July, 2019
When you wake up to a view right outside your window like the one below (deep green forests with birds singing and the sun shining), life is pretty darned good!
In no time at all, I was up and dressed and out of the trailer and ready for adventure.
This morning I drove out of Big Creek Campground and drove a bit further out Skate Creek Road … to the turn-off to forest service road #84. Then I drove up the switch backs of forest service road 8410. My goal was to see Pothole Lake.
Click to enlarge the map above. Big Creek Campground is in the upper left. Skate Creek Road is the solid heavy black line. The red arrow points to the turn-off to forest service road #84, which branches off to 8410 and 8420, 8440, etc, eventually joining up with forest service road #47 in the lower right corner of the map. The dotted lines are hiking trails.
The photo below was my view as I was driving out Skate Creek Road … how beautiful!
The photo below is the turn-off to forest service road #84 although there was no sign to be seen identifying it.
There were two other unmarked turn-offs before this one. There weren’t any other roads shown on the map, so I thought they might have been road 84, but neither of those roads felt right so I didn’t stop at either of them. When I came upon this turn-off, I took the turn then stopped and parked the truck to one side, and then walked around looking for any indication of which road this was.
Eventually, I found a sign that had fallen over into the underbrush that said in big bold numbers … 84. Even though the sign was in the underbrush, I was good with that. This was the turn-off to my road so off I went!
Around the first curve on 84, the sign above appeared. I never did find Teely Creek on any map, but Trail No 251 was on the map (up above) and that trail started right near Pothole Lake. As well, High Rock was on the map too, so I was pretty sure I was on the right road. On the other hand, what is “High Rock Lo”? Hmmm.
Forest service road #84 sure was pretty! And not another car or truck in sight the whole time I was out here.
After a couple of miles, I turned off onto forest service road 8410. It was even prettier.
It was a gorgeous, winding, uphill drive through a variety of forest systems. After 4.5 miles (almost to Pothole Lake), the road started to deteriorate. The photo above shows the first of the bad spots. After just two or three more curves in the road with progressively deeper holes in the road, there was a section so washed out that I didn’t dare attempt to circumnavigate it, even with the big white truck and its compound low 4-wheel drive and high clearance. Darn it, I must have been awfully close to Pothole Lake.
I backed the truck down the road to a spot where I could turn around and then headed back down the road. I was disappointed not to see Pothole Lake and spend a little time there, but the drive was so beautiful that I didn’t stay sad too long.
On the drive back down the road, I pulled over and parked in a wide spot in the road, just to get out and walk a bit so I could listen to the forest and smell the air.
Oops, wish I hadn’t done that! Here’s what I found (below). Dozens of spent shotgun shells and several black burned areas. There didn’t appear to be any damage to the surrounding trees or other foliage, and there were no other vehicles anywhere to be seen nor signs of other humans currently in the area. Nevertheless, this was unnerving.
Thank goodness the fire danger was low today, and had been for a couple of weeks.
I found out more about those shotgun shells from the Camp Host at Big Creek later in the day after I got back to the campground at Big Creek. I’ll tell you about it at the end of this post.
In the meantime, I jumped back in my big white truck and continued on down forest service road 8410, then turned back onto forest service road 84. There were so many little creeks and streams along the way. I had all of my truck windows rolled down and I slowed and listened to each little waterway as I drove past.
The entire 9-mile drive up and back took more than three hours because I stopped so many times and drove so slowly.
I thought about exploring a different forest service road after I got down off this one, but I was hungry for my lunch, so I headed back to Big Creek Campground and my little trailer.
After lunch, I noticed the Camp Host walking past my campsite so I flagged him down and told him about the shotgun shells. He said a Forest Service employee had stopped by just two days ago and talked with him about exactly that same thing.
Turns out someone in the area had called the Forest Service two days ago and reported hearing shotgun blasts but they couldn’t tell where the shots were coming from. The Forest Service didn’t send out Rangers in trucks like they used to do … it was impossible to cover every forest service road. Instead they sent up a drone. The location was immediately pinpointed without giving the scallywags any notice that they had been found. Three Rangers were dispatched directly to the spot and all three hoodlums were arrested and their firearms confiscated. The Camp Host said that an employee was heading up there this very afternoon to clean up that spot.
Thank heavens there wasn’t a fire. Finding those hooligans by using a drone was a great idea! I’m so grateful for people like this Camp Host and the other folks who care about and care for these wilderness areas. May they all be safe … and may all of us enjoy these places for many, many years.
Maybe next time I’m camped in this area, I will get to see Pothole Lake. Sometimes I think I should toss my kayak in with my camping gear. How lovely that would be to kayak on some of these pristine wilderness lakes. Ok, I’ll do it … “take kayak” is on the list! 🙂