A last minute decision to spend the weekend hiking finds me heading for Packwood late Saturday morning. Turning off on USFS 20 Rd, I park at the Jackpot Lake trail head, enjoying the autumn colors on the way up the canyon. The road is in good shape, the potholes not so deep and numerous, large road-blocking boulders had been removed by the Forest Service in August d/t wildfires on the ridge associated with the Cowlitz Complex fires. Those fires are out now, autumn rains having wetted the forest down again.
Today, however, was gorgeous. Blue skies, soft breeze, warm temps – this is the perfect weather for a hike. I set out at noon. The access trail joins the Klickitat Trail #7 in less than a quarter mile, near the outlet of Jackpot Lake. It’s a wee lake, shallow and crowded by the cnetury-old forest, and choked by vegetation. This is a lake thinking about transitioning to a meadow. I’d previously hiked the Klickitat Trail from here to the west, toward Cispus Peak and Pompey Peak. Today, I turned east, to follow the trail toward Cold Springs Butte, and Mission Mountain, intending to camp two nights at St. John Lake, also a small lake, but deeper, with waters a deep green, finged by gold and amber bushes and grasses.
The trail sidehills the southern face of the ridge, overlooking the North Cispus drainage for a couple of miles before reaching the ridge crest and climbing, then sidehills the northern side of the ridge below Horseshoe Point, overlooking the upper Deception Creek drainage, before attaining another saddle. Here, the trail climbs up the flank of Coldsprings Butte, circling above St. Michael Lake, before reaching another saddle, and dropping down to St. John Lake.
Here I found one nice campsite, just off the trail, alongside the lake, with trees perfectly placed to string up my tarp. I expected rain, and had been sprinkled on a couple times so far. Getting the tarp set up was my top priority. I hadn’t set myself for a grueling day, low miles, relatively little climbing (but more than I expected), with early start and stop times. After my Cispus-Panther Creek hike, I was looking forward to a laid back stroll thru the forest. And that’s just what I got. Despite the sprinkles, it was a gorgeous day. It was nice to arrive at camp relaxed and tired, in a good way, not exhausted.
In short order I had my tarp up, bedroll out, cookstove set up, and water filtered. Dinner, followed by a relaxing spell reading a sci-fi novel on my phone while the light drained out of the sky made the perfect end cap for the day. In the hour beofre and after dark, the lakeshore was very busy – birds bathing, small creatures drinking, owls hunting, bats flitting… eventually, the silence was broken only by the wind, the slight slap of the tarp, as occasional buffets rolling down the mountain slope, wet and cold.
In the morning, I took it easy, and set out for a day-hike to the junction with Trail 7A – this is the one that heads down to Hugo Lake. With the day damp and cloudy, I elected not to prolong the hike and skipped out on Hugo Lake. The trail is in good shape, with some Jackpot Fire damage along the trail just past St. John Lake. It was nice to spend the evening simply chilling. I enjoyed the bats at dusk.
Was in no rush to get up this morning, but it was hard to sleep in. Decided that I really wanted to go check out the rocky ridge line of Sanctuary Rock. I didn’t quite make it to the arch, but in reviewing my gps track, it seems I got very close. I noted in my journal that I need to go back. Back to camp and on the trail by 11:30.
Images taken October 21, 2023 – October 23, 2023 along the Klickitat Trail #7, Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
26.1 miles hiked over three days with 6,506′ elev. gain.
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