[Canuck]

I won't say too much about this hike, cause it wasn't much of a "hike" but for those with kids in the south end, it's a little gem I had no idea existed, until I bought Craig Romano's Day Hiking the Olympic Peninsula book a few weeks ago. We went to the often overlooked South Fork Skokomish area to camp Friday night, and Saturday morning paid a visit to Spider Lake. The trail goes immediately steeply down about 100 feet to the lake, and then there is a 2 mile loop trail around the lake. It's mostly flat. Gorgeous forest around a pretty little lake. It would make for a nice backpacking trip for young kids. Dogs welcome.

Spider Lake TH

First glimpse of Spider Lake

Spider Lake

Spider Lake trail

Spider Lake 2

Our chocolate lab discovered a hole in the side of the trail with a spring coming out from underground. Our son decided to shove his head in there. I should have waited about 4 seconds to snap the photo, because for a brief moment before he freaked out, you couldn't even see his head!

Anybody in there

After leaving the lake, we swung by the High Steel Bridge. I have no idea how high this thing is... guessing 300-400 feet? First thing we saw was this:

Tire ringing a tree

Hopefully you can see that tire. Can you imagine the hootin' & hollerin' on the bridge by the person who ringed that tree? Nice shot!! (although I do not condone throwing things off this bridge, obviously, but you've got to admire the aim). A shoe shot -- only had the guts to stick one foot there, keeping the other firmly behind me for balance:

Shoe shot on high steel bridge

A couple other miscellaneous shots from the bridge:

View from bridge

View from high steel bridge

After camping in the woods, a 2-mile hike, and the breathtaking experience of the bridge, Joe decided he was done, and we went home.

And he's done...

Edit: trail had very few mosquitoes (all of which bit my kid, not me), no flies, no blow downs, no nothing but the BEES were horrible near the end of the trail. Never seen so many. By the time we got to the car there must have been 2 dozen of them.

[mossy mom]

I have three geocaches hidden at Spider Lake. It really is a nice spot for the kids. My three year old walked all the way around the lake with blueberries to keep her going.

[Canuck]

We had a few blueberries also, and huckleberries. There were even ripe thimbleberries at the trailhead (well, not anymore... ). I was surprised to see so many out this early. Speaking of which, I also noticed that the vine maple is already turning red out there. Does it always happen this early? I don't remember that in previous years. It's only the end of July, that seems way too early. That, combined with so many ripe huckleberries, is weird.

[mossy mom]

There is another way to access the trail that is not steep and has a nice little trail the connects to the loop trail. It's a short road that goes down to the left, if you see the lake you have passed the little road. Maples are always the first to turn but not normally this early!

[mossy mom]

http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2007/07/spider-lake.html The subfossil trees in Spider Lake, below, are an example of a submerged forest. The trees were growing in the valley of a tributary to the Middle Fork Satsop River, however, about 900 years ago a large rock avalanche thundered into the valley bottom and dammed that tributary, drowning the forest, and forming Spider Lake. Spider Lake drains into Cedar Creek to the Skokomish River. The trees are preserved below the level of the lake and are exposed during times of drought. Several nearby lakes, Lower Dry Bed, Lower Lena, Elk, Jefferson Lakes, and others bear subfossil forests of this same age. The outer annual growth rings of trees at several of the sites have matching tree rings, thus indicating that the trees were killed at the same time, probably as the result of a large earthquake. One of the lakes, Price Lake, is dammed by a fault.