Ukonom: Stanslaw to Monument Lake

Klamath National Forest

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4

Dark blue line for day 1. Click for map.

I'd been given the strong suggestion to head out to Stanslaw Trailhead. Once I found it on the map, I realized it would deliver me into an area I'd thought about extending my loop into. After about 20 miles of 1.5 lane road (not my favorite sort), I arrived. That's as far as I had planned. It was nice to be at higher elevation. Although the sun had climbed higher in the sky, the temperature was comfortable. Signs indicated that since this was the most popular equestrian trailhead, there is an increased emphasis on keeping it clear after a 2017 fire. (Perhaps I should turn on the fire footprints on Caltopo once in a while when planning.) The trail has been fully maintained the last two years, but not yet this year. I think that last part was no longer true because this was the next stop for the saws. I decided I would go to Monument Lake for the night. It was a little long for what was left of the day, but I could do it. I made no more plans. I dumped my trash in the car, created a new, minimal toilet bag with ziplocks out of that trash and paper kindly provided by the Forest Service and got on my way.

sign for the trail — Stanslaw: trail to the left, corals and campground to the right. Burn is all around on the trail side of the road.

pink flowers with darker accents at the center of the petal base — The local phlox has a lovely bit of color variation.

wilderness sign — One enters into Marble Mountain Wilderness rather quickly.

three kinds of white flowers — Quite the collection of white flowers.

The amount of burn varies and if I don't look up too much, I sometimes miss how much standing dead trees there are. The meadows are green and have a ring of green around them.

lots of standing dead — The trail is in good shape as it passes all the standing dead.

brushy meadow — Okay, it's not all a green parameter and the meadow seems to actually have a lot of brushy trees. Some areas are grasses.

Pacific corralroot orchid, a parasitic flower.

By the time I got to the junction with trail from Ten Bear Trailhead (a little shorter drive and longer hike), the burn wasn't evident anymore. I thought that was nice, but probably not the end of it if they are making a point of telling people the current trail status.

lots of green beside the trail — Plenty of undergrowth along the trail.

Neottia banksiana maybe — Another tiny orchid: northwestern twayblade. I might have missed this little green flower had I not sat in the shade beside it for a snack.

Some meadow like areas of Haypress Meadows.

lots of blue flowers — Another bit of burn and a whole lot of penstemen. This seems to be the area's most enthusiastic fire follower.

I passed a few trails among the meadows. The first, labeled Torgerson Trail but indicated as McCash Loop on the other signs, gives a second option for a route to Monument Lake. I was thinking the south side would be shorter and so stuck with it. I passed Haypress Trail, which had a sign decorated by ribbons as though people are making sure something continues to mark it. A few steps later, I found Let'er Buck Trail, which was just looking dim. Still, it was being dim across meadow, so that's probably not a fair assessment.

widening water at the crossing — The stock have widened the crossing quite a bit. I had to let my feet get a little wet even at the side.

blue-eye mary of some sort, Collinsia — Some more fire followers that made a thin web across a blackened hill.

I found myself wandering a badly burned forest, swinging a long way around a hill while my map said I should take a very brief climb over it instead. The trail might have got routed a bit randomly compared to where it was, or it just always was that way and the map just wasn't correct. By Halfmoon Creek, I found trail to Torgerson Meadow for McCash Loop again, giving a second chance at another route but kept again to the south side. I had to stop under the blackened dead trees for water because I was quite out and expecting a few miles of dry. On the far side is trail down to Cedar Meadow. That is where the trail up Medicine Mountain starts. I was tempted to go for it instead, but I didn't want to be surrounded by so much charcoal. It's a few miles off, so I didn't know it actually would be bad, but one does tend to be suspicious when standing among that many dead, partly burned trees.

sign on a burned tree — Lots of penstemens are about the only things green among these former trees.

Turns out, there was more water to be found. The trail passes two springs that really were flowing. I was getting glimpses of ridge through the trees. They were just minor teasing for coming over the top of one last ridge.

spring water — Just a little water from the spring, but it is enough.

a little more green — A few trees have survived along the ridge.

little red flowers — Columbines along the thin stream from the second spring.

And that stand out thing out there has got to be Marble Mountain and Black Marble Mountain left of it.

I wasn't thinking anymore about how healthy or destroyed or whatever the forests looked. I didn't think about how I should have been playing at its feet on this day if the plan hadn't died. I was in for it. Out on the ridge with all sorts of view. I didn't notice as I passed the junction where those other options for going to Monument Lake should rejoin the trail I was on.

Medicine Mountain and a little lake — Past the little unnamed lake is Medicine Mountain. It's a bit green at the bottom. I think I really want to go up that.

far ridge — Some other bits of distant mountains look pretty amazing too.

purple hillside — Sometimes the ridge is amazing right at my feet. I thought this was some funny colored sand as I got close and realized it is covered in pussypaws.

purple puffs everywhere — It's all this.

green bits below — Some meadows down near Monument Lake and those distant mountains of "marble".

pepermint candy like flowers — A grand clump of cliff maids.

I found the trail down with plenty of light, but the shadow was moving quickly across it. It's about a half mile down 400 feet to the lake and the trail was lined by lots of lovely flowers. Mostly I noted them for photographing on the way up and just enjoyed them on the way down.

Monument Lake partly in shadow — Monument Lake is already halfway in shadow. I was kind of tempted to try walking that ridge down the left side of Medicine Mountain.

There's a very obvious site just short of the end of the trail on the left, but I didn't like it. There's huge standing dead trees surrounding it. Following trail off to the right, there's another site. The big dead trees were fewer, but I decided to keep looking. I wandered across the meadow along the trail to a rocky area the map indicates the trail comes down to. I think I might have found some old built trail as I climbed up to find what would be a great site so long as the wind wasn't blowing. There's another site down the other side and suggestions of trail continuing a while down. The wind wasn't blowing, so I grabbed the top site.

already deep in shadow — The shadow has crossed the whole lake. There's a camp just to the left and just a little bit of water in the inflow here. Most of it is underground.

Pedicularis groenlandica — Elephant's head in the meadow.

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