. There was quite a bit of marshy mud on the flatter areas of the trail that required detours, but generally we had no problem finding our way. There were quite a few wildflowers in bloom, though it may still be a bit early. The most prevalent species were Prairie Star, Few-flowered Shooting Star, Bog Saxifrage, Spring Whitlow Grass, and Arrowleaf Balsamroot. We all had a great time exploring a new area made especially beautiful by all the unexpected water.
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