Summer Issue of the Mt Index Reporter

Lake Serene Not an easy hike but worth it.

Spring has sprung and Summer is around the corner.

Summer 2010 From Gold Bar to Skykomish and surrounding areas Privately owned and published by T.A. Boullioun since 2003

inside . . .

Mt Index Reporter

How to reach us Hubbitats — Lake Serene Our monthly trip back in time

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Guest writer (From the U or W’s archives)

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Mt Index CABINS & SUITES

by T.A. “Thom” Boullioun

Experience our

Mountain lifestye Monthy rentals All utilities inc one unit@ $700 one unit @$800 Plus get: Satellite TV Right Off Hwy 2

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As soon as warm March breezes thaw our frozen landscapes in the heart of the Upper Valley area, my energies jump into outdoor living mode. Bursting with pent-up energy from months of being cooped up indoors and way too many espressos at the two nearby coffee shops. I hose off the deck, dust off the furniture, and haul out pots from winter storage. While my perennials send up their first sprouts, containers filled with cool-season flowers purchased from a local greenhouse give my porch and patio a head start on the blooming season.

Once my outdoor spaces are spruced up, I have no need to leave from home for a relaxing getaway. Apparently, that‟s how a lot of you feel, too. Some folks, in fact, are choosing to re-create a favorite „look‟ in the backyard.

Just as a fun trip can bring a family closer together, a backyard that‟s geared for all ages can lay the groundwork for lasting, scrapbook-worthy memories. This is especially true for the Eddy Family of Index, Washington. Mike & Shari Eddy are devote gardeners and have incorporated ideas from their many visits to nurseries in our state. Add a lot of elbow grease and you have a spectacular treat for the eyes. They have turned their large riverfront property into a family retreat that gets everyone out in the fresh air; everyone has fun and the family remains intact. It‟s no surprise that their property is appealing to young couples getting married. They host several weddings a year.

Being a good neighbor goes beyond tasteful style to embracing a lifestyle that promotes and encourages staying right where you are!

Speaking of good neighbors, my friends here at the Mt index Reporter want you to tell us what you want to include here. I can be reached via email or I will be on my property trying my best, otherwise you can find me visiting and talking everybody's ear off at the Espresso Chalet on Hwy 2 or the Wild Sky River house in Index.

With this, the second issue we have Bob Hubbard returning as a „guest‟ columnist providing us with his great hiking stories about the area. His story is all new and written specifically for this month‟s issue. Mr. Hubbard‟s stories can also be found at the town‟s website: IndexWA.org as well as an occasional „write-in‟ to the Index Times. Also check out the „Lee Picket‟ photo from the Special Collections Division at the University of Washington photo archives on the last page of this issue.

Thom Boullioun Thom Boullioun Editor, Mt Index Reporter Monthly rentals only. Deposit may be required.

Check with onsite manager @ Mt Index Cabins Mt Index Cabins is privately owned and not part of Mt Index Riversites community.

http://mtindexreporter.com/

Hubbitats by Bob Hubbard

© 2003-2010, All Rights Reserved

A visit to Lake Serene Photo by Meryl Schenker, P-I photographer

N

ow that the snow has melted in the mid-elevations, we can head back up the Lake Serene trail and hunker out at the lake. This hike is great medicine for the legs, lungs, and eyeballs, and the lake is calendar-pretty. Even if the lake basin itself happens to be clouded when you get there you should stay around for a while before descending back out of the cloud, for a couple of reasons. One reason is that the lakeside forest and shore areas are still very pretty and visually accessible, even in the presence of a little cloudy air, and the second is that the fog usually thins or the clouds retreat upward, and the peek-a-boo views up into the high cliffs of Mt Index reveals the scale of this stunning little lake basin in a dramatic way.

Last time, (Editor’s note: this is a reprint and the reference to the time is incorrect) in the March issue, we plodded up through the second-growth forest on the first half of the hike, but then turned around at Triple Tree Corner, the first real climbing switchback turn in the trail past the long bridge over Bridal Val Creek. We would take up there but for possible new readers, so we direct them to the trailhead just off highway 2 (take the Mt Index Road (dirt & gravel) 1/4 mile east, then turn south on the side road and take it a few hundreds yards to the big parking lot and restroom stop and sign in area). The trail (a gated, dis-used road) heads south and uphill out of here.

As we plod back up the trail I challenge my readers to think about the plant world here, and who‟s doing good and who isn‟t.

Let‟s think of the forest world in capitalistic terms, as if nature operated on the free enterprise principle, and the amount of biological productivity could roughly be equated with financial prominence in the human economic ecology.

A human city has it‟s big players, it‟s mega-corporations or military tenants, which often dominate the whole visual or social character of town. The forest has its‟ equivalents: its plants, and in particular, its trees.

