Skookum Flats — Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2000

Mount Rainier Area > Chinook Pass - Hwy 410

A fun day in the deep dark forest, in the freezer box along the White River. I parked at Camp Sheppard and hiked to the Buck Creek/Skookum Flats trail across the highway, and off I went. The suspension bridge across the White River is a real gas, and the icy frost of the morning made it a real dandy treat! Buck Creek on the other side was a beautiful side scramble up through the forest for 1/8 mile of photography. I then headed north on the Skookum Flats trail, enjoying the hard frozen ground and the mysterious feel of the forest being SO dark -- this area never sees any sunrays all winter, and combining that with the heavy forest canopy made it very dark. However, the forest floor life of mushrooms and amazing macro lichens were a joy to view and slowly photograph. I spent a great deal of photography time out in the White River floodplain, as it was unreal with the heavy multiple day's worth of frost buildup, some old snow, and ice. River rock, logs, water pools...they all took on a VERY cold appearence, and made for great winter subjects. I turned back somewhere between Skookum Falls and trails end at FS 73, and headed back. At 3:30pm there was still ice on the suspension bridge, and I'm certain the temperatures never got above freezing except for a few places away from the river bottom under heavy forest. Oh, it was a good American Dipper day, as I saw two along Buck Creek and seven others at places along the White River and it's side tributaries. Coming home, I also stopped and quickly did a short 1/2 mile trek into the Federation Forest to see if a spectacular massive mushroom display that I discovered last year in December was present again - and it was to my excited delight! Sort of fun to have a ""secret"" place offtrail that covers an area 8x12' where some of the specimens are 3' across!