07-25-26
Many
hikes go exactly as planned.
Every so often it does not work out that way. Occasionally, everything
goes wrong and a great trip still happens. John was free for a Saturday
hike. The wind was forecast to blow to the east all weekend. We
discussed several options and settled on a hike up Laughingwater Creek.
I had done it one time and John had not been there. It is just east of
Mt. Rainier. Hiking all the way to the Pacific Crest Trail is 16 miles
round trip with 4000' of gain. It is not a crowded trail, passes three
lakes, and has mountain views at the PCT. It is a long drive and I
picked up John at 6:10 am and we headed up Highway 410. There was a
long line of traffic but it was moving well. The Crystal Lakes parking
lot was 80% full. We headed over Cayuse Pass and dropped down. It was
overcast in the Puget Sound Basin but clear farther east. John had a
clear view of Mt. Rainier before the pass. I never saw it all day long.
As we descended, it became misty. John smelled smoke. We parked right
after the entrance to MRNP. The trailhead is close by. The smell of
smoke was strong. The forecast for no smoke anywhere in the area was
wrong. What to do now? We considered a hike from Chinook Pass to
Crystal Peak and Lake then back via Sheep Lake and the PCT. That was
one we considered the night before. There was no smoke at Cayuse Pass
but if it was blowing in we might be miles from the car when it blew
in. MRNP was not likely to escape the smoke. We also thought about
heading back on Highway 410 to Deep Creek or Ranger Creek and hoping
the smoke did not make it that far.
We drove back to Cayuse Pass and now it was smoky. The smoke continued a short way over the pass. Forget about Crystal Peak, etc. We drove all the way back to the start of the Ranger Creek Trail and stopped. The sky was blue and there was not smoke. We figured to hike until we smelled smoke then head back down, There is a viewpoint spot at about 3 miles that might give us a view up the valley. We packed up and started up the trail at 8:24 am. It was now later than we planned but off we went. As we hiked we tried to figure what to call this hike. It started with Laughingwater Creek, now we were at Ranger Creek, and if the smoke started we planned to head for McDonald Mountain. This might end up being the Laughing Ranger McDonald trip. The forest is dark and shady with little ground cover except for moss. It was great conditions for saprophytes. They have no green color as they do not use sunshine for growth. I have had a good early summer of finding them. We were not far along when we started seeing candy sticks. They have alternating red and white vertical stripes. They are one of my favorite saprophytes. I sometimes see a few of them on a hike. This trip was crazy. We say them much of the day. In places there were dozens of them above and below the trail. It was easily the most I have ever seen in one day.
We were almost 2 miles in when we saw a runner zoom by us coming down. John noticed he had a number. It seems that we walked into a race. By asking quick questions of the runners as they passed us, we learned that this was the White River Trail Runs race. There were something like 270 runners doing either a 15k, A 30k, or a 50 mile race. I'm sure we were passed by well over 100 runners. We thought about heading down but after the start and the unknown state of wildfire smoke, we chose to keep going. The trail is not wide and is quite narrow in places. We became very adept at finding a small wider spot or jumping uphill as the runners sped by. They were all very courteous. The saprophyte show soon included wintergreen, pinedrop, and coralroot. Candy stick remained the most numerous but we saw a lot of all of them. It was just before hiking 2 miles that we began to smell smoke. On a leg heading up the valley and near Ranger Creek there was smoke. When we switchbacked to the let and down the valley it stopped. Time for another discussion. Should we head back immediately or go a bit higher until we smelled smoke again. We chose to keep going. At the 3 miles mark we reached the short spur to the viewpoint spot. From there we could see up the valley and see the cloud of smoke approaching. It was time to hightail it out of there.
We zoomed down the trail we had just ascended. We passed two hikers coming up. We warned them about smoke. There are two back to back switchbacks before the long traverse down to the car. We stopped to evaluate the smoke. It was very faint. As we passed the switchback we felt a breeze coming up the valley. The wind had changed directions 180 degrees. It was now blowing the smoke back up the valley. We decided to head back uphill. The GPS track showed we had hiked back almost exactly 1 mile. We were 4 miles into our hike and 2 miles from the car. As I said at the start, it was a strange day. Speaking of strange, just before reaching the viewpoint we stepped off for two runners. The first caught her foot under a root that was underground on both ends. The part sticking up was only the width of a shoe. She took a tumble and got up and kept going. Less than a minute later another runner did the same thing. He was a bit more banged up got up and kept going. Once back at the viewpoint, we took a break. We arrived at 10:52 am. It was about six hours since I had eaten breakfast. Runners kept going by as we ate. We were soon back on our way. The trail ascends steadily but seldom steeply. It is excellent for a fast climb and easy on the knees on the descent. We soon added pinesap to our saprophyte list. They start out bent like a small "r". The ones we saw were older and were now straight. Seeing five different kinds of saprophytes in one day is really rare. The next couple miles were pretty uneventful except for many more runners passing by.
At about the 5 miles mark we started entering a burn. In 2010 Gary, John, and I hiked to Ignoble Knob on this trail and saw the old shelter building at the 5 mile mark. The forest was beautiful all the way up. We hiked it again in 2021 and the shelter was completely burned down, the forest was burned above it, and the burn continued to where we reached it on this trip. At first it was just some singed trees but there was more damage higher up. There area a few spots where the trees are just singed remnants but the slope is now full of wildflowers. We saw lupine, penstemon, pearly everlasting, field chickweed, and a few I did not recognize. At about 5.5 miles we reached something I recalled. A switchback that is in really bad shape. It is steep with loose dirt and hard pack. We were not comfortable going up but made it fine. Runners passing by warned us of a worse spot ahead. That one was new. It was not there on my most recent 2023 hike of this trail. The whole trail slid down the slope. It was just loose dirt across then a loose dirt climb back up to the trail. It was a pain but we made it up okay. There is a creek before the old shelter spot. It always has wildflowers. This year there was a yellow flower I did not recognize and a bunch of what looked like monkshood. It was very similar but it was not monkshood. After hike checking shows that it is likely Sierra Larkspur. The plants were as tall as me. On the way down we saw yellow monkey flowers here that we completely missed going up.
At the shelter sight we took a break. The Palisades Trail comes up to meet the Ranger Creek Trail here. Two people were there taking down the many pieces of plastic tape that was long the trail to keep runners on course. We had now hiked 7 miles with 5 miles of downhill back to the car. Was 12 miles good enough or should be continue on? We chose to go higher. We were now in the clouds. We had no views and it was moist though not raining. The runners began to thin out now. We still saw some but not every few minutes. The flower show was better on the last mile to the trail junction above. Most of the trees were now silver snags with grass below. We saw a lot more of the Sierra larkspur as well as some columbine, Indian paintbrush, lupine, various penstemon, field chickweed, and more. When we reached the Dalles Ridge Trail junction we had one more decision. A short off trail climb of several hundred feet to what we call Ignoble Knob or call it a day and head down. At first we headed up. It began to rain. Visibility would be zero on top. We did not need the summit this day. We had one last short break at the junction. The Dalles Ridge Trail has parking less than a mile away with little elevation change. A big party hiked by us. They reached this point in 1 mile while we had hiked 8 miles. We had more than 3000' more gain. I would rather have had our hike.
I switched from a damp short sleeve shirt to a dry long sleeve one. It was late July but it was quite cool at our 5500' high point. The trip down was pretty easy. the trail is very nicely graded. We still saw a few straggling runners but most were below us. The two crappy spots in the trail were not too bad to descend. We saw one mountain biker at the high point junction. He went down the Palisades Trail and then part way up the Ranger Creek Trail where we met him again. On the way down John pointed out some colorful plants just below the trail. This was the fourth time we passed this spot with our smoke induced turnarounds and the first time we saw it. I knew immediately they were gnome plants. These are the rarest saprophytes that I have seen. John and I saw them on the Pratt Lake Trail once and I was alone the first time I saw them. Call it three times in a dozen years. This rare sighting was an apt conclusion to a day that did no at all as planned but will be one of those memorable hikes I will not soon forget. It was also the sixth different saprophyte we saw. We reached the car at 4:01 pm.
What should have been a hike up the Laughingwater Trail with clear skies and few people seen turned into something very much different. Instead of a few people we saw well over 100. We lucked into one of the best saprophyte displays I will likely ever see. Then throw in gnome plants to top it off. for the day we ended up hiking 14 miles with about 3500' of gain. Over 400' of it was hiking the same stretch two times. We did not get views from a nearby summit but we had both been there before. We did end up with a day that just kept changing the farther we hiked. It was a memorable day.
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Trips - 2026
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We drove back to Cayuse Pass and now it was smoky. The smoke continued a short way over the pass. Forget about Crystal Peak, etc. We drove all the way back to the start of the Ranger Creek Trail and stopped. The sky was blue and there was not smoke. We figured to hike until we smelled smoke then head back down, There is a viewpoint spot at about 3 miles that might give us a view up the valley. We packed up and started up the trail at 8:24 am. It was now later than we planned but off we went. As we hiked we tried to figure what to call this hike. It started with Laughingwater Creek, now we were at Ranger Creek, and if the smoke started we planned to head for McDonald Mountain. This might end up being the Laughing Ranger McDonald trip. The forest is dark and shady with little ground cover except for moss. It was great conditions for saprophytes. They have no green color as they do not use sunshine for growth. I have had a good early summer of finding them. We were not far along when we started seeing candy sticks. They have alternating red and white vertical stripes. They are one of my favorite saprophytes. I sometimes see a few of them on a hike. This trip was crazy. We say them much of the day. In places there were dozens of them above and below the trail. It was easily the most I have ever seen in one day.
We were almost 2 miles in when we saw a runner zoom by us coming down. John noticed he had a number. It seems that we walked into a race. By asking quick questions of the runners as they passed us, we learned that this was the White River Trail Runs race. There were something like 270 runners doing either a 15k, A 30k, or a 50 mile race. I'm sure we were passed by well over 100 runners. We thought about heading down but after the start and the unknown state of wildfire smoke, we chose to keep going. The trail is not wide and is quite narrow in places. We became very adept at finding a small wider spot or jumping uphill as the runners sped by. They were all very courteous. The saprophyte show soon included wintergreen, pinedrop, and coralroot. Candy stick remained the most numerous but we saw a lot of all of them. It was just before hiking 2 miles that we began to smell smoke. On a leg heading up the valley and near Ranger Creek there was smoke. When we switchbacked to the let and down the valley it stopped. Time for another discussion. Should we head back immediately or go a bit higher until we smelled smoke again. We chose to keep going. At the 3 miles mark we reached the short spur to the viewpoint spot. From there we could see up the valley and see the cloud of smoke approaching. It was time to hightail it out of there.
We zoomed down the trail we had just ascended. We passed two hikers coming up. We warned them about smoke. There are two back to back switchbacks before the long traverse down to the car. We stopped to evaluate the smoke. It was very faint. As we passed the switchback we felt a breeze coming up the valley. The wind had changed directions 180 degrees. It was now blowing the smoke back up the valley. We decided to head back uphill. The GPS track showed we had hiked back almost exactly 1 mile. We were 4 miles into our hike and 2 miles from the car. As I said at the start, it was a strange day. Speaking of strange, just before reaching the viewpoint we stepped off for two runners. The first caught her foot under a root that was underground on both ends. The part sticking up was only the width of a shoe. She took a tumble and got up and kept going. Less than a minute later another runner did the same thing. He was a bit more banged up got up and kept going. Once back at the viewpoint, we took a break. We arrived at 10:52 am. It was about six hours since I had eaten breakfast. Runners kept going by as we ate. We were soon back on our way. The trail ascends steadily but seldom steeply. It is excellent for a fast climb and easy on the knees on the descent. We soon added pinesap to our saprophyte list. They start out bent like a small "r". The ones we saw were older and were now straight. Seeing five different kinds of saprophytes in one day is really rare. The next couple miles were pretty uneventful except for many more runners passing by.
At about the 5 miles mark we started entering a burn. In 2010 Gary, John, and I hiked to Ignoble Knob on this trail and saw the old shelter building at the 5 mile mark. The forest was beautiful all the way up. We hiked it again in 2021 and the shelter was completely burned down, the forest was burned above it, and the burn continued to where we reached it on this trip. At first it was just some singed trees but there was more damage higher up. There area a few spots where the trees are just singed remnants but the slope is now full of wildflowers. We saw lupine, penstemon, pearly everlasting, field chickweed, and a few I did not recognize. At about 5.5 miles we reached something I recalled. A switchback that is in really bad shape. It is steep with loose dirt and hard pack. We were not comfortable going up but made it fine. Runners passing by warned us of a worse spot ahead. That one was new. It was not there on my most recent 2023 hike of this trail. The whole trail slid down the slope. It was just loose dirt across then a loose dirt climb back up to the trail. It was a pain but we made it up okay. There is a creek before the old shelter spot. It always has wildflowers. This year there was a yellow flower I did not recognize and a bunch of what looked like monkshood. It was very similar but it was not monkshood. After hike checking shows that it is likely Sierra Larkspur. The plants were as tall as me. On the way down we saw yellow monkey flowers here that we completely missed going up.
At the shelter sight we took a break. The Palisades Trail comes up to meet the Ranger Creek Trail here. Two people were there taking down the many pieces of plastic tape that was long the trail to keep runners on course. We had now hiked 7 miles with 5 miles of downhill back to the car. Was 12 miles good enough or should be continue on? We chose to go higher. We were now in the