Trout Lake

Jared and Indy decided to head out to do some hiking today.  The target this time was the "West Fork Foss River and Lakes" trailhead, namely the goal was the first lake, Trout Lake.

Upon arrival, the parking lot was surprisingly busy.

But, it was quite in the parking area, so Jared and Indy prepared for the hike.

The hike was filled with great scenery!

Of course, Indy had to take a dip in the stream wherever possible on the way up.

The previous bridge washed out just a few years ago, but the Washington Trails Association built this new bridge.  Have no idea how they got those two enormous steel beams up here and manage to span them across the river. But this bridge is definitely built to last.

Upstream from the bridge...

Downstream from the bridge...

Jared about fell down when he came around the corner and saw this tree right next to the trail!  Probably the biggest tree we've seen!  And I'll tell you, the picture does not do this tree justice, but even at that, look at how big the bark is compared to Jared's hand!

That's the top of the huge tree towering up above all of the deciduous trees around it.  That's not brush, but full grown trees at the base of that enormous douglas fir!

The mountains surrounding the area were really amazing.

And then suddenly the lake appeared!

Indy had to cool off!

Jared and Indy found a shady spot to have some lunch and hang out for a while.  It wasn't too long of a trip up to the lake, less than 2 miles, but it was a pretty warm day at about 80 degrees and was very humid since it had rained just a couple of days prior.

On the way back Jared tried to find some spots to get to the lake outlet to try some fishing.  The outlet was beautiful, but surrounded by cliffs unfortunately.

Eventually, though, where the lake outlet started to tumble down into the creek, Jared found a spot to reach it and try a few casts.  He managed to hook a couple of little trout.

They arrived back at the truck and headed out.  On the way back though, Jared found a road that lead up the Tye River a ways and there were a number of pull outs.  The river here is really pretty, and there are actually a lot of big pools and holding water for fish.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to reach the water as is often the case in Western Washington.  There were a few spots though, and in places it looked like it may be possible to wade a ways down the river and do some fishing.  A thought for a future trip perhaps.

Jared's New Toy

Last weekend, while Kristina was out using the gift certificate for the spa that Jared got her for her birthday, he found a pontoon boat on Craigslist that was too good of a deal to pass up.  He decided it was worth it and drove an hour to go pick it up.  However, the weather wasn't really cooperating last weekend, so he had to try it out this weekend.

It was loaded up in the truck from when he got it last weekend, so all we had to do today was hop in the truck and go.  We started out by going to a lake near Carnation, WA to try it out.  Here we are getting everything out and ready to be inflated.

It came together is no time and it was ready to rock n roll!

Indy had to check it out of course, sniffing every square inch of it to be sure it was safe for her dad!

And here Jared is rowing from the shore to make sure everything checked out ok.

Here's a few shots of lake...

Jared on his way back in for some adjustments...

And away he goes again.

Everything checks out so now he's ready to take on the river.

We went for a drive and tried to find a patch of river that Jared could float.  On our second try, we found one...of course Indy had to try it out too.

The pontoon is ready to go on the river.  No fishing today, just exploration!

And away he goes.  He is going to float down the Tolt River today and meet us where we usually park when we take Indy swimming.  Kristina and Indy are going to head there after they see Jared off.

Just like riding a bike...and away he goes.  See you soon Jared!

Here's was the most rapids he saw on his float and the was near the end.

This is a shot a shot of Indy's normal swimming hole.  You can see that there were lots of people out on the river today.  It was warm for the Pacific Northwest, about 83 degrees, and lots of people were swimming and floating down the river.

It took Jared about 90 minutes to float the stretch that he floated today.  He said he rowed through the slow sections to try and make it as short as possible.  There was an estimate online that said it would take about an hour, so Kristina was a little worried, but not too worried.  She was relieved when he finally showed up though!  It was a good day!