Back at Clatse Lake

November 2020 (Part Four)

After dropping the camping gear off the day before, Jason and I were once again dropped off at the Clatse Lake landing.  This time we had less gear, with no microwave, no toaster, and no coffee maker, and we had the side-by-side to move our supplies up the hill; much easier than carrying it all.  We chose a different, and more sheltered site for the tent this time, and we set up camp once again. 

Over the next few days we were once again up before sunrise and out until dark.  We saw a few deer tracks, and this time we actually saw a marten, a squirrel, and a mole.  We actually saw mammals!

We went on one full-day hike up past the slide.  We hiked upwards, following the old logging road, up towards the area of Clatse Lake.  

We came into an area of forest that had not been logged; it was a beautiful forest full of massive spruce trees and wide-open mossy areas.  It was beautiful.  It would have been amazing to have seen the forest in these areas before it was ever logged.  

Along our hike we looked down on large marshy areas in the valley and still we saw no deer. 

On two of the days, Jason and I hiked into the forest.  Although most of the forest was smaller trees, since it had at one point, many years ago, been logged, it was still beautiful with thick moss on the forest floor.  We came to one end of one of the marshy areas and found an area of waterbed moss.  

It was something that we had never seen before and it was very, very cool.  An area of ground, about 10 feet square must have been somewhat floating because when we stepped on one spot the whole area would ripple out from the pressure.  The ground moved like a wave in the water and it was the weirdest thing to see and walk on.  It was exactly what I have always imagined a waterbed to be like.  

Jason and I also hiked off of the road and down to one of the lakes, where we then followed the river that flowed out of the lake down towards the ocean, and then we hiked back up to the road.  We saw a few deer tracks, lots of obvious animal trails, but no deer.  

On this second camping and hunting trip it rained, but it was also quite a lot warmer than our minus 7 degrees from last time.  With the temperature around plus 4 the snow line came down the mountains, and when the clouds did lift enough for us to see them, it was very pretty.  When we finally got picked up at the prearranged time we were still deerless, and although we had had a great time exploring, we were also disappointed. This was our last time off during deer-hunting season in November.  

Over the last three days of November, Jason and Ken went back out two separate times for a last try.  We had an extra person on our shift at work, so it was no problem for Jason to take the time off, and he and Ken got dropped off for the day each time. They did some long hikes in two different directions past the slide once again, but again, they saw nothing, not even a squirrel or marten.  

Deer hunting season is now closed, except for bow hunting only on King Island, so it seems that we will probably have no deer meat in our freezer this winter.