[Hulksmash]

Another rainy day. Decided to give Echo lake a shot. I was also curious how fast the area around Explorer falls would get trashed. Well, just one week later, as i neared the falls i caught the faint smell of smoke. The fire ring next to the creek was still warm, with half melted beer cans an bottles.

Fresh Trash in the Fire pit.

On the way out i cleared the trash out of the fire rings....again. Once at the clear cut and on the newly decommissioned road i took the right fork instead of the left fork and jumping on the old railroad grade. I also found more used oil filters.

Used Oilfilters

Used Oilfilter

I made educated guess that i could find the old railroad grade from the right fork. Maybe it was luck, but i did regain the old RR grade. The boot path on the RR grade is faint, and is littered with blow downs. But within only about a quarter of a mile, yet another new road cuts through the old RR grade. To the right is where the active logging is taking place. The freshly felled trees have not even been gathered yet. I could see the old RR grade leading into the forest. But i decided to take a chance and see where the new roads go. I did find the correct roads that lead near the lake. Interestingly the new road near the lake intersects the old RR again. I scouted around the old RR grade looking for any signs of old trail blazes. Unfortunately, at some point the forest received a thinning. The moss is so thick there is no way to tell the difference in age of cuts. Not finding any evidence of old blazes, i just headed through the forest to the lake. There is little brush under the forest canopy, bushwhacking is not bad. There's only i thin line of dense huckleberry bushes at the edge of the lake shore.

Echo lake pano

The lake shore it's self is not what i expected. It's more of a peat bog than anything. I would not be surprised if carnivorous plants could be found here. Firm footing can be found right up to the water line, although there are some serious soft spots. All the snags standing in the bog, are charred by fire. Round trip 11.9 miles. But it might be possible to cut that down a bit by sticking to the old RR grade. View larger size in new window

[GeoHiker]

Hey very cool there is a lake! Did you find the actual trail that ends at the lake? Surprising how quickly mother nature has taken over hiding the old trail. You didn't find any Boy Scout trail huh?....hmmmmm, I think they have a sneaky way to the lake after seeing the work on the DNR tank traps. Too bad about the garbage, but that's typical. I did get a call back from DNR earlier in the week.

[Hulksmash]

I did go off route by taking the road. It's entirely possible that there may still be a trail to the lake shore. I might have just simply been on the wrong side of the lake to find a trail. There's still plenty of exploring to do up there. There's Beaver lake next to Echo. Plus i suspect there may be a water fall, down stream of Echo lake, before it reaches the Pilchuck.

[AndrewRJ]

A small group of us will be heading up to Echo this Saturday. I will hopefully try to remember to take some photos and report back. Question for Hulksmash. How easy was it to find the RR grade off the end of the recently logged area, around 47.988268° -121.825763°?, and followup how thick was the underbrush there? Seems like a significant shortcut then the logging roads I can see in Google Earth. All of us in the group are reasonably competent woodsmen and could easily just head east around the bit of ravine and just meet up with the road if need be. We will also check on the garbage situation, probably haul a few bags out as well.

[Scrooge]

Echo lake pano

Does Echo Lake really look that good, Hulk, or have you just become that good of a photographer? ........ And is the shore as boggy as it looks? And Brian, all the trash pick up that you do is great, but you are not a @#$%! janitor for the local yahoos. You've got to stop cleaning up sites that you know are just gonna be trashed again.

[trailtrasch]

woooa that shore looks TOTALLY pitch-able. HULK, what would you say the camping scene is like? skeets? leeches? as long as i'm bugproof that grass looks COMFY...

[Hulksmash]

Meh...it's a peat bog around the edge. Tent might just sink in over night...bath tub floor might just become a bath tub.

[stetattleboy]

Looks like the filters are to an excavator or piece of big machinery: http://coralparts.en.alibaba.com/product/444009335-211908788/Oil_filter_for_Hitachi_4429727_Donaldson_p550777_Fleetguard_LF3542.html

[nlunstrum]