Think of which plant family has the greatest amount of biomass, number of individuals, or area coverage at the site you‟re at. In this open-looking hardwood forest, the birch

family, Betulaceae, dominates wherever red alders do, and the maple family, Aceraceae, attain prominence where big leaf of vine maples do. Cottonwoods are in the willow family, Salicacea, Western Red cedar and Alaska Yellow cedar are in the cypress family, Cupressacea. But one family often dominates even over all the others, and that is the Pincaceae, or pine family. That‟s because it not only includes the pines like lodge pole pine and western white pine as local representative, but also Douglas fir. Western and mountain hemlocks, Sitka spruce, grand fir, Pacific silver fir, noble fir, and sub-alpine fir.

These are the big corporations in the forest city, the ones all the others grown in the shade of, or apart from.

Lesser corporations dot the forest floor and scrap over whatever light the big boys let through. Here we see a tremendous diversity in families, too many to list here all at once.

But you‟ve seen the diversity of the pine family locally, and there are several families represented by even more species, in the brush and herb communities of the forest

floor.

Take the fern family Polypodiaceae as an example: in this one hike we might find sword fern, deer fern, wood fern, lady fern, licorice fern, bracken fern, oak fern, maidenhair fern, and maidenhair spleenwort. There might easily be 3 or 4 more species of ferns which I‟ve so far overlooked, but will someday find. And there‟s the rose family, Rosaceae. Add to the nootka rose and little wild rose bush other family members as cut-leaf blackberry, Himalaya blackberry, Pacific blackberry, salmonberry, thimbleberry, five-finger bramble, black cap raspberry, sweet cherry, Indian plum, serviceberry, ocean spray, goats beard, Sitka mountain ash, largeleaf aven, Pacific nine-bark, partridge-foot, cinquefoil, spirea, and my favorite: wild strawberry. Search around the lake basin and you can probably add more rose family members to your list, and if you go down to the river down past the foot of the trail there are choke cherries and hawthorns and the occasional rowan tree.

You can see how making a plant list on a given hike can turn into a time-consuming hobby. I‟ve found that you‟ll also create a different list in the late spring months than you do later in the summer, so you can‟t ever be sure that you found everything that was growing in the area. About all you can do is keep looking, and adding to the list whenever you find a new species in the area.

When we get to Bridal Veil Creek a mile and half into the hike we could have assembled a (Continued on page 4)

Chinookexpeditions.com 5

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plant list of 60 or more species, and that‟s just from the valley bottom and second-growth, forest. The second half of the hike is through older forests, and we can probably find a few more species as we climb up through it to the lake.

The old-growth forest is not uniform in appearance except from a great distance; up close it is a series of clumps of big conifer trees interspersed among a series of lighter, short hardwood openings and talus slopes. Sitka spruce can be found in the lower half of the steep zone leading up to the lake, along the easterlyclimbing leg of the trail which takes one way out on the slopes of Philadelphia mountain before turning back toward the lake basin. These spruces evidently didn‟t read the books or they would realize that they don‟t grow up at this elevation (nearly 2000 feet). Some other illiterate spruce can be found over on neighboring Mount Persis, growing at about 3200 feet.

These are not just wayward seedlings that will soon die back, leaving only the literate spruces down at lower elevations; these are old-growth spruces in the 2 to 4 foot diameter range.

I‟ve read that the native cultures occasionally used dried spruce pitch much like chewing gum, so I tried a chunk one. Day. It wasn‟t as bad as I thought it would be, and actually had a kind of sweet taste. I told a friend about this, and she wanted to try some, so we found an old spruce and got a pinch of drying pitch of modeling clay consistency and she tried it. She noticed that it had not only a sweet taste but also an orange or tangerine TASTE TO IT AS WELL. I TOOK ANOTHER PINCH, AND

BY GOLLY SHE WAS RIGHT. Doggone: learn something new every day. . . .that detail wasn‟t in the ethno botany book.

The trail eventually stops climbing in an

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eastward direction, and does a couple short switch backs next to a brushy stream gully before heading back to the west. Next to the trail on the lower of these baby switch backs ins a somewhat uncommon club moss which has a growth form which makes it resemble a little 6-inch high miniaturized monkey puzzle tree. There‟s not many of them, and they‟re not that easy to spot on a high speed walk-by, but they‟re there.

Heading back to the west, the trail is more merciful and climbs more slowly, allowing the legs to recover a little from the past steep mile.

The hardwood openings in the old-growth allow partly open views out over the valley and into the

“These spruces evidently didn‟t read the books or they would realize that they don‟t grow up at this elevation (nearly 2000 feet).” peaks and ridges of the Wild Sky country. Now you are above the extensive cliff-band which gives us Bridal Veil Falls where the creek runs over it.

The trail switches back for one more zig zag, then starts to bend around to the south as it approaches the lake basin.

Finally the trail pops out of the shady forest and into a sunny brush field. Here are tantalizing views of the massive walls of Mt. Index and the deep scoop on the mountain which contains Lake Serene. Crossing a last stream, the trail rises across the last of the brush fields (with good views down to Index and the south fork valley below Sunset Falls). Then passes a short side trail (to a toilet), and drops down a few hundred feet to the lake‟s edge. here at the outlet bay there are several little side-paths leading down to lakeside hunker spots and gravel beaches, but the very best spot lies at

Mike’s Ditches

the end of the developed trail, at a place the Forest Service calls “Lunch Rock” but I call The Center of the Universe. Here on the glacially-smoothed granite headland one can sit and just be struck dumb by the view. If you‟re lucky enough to be alone at the lake this is the place to head for. If others are there first stop and admire the view there anyway: this place is too precious and the hike to it too long to allow anybody monopoly rights to it. I typically pause for about 5 minutes there while the sweaty flush of the hike fades, then I go to some other hunker if I want more privacy.

