[Blowdown]

Does anyone remember the giant old wooden map, at the trailhead at Asahel Curtis (I think), back about 50 years ago?

Back in Boy Scouts in the late 60s,  when I-90 was still US 10, I remember that trailhead map as being real big, something like 8 feet high and 15 feet wide. It was a freestanding kiosk-type structure, with a flat-style map with the trails, streams, and lakes carved out of the wood using a router, with the lakes and streams painted blue. It was the Island Lake area, maybe?

Anyone remember this big wooden map? Anyone have a photo of it? Any idea who made it? Or where it ended up?

[Schroder]

I remember it but never took a photo of it

[JimK]

I discussed this with a friend this summer. I recalled it from the current trailhead. He recalled it from the earlier pre I-90 trailhead. It was there until maybe 25 years ago. Map in the middle with destinations and distance on the side. I did take a photo of it way back when. Could not find it after our discussion this summer. I will look again. Someone must have a photo of slide of it.

[JimK]

I found this old copy. The full sign at the current Pratt Trailhead had destinations and mileage carved into wood on the side. This is just the map itself.

[Blowdown]

JimK wrote:

[puzzlr]

JimK, It's cool to see that old sign. Both connector trails to the Pratt River trail are there -- from Pratt Lake and from Thompson Lake. But there's no Mason Lake trail. Do you have any idea what year you took that?

It looks like it's from the same era as this 1967 sign that was at Camp Brown in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie. Note that there were roads all the way to Hardscrabble then, as well as up the Taylor River and Quartz Creek valleys. The Red Mountain trail was still on the map then.

Camp Brown 1967, photo by Eckart Schmidt

[JimK]

puzzlr, thanks for that photo. I had never seen it before.

I took my photo in 7-82 at the current Pratt Lake Trailhead. My sources say it used to be at the old Pratt Trailhead near where the current Denny Creek Road crossed old Highway 10. Look closely and you can see it on the map. Best I can figure the map was there from the mid 1960s. Similar to the 1967 you reference for the MF Map.

Here is a copy of the Pratt Lake hike in the original 100 Hikes in Western Washington. First printing in 1966 and my fifth printing was from 1968. The map shows two trails meeting at the switchback left on the current trail. That junction was very obvious in 1982.

[Kim Brown]

That junction is obvious even now! At least it was 2 years ago. I followed the old trail a ways, but was solo and didn’t pursue it long. I did not know know where it went; I didn’t realize the trail head to Pratt was in a different location. I’d like to check out that old trail again!