Devil's Canyon August, 2003

Route Information

How could one not be drawn to a place with a name like Devil's Canyon? There is a mine adit in the canyon, and an "X" marks the spot on the map where the prospect is located - at the edge of a deep cleft that runs up the side of Dog Mountain. We had been in the area a few times last year, including when we located the Pine Marten claim. Somehow we never could make the traverse over to Devil's Canyon. This would change early in August when a hookup was made with Tyler, who had voiced some interest in trying to find the old mine in Devil's Canyon. We met on a Saturday morning in Issaquah, and soon were speeding up the North Fork Snoqualmie River road. The road is now in great shape, but still washed out short of the end of the Lennox Creek road. We started hiking up the road in the muggy morning heat a little after 10:30 am.

An ancient fallen tree marks the location to traverse to the mine

The hike up the old road always goes pretty fast on the way up. The way back is a different story. Soon we passed the old 'trailhead' and started up the rough Lennox Creek trail. Even though the brush is taking over parts of the trail, it looked like many feet had been pounding the tread - good news for this trail, since it is a good candidate for falling off of the Forest Service's inventory list. When wet the trail is bad news, but on this day all was dry and we gained elevation quickly on the rough switchbacks. We were shooting for 3200', which would be the point where we would start bushwhacking towards Devil's Canyon.

After leaving the trail, we traversed this rocky, brushy terrain

At around 3200', one will come upon a large old log laying up the trail at a switchback. We used this landmark, as well as a huge standing tree at the edge of the talus field to mark the spot where we would traverse off trail towards the Devil's Canyon area. The traverse started at about 11:45, across talus hidden by brush and logs. We staggered across for a few hundred yards and then made the mistake of gaining a little elevation where we got mixed up in a nasty stretch of deep brush. Sweating, we finally broke free into more open terrain, and kept traversing the hillside. Many berries were ripe along the way, and we came upon some evidence that a bear had been through here eating recently.

We saw only one cairn early on the route. Several times it seemed that an old tread could be seen along the talus, but we never saw anything that resembled an old trail or route. Occasionally some of the talus blocks displayed interesting quartz crystals, and we picked around at some on the way over. Still traversing, we neared the edge of the canyon which could now be seen. One stretch of bush-bashing remained between us and the canyon.

Down in dangerous Devil's Canyon

And what a bash it was. We alternately clawed and swam our way through the brush, until it was evident that we were on the edge of the canyon. The brush, still being very thick at the edge of the precipice, almost lulled us into blindly stumbling down into the gorge. We stopped short, cautiously scoping out a way to get down the slow way, some 30 feet of near vertical. Some vine maple rappels and steps on well-placed rocks put us down into Devil's Canyon at the base of a steep step in the dry creek. We took off our packs and surveyed our situation. It was about 1:00.

Tyler defying death while climbing down from the adit

We had descended into the canyon at a what could be considered a 'step' in the creek that flows earlier in the year. The sides were steep, and immediately up-canyon was a huge rock that was wedged in the canyon creating a small cave. A quick inspection of the location made it obvious that we could not continue up the canyon without a ladder. We thought that the adit must be located up the canyon at some point, and should be visible from the canyon floor. We briefly looked at our options.

We decided it might be possible to climb up left on steep rock and brush, and get up on the huge chockstone that was in the middle of the canyon and climb beyond. An ancient piton was found in the rock while climbing up. Surpisingly, after about 15 feet up, an adit suddenly appeared in the shadows, hidden in brush along the side of the canyon. We had found it! It was only by dumb luck that we stumbled down into the canyon at the right spot, and happened to climb up near the hidden mine entrance. As soon as the we both were up, we cleared out some of the lush brush that was growing on the ledge near the adit, and set down our gear. It was clear that no humans had been here for some time.

Quickly, we geared up and headed into the Devil's Canyon mine

Was this the main Devil's Canyon prospect? We were not sure if there were more than one. We got headlamps out, and got something to drink. We would immediately go in and find out what we had found. The adit had a large timber wedged above to hold up the unstable slope above. We carefully made our way into the old mine, which had a small amount of water in it, but overall was pretty dry for a ways.

After a hundred feet or so, the mine became narrow and creepy

As we made our way in deeper, the mine was typical - dank, dark and boring. After about 100 feet, the adit, took a slight lefthand turn, and became quite narrow. This was creepy, along with the presence of timbers shoring up the ceiling of the mine. We stopped and looked at the rest of the tunnel, unsure whether it would be safe to continue. We both agreed that it would be smart to not make contact with any of the timbers or tunnel above our heads - and since the mine had probably been intact for more than 60 years, we pushed on.

After another 60 feet or so, we unceremoniously found ourselves at the end of the prospect. We picked at the obvious vein that looked like it suddenly pinched out here, and was made up of clay-like material. Not much of interest was found, so we made our way back to daylight. A couple more trips back in were made to measure the length of the adit. We were pretty sure at this point that this was the Devil's Canyon prospect that we were searching for.

It looked like the vein had pinched out, ending the mining venture here

We didn't linger for long on the ledge outside the adit entrance. What a miserable location this must have been for miners, who must have certainly had ladders or rope to help them in and out of the workings. Not much room existed outside the adit, and there was certainly no cabin site or any other artifacts nearby as reported. We carefully made our way down into the canyon floor, and had a bite to eat. We hunted around for some of the mine dump material, but there wasn't too much directly below, and we only found one interesting piece of ore.

The bugs encouraged us to leave this hellish area, giving us some insight into the name. We decided that there must be an easier way in and out of the canyon, so we decided to travel down the canyon a ways until the walls became easier to climb out of. After about 100 feet, we came to a another step in the canyon that prevented us from descending any further with ease. The walls of the canyon seemed to be just as steep as ever. It was here that we agreed to cut our losses and go back the way we came, so we climbed back up the canyon near the prospect. We used brush, trees, and rock technique to make it up the canyon wall again, to where the deep brush took over. More punishment ensued until we broke out into the more open talus and wooded slopes.

The rest of the traverse back to the Lennox Creek trail went easily. We managed to miss the initial brushy section by dropping down slightly on the traverse back, and with help from the altimeter, located the large tree by the switchback. Since it was still pretty early, we took a quick detour to check out the old cabin below the Pine Marten claim. Time is not being kind to the cabin, as now a section of roof has fallen in front of the door. After looking around the cabin and flushing a family of ptarmigans, we thrashed back to the trail and hiked down to the road again. After crossing Lennox Creek on a bridge, we also tried to locate the "Penny Prospect" but could not find any clues up an old brushy side road. We were tired by then and returned to the truck. Jeff Beck rocked us back to North Bend.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Devil's Canyon information.
• Geology and Mineral Resources of King County - V.E. Livingston. Has a section on Devil's Canyon.
• 100 Hikes in the Alpine Lakes - Mountaineers. Lennox Creek trail information.