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Salmon Creek
Friday morning we woke up to partly cloudy skies. Hoping that the sun would
win out eventually, we made the short drive to the Haskell Peak trailhead.
The trailhead is just off Forest Service Road 9, about 8.5 miles in from
Gold Lake Highway. We passed
some loggers and some cows on the easily driven dirt road.
It was noon by the time we finally got started on the trail, where a sign says
it's 2 miles to Haskell Peak. The book I had said it was 3 miles round trip, but
the sign and a map I had both said 4 miles round trip. I tend to believe the
book may be out of date and that 4 miles is probably correct. However, I can't
say based on experience because we never made it to the top.
Just about a third of the way up (it's about 1100 feet of climbing to the top),
we started to hear some loud noises. After pausing to make sure it wasn't the
loggers, we confirmed it was the sound of distant thunder. Just as we decided
to turn around, we felt our first rain drops. As we headed further downhill,
the skies opened up and the rain came crashing down, with thunder pounding our
ears.
At least we were in the relative safety of a dense forest, so I figured our
chances of getting hit by lighting were somewhat diminished. But with 2 kids
there was no thought of trying to wait it out. It didn't help that we realized
we hadn't put the rain fly on our tent back at our camp.
After about 10 minutes, the rain stopped and we actually passed a pair of hikers
coming uphill, soaked but undeterred. We had no thoughts of heading back up,
even though the sun was now shining and it looked like it might clear up.
So, unfortunately I have no report on the supposedly great views from the top.
I don't even have any pictures to share with you, since the start of the hike
is unremarkable.
I was, of course, disappointed. But with over 225 hikes, I guess there are bound
to be a few unsuccessful hikes. Only a couple come to mind offhand, Mt. Whitney
and Echo Peak. But this was less disappointing since we didn't get very far.
And in any case I had come in with the realization that there was a good chance
we wouldn't make it to the top, rain or no rain, since Nathan had never hiked
more than 2.2 miles by himself. If I had known for sure that it was 4 miles and
not 3, I wouldn't have even bothered trying.
We returned to our car and drove down to our camp site where we found that it
looked like it hadn't rained at all. Still, we decided to put the rain fly on
anyway. And it's a good thing that we did, since it started to rain while we
were still in the process of staking it down. By the time we were done, it was
pouring rain. Another reason not to regret turning around from our hike.
We then drove 5 minutes down the road to the store at Bassett's Station for some
bottled water (since the camp water was questionable) and refreshments. By the
time we returned to camp, the sky was clearing and the campground was filling
up. By the time we went to sleep that night it was noticeably cooler and the
campground was nearly full, but at least the skies were clear. We also appreciated
the fact that the sites at Salmon Creek are well-spaced, so we never felt crowded
by any of our neighbors.
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