Trout Lake Mines May, 2005

Well, we found the easiest way up to the mines up above Trout Lake on the West Fork of the Foss River. Unfortunately, as usually happens, we found the route on our way down. The way up had to be earned with much suffering and unpleasantness.

The trail crosses over logs where the river has washed out

Some trips by others to the Trout Lake mines had been made recently, and they sounded like an interesting challenge. Jimbo and I agreed that it would be extremely unlucky to be stuck at work on Friday the 13th during great weather, so we made plans to meet that morning.

The drive up to Skykomish went quickly, and we ducked into the gas station there to get a trail park pass since we both forgot ours. The Foss River road is well marked, and in 15 minutes or so we pulled into the Foss Lakes trailhead, no other vehicles in sight.

We paused for a few moments and admired this huge tree

We packed up and started out up the trail, which first follows an old road bed, and soon just trail in the cool woods. A braid of the river is soon crossed on a stout log bridge. The next part of the trail has seen the recent fury of high waters, and is a mess of logs and broken bridge parts. We took a few seconds and found the correct route over logs to the broken bridge. The trail continues up the opposite side, climbing slightly after a while.

The vine maple closed in on us like a branchy prison

After just a few more minutes, one passes "The Big Tree" which is unmistakable on the uphill side of the trail. This hemlock is probably 9-10 feet in diameter and might have been just as large as when miners were trudging past it 100 years ago. Just beyond the tree is a newish washout with loose material from the slope above, and in several switchbacks we finally came to the old pipe on the trail. Easy to miss, this 2 1/2" pipe carried compressed air lines up the hillside above to the mines. We rested here (about 2000') and had something to drink, and looked up to the woods above. This would be our jumping off point.

After about an hour, we finally reached the shelter of big trees

We retreated a few feet back on the trail to the last switchback, where it afforded a good place to climb the hill. We aimed slightly left into the open forest. At the time it seemed like a good idea. We climbed for about 10 minutes, finding a couple flags on the route. If there's flags, then we're going the right way! Right?

Soon came to a house-sized boulder in the woods, which stood on the edge of a vine maple thicket. [The boulder can be seen in the left middle of this photo taken later from the Vine Maple Prospect above.] There was no way to go but into the vine maple. So in we went, and aimed for a large tree in the distance.

Thrashing your way through thick vine maple can be almost claustrophobic. Once you're in deep enough, there's no good way out. Branches caught on everything, and we sometimes took minutes to travel a few feet. To make things worse, the sun had finally come out and was cooking us as well. We took turns screaming in frustration. While we probably didn't learn any new words or phrases from each other, we certainly kept all we knew flowing vocally. I heard a grunt and looked over to where Jimbo had been, and only saw legs sticking up, kicking around.

We posed in front of the mine before gearing up to go in

After about an hour or so, we finally made it into a cool stretch of larger trees, which provided shelter from the brush. We started up, still staying in the protection of the trees. Soon we were following what seemed to be a mine dump. We climbed higher, following occasional flags, until the altimeter starting saying that the elevation was way too high for the Imperial #2 Mine. What to do? We broke out the walkie talkies, and one of us went high while one went low. The low guy fell and cut his arm, but in a few moments while traversing, crossed over a large fallen old growth tree to the mine adit beyond. A quick radio report brought the other over quickly. We had found it.

We admired the riveting job on the old air receiver tank

The Imperial #2 adit was quite picturesque, sitting under the canopy of a few large big leaf maple trees, giving everything a bright green hue. There was an old front (or rear) dumping ore cart "parked" at the adit, most of it being eaten away by rust. Some mine rails extended crazily across the dump area. We checked out the ore cart and other artifacts around the mine, taking pictures and carefully examining them, but making sure we didn't disturb them. Not only is it illegal to destroy or remove historic artifacts from public lands, it is also in very poor style to ruin the experience for the next explorer. After a rest and some food, we got our equipment ready to go into the mine.

We followed the old air pipes most of the way in the Imperial

Past the ore cart a ways is an old air receiver tank for the compressed air. We studied this for a while, noticing the fine rivet job done in the pre-welding days. Old air ducts had been suspended from the upper side of most of the mine, and we followed these down the tunnel. Jimbo started filming with his video camera. After a ways there was a stack of the old pipes and some deeper water. For some unexplicable reason, we had lugged our heavy rubber boots all the way up to the mine, but now they were sitting outside the adit, and were not on our feet. Jimbo balanced on the pipes and made it by the deeper water without getting wet, but the next fellow rolled one of the pipes and slipped a boot knee-deep into the dirty cold mine water. Obscenities echoed through the mine, now giving Jimbo an "R" rated video.

The climb to the Vine Maple broke out into the open with nice views

Some ways past the pile of pipes, the sound of rushing water got louder. Soon we came upon the source of the watery noise, stepping past an underground stream that was pouring into the mine. After 700-some feet, we reached the end of the mine. We trudged back out, getting a little more wet in the process. After looking around a little more at the artifacts outside the mine, we packed up and decided that since we were here, we should climb up a ways to the Vine Maple Prospect.

One of the old prospectors was still working at the Vine Maple

The Vine Maple prospect is 200 feet higher than the Imperial #2, towards the Southwest. We made our way down the Imperial dump, and traversed for a short distance until we came to a steep gully framed by vine maple. Here we climbed up the loose rock towards the cliffs above. Jimbo had climbed under an old vertical log, out into the open on some rock that may have been dump material, or may have been from the cliffs. Shouts confirmed that he had found the prospect, and was wildly pointing to it.

The Vine Maple was interestingly narrow and twisty, but short

The Vine Maple was tucked into the cliffs, which looked like they regularly deposited loose rock down on the slope below. The adit had kind of a fern grotto theme going on. We took out a few lights and started in. The tunnel was kind of narrow, and not very straight. After about 100 feet, we reached the end. We walked back out and had something to eat and drink while taking in the view.

The way down to the Imperial dump went quickly, and then we went into the big trees again. Instead of cutting into the vine maple, we followed the line of big trees down the fall line, scrambling through some brushy spots here and there. Some flags were present. However, the total trip back down to the trail only took about 1/2 hour from the mine, compared to almost 2 hours up. We busted out onto the trail, almost exactly where we had left it. Except the spot were we just came down had looked "terribly brushy" when we had started up earlier. Oh well.

We continued up the trail to our last mine near Trout Lake

Up the trail we went towards Trout Lake. Near the lake we crossed the large swath of slide material that had come down the gully a few years ago. The rocks had dammed up the lake for a while, the water level rising and killing stands of trees around the lake. The water level still seemed high, as some trees were still standing in water. We rested briefly at the lake, and continued along the lake trail and climbed slightly to a point above the lake. Here, the trail crossed a rocky gully. Below it was the SW Trout Lake adit. We backtracked a few feet, and climbed down to it.

The SW Trout Lake adit was wet and awkward to get in

We geared up quickly and found that this tunnel was awkward to get in and out of, around the small trickle coming down from above. The water was very deep inside for about 30 feet, boots being about 16" high and the water probably an inch deeper. Brrrrr! We had been so hot all day it seemed nice inside. After a while the tunnel was fairly dry, and pretty high and wide in solid looking granite. Our lights caught a million tiny sparkles in the puddles on the floor.

We got to the end and were inspecting the old drill holes

Other than the excitement of the deep water, the tunnel was very ordinary for most of it's 465 feet. We reached the end and could see the holes drilled for blasting before the work had stopped. Jimbo was filming the whole length of the tunnel, and we turned around and waded out the wet portal. Someone left a lone sock that we packed out.

The hike out went pretty quick, but we realized how tired we had become as we neared the trailhead. A few drops of rain started to come down as we walked up to the truck. Perfect timing. We stood around the truck for a while blasting loud music, drinking beers and talking about past rock concerts.

References:

• Discovering Washington's Historic Mines - Oso Publishing. Information on the Trout Lake mines.
• Mineral Resources of the Alpine Lakes Study Area (1973) - Gualtieri and others. Information about the mines around Trout Lake before the Wilderness Area.
• Imperial Mine Article - An account of some mine hunters looking for the Imperial Mine.