This is a great hike for a cloudy misty spring day. I had been here once before but it was over 20 years ago so it was pretty much like doing a new hike for me.
The gravel road to the trailhead is fairly poor shape with some large potholes. I'd recommend a vehicle with some clearance to avoid hitting bottom.
The trail starts off on a decommissioned logging road. The first mile of trail traverses a fairly uninteresting 2nd growth forest. The old growth forest starts off with an old Hemlock forest with occasional big Red Cedar. As you get closer to Upper Ashland Lake the there are many more big old gnarly Cedars with some interesting grotesque features. The trees are so old that many are half dead and partially rotting. It really gives the forest a lot of character. The largest Cedar that I found measured a respectable 9 feet in diameter.
About a third of the trail is on raised boardwalks and puncheon because this area is very wet most of the year. It must have been a very expensive trail to build. Unfortunately it is falling into disrepair with broken planks and tilted walkways. The planks got slippery when it started to sprinkle.
The trail beyond Lower Ashland Lake to Twin Falls has been abandoned by DNR. There"s a lot of big windfall to negotiate here. It's also pretty brushy. I also had a hard time finding the trail in a few places and did some unnecessary bushwacking that probably added an extra 30-40 minutes of travel time. The trail is well established so if you are bushwacking then you are in the wrong place. There are some helpful blue ribbons marking the trail but in one location the blue ribbon led me down a false path.
Once you get to the Twin Falls lake outlet don't cross the creek. The path on the east side of the outlet stream will take you to an excellent view of the falls.
Since I had the entire place to myself, I took a short drone video of Twin Falls. I absolutely never fly my drone when there are any people around.
On the return trip I decided to try walking around the east shore of Lower Ashland Lake. Boy, that was a terrible idea! It started off a bit muddy and brushy then deteriorated into a big boulder field followed by a brushy bushwack from hell. Stick with main trail.
RT 8.2 mi, 1650 elevation gain.
Comments
I really like your video. I hiked there yesterday and couldn't find anywhere where I could get the perspective of the full falls top to bottom, other than perhaps by leaning over them, which I didn't do! Nice to be able to see it. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by:
N2thewoods on Jun 04, 2018 12:11 PM