[Ski]

via alternate route One truck at end of road. One mountain bike chained to tree at trailhead. Saw nobody whole way: assuming biker-hiker is upstream from me. Crossing at Sams barely knee-deep. Sunny, clear skies, mid-80's. 6.5 hours from truck to campsite. 3 hours of daylight to set up tent, fix dinner, and go swimming ( not in that order ). At dusk went for a walk up and down gravel bar to watch the bats and Venus come out. Laid down on a huge rock to watch a meteorite fly over. Fell asleep on rock. Monday woke up to clear skies. Went for a walk down to Smith Place. River has changed course little, log jams are somewhat re-arranged. Log jam opposite Smith Place is growing, providing buffer for new alders on gravel bar. Should be some nice campsites there on the north bank in another year or two. Cabin at Smith Place collapsed. Roof all caved in. South wall collapsed. East wall collapsed. North wall bowed out. Only west wall is barely still standing. Appears as though someone tried to dismantle front door. ( souvenir? firewood? campsite bench? ) Upper crossing way trail: route is still findable. Orange tags mark route. A few small blowdowns at east end of "trail". Water in Tshletshy very low. Water temperature very warm. Pair of hooded mergansers fishing in Tshletshy. Back to camp about 3 for a swim. Water temperature just right. About 5 thought it would be a good idea to try a little fishing, as there was still another hour or so before I had to fix dinner. Tied up a little #00 Colorado spoon with 6 little red beads behind it at the end of a 20" leader. Walked upstream about 500 yards and gave it a toss. Fourth cast a summer-run nailed it, taking it all the way back downstream to camp. Nice fish. Tuesday woke up to cool, cloudy skies. Front blew in off coast during the night. Little patches of blue trying to break through above the trees. A couple of sprinkles about noon. Weather trying to make up its mind what to do. Two steller's jays scolding each other in the alder flat. More showers. Took a short nap, woke up to rain hitting the tent. The leaves around the tent were crunching. Looked out to find a doe and fawn about 20 feet away. Showers on and off all afternoon. About 5, walked upstream again with rod. First cast something nailed it and took off, jumped up and then took it down to the bottom. Something distracted me for a moment, turned away, and it spit the hook out. Then nothing but a couple tiny trout. Flock of mergansers fishing at the bottom end of Tshletshy. More light showers on and off. Dinner about 7. Rain stopped for a bit- just enough for the pink clouds to glow in the west. By 8 I can see the clouds have dropped all the way down to the river up near Harlow. About 8:30 the rain started. Laid in the tent trying to fall asleep with the rain machine-gunning the tent. Wondering whether or not the river would come up enough to prevent crossing. Wednesday woke up about 5:30 to drizzle. Laid in tent and listened to rain fall all morning. At noon finally started to clear up a bit. Broke down tent and packed up. Better time going out, but tore a shoe open. Back to Tacoma via Hum-Dinger in Hoquiam. photos here

[captain jack]

Did you go up Coal creek to the big Doug Fir tree?

[Ski]

No, did not go up the "Big Fir" trail. A 20" diameter hemlock went down right at the trail junction there, obliterating the first part of the trail, and I just didn't feel like crawlin' through that salmonberry to get up there. Last time I cleared the "Big Fir" trail was July 2003, so I would imagine that it's in pretty rough shape, as that salmonberry along Coal Creek grows pretty fast the first 500 feet of the trail there. Probably go up again early this week ( Mon? Tues? ). Should be up there now, but stupid stuff at home keeps delaying plans. Might check out the "Big Fir" trail, but the primary objective is to find out what's really going on just below Paradise Creek, which is apparently where most people are losing the trail, and then just following the river upstream toward Pelton. Oral communications between myself and a couple others ( who are familiar with the area ) cause me to wonder about the accuracy of current trail reports on the upper end of the trail found on various websites.