Forum Index > Trip Reports > Alder ghost town / Bertha May & Granite Lakes: 11/23/19
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fourteen410
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fourteen410
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PostSun Nov 24, 2019 2:16 pm 
For most of the year, Alder is hidden under the teal waters of Alder Lake, 15 min west of Ashford. By late fall, water levels drop low enough to reveal the remnants of a town that was abandoned in the 1940s for construction of the Alder Dam. If the water gets low enough, you can see an old trestle that is underwater most years. We had hoped to explore more, but after getting swallowed up in waist-deep mud, we decided to come back another time.
After changing into clean clothes, we headed over to Bertha May & Granite lakes for a nice short hike before an early sunset.

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Brushbuffalo
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Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between
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PostSun Nov 24, 2019 10:27 pm 
fourteen410 wrote:
the remnants of a town that was abandoned in the 1940s for construction of the Alder Dam
That is very interesting. I grew up in Tacoma and passed Alder Lake many times en route to MRNP beginning in the early 1950s, and although I knew about Kosmos and Riffe, towns flooded by the formation of Riffe Lake (originally Mossyrock Lake) on the Cowlitz beginning in 1968., I never realized there had been a town where the reservoir is now on the Nisqually. Thanks for sharing this bit of history.

Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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moonspots
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PostMon Nov 25, 2019 2:15 pm 
fourteen410 wrote:
We had hoped to explore more, but after getting swallowed up in waist-deep mud, we decided to come back another time.
😳 truly?! Waist-deep? ...wow... how on earth did you extricate yourself? That is a pretty lake during the spring and summer. Thanks for the report.

"Out, OUT you demons of Stupidity"! - St Dogbert, patron Saint of Technology
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fourteen410
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PostMon Nov 25, 2019 5:33 pm 
Yes, truly. I foolishly walked in mud that was too close to the water and ended up busting a knee pulling myself out. But that's a story for another day.

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moonspots
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moonspots
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PostMon Nov 25, 2019 6:04 pm 
fourteen410 wrote:
...walked in mud that was too close to the water and ended up busting a knee pulling myself out...
Oh, no...that could have been quite bad! Take good care of those knees! You'll REALLY need 'em to work well some day. Anyway, interesting, I wasn't aware of that history. I gotta drive up there to take a look at Christmas time.

"Out, OUT you demons of Stupidity"! - St Dogbert, patron Saint of Technology
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