[evergreenhiker]

Yesterday my friend John and I finally got Jay Lake. We'd tried few times back in the 90's, but didn't get there due to high water, etc. This approach is shorter than the Wallace State Park route. Roughly 10.5 miles and 1400-plus ft elevation gain. This is largely a road walk, but bridgeless stream crossings are required in the vicinity of Wallace and Jay Lakes. This is no problem in low water, but as we discovered...if it's high, you may have to get wet! I will post topo and coordinates on the next post. Ok, we get there and see a game warden parked at the gate. As I walked by, he rolled the window down and started talk to us. As it turns out, he knew someone that John knows through Search and Rescue. We ended up getting a ride part of the way! This cut out the boring first 2-plus miles of flattish road walk that goes through a mix of old and newer clearcuts before entering nice woods. I'll let the pics with captions tell most of the story:

The starting gate.

Keep straight here.

Olney Creek crossing

pretty cascading stream a bit after the Olney Creek crossing

The game warden dropped us off here. The old road you see will take you to the Shaw lake logging road(wp 005).

John hiking up

Me hiking up

This section of road will be a good place to visit in a month or so when the foxgloves start blooming.We saw tons of them starting to grow. Right now, there are lots of little waterfalls to see.

One of many waterfalls

Yet another one.

Pretty ferns!

From where the warden dropped us off, you will pass by a few old roads...just keep straight on this one and you will reach a gate separating DNR land from private timber property that you have been hiking through.

Keep straight. Left is a route to the Jay Lake saddle(wp 007).

Gate

Very brushy on DNR side

View point a bit past the gate.

Finally, we got into the Wallace Falls State park area

Park boundary

Wallace lake road junction

Wallace Lake after the creek crossings

We had to get wet! Soon after this we had to cross another braid, but managed to hop across rocks for that.

John crossing over

Me crossing on way back from jay

Finally on Jay lake trail

John on Jay lake trail

Yet more water!

Another creek crossing

Short flooded section

Finally, Jay Lake!

Jay Lake

Me at Jay Lake

picnic table and firepit

tent sites

After lunch, we decided to see if we could get back a different way. My plan was to cross the stream above the lake and hop onto the saddle adn drop down to the logging road which take you back to road we hiked on earlier. We just followed the flags:

Start of route just past campsites

me on the rough trail

No go. Stream high and undercut bank on our side.

Creeping Moss? Very pretty!

So we cut our losses and returned the same way. We'll bring wading shoes next time. There isn't any good access to the water for fishing, unless you wade. I saw several good rises! On the way back, I found the geocache by Wallace and on to home. No rides this time, but we lucked out on the weather. It just started to rain when we got back to our car.

[evergreenhiker]

Topo and coordinates:

[Smokey Bear]

Thanks for the report and the nice photos. I will be attempting Jay Lake from the west. . . from the Shaw Lake side sometime this summer.

[Hulksmash]

Yea, i think going in from the Shaw lake side well end up being about half the mileage. I just have to get around to it.

[GeoHiker]

Great job EGH. I've been wondering about that road. So what was the Game Warden doing in there and did you place a geocache?

[evergreenhiker]

[Schroder]

Great job. That gives me the data for the other approach to Mt Stickney

[GeoHiker]

Your picture of Creeping Moss, does anyone know what this is? I found a patch of this on Mt Pilchuck on a dry out cropping of rock and it looks like a miniature fir tree growing along the ground. Cool stuff.