If all the spots along the outlet bay and the Rock at the Center of the Universe are occupied, one can level the aforementioned Rock via sketchy trails at its top and head down westward (towards Mt. Index) to the water‟ edge. These are primitive paths that get steep in places, but usually have brush to grab or ledges to stand on where things start to look thin. Just above the water a steep smooth rock gully is crossed by a step-across to the other side.

A banana sized foot ledge is located right in the middle of the gully, where it does the most good. Past the gully is 100 feet of easy path then another steep smooth headland plunging into the water. One can carefully pad over the headland at about head height above the water, on a crack/ ledge system (easier than it looks), or one can take off one's shoes and wade the 30 feet or so of shin-deep water. From then on it‟s easy walking to the west shore talus fields.

The west shore has a number of nice places for picnicking and hunkering (relaxing; hanging out at a pretty place).

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Lunch Rock in late August @ 8 a.m.

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The rock headland of the north shore gives way to a meadowed edge of a large talus slop; a nice spot all its own. Crossing the talus, we come to a forested area down by the lakeshore which has 3 or 4 little beaches and picnic rocks scattered around it.

Just beyond the forested area is a shallow bay almost entirely filled in with big boulders fallen from the cliff above.

The large boulder field continues past the shallow bay onto a sort of headland of giant b boulders. The largest one has an almost flat top, and overhangs deep enough water to dive from if you‟re careful. This makes a good picnic rock.

The giant boulders continue beyond flat-top , and the crude trail continues beyond flat top at about the same elevation, until the big boulders peter out and the trail drops down to lake level to cross a long featureless section of shoreline talus and scree. Soon another flat topped shoreline rock is passed; another good picnic/diving rock. The path rises a little higher above the lake for a few hundred yards and passes through a low jungle of brush and ferns and small trees.

Beyond the jungle the path fades out, but the way is to drop down to lake level and pick your way over to the gravel beaches at the lake‟s south end. A large rock helps define the south bay, and makes another fine picnic/swimming rock. Melt water from the perennial snow banks above here

forms small streamlets which wind through the scree and across the beaches. A cool breeze descending off the snow makes these south shore beaches about 20 degrees colder than any other shoreline habitats.

In late summer ice caves form in the perennial snow bank. Some years there are 4 or 5 of them. By late summer the mouths of the ice caves get so melted out and wide that the roofs often collapse, so I would recommend against exploring inside or directly above the ice caves, but you can stand in front of them on a swelteringly hot day and practically get hypothermia.

I usually travel down lake to the south end on the “paths” near water level, then climb the snow banks and talus to go back north right under the cliffs themselves. There are few level spots suitable for good comfortable hunkering, but the snow banks and their ice caves, and the talus with its various wildflowers, and the view down to the azure lake and the little colored clusters and dots of the hikers and picnickers, and the view up, up ,up the awesome endless cliffs all contribute towards the enjoyment of this elevated area. The two giant spruce on the mountain to the north and south Norwegian buttresses are each about as tall as four Index Town Wall cliffs.

If you run your binoculars over the face of the north Norwegian buttress you can see the rotting ropes of some previous rock-climbing party still clinging to the cliff for almost a thousand continuous feet. Look along the underside of the upper arch system to find the

tiny white thread of a rope where it contrasts with a dark clump of bushes, then follow it upwards and downwards from there. I lost sight of it just to the right of a yellow zone of rock just below the lower of the big arch systems. I don‟t have a problem with climbers fixing ropes to help them achieve a climb but I do hate it when they leave the ropes there afterwards. These ropes have been hanging there for more than 10 years and I keep hoping they‟ll soon rot enough to fall off the cliffs on their own.

When the shadow of the north Norwegian Buttress finally reaches the lake‟s eastern shore and starts climbing the talus there its time to start thinking about heading back down the trail and leaving this fantasy world behind. On your way out the Rock at the Center of the Universe, the end of the engineered trail, is often abandoned by the earlyleaving parties and makes a good spot to take five minutes to quietly appreciate the lake and basin and mountain from before you have to hoist packs and head home.

Editors note: I want to thank Bob Hubbard for allowing me to recycle this hiking story to Lake Serene. It was originally written by him and appeared in the July 2004 issue of the Mt Index Reporter.

Dated 1925, this is one of those photos that makes you wish you had a time machine! We’d love to hear from anyone that knows more about this picture. Recognize this area? This is a picture of Lake Serene or Lake Cyrene. The location? On the South Fork of the Skykomish River near the town of Index and the community known as Mt Index Riversites. At milepost 35.5.

Last Page Our monthly trip back in time — From Lee Pickett @ UW