Greider Lakes

Today is the EXACT reason why I LOVE the Pacific Northwest and precisely the reason I started this blog. It was an absolutely perfect day for hiking. Blue skies and 75º with a light breeze.

This morning I was headed toward Greider Lakes. The trails to Greider Lakes and Boulder Lake now start at Spada Lake. You hike along an old closed road for 2 miles before you get to the old trail heads of Greider Lakes and Boulder Lake. The road from Spada Lake to the old trail head is gravel and mostly flat except for the constant gullies that have been constructed to make it impassible by vehicles. This part of the trail could make for decent trail running and even possibly mountain biking if you don't mind dismounting every so often for the deep gullies and downed trees. (I think I might try biking it next time just to make it a quicker trip.) Don't forget to check out the Spada Lake overlook as you hike along this road en route to either Greider Lakes or Boulder Lake.

Once you reach the old trial head of Greider Lakes you start hiking on a VERY overgrown trail. You notice almost instantly this trail has been neglected for quite some time. After a few hundred yards you get out of the heavy brush and the trail opens up a little bit. The trail conditions go from compact dirt to rocks/small boulders and large tree roots all while navigating over/under/around several downed trees. You climb approximately 1500 feet in about 1.5 miles. After you reach about 2900 feet you continue for another .5 mile or so until you reach Little Greider Lake.

Little Greider Lake was nice and quiet. I was the only one there; there were no other cars in the parking lot when I arrived. I knew I was the only one up there, but I did find two tarps and a tent...very strange. I don't know how someone could manage to leave behind their tent. There were about 4 established campsites at Little Greider Lake.

Then I continued on to Big Greider Lake. Big Greider also has a few established campsites for camping overnight. The trail from Little Greider to Big Greider is a short hike but VERY VERY overgrown. Its doable but just be very cautious of your footing, because its hard to see where you are stepping. But I must say I was very glad I went, it was the most peaceful time I've had in a long time. I enjoyed a nice beautiful hike down passing only 5 parties totally 17 people on my way out. This is truly one of the forgotten trails of the region.

Region: Central Cascades, Stevens Pass-West
Distance: 5.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 1500 feet
Peak Elevation: 2970 feet
Difficulty: Medium
Pass Requirement: None (I think). You do have to register your vehicle at a registration area, and display that on your dash while you're there, but there is no charge.
Vegetation: All kinds including ferns, moss, mushrooms, sticker bushes, skunk cabbage, wildflowers, deciduous and conifer trees.
Water Source: Trail begins and Spada Lake, you hike along Spada Lake for 2 miles on an old road elevated from the lake. You cross a few creeks along this road and leave the road just as the lake connects with Sultan River. Little and Big Greider Lake 4.5 and 5 miles respectively.
Wildlife: Lots of birds, frogs, slugs, various insects. Lots of fish in the lake.

As always check out all the photos of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.

Lime Kiln Trail

Well today I was back in my home town and looking for a hike I've never done before. This one just happened to be only a short distance from where I lived so I thought I'd give it a go. I headed toward the trail slightly later than I anticipated and when I normally would have gone. But when I got to the trail head I found out I was lucky I did, because the trail head is closed until 7:00 am. So I got there about 7:20 am and started during a slight drizzle and about 56 degrees. The trail started out looking like a bonafide rain forest. (Or perhaps it just seemed that way since I just spent the last week hiking around the much dryer central Oregon.) But needless to say it was very green, with trees, ferns and moss all under a beautiful canopy.

After a short distance the trail opens up, the canopy disappears and you are walking down a wide path that looks like a 4wheeler trail (although they aren't allowed here). The trail is mostly heavily packed dirt and rocks. There is little elevation change and is quite easy. The scenery changes off and on from under a thick canopy and narrow trail to an open trail where you can look to the sky, which happened to be covered in clouds today, however the light drizzle did stop shortly after I started this morning.

Once I got to the kiln site I was amazed at how big the kiln actually was. It was much bigger than I anticipated. I did have the desire the climb it, but there was a sign that said "Please do not climb" so I didn't. But all in all it was an impressive thing to look at and examine. To be able to build such a thing hundreds of years ago is quite a feat. At the site there is also a bunch of scattered bricks and metal shards of old tools. After the kiln I continued on the trail which descends to the South Fork Stillaguamish River. Down at the river it seems to be a common practice to stack rocks on top of each other...which seemed a little strange to me.

I jogged about half way on the way back. This trail is well suited for trail running, however I didn't run the whole way because I wasn't wearing my trail running shoes, and my hiking shoes weren't made for jogging. On my way back I only came across 6 people. Which isn't entirely surprising considering its a Friday morning and not-so-great weather. But it made for an enjoyable hike for me. This is a great hike for kids and the whole family, its easy and it has some interesting history to it. Check it out.

Vegetation: Lots, everywhere, including but not limited to conifers, deciduous, and evergreen trees, ferns, moss, wildberries, mushrooms, skunk cabbage, wildflowers, and sticker bushes.
Wildlife: I heard lots of birds singing along the whole trail. While walking along I heard some movement in the bushes, I'm assuming they were just birds. I saw a rabbit, slugs, snails and a snake. Bugs were almost non-existent. I didn't have any problems with pesky bugs or mosquitoes, too cold for that still.
Water Source: About 1.3 miles in you pass Hubbard Lake which is small and is easy to miss from the trail due to thick trees and vegetation. About 1.7 miles in the trail follows South Fork Stillaguamish River, but you cant access it very easily because the trail is high above the river. But the trail does end up at the at the River after 4 miles.

Peterson Ridge Trail

Well today was a day full of disappointments. I started out in search of a good Lake hike. I headed toward Green Lakes Trailhead. About 6 miles from the trailhead I ran into a "Road Closed" sign. Apparently there had been some wildfires in the area and the roads were closed in that whole area for the next year or so. I didn't feel like hiking an extra 6 miles just to get to the trail head, I was on a time crunch this morning. So I headed back toward Sisters Oregon looking for option number 2. Luckily I did find a cool spiderweb of trails just outside of the small town of Sisters called the Peterson Ridge Trail. So I parked and started hiking, I soon realized this is a perfect spot for some trail running so I synched up the backpack and started jogging. It was a perfect trail for jogging and biking and in fact I came across several people doing just those things. Although there were many different trails interconnected to one another it might have been easy to get lost, but at every intersection there was a sign clearly labeled with where you are and where each path goes with a distance marker on it. The trail was almost all dirt with an occasional rock or tree root in the trail. As I ran I would constantly run from under the sunbeams into shade from the dispersed trees. It was a great clear warm morning and I had a good workout.

I managed to jog several miles and then came across a spectacular view point along the trail of several of the peaks here in Central Oregon. I took pictures of the Three Sisters and one other peak I am unaware of what its called. It was truly a sight to be seen. Then I turned around and headed back...this is where another disappointment came in my day. While transferring my photos I had just taken today to my computer somehow they were all deleted and I wasn't able to save or use any of them. So unfortunately you'll have to just read this post and take my word for it...

UPDATE!!!

Somehow my photos reappeared. I think they got saved to my iPhoto Stream account as soon as they entered into my computer but thats when my computer froze and then the photos were gone once I rebooted. I thought they were lost forever, but they saved to the cloud! Thank you iCloud! Enjoy!