Activity Report, Sunday, January 13, 2008, Green Lake

Flash beat me in and was already greeting the early visitors. After a chat I headed to GL. Several inches of snow at the washout became 5 inches at GLTH. A few visitors have gone as far as RF since the snow, but there were no tracks above. I again needed snowshoes above RF. The snow had a hard crust that you drop through to mid calf or deeper today. I heard Geoff call in a report that the road heading up to Paul Peak was in bad shape.

There is a newly fallen old growth hemlock across the trail midway up to RF. It’s in the same area as numerous other large windfalls. I could duck under it, but in order to do so it’s necessary also to straddle a smaller tree directly underneath. If I can duck under a tree, anyone can; but not everyone could get over the smaller one easily. I expect that Carl will leave the large one in place for now. There also are several small trees across the trail blocking below RF.

At the RF lookout, a tree made a direct hit. The right side rail is broken. It may be useable temporarily if the broken end is trimmed. The tree currently lies across the lookout platform. I could duck under it.

On the second set of switchbacks above RF, there’s another old growth hemlock across the trail completely blocking. No way over and no easy way around especially with the steep hillside and deep snow currently in the area. It’s close to the spot where a similar old growth tree fell a couple of years ago. After scouting above and below trail, I decided to try a route from below. No real problem on snowshoes, but I had to back-step heading down, because of the steepness of the slope.

I cleared 14 inches of snow from GLFB. Not all that difficult, since no one had crossed the FB since the snow. I doubt there will be many visitors until the snow melts. It’s a bit of work even with snowshoes and the blocking tree makes for an adventure.

Over two feet of snow with a hard crust at GL.

There were 6 trees across the road from the washout to GLTH, 3 large and 3 small. All but one of the trees was blocking. I met Eva on the way out. She was returning from a hike to Chenuis. She advised that Flash, Geoff and Matt were clearing the trees in the road ahead. They cleared most of them and were wrapping up when I arrived.

Lots of families on the road, overflow parking in our tiny CRE lot, and a steady stream of Lookie Lou’s out for a drive on a nice day.

George Coulbourn