My Roadless Area!

I finally visited my roadless area!  I was able to go up to the Kettle Crest over Memorial Day weekend, and on May 28th I visited the Twin Sisters Roadless Area.  We went in from the east side access point off the Deadman Creek Road.  The access road ended in an old gravel pit, and then instead of a trail to the Twin Sisters it was more of an old roadbed.  It was very steep in some places and there were obvious signs of erosion (including a stream running down the trail/road in one place).  We later found a motorized access map and saw that the trail/road we walked is open to all motorized vehicles.  Here is the way motorized routes are different from nonmotorized routes:

 Not that I never find trash along hiking trails, of course.  It's just that this is 75% beer cans and probably close to ten pounds of trash total on a hike that was probably only five miles round trip.  Hikers sometimes drop a cliff bar wrapper, probably accidentally, maybe on purpose--but I can't remember finding very many beer cans on non-motorized trails.  I also don't like the thought of running into drunk ATV-ers in the woods (that could end up being literal instead of figurative).  I later found out that there is another access point for this trail (from the Albian Hill Road).  I'm going to try that one next, and hopefully I'll find that it hasn't been abused quite so much. 


I was disappointed to see the motorized access and trash, but I was also impressed by the trees higher up.  These were the most impressive trees of all:

These are actually two huge western larch that are so close to each other that they have grown together at the base.  There are many trees up there that are the size of these two and larger.

The other cool sights today:  we saw a newborn fawn with its mother, and we found out that the North Sister was at one point the site of a fire lookout.  The cinder blocks and steps are all that remain now, but there is a fantastic view from the old lookout site.