Lanham Lake

Located just east of Stevens Pass, Lanham Lake (above) sits at the base of Jim Hill Mountain, one of two peaks in the area (the other being Big Jim Mountain on Icicle Ridge) named for James J. Hill, the Great Northern Railroad empire builder.

Trail mate and friend Chuck Ferguson and I hiked the path to the lake, which ascends a steep slope in some big timbers on the Whitepine Creek/Mill Creek divide, on Friday, September 9.

The trail winds through a primeval forest complete with Devil's Club (above), also know as "Devil's Walking Stick." Devil's Club generally grows to three to four feet tall, but can reach a height of 16 feet in rainforest gullies like the Napeequa River.

Some years back, a group of us were dispatched up the Napeequa River, which lies in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, to destroy a squatter's cabin several miles up the river on Forest Service land.

The Devil's Club was over 10 feet tall and -- along with huge patches of vine maple and groves of huge old growth western red cedar -- the scene resembled a prehistoric set straight out of Jurassic Park; I kept thinking I might see a triceratops or a pterodactyl at any moment.

Devil's Club is one shrub you don't want to grab during your walk in the woods. This primordial plant has long, nasty stickers awaiting unsuspecting hikers looking to steady themselves.

As we proceeded up the trail, we crossed through a huge blowdown of large timber across the trail. Chuck said the trail crew has spent days logging out the mess of mountain hemlock and western red cedar that resembled a pile of pick-up sticks.

The cut wood created some interested patterns of pitch (above) that filled the air with a wonderfully pungent aroma.

Our stay was relatively brief considering the amount of time we had spent hiking to Lanham Lake, but the black flies were in fine form, so we took a few pictures and then headed back to the trailhead adjacent to the Stevens Pass Nordic Center.