My plan was to take an easy jaunt in the woods before heading to Jake's place on Bainbridge Island for dinner and drinks on the beach. Lake Talapus seemed the perfect destination: close and a gentle grade. FR 9010 provides easy access off of I-90. Several cars ahead of me were baffled by the signs closing the road to the Ira Springs trailhead but I was planning to turn right up the hill in any case. I was on the trail by 9:45 dipping from the sun onto the well shaded trail. The going was easy in spite of a few muddy sections which were easy to scramble over. The creek draining Talapus was swollen with snowmelt.
Feeling great on such a spectacular day I bolted straight past Talapus, where a few campers were enjoying the morning by a campfire next to their tent.  |
| Lake Olallie |
Once we reached the lake we observed several couples enjoying the quiet view, which seemed nice enough but I had energy to burn. After parting ways with my unnamed acquaintance at the north end of Olallie, I continued up a faint, steep trail towards the Pratt Lake trail. After gaining the main trail I turned west and found myself behind another hiker. He seem unusually well equipped, and soon his walkie-talkie squelched out a message from the Forest Service. It turns out Steve is volunteer SAR (search and rescue) member. He was planning to go to Island Lake and I decided to tag along, completely forgetting my plan to take it easy. I guessed we might run into more snow and as the trail dropped around a corner from the high point the snow became quite thick.
About this time I mentioned to Steve that I had always wondered if it is possible to scramble down the outlet from Island Lake to Talapus, which according to his map is about one mile. We reached the lake following a few tracks and checking our way with his GPS unit. We were a bit to surprised to see someone there in front of us- it turned out to be the hiker who was trying to cross the creek below Olallie, whose name is Ian. We looked at the snow-covered lake for a bit and wandered over to the outlet creek. The slope to the left of the waterfall was steep but looked semi-passable.
About this time, I began to wonder whether it was a good or bad idea to be tagging along behind a SAR member. On the positive side, if I got into trouble I imagined that Steve would be good to have around; on the down side, I might be heading into something I wouldn't otherwise attempt without his fearless lead! Lead on he did, working his way diagonally down the slope using trees for bracing and spindly shrubs for handholds. A short time later we cleared the trees and stood on top of a steep boulder-covered slope. Steve scampered over the rocks like a mountain goat while Ian and I trudged on at a slower pace.
