John Wayne Trail - Another Segment

Sunday, September 27 2009
Cumulative Elevation gain 600 ft
Trail length: 5 miles one way

Time taken: 2hours one way
Level of difficulty: Medium

I am picking up where we left the last time around - near the Twin Falls and Olallie State Park. It is the same trail that starts near Rattlesnake Mountain and we hiked four miles of this trail to the Olallie State Park. This time around we started off at the Olallie State Park trail head. An access trail from the parking lot climbs quickly through about 100 to reach the John Wayne Trail. From there we continued eastbound.

This section of the trail passes over a few engineering marvels from the 19th century that bridges deep ravines with tall trestles to accommodate rail traffic on top. A few bikers merrily paddled by - but much less in numbers compared to last time around. The new aspect is the rock climbers on on rock precipice honing their climbing skills.

From this trail we got a nice view of the Bandera Mountain that I hiked a couple of weeks back with a multi-colored meadow looking like a nice carpet on its southern slope. At one point the wind blowing from East to West really picked up in strength - funneled into a narrower passage by the mountains on both sides. Funnily for the rest of trail we experienced alternated blasts of perceptibly warm and cold air from time to time.


We stopped just a little bit short of the trail head for McClellan Butte and returned after resting a little bit while having some snacks. All the way through we noticed the signs of Fall from the trees turning colors. Felt like the colors would peak in a couple of week or so. Apart from the turning colors, an interesting arboreal feature we noticed is a tree stump that seems like a sitting posture. Check it out on this picture.


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Bandera Mountain and Mason Lake

Saturday, September 12 2009
Cumulative Elevation gain 3000 ft
Trail length: 3.8 miles one way

Time taken: 2hours 20 minutes on way up
Level of difficulty: Difficult

Nice sunny day. A forest road off of exit 42 of I-90 over 3 .3 miles leads to the Ira Spring trail head. The trail starts off on an old time logging road for the first mile with gentle slope and travels eastward parallel to the highway below. Two sections of the trail were damaged by past winter storms but are passable now. Several peaks starting with McClellan Butte can be seen from this section of the trail.

Soon after, the logging road ends and the trail turns north and a steeper climb begins. By now with enough gain in elevation, Mount Rainier starts to come into view in the distance. A little while later, the forest clears up gradually. The most difficult part of the trail starts at the fork where the left trail leads to Mason Lake and the right to the Bandera Mountain. At this point, I had excellent views of the meadows up towards the Bandera mountains, the mildly serpentine interstate 90 below, and Mount Rainier far away looming above the nearer mountain ranges to the south. But alas! My camera battery had to die right there:(. It was one of those moments where the camera functionality of my cellphone proved so handy! So I used my phone to capture whatever images I could for the rest of this trip.

I continued on the Bandera trail. Oh boy - is that a trail or a staircase? It is a 45 degree assent from this point for next half mile before getting to a comparatively milder yet rocky segment. The elderly gentleman whom I met on my way commented that I had the whole mountain to myself beyond there. He was right - but where did all those people from 10 or15 odd cars parked at the trail head go? You guessed it right - on to the Mason Lake trail:). Well, I did meet two young couples during my descent from Bandera. One of the couples was actually carrying a month or so old baby!

The top of the Bandera Mountain provides all round views of mountain peaks and ranges. All these views are well worth the efforts to climb the very steep trail to get there. It was very windy up there. I stopped at the top, ate my lunch, and soaked in the views, some of them into my cellphone as well.

While returning, even though it was not originally a part of the plan, yet I decided to go sideways to the Mason Lake as well. It was another half mile from the fork in the trail and after rising over a small distance, it generally goes downwards from there on. Most of the hiker traffic was headed this way, including a few father-son teams getting out there for overnight camping. There are some nice spots by the lake suitable for camping activity even though lighting a fire is prohibited due to dangers of starting forest fires. The trail actually continues beyond the lake to several other hiking destinations in this Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. One that I have marked for a future trip is the Mount Defiance of which I had a pretty view of as can bee seen in this photograph. I rested for a few minutes watching several people getting a dip in the crystal clear but cold lake water before starting my return journey.


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Melakwa Lake

Sunday, August 30 2009
Cumulative Elevation gain 2200 ft
Trail length: 4.5 miles one way

Time taken: 2hours 20 minutes on way up and 2 hours 5 minutes on way back.
Level of difficulty: Difficult

It was an overcast morning to start with. Most of the clouds/fogs were hanging low. Judging by the small number of cars parked at the small parking area near the trail head at about 9:30 AM, we thought it was not going to be as crowded as mentioned in many of the reviews of this very popular trail. The trail itself was almost deserted as we were on our way up.

The trail runs by the side of the Danny Creek and passes north under the very high viaduct of the westbound I-90 highway. It is fascinating to be crossing such a heavily used thoroughfare unnoticed by any of the highway traffic.

A large part of the popularity of this trail is associated with the "Slippery Slabs" of the Danny Creek about a mile away from the trail head. There is a cascade of three small waterfalls each having a fairly flat rock bed at the bottom. The water is shallow and could be very relaxing in the very hot summer days of July this year, when the water was aplenty. It is a great attraction specially for the kids. By now, in late August, the water flowing on the flat rock beds has significantly diminished in quantity.

Immediately beyond "Slippery Slabs", we crossed the creek and picked up a wrong trail where we came across two snakes in the bushes, rapidly moving away from our pathway. Soon after, we found the main trail and continued.

The trail is well maintained, yet very rocky for the most parts. That results in watching every step on the trail to avoid tripping over and getting injured. We had little chance to enjoy the beautiful scenarios of the mountain sides, waterfalls and high peaks without stopping to do so. Because of this reason, I did not enjoy hiking this trail as much as its surrounding beauty warrants.

We passed rock-slides, meadows and strands of trees to finally cross the Hemlock pass at 4 miles. The clouds and fogs were gone now at this altitude and the sun shined brightly. From here the the trail climbs down to the lake in another half a mile. The lake is serene sight - surrounded by steep mountain walls. I went a couple hundred yards further to the Upper Melakwa Lake beyond which the valley ends.

Only on our way back did we meet the crowds we were supposed to meet. That included many large and small groups of young and old alike - mostly on the higher reaches of the trail, and whole families with kids on the slippery slabs. We crossed yet some more hikers still heading towards the slabs. By this time, the parking lot overflowed with cars parked over more than a quarter mile away from the trail head.
One of the hikers mentioned seeing a black bear. I was not surprised given the abundance of blue berries around!

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