[Hulksmash]

What to do on a extremely hot day. How about a trail with not a lot of elevation gain with 4 lake to cool of in on the way One of the reasons for this trip was check out the trail damage to twin falls lake. Because it is a DNR trail, and recent budget cuts means it probably won't get fixed it move near the top of my hit list...today was a good day for this trip. The first lake on the trail is beaver plant lake

sign

Bevear plant lake

Beaver Plant lake 2

It's a shallow lake with lots of insects buzzing about...oddly few are man eating.

Dfly

Dfly2

After watching the insects dance around for a bit i decided to continue on.

worn sign

Bald mountain was not my destination today. The trail through all the lakes seems have been built by some one with obsessive compulsive puncheon disorder. There is literally miles of puncheon.

punchon

steps

vegitation

And a curious structure end...and arrow..i guess it's the DNR's way of saying don't let the bush hit you on the ass on the way out

Arrow

Next is upper ashland lake

needs no caption

wildlife

wildlife2

more danger

It's forested nearly to the edge. And it has a puncheon trail that circles the entire lake. Lower ashland looks much the same. I blew right by it on the way to Twin falls lake.

danger

Consider myself warned. From Lower Ashland to Twin falls lakes the trail deteriorates a bit. But is still in better shape than some trails i have seen that are not closed. There's lots of broken puncheon on this stretch. When i saw this, i laughed. Is this the reason the trail is closed?

damaged punchon

It was easy to navigate. Beyond there are some blow downs...again not difficult to deal with.

blow downs

Then what closed the trail.....this

The danger

It's not something for your kids to cross. But again, I have encountered worse..on trails that are not closed What makes this sketchy is it gets slippery when wet. Not far beyond is Twin Falls lake.

twin falls lake sign

more no no's

unreadable sign

firepit in mud

There's not much water going over the falls right now.

twinfalls lake

It's a tiny little lake. But it has a sandy beach.

twinfalls lake2

Some one had placed two folding chairs on the beach...i waded around in the water to cool off...but soon i sensed some thing wrong. It was too quiet, considering the chairs. So i decided to do a quick search of the area. I found no occupants...worse..i found there trash that the campers had abandoned. There was food spread throughout the camp sites that animals had already got into. The even abandoned there tent, with urine and rain soaked cotton sleeping bag.

abandoned tent

trash

There was so much of it. I had no choice but to separate what was remotely biodegradable from what was not. I managed to pack 95% of it. Packed onto a small day pack. I managed to find ways to sling the stuff externally on my day pack with the various abandoned stuff sacks

packed trash

overloaded day pack

This pack was never intended to haul this much weight. And it hurt. It was now in the high 80's, and because of the extra wight i began to sweat a lot. This attracted lots of horse flys Because of this...i did not waste any time to lower ashland. I kept moving to keep the bugs off. Once i reached the lake i went for a swim. The water was warm, and did not smell that good...but it kept the bugs away for a little while. Dripping wet..i made a bee line for Upper ashland On arrival i intended to go for another swim. I took one step into the lake and promptly sank in knee deep stinky mud. Parched, and out of potable water i made my way past beaver plant lake..and finally encountered some hikers. With water They were nice enough to give me a few drinks of water. Then another group..there caught up to me on the way out..and were nice enough to give me a few drinks of water also. THANK YOU to the two anonymous groups for the water. On the drive out...i stopped at Green Gables in Robe for a bottle of milk, two bottles of lemonade and some string cheese... I weighed the trash when i got home..60lbs...of some one else's crap.

[Backpacker Joe]

Way to go Hulkster. More jack ass scum bags strike again!

[Tim and Angel]

What a interesting report! I turned around at the sign a few weeks ago and decided to do Twin Falls another day. Leave it to Hulksmash to go over and beyond despite circumstances. It blows my mind that people litter like that. I don't get it. But we are very lucky to have people like you that will turn leisure and adventure into a spontaneous rescue mission....cleaning garbage of inconsiderate beings. I clean up what I find, too, but 60 pounds of crap back uphill is an amazing feat. Kudos to you man!

[Backpacker Joe]

When the Hulkster puts his mind to something he gets it done! Ive always wanted to dive off that waterfall.

[GeoHiker]

Good job Hulk, and great report. Shame that people have to leave messes like that, but it's a sign of the times. Surprising the number of abandoned campsites that are out there. We all know the high standards that the DNR has set, so I'm sure they'll have that trail fixed in a jiffy!.....cough cough.

[Magellan]

You are a heck of a man to haul all that crap out. I always wonder what people are thinking when they just abandon all that crap. Wouldn't it be easier to haul it out than it was to haul it in?

[Backpacker Joe]

[shadetree]

I thank you for an interesting report and for hauling out other peoples crap. I don't understand why people are so stinking lazzy.

[Hulksmash]

What burns me up about this...I chose this trip at the last minute to avoid thinking about the possible semi truck load of crap on the other side of the Boundary bridge over the Suiattle Yea...my other trip i intended to go on was to plan another clean up...hopefully in a few months when the new bridge goes in. I can't get away from the trash.

[Backpacker Joe]

[Hulksmash]

twinfalls lake

Stuff was spread over two campsites..So..i would guess a minimum of 4 people..that's only 15 lbs per person. An ony 4.5 miles out along a trail with little elevation gain... LAZY

[Scrooge]

trash

That's not "apathy", BPJ, and it's not just "LAZY", either. It's perversion. Somebody had to be around the bend, in a very unpleasant way, to make that kind of mess. Bryan, don't take on so much that you lose your love of the outdoors.

[sarbar]

Well, thank you for cleaning it up.

[gone]

Thanks, Hulksmash! And to those hikers kind enough to share some water with you!

[Hulksmash]