Читать книгу One Night Wilderness: Portland. Top Backcountry Getaways Within Three Hours of the City онлайн

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At 1 mile you cross a pair of rocky gullies where the trail is prone to washouts. In another 0.3 mile you meet a long-abandoned road (and the second trailhead mentioned above, where you can get a wilderness permit). Turn left (slightly downhill), and walk 25 yards to the resumption of the trail.

Now almost continuously steep, the trail makes a few short switchbacks and then traverses to a sign indicating your entry into the Mount Skokomish Wilderness. Shortly beyond this sign, at 1.7 miles, and just before you come to (but do not cross) tumbling Whitehorse Creek, is a mediocre campsite on the right. From here, more very steep climbing in short switchbacks leads to a relatively open avalanche chute at 2.3 miles that is choked with bracken fern, beargrass, and pearly everlasting.

Just 0.2 mile after the avalanche chute, you reach a gently sloping basin filled with an impenetrable tangle of slide alder. Directly ahead of you, at the northwest end of this basin, is a steep headwall where waterfalls cascade down from above. Lake of the Angels sits at the top of this imposing headwall. The rough trail climbs around the right side of the basin and then charges very steeply uphill, often over exposed rocks. In a couple of places you will need to grab onto rocks and roots to help pull yourself up.