Ten jubilant WTA volunteer trail loggers arrived at the Fish Lake trail head and horse camp to start a 4 day trail clearing trip on trail 971A just below Bumping Lake.
We all arrived at the trail head the same way, on June 21, 2018. We drove Hwy 410 eastbound over Cayuse Pass. About 20 miles after the Pass we turned right onto the Bumping River Road and followed it for about 18 miles, keeping right at the Road 1808 fork, and heading to the Fish Lake trail head. We found the last few road miles in badly rutted shape and in desperate need of grading and repair. Cars can make it at about 5-10 mph, but highly questionable for stock trailers.
With backpacks, saws and trail tools in hand, we left the trail head about 9:00 Thursday morning and removed about a dozen logs from the trail before reaching the Bumping River after about 1.8 miles. One 24” log was laying not across but in the trail. We had to make 6 saw cuts to remove the 5 sections out of the trail. This took us about 2 hrs. Some other logs we removed would have been a big problem for stock.
When we finally arrived at the Bumping River, we saw the trail leads directly to the horse ford. Unfortunately, the river was too deep, cold and swift to safely walk a wet crossing. We found a large log spanning the entire River about 300 yards upstream from the horse ford. Some walked across while some scooted across. We then bushwhacked to trail 971A above us on the river bank.
Upon intercepting the 971A trail, we walked ¼ mile to the junction with trail 971, the Fish Lake trail. At this junction, we found a beautiful high bluff camp overlooking the Bumping River. The Bumping River here moves slowly and deeply, with a convenient gravel shoreline for bathing access. This Bluff would be an outstanding camp, were it not heavily mosquito infestation in the Summer time. Consequently, we decided to turn right at the junction and hike to Cougar Creek about ½ mile. Nice camp sites along the cool Cougar Creek and much fewer mosquitoes. A tip well worth remembering!
The next day, Friday morning about 8:00, we decided to work trail 971 toward Fish Lake and the PCT trail 2000. But first, some went back from the junction, along trail 971A to the Bumping River horse ford and removed about 4 trees across the trail. They then joined the rest of us along the Fish Lake trail. We spent a long hard day logging out trail 971 to the PCT, about 28 logs in all, a distance of about 5 miles and 500’ gain. The temperature thankfully was a bit cooler than on Thursday. After returning to our Cougar River camp about 7:00 pm, we were really beat. Everyone ate something and immediately crashed into a deep sleep. Nobody was in the mood for a midnight party, not even the two young ladies in our group.
On Saturday, we left camp about 7:30 but had to ford Cougar Creek. We found a log just 50’ upstream from where the trail crosses the creek. But the log did not reach all the way across (see photo 2079), only across the deep part, so we hopped off the log into the water about 12” deep and made a wet crossing to get to the trail 971 on other side. On reaching the North side of Cougar Creek, we followed trail 971 to the junction with trail 970 to Swamp Lake.
As we worked up from the junction, the trail winds through tall old growth timber at a constant moderate elevation gain, from 3800’ to 5,000’ near Swamp Lake. There were many large logs to cut and remove from the trail, many more than expected for our 4-day trip. We hoped to reach the PCT after about 5.5 miles, but time ran out for us and we made it only to about a mile before Swamp Lake, less than ½ way to our destination.
This was a bit disappointing. Water from Swamp Creek was available to us after about the second mile of travel. We made some tread repair in selected places where stock would have problems walking the trail. Several hikers passed us along the way.
We finally returned to our camp at Cougar Creek about 5:00. Some decided to roll up their pants above knee height and just ford the cool Cougar Creek at the ford near our camp. Others opted to make a dry crossing by bushwhacking through the woods to a log jam about 200 yard downstream from our camp.
On Sunday, we broke camp about 9:30 and returned to the Bumping River. When reaching the River, we improved the traverse tail leading down the bank to the River at the log jam. We widened the trail and removed 2 logs from the soft dirt trail.
This time we decided to cross over the big log jam located about 200 yards upstream from the 971A horse ford. This gave us an easy and much safer crossing because the logs were tightly jammed together. We still had to watch our step as we hopped from one large log to adjacent logs until we arrive back on the trail head side of the river. It’s possible, but not likely, to fall between a few gaps in the log jam and into the water, which would mean good bye to the world! Just be careful crossing any log jam anywhere at any time. This log jam has been there for many years already and is likely to remain for a few more, to make a safe and reliable crossing for hikers. Stock men would simply cross at the stock crossing.
After another hour and cutting out 71 logs altogether over 4 days, we reached the trail head parking lot. A most enjoyable trip! We talked about eating something at Goose Prairie but found no restaurant there. Closest restaurant would be Whistling Jack 6 miles eastbound along Hwy 410 or the Natches Tavern westbound along Hwy 410 in Greenwater. I found lots of sightseers frolicking in last Winter’s snow at Cayuse Pass. The parking lots along the highway were jammed with cars.
I’d recommend this hike for any family out on an adventure trip to Fish Lake or Cougar Lake. It’s a trip worth taking. Take 4 days and enjoy the trip. Or, just sign up for a WTA back country response trip sometime at www.wta.org. Free on-the-job training, so no work experience needed, just hearty appreciation for our great outdoors.
Photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Gg62LuufRUMaJhWh9
Gary Zink
Comments
Cleo on Bumping Lake, Fish Lake, Swamp Lake
Excellent report, thank you. Very helpful. So would you say it is safe to say that a horse could not make it to Cougar Lake, considering the condition of the trail you encountered on that stretch to Swamp Lake?
Posted by:
Cleo on Aug 17, 2018 05:26 PM