Beckler Peak and a 60+ Year Old Summit Register

View Beckler Peak 2013-7-13 in a larger map

There was one car at the Jennifer Dunn Trailhead when I arrived at 7:45 and we were on the trail by 8. The trail is in good shape, only a few blowdowns along the way. It follows an old road for the first half with several overgrown spurs along the way.



The trail stops at the farthest East of 4 peaks. The rest looked slightly higher from where I stood and a 30 foot class 4 drop separated us. I followed the edge of the wall a ways before realizing I would need to lose about 600 feet of elevation to get down and around it with my dog.




We left the trail at about 4500' and rounded the cliff band at 4400', staying close to the base to avoid travelling over large talus. I found a definite trail cut into the rock below the middle peaks. The one farther to the east is about 15 feet lower, and I was able to walk right up. The higher of the two is a monolith requiring some technical climbing and probably some rope to achieve, so we continued past and followed the fading trail to the West peak which still looked to be the mountains high point.



At the rounded summit I found a summit register in a very old mason jar half buried on it's side in dirt and pine needles. The lid had corroded the way to almost nothing, but the rolled up notepad had weathered surprisingly well. It was placed by a group of Everett Mountaineers in 1946 and the last entry was made in 1966 by some goat hunters. I'm quite sure that the summit has been visited since then (probably while buried several feet of snow) but it was still exciting to be the first to sign a register after so many years. I considered bringing it to the UW library but after nearly 50 years, I think it will survive until another NWHiker or two add their names (and hopefully bring a replacement in a new container, or at least a new lid for the mason jar). Only peekaboo views are obtainable from the summit itself including a good shot of the other 3 peaks in line.




On the way back we stayed to the west of the talus field, crossing below it on another faint section of trail. The trailhead was a zoo when we returned at 1:30. Not surspising considering the proximity to the highway, a short hike with such killer views and the roads good condition. 8:00- Leave Trailhead 9:45- @ East Peak 10:30- Begin descent 11:20- @ Middle Peak 11:40- @ West Peak 1:30- Back @ Trailhead

Trout Lake Caving 6-6-2013

On Friday night I drove down to Trout Lake with James, Ben and Barry and set up camp well after midnight near an extensive multi-leveled lava tube called "Dynamited". We got going as early as our bodies would allow the next morning. First we explored the small attic space near the entrance, then continued on to the first drop off, where we rigged a rope for rappelling (although it was hardly necessary).

The next drop features a dramatic flow frozen into the rock floor where it disappears. Near the edge we found a ~6 inch long sprout from a seed in the remains of a pear core, left behind by an irresponsible caver. Several insects were cruising around on the pear carcass. After examining the "Balloon" we rappelled the ~50 feet to the Ballroom and then another ~60 feet down into a blind pit full of decorations.

We lacked the rock pro to rig a safe passage over the blind pit where the Big Room and Attic Passage are, so we returned to the last drop and used our last rope to ascend onto the Balloon and into the passage beyond it. Here we found some intense red scrolling and a cool little gallery at the end of the line. Halfway between the balloon gap and this dead end is another access point to the Attic Passage and the half of the cave that we didn't see.

With no rope left, we returned to the first and smallest drop and into the 1000 foot long tube below it and the main entrance. We explored dozens of small "sand castles" along the way and entered a very tight squeeze a little over halfway back. After about 40 feet, the shrinking passage opened into a huge room with possibly the tallest ceilings we had seen all day, at around 50 feet high. we followed the large room to it's end where a large pile of breakdown disappears into the ceiling less than 50 feet below the surface.

This was my favorite caving trip yet and by far the most eventful- I made my first couple of rappels in a cave, found some interesting lifeforms to look at(we also found a salamander near the entrance), and met a few members of the Oregon Grotto on our way out. We also made a quick stop at the Ice Cave before heading back to Seattle. Not much ice is left this late into the summer, but we did more exploring than we had planned to and found a few decent photo opportunities.



Dynomited Cave Map (.pdf)