Mildred Lakes Area

[olyclimber]

Didn't climb anything, but went up to Mildred Lakes to fish with my son and his friend, who are both in college...and of course Kiba came too.  Actually, I hiked up there Friday night, fished Saturday, and then hiked down Saturday afternoon to meet them at the trailhead, and we hiked up that night and fished Sunday morning and then hiked out.  The trail in is steep in parts, I've been going up fisherman paths in the Olympics all summer, but this one is stout in parts.  All the hikes up were done in the dark, got up there Friday night at 11:30 pm, and with the boys we got to camp just after midnight.  Good times. I saw a bear in a tree Friday night.

The vistas on the way in gave me some great memories.  The views of peaks in the area:

Climbing Pershing with @OlympicMtnBoy  

Climbing Bretheron:

Climbing Mt Stone with my friend Steve  I think I've climbed Mt Stone at least 3-4 times. One of my favorite scrambles in the Olympics.

Climbing Cruiser in "winter" with @Alpinfox

the latter being a little laughable that we might think we were the first to get up there in winter, but hey, it was fun non-the-less. I never said I was the sharpest tool and if you know Pax you know he ain't either  .   See the entry about Cruiser here...I just ordered this book, I have never read it!   Lots of interesting info there.  "The Bremerton Ski Cruisers" being the name source for Mt Cruiser is one tidbit I learned.

I wonder how many times the couloir on the north east side of Lincoln has been skied?  See it to the right of the main peak here?:

 

Great success.  Thanks for allowing me take my little trip down memory lane.  It was a great time up there with the boys.

 

Oh and very cool to see Mildred upper and middle lakes from @JonParker climb of Cruiser this past Friday....the first pic I can see our camp and fishing spot right there.

 

 

 

[JasonG]

Looks like a nice and tasty weekend!  Love the links to the trips on your memory lane!

[olyclimber]

classic Oly fishermans path 

[olyclimber]

This book 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3627331-early-hiking-in-the-olympics-1922-1942

is the best read I've ever had for hiking/exploring/climbing history of the Olympic Peninsula. I'm pretty sure my parents had this book so not sure how I missed it but glad I found it.

Written by Paul Crews who went on to found the Mountaineering Club of Alaska.

 http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201214718/Paul-B-Crews-1917-2017

Lots of stuff stuff about my stomping grounds that actually have a fair amount written about them, but that I somehow missed:

• There was a Boy Scout Camp, complete with a bunch of cabins and a doc, etc up at Lower Lena Lake called Camp Cleland.  I believe it was at the South end of the lake?  There was also a forward camp up at Upper Lena Lake near where Milk Lake drain into it.  There were also scout camps at other locations on the Peninsula I never knew about.  Camp Cleland went away because the adult leaders were lazy and didn't want to have to hike up into the lake it sounds like lol.
• Mt Cruiser, named by the club Bremerton Ski Cruisers, had a cabin and a ski bowl up by Flap Jack lakes.  It went away after the Park was created and people stopped going to it because of easier ski access at Mt. Rainier.
• The clubs in the early days (the Mazamas and the Mountaineers) would put the Mountie crag take overs to shame.  They would roll up to Mt Olympus with 65 people in 1907, or in 1913 traverse traverse the Olympics from north to south with 106 people,,  these type of outings....  sounds like some real solitude. 
• This book also led me to finding this thread on NWHikers that has tons of pictures of old structures in the Olympics
•  This picture of a the scout camp at Lower Lena!:
• 

I haven read it but a 1/4 of it, but really cool book.  Check out this early map of the Sawtooth/Flapjack Lakes/Mildred area:

 

 

[olyclimber]

the cabin at Flapjack lakes.