[Slugman]

I parked my car at the start of the real snow on the road to Boardman lake, just a bit before the junction with the road to Bear/Pinnacle/Ashland lakes. Good clearance vehicles with snow tires or studs were making it almost two miles further, up to the second quarry shown on the maps of the area. Nobody has driven past that quarry recently. Daisy and I walked the road portion of about 2.5 miles in two lazy hours. We had some nice views from the open area at the second quarry. The footing was firm but with a slippery base, due to the hard crust on the snow beneath a thin surface layer. Traction devices on my boots really helped, as the screw heads on my Stabilicers bit into the hard crust of the snow. They weren't absolutely necessary, but they did help in eliminating the occasional slippage that occured before I put them on. We took a long break at Evan lake, which was solidly frozen-over. Someone had crossed the lake on the ice with no apparent cracking. I stood on the ice near the shore and jumped up and down with no effect on the ice. So I let Daisy play some fetch out on the lake. Then we did the trail hike to Boardman lake, which was nice. There are some really big trees, lots of snow, and the lake is a decent sub-alpine pond with some surrounding peak-lets. Not really a great summer destination, when the trail is less than a mile of hiking and other, better places abound. But in the middle of winter it makes for a pleasant dayhike. I didn't use the Stabilicers on the way back, as the snow crust had softened slightly, giving my boot tread some bite. Trip stats are: 7 miles R/T from about 1/3 mile before the road junction to Boardman lake, 1,200 ft elevation gain/loss, 95% snow-covered, slippery if it's really cold out. Started at 11 am, finished at 4:30 pm. After I got home at 6 pm, Tanja and I went to Claim Jumpers restaurant in Lynwood where Tanja's parents treated us to dinner since my birthday was last Sunday. The food was very good and very plentiful. Then they hauled out a Tanja-suggested present for me: an Ursack with the optional metal insert and a supply of smell-reducing plastic bag liners. What a nice surpirse. I feel obligated to protect my food and the bears when backpacking, but I hate the chore of hanging my food, plus I have no faith that a determined bear couldn't defeat the average food hang. But my bear cannister is just too heavy at 2.7 lbs (43 ozs). The Ursack without the optional metal tube weighs just 6 ozs, giving me a lightweight, convenient option for everyday use, plus with the metal liner it weighs just 20 ozs, and is approved for use in most places where bear cannisters are required. Now I truly have it all when it comes to food storage: ethics, convenience, light weight, safety, rule compliance, flexibilty.

[Backpacker Joe]

Happy birthday Sluggo. Any pics?

[Slugman]

I took 29 pics, and they don't stink or anything, but none of them was really worthy of posting. I think everybody knows what a frozen lake looks like on a cloudy day. I guess there were a couple that might be of interest, so here they are:

Water flowing thru hole in ice

Outlet stream, Boardman lake

Boardman lake

[Backpacker Joe]

Thanks.

[salish]

Thanks Sluggo, for the report and cool photos. Happy birthday, by the way. I wasn't aware of the Ursack people developing a metal insert for their bag. I'll have to take another look at their web page. Cliff

[captain jack]

[Slugman]

Good plan, CJ. Except the road walk will be four miles if you simply follow the roads from TH to TH. Just under two miles to get from Ashland lakes TH to the road junction, then just over two more back to the Boardman TH. But if you take a brief short cut, you can save over 2.5 miles on that return leg. Here's the route info on that:

Ashland-Boardman short cut

[captain jack]

Sluggy , sluggy, sluggy Sometimes you take me for such a touron My Green Trails

a to b with mods

clearly shows the winter route along 4020, with the offtrail portion, I measured this as 2 miles, ce nes pas? Yellow arrow on the map points to the offtrail portion. Majenta is my guess at the fishermans trail to Island. Orange line is " extra fun bonus happy trail" Arigato C.J.

[Slugman]

I like your shortcut a bit better. It leaves you on the trail until after the stream is crossed, and seems a bit flatter than the route I drew.

[captain jack]

I figure if they post it as the winter route, it should'nt be too hard to find, plus I put the distance at about 1000' from trail to road, I can almost spit that far. More curious about anybody else goin up from Island to Bald mtn, hows that little peice of rock scaling?

[Slugman]

Ah, I didn't know it was an "official" winter route on GT maps. I devised my shortcut totally independently.