A Lazy Grouse Ridge Weekend
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 7:41 am
“Sport” and “Vaca Mav” both had to work. I wanted to get outside and test some new gear, but I didn’t feel like driving or hiking a great distance. I was looking for an easy “in and out” weekend. Grouse Ridge is a good nearby choose. The only problem is the weekend crowds but even those can be managed. So I harnessed up my two "Trail Princesses" and hit the road.
We recently were entertained with BA and his friends’ report regarding the aquatic biodiversity management plan for this area. The plan revealed that lake # 12808 has been identified as a native species reserve. Sometime in the future any remaining trout will be removed from this lake for native species restoration. I wanted to try and help by removing some of the trout myself.
The trail was well signed by a young man’s Eagle Scout project in 2011.
Soon my destination was in sight.
The good thing about this time of year is the great proliferation of flowers along the trail.
The bad thing is the populated vampire habitat.
I mostly had trouble with these bloodsuckers while hiking along the trail. They enjoy hanging out in the cool shaded forested areas. I brought along some Deet but they never got so bad I had to pull out this poison. I did however suffer a couple of bites over the weekend.
We finally made it to the lake. OH BOY!! The first group I encountered had 15 people! The second group had 8 people. I didn’t bother to count all of the others. I should mention that many of these people were young children. If you have young kids and are looking for a good place to take them backpacking you really should check out the Grouse Ridge area.
Fortunately they all stayed at the established campsites right at the lake. We hiked west cross country a little over an eighth of a mile and found a nice spot with plenty of privacy.
We set up camp, ate lunch and took a nap. Later we wanted to climb the local crag. We headed up this chute.
The summit block was a little technical but had great hand and footholds.
Hey look! There was even a register!
The sun was starting to head down so we climbed down to see if we could catch some of the local residence of the lake.
I saw several fish jumping. They looked like nice sized brookies. I was unable to catch any fish and I was not alone. There was some significant fishing pressure on the lake that afternoon. I don’t think anybody was able to fool the fish.
We went back to camp and tested some of our new equipment and went to bed. You do sometimes meet some interesting characters on the trail. I stopped to take a picture of this recent automobile accident and I ran into the “Deliverance” Brothers.
Thanks for reading my post.
-Russ
We recently were entertained with BA and his friends’ report regarding the aquatic biodiversity management plan for this area. The plan revealed that lake # 12808 has been identified as a native species reserve. Sometime in the future any remaining trout will be removed from this lake for native species restoration. I wanted to try and help by removing some of the trout myself.
The trail was well signed by a young man’s Eagle Scout project in 2011.
Soon my destination was in sight.
The good thing about this time of year is the great proliferation of flowers along the trail.
The bad thing is the populated vampire habitat.
I mostly had trouble with these bloodsuckers while hiking along the trail. They enjoy hanging out in the cool shaded forested areas. I brought along some Deet but they never got so bad I had to pull out this poison. I did however suffer a couple of bites over the weekend.
We finally made it to the lake. OH BOY!! The first group I encountered had 15 people! The second group had 8 people. I didn’t bother to count all of the others. I should mention that many of these people were young children. If you have young kids and are looking for a good place to take them backpacking you really should check out the Grouse Ridge area.
Fortunately they all stayed at the established campsites right at the lake. We hiked west cross country a little over an eighth of a mile and found a nice spot with plenty of privacy.
We set up camp, ate lunch and took a nap. Later we wanted to climb the local crag. We headed up this chute.
The summit block was a little technical but had great hand and footholds.
Hey look! There was even a register!
The sun was starting to head down so we climbed down to see if we could catch some of the local residence of the lake.
I saw several fish jumping. They looked like nice sized brookies. I was unable to catch any fish and I was not alone. There was some significant fishing pressure on the lake that afternoon. I don’t think anybody was able to fool the fish.
We went back to camp and tested some of our new equipment and went to bed. You do sometimes meet some interesting characters on the trail. I stopped to take a picture of this recent automobile accident and I ran into the “Deliverance” Brothers.
Thanks for reading my post.
-Russ
