We all have them. Unfinished business. Some of you may remember this one from two years ago. Since the alpine season is close to the End for this year, it's now official - THE LAKE-SEEKERS ARE BACK!

Here's a link to our last attempt almost 2 years ago to find this lake:
https://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8652

For those who are unfamiliar, Thurston Lake lies North-East of Mission in the Norrish Creek Valley.

The last time we headed up this valley, the logging road was a complete mess. It'll help to look at the link above to see what I mean. We weren't sure what we'd encounter this time out. Luckily for us the gate that was once there keeping most people was removed completely. We did however find more signage to try to keep us out:



Kind of surprising that they wouldn't still have a gate up since there's active logging in there. We were able to drive up about 3 km's, shaving off 6km's from our journey already, sweet []! Even with these 6k's taken off this would be a 14 km day. So we parked the truck and started walking on the logging road. Soon enough we encountered the first of many creek crossings that had completely washed out the road 2 years ago. To our surprise, the road was in wonderful shape [:0]!



For comparison, below is a shot taken from our last trip of these creeks that had taken out the road:



At this rate, we were wondering if they had rebuilt the Rose Creek bridge! It was not so, but as the other creeks, the road had been leveled for a good passage:

Rose Creek 2006:


Rose Creek 2004:


The road was overgrown in spots but one can easily drive a decent 4x4 up here now.


Some nasty erosion happening on the other side of the valley:


About 2 hrs from the start, we reached the 'waterfall' outflow of the lake. Our reference book tells us to follow the creek up to the lake but we decide to continue up the logging road and approach the lake from the side.

Outflow:


Going up the logging road for the other approach:


Final approach - go to the end of the logging road, head up through the old logging slash into the trees. Lake lies below the tallest peak in the picture:



Now I was too busy fighting through thick bush of all sorts but most pre-dominantly of the thorn kind [}] and only took out the camera when we got into the forest:


The lake sat a little lower so we took a route down and were there in 5 minutes. What a nice gem of a lake. We were both pleasantly surprised :





We didn't really have shoreline where we initially went down so went back in the forest and went to the other end of the lake for our lunch spot:



The sun came out briefly but the clouds stuck around hiding the warm rays:


So we quickly ate and headed back to the truck. The skies were looking a little more menacing but we never got rained on. We saw these cool mega-clouds forming farther out so we decided it was time to go!


All in all a most excellent day out! I will miss the Alpine but now it's time to get back to our roots

bravo, huzzah, etc. [^]

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Wine stirs the spring, happiness bursts through the earth like a plant, walls crumble, and rocky cliffs, chasms close, as song is born.

I don't really know where Thurston lake is, but it looks nice. Nice trip [8D]

Never heard of that lake before, intially thought it was near Elk-Thurston Mountain at first read. Looks like they made the road more passable to encourage more traffic.

Regads,

Thurston is circled.
The second lake to the North is Sonny lake.Been to that one a few times.


I believe they want to remove some more timber in the area,and probably bandaided the road before it it was non existent.There really aint much up to see or do besides the lake,which may not contain any fish,although I like to believe it does.It was fun to chase another lake down and have it be nicer than expected.When I finally stopped hiking that day back in November 2004,I was standing 150 meters away from it.Due to some navigation errors,I was unaware that it was just over the bump,and we turned back [:0] [B)]

Below is the pic of where I was looking at and stopped (2004),all I had to do is wander up that and we would have had it,DoHHH.



So this time we pushed thru and Voila,easy pickin's



The list of unvisited named lakes is getting thin,but there are still a few,right Billygoat and Exscape? You know there's that little one right down the Ska....

So, are we a migratory bunch; hikers? I head up high when summer heat gets well over 100 each day (most of the time when I have good sense winning out over desire) and migrate down to the lower desert and the mariachi stations of Mexico on the radio (I need to get Sirius sattelite radio out there) when the desert cools back down. Bring on the lakes! yes!

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May your trails be crooked, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing views ! Edward Abbey

Always so cool to finally get the list done (well, that particular list among lists!)Looked wonderful except for the erosion etc nearby. What a difference with the creek! Some interesting driving for sure!

[8D] Lots more lakes around for those who would hunt them [^]

What a beautiful lake! I guess I didn't expect that from such a logging scarred area.

So whats next?

When are you going to bag Tingle? []

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Wine stirs the spring, happiness bursts through the earth like a plant, walls crumble, and rocky cliffs, chasms close, as song is born.

Eek! Let's not mention Tingle [:0] - from the research we did a while back I remember it being way way worse than Blinch! Something like 3-4 days of bushwacking - now that's just crazy talk!

Nice [8D]


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Life never ceases to amaze me.

Oops, the above was from me.

Glad to hear it!

Howzabout Inkawthia then, via the Cogburn side approach? I can get you a key...

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Wine stirs the spring, happiness bursts through the earth like a plant, walls crumble, and rocky cliffs, chasms close, as song is born.

Now he's talkin' dirty to ya. Hear that Bo?