Ashland Lakes Trail 7-29-12

I tried to do this hike last spring, but ran into a lot of snow, which my barefoot shoes didn't do much to protect me from.  So I made it only as far as Upper Ashland Lake.  This time I was determined to finish and get to the 3rd lake, Lower Ashland.  Getting into the mountains will cure whatever ails you, and Adventure Dog seemed to particularly enjoy it also.

Pardon me, whilst I go nerd on you, but right off the bat on this hike I was excited to see the largest congregation of slime mold I have ever seen.  This spot was over a foot in diameter.

A lot of this trail is wet... .some of it VERY wet...

Dual-purpose Stream-Trail

So much of it, including around Upper Ashland is made up of a variety of boardwalks.

There were also these "step" some of which were really more like rocks, as you can see.  This trail is not a good one for barefoot shoes as it turns out, even without snow.  I caught one of my pinky toes on a root a couple times and I've been limping around for days with a swollen foot.  Rocks and roots are stronger than feet apparently.

The first lake you get to is Beaver Plant Lake.  It's a nice serene lake, and despite a lot of bugs around they didn't bother much with me.

The next lake is Upper Ashland, and you can go all the way around it on a loop part of the trail.  I veered to the left and then went on toward Lower Ashland on the far side, and then came back on the side of Upper Ashland I hadn't seen yet.

There were flowers blooming along the trail, especially around the lakes where the sun could get to them best.

 There were also shade-loving flowers opening up below the shady trees.

The third lake was my favorite, and that was Lower Ashland.  I did this hike late in the day and knew I was the only one out there by the time I hit this last lake.  There were a lot of huckleberries so I figured bears might be about (I would be hanging out there if I were a bear for sure!) If it had been earlier I would have liked to have spent quite a bit more time at this third lake.  It even had a cute bridge that I didn't take the time to cross.

When I left this bush, not all of these huckleberries were still there.  Bwahahaha!

One of the most fascinating things on this hike happened to be the trees.  They were old and huge and gnarly and twisted and gave this trail a different aura than other trails I've been on around here.  Here are some of the characters I met.

Doorway Tree

Trip-You Tree

Hollow Ent Tree