An Outstanding Day Hike...
Today, I headed out for a much needed
delve into the wilderness. A friend of mine, Ben Shapiro, wanted to
head out to Rattlesnake Ledge in South Bend, WA. All in all there
were three of us who headed out, Ben Shapiro, Jesus Cantu, and
myself. Late last night to agreed on going on the trip. I packed my
backpack for a day hike. I didn't know much of the area when I
agreed to go. We left early, around 7 AM, to beat the heat of the
day. When we arrived I looked up at the ridge from the parking lot
and was in awe of its size. It seemed much larger than what I
expected and higher.
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| Rattlesnake Ledge from the parking lot. |
We reached the trailhead in a matter of minutes
from the parking lot. The trail is incredibly well maintained. The
trail is a decent climb, all three of us are in good shape and it was
tiring. We started up around 8:30 and arrived and at the top of the
ledge at about 9:45. The ledge itself offer amazing views of the
surrounding area. We took some time on the ledge to rest before we
decided to head for the Eastern Peak. The Altitude on the ledge was
around 2100 feet. It was a steep rise from the parking lot below that
lay at 900 feet. The eastern peak was another 2.4 miles up hill and
was a rise to 3500 feet. We didn't know much about the peak but hoped
it offered views comparable to the ones at Rattlesnake Ledge. It was
early in the day so we decided to press on. The trail leading to the
East Peak had FAR less traffic than the trails leading to Rattlesnake
Ledge. We arrived at the Peak rather quickly. The trail leading up
was more narrow than the earlier trails. When we arrived I was
surprised that the views weren't that great. There was one sitting
area that was occupied the entire time we spent at the Peak. There is
an old radio tower located at the peak. We decided to climb the
ladder leading up the tower to get better views for the camera. The
structure is old and is easily 100 feet tall. You can only access the
ladder as the top is locked. Jesus Cantu was the brave one that went
up to check. I was to nervous to climb all the way up but went up far
enough to see over the tree line. We decided ,after a nice rest, that
we would head back down and stop at the ledge to get some more
pictures since the sun was higher in the sky. We ran back down the
trail quickly and cut our ascent time by nearly two thirds. We
arrived back at the ledge and decided to look around. Jesus Cantu and
I explored the cliff and surrounding areas to find a more direct path
down that was “off the beaten path.” Most of the ledge was either
an incredible drop or was to steep to attempt. Eventually we found an
area that looked decent. Ben decided to take the trail since he had
hurt his ankle earlier in the day and Cantu and I decided to take the
more direct path. We headed back to the area we thought was
manageable and started down. We went through what seemed to be an
eroded trench where the melted water flowed during the spring. We
descended extremely quickly since the side was steep in parts. Soon
we broke into the forest treeline and found a “path” that led
into the woods and back towards the lake. We climbed down and met the
original trail trail when we were about 400 feet above the lake. We
found another “path” at this point and quickly arrived at the
lake. It took us roughly 20 minutes to descend the 1,200 feet to the
lake from the ledge. We were worn out when we arrived and decided to
take off our boots to give our feet a rest. We went into the lake to
wash the sweat away and cool off. The water was amazingly cool after
the long hike and it felt amazing. We got out after a few minutes and
took some time to relax in the shade of a tree before departing. All
in all the hike was nice and steady and offered an amazing spot to
relax at after the hike.
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| View from the ledge. |
Whats your favorite post-hike activity?
Swimming, sun bathing, or maybe some napping with ice?
Let me know what you think in the
comments section.
Learn. Explore. Survive.
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