PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

If you hike to Lakes Julia, Smelling, Chitwood, or Hanson, do not park in the turn around area by the gate with the no parking signs. We have bumped into the local landowner. He is quite aggressive about patrolling the area. Yeah yeah I know, oh this, oh that … well guess what? You’re in his world out there. Be smart and just park along the edge of the road between the turnaround and the first driveway.

So on Saturday morning, for the first time, I actually got to go hiking with Mr. B!

We were going to hike to Lake Smelling / Lake Julia, as they’re only about half a mile apart on the map. The force of nature was along for this hike, and although this is jumping ahead in the story a bit, she is much nicer to Mr. B than she is to me! When he was gasping and panting, she would slow down …. I get no such consideration!

So the force of nature and I are packing up our stuff, Mr. B drops a spoon in the … let’s say mud puddle, right by where we park, and 2nd cast pulls out a little cutthroat. Looking smug, he tosses it back and repacks his pole. Off we go, probably 8am. The hike is fairly flat and easy for a while. We go through a gorgeous valley which I’d post a pic of but I only have 2 so those have to be fish. We cross a stream and see a school of coho in the deep spot by the bridge. So far, awesome day. The sun looks like it might bust out over the trees. We power up the steep spot and the switchback, a brief tromp through the woods, and we’re at lake Smelling.

I want to blow past Smelling, hit Julia, and head back to finish the day at Smelling. On the way up, Mr. B has told me he tried to get to Lake Julia last time, but after a couple of hours of bushwacking he called it off as too hard and not worth it. Yeah yeah I said, how hard can it be?

Yep ……

Well, off we go along the edge of Lake Smelling. Mr. B pauses a moment just like before, 2 casts later pulls in a little cutthroat, again looks smug, and we really hit the hike.

Remember, Lake Smelling is about 6 acres. SIX. Approximately 60 minutes of swimming over fallen trees, falling up to our waist through the rotten forest floor, picking our way through blackberry brambles, almost all on a fairly steep slope down toward the lake, we finally get to the creek on the far side. Then it’s ANOTHER 60 or so minutes to bushwack through another … half mile? Maybe? To get up the ravine to Lake Julia. By this time we’re all dirty, wet, tired, and pissed off. But launching our rafts and catching some fish should make all that better!

Hold on there cowboy. Getting a raft in this lake? HAH. From “shore” to open water where we emerged from the woods is probably 100 feet of brush, fallen logs, grass, and who knows what all else. There are areas where it’s less distance that we can see farther up the lake, but at this point we are totally and completely done with bushwacking. We just can’t go any farther. So we test some fallen logs, seem safe, get from those out to another long, LONG twin fallen tree (I’d guess 60-70 feet), tiptoe out along this tree almost to the end, and then we can cast over 2 more sets of fallen logs, perhaps landing our lures 15 feet into open water. Ideal conditions? HAH. Great way to fall off a log into 4 feet of icy water and who knows how much mud while 4 hours from civilization? Definitely! Well, thankfully that didn’t happen. Certainly not due to lack of effort on our part though.

So we’re both perched on the end of this long fallen tree, we gets hits but no hookup, Mr. B loses a castmaster, I lose a generic castmaster (only $1.50 instead of $4.50, point me!!), I then lose the outrageous steelhead spoon I caught the planter on in Greenlake last week, Mr. B goes for worm and bobber, again a hit but no hookup, then snags that and loses it, I go for worm and bobber, Mr. B goes for worm on bottom, snags and loses that, he’s done and puts his pole away. I'm watching 2 bobbers now, mine, and one stuck on a log. Then to add insult to injury, somehow a fish un-snags his worm and pulls the bobber down!! The loose bobber dances around, finally disappears under a log. It’s sad, but there’s no way to rescue that fish (who knows it might be loose anyway) as we can’t get rafts in the lake. I’m not leaving - I paid the blood, sweat, and tears to get there, I’m catching a fish, period. FINALLY I land the cutthroat in the pic and we pack up and get out of there.

The hike back down was much, MUCH faster. Why? Well for one, we knew where we had found trail markers (pink ribbon), so we found that again and then found more, so that chunk of the hike was much easier. There was no trail really, but it was definitely the easiest path that whoever had come before had found. But also, we decided we were just willing to get wet to save time. So where we could we just waded directly down the freeze-your-butt-off creek. And when we got back to where the creek entered Lake Smelling? No unbearable jungle briar-patch bushwack along a cliff this time. Nope - we launched our rafts.

I am going to be conservative here. Sure, getting to Lake Smelling is no big deal. But given the average fitness level of the citizenry, I think 5% of forum members could have made the hike from Smelling to Julia at the speed we moved. And of that 5%? I’d say 1% of those would have been willing. So I hope you appreciate this report, as chances are there will never be another one. You can rest assured that neither myself nor Mr. B will ever endure that again.

But on the off chance you’re a maniac like myself, Mr. B, and the force of nature, and just don’t believe that it’s not worth the effort for some reason despite this report? Let me give you the best advice possible. Fight the snags and launch in Smelling and row across to the creek entrance. That by itself is an immense help. Because inflating your raft, rowing the lake, deflating and re-packing your raft – not only is that FASTER than bushwacking around that tiny lake, but it is 100x easier. Then where you can, wade the creek, and where you can’t, don’t walk right by the creek. The best “trail”, once you’re out of the deep gorge part at the start where there are really no options, is up on your right side maybe 50 feet up from the creek. You’ll find pink ribbons if you look around.

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