Ukonom Lake & Environs
Marble Mountains Wilderness
Klamath National Forest
July 5-11, 1999
Solo Trip
Trip Report By: Roland Wentz
This year's cold spring and summer
weather certainly put questions into the minds of
backpackers as to what they might expect in our
wilderness areas. About a month before the scheduled
trip, I started checking in with the U.S.F.S. in Happy
Camp, CA as to what the snow conditions were. Depending
on who I talked with, answers to my questions ranged from
"What do you mean by snow conditions?" to
"I can give you our latest update." My last
phone call to them was about three days before the trip
was to begin, and the report was "Patches of snow on
the north slopes above fifty-seven hundred feet
elevation" - quite an accurate report of what I
actually found. Hence, Bob Wallace's snowshoes became
part of my sparse but cherished gear for this trip.
A major change in my plans was a decrease in the total
number of miles and area from my originally planned large
loop trip, as my final preference was to spend more time
fishing and less time hiking. I decided to take the
shortest route possible to the "high country"
of Ukonom Lake. This meant driving to Happy Camp, CA (a
real place) then southward on the Elk Creek Road to
Norcross Campground and parking the vehicle at the end of
the road (elevation 2,400 ft.). In starting the hike, it
was necessary to wade through eighteen inches of water on
Elk Creek to get to the trail, although a foot bridge was
available about a mile downstream, it would have
increased the hike's length.
After that wading, there were no more stream crossings,
although my outdated map showed several. The trail
crossed one stream bed that was noteworthy because it was
widely and deeply eroded. One had to drop down about five
feet into it, cross about a one hundred feet wide trough,
then climb about five feet up onto the other side. Both
sides, of course, had normal woods-like terrain - bushes,
poison oak, trees, etc. that one might expect to find in
an area such as this. But in this trough, nearly all
shrubs and trees had been swept downhill. The wide and
dry stream-bed had been swept clean by surging and
treacherous waters leaving only dirt, gravel and a few
large boulders and huge trees which had protective
accumulations of soil and gravel in front and behind them
and all of it pointing downhill. In my mind, I had to
keep reminding myself that this was not the high Sierra
Nevada, but the "moderate elevation of gentle Marble
Mountains" of which I had previously thought I was
so familiar with. This was certainly similar to the
Sierras! Knowing that a raging river of water surged down
the stream beds pushing all hell out of it's way made me
glad that I don't camp overnight in such places! The
words of one of the U.S.F.S. employees rang in my mind,
"We had a lot of heavy storms this spring, one right
after another!" I believed it!
The trail remained on the west side of the stream and
only crossed a few shallow tributaries. Reaching Bridge
Camp in the afternoon of the first day I had only hiked
about five miles, ascended 2,100 feet and had carried a
forty-three pound pack, but my body told me it was time
to eat and sleep. And so I did. This spot became my first
nights camp.
The next day, I hiked the two miles up to Blue Granite
Lake, elevation 5,300 ft. and caught a few nice sized
trout. While fishing, I met and chatted briefly with a
U.S.F.S. biologist from Happy Camp. Because of the
extremely rocky terrain, there was only one good campsite
at Blue Granite Lake and it was right on the trail.
Shortly after my arrival, eight stock animals arrived
bringing four people and lots of gear up to be dropped
off, then picked up the following weekend. I assured the
wranglers that I was "not camping here, but pushing
on toward Ukonom." But, instead of taking the only
campsite, they rode around to the north side of the lake,
got out their handsaws, axes, etc. and cleared a huge
spot in the forest and set up camp. Next it was
cigarettes, beer and you guessed it - a huge, roaring,
smoky fire to keep warm by, all the necessary comforts of
home at eleven o'clock in the morning. I had had enough.
I tucked the fish I had caught in my pack and headed
westward cross-country toward Ukonom Lake, determined to
get away from people such as whom I was leaving behind.
While hiking, I hugged the north side of the ridge and
only met a few snow patches around fifty-seven hundred
feet elevation. However, a mile and a half before Ukonom
around six thousand feet elevation, a few of the snow
patches were extensive and one had to carefully pick out
the general flow of the trail. Within a few hours I
reached Ukonom (elevation 6,050 ft.) after about four
miles, and had the entire area to myself. The lake was
not a great fishing spot! It has very shallow edges with
plenty of brush growing up from the water. No fish were
caught, but beautiful views were had looking westward in
Klamath National Forest. An interesting feature is the
dam on the west side of the lake which was built in the
eighteen hundreds to divert water for use in a hydraulic
mine operation at the Bunker Hill Mine near the Klamath
River seven miles to the northwest (from the book -
Marble Mountain Wilderness by David Green and Greg Ingold
published by Wilderness Press, 1980 & 1996). The dam
is composed of rectangularly shaped blocks of granite
stacked on top of each other to form a wall about ten
feet high. The wall was built to hold back the water of
course, but now has started to collapse and fall westward
or downstream. This dam makes the lake the largest water
surface area of any lake in the Marbles, but not the
largest lake with the largest acreage feet of water
because it is so shallow. I spent two nights there trying
to find out if the fish were biting, but, unfortunately
they were not. Rest, I got plenty of, and my pack
lightened up from my food consumption and stove fuel
usage.
Next, I hiked southward toward One Mile Lake along the
ridge parallel to the outlet creek from One Mile Lakes.
My 4.7 ounce cell phone received a fairly strong signal
so I called my wife at work to say hello. The phone was
carried only for emergencies and was not turned on during
other times.
It was about four and a half miles to One Mile Lake
(elevation 5,800 ft.) where I found six other hikers
quietly camped. My campsite was chosen on the opposite
side of the lake amongst tall pines. I immediately
started fishing and did catch a few trout which
supplemented my food. Some patches of snow lingered in
the woods and on the steep side of the hills. Bob's
snowshoes took me straight up and straight down the
snowbanks.
After camping overnight, the next day I took off and
hiked up the steep ridge separating One Mile Lake from
Cuddihy Lakes, reached the ridge top, passed the Pacific
Crest Trail then hit huge snowbanks on the north slopes.
The snow disappeared after I had descended in elevation a
few hundred feet. I dropped down to the Cuddihy Lake
Trail and took the trail to the lakes. Walking around one
of the largest lakes, I fished constantly but failed to
catch anything. After changing into dry socks, I hiked
back up to the P.C.T., and headed northwest on the Lakes
Trail. Snow was constant then and the walking slippery.
After hiking on the snow to an area (elevation 6,300 ft.)
overlooking Gold Granite Lake near where I had first
camped and later caught the first few fish, I decided to
cross-country down the snowbanks to get below the snow.
The snow was still up to eight feet deep in some areas.
Holes in the snow existed circling around the pine tree
trunks when the snow had blown and drifted to earth. It
appeared summer may have been on it's way, but had not
occurred yet. After descending 600 feet, the snow
disappeared and I arrived at Gold and Green Granite
Lakes, met up with the horsepackers still camped and who
now had cut and built a woodpile four feet high and six
feet long. I then hiked a half mile further downhill and
camped for the night after having hiked about four miles
of steep terrain.
The next day, the hiking was easy, being downhill most of
the way for eight and one half miles. No bears were seen
on this trip, but plenty of bear scat instead. The
weather had been dry with sunny days and cold nights.
- Rolly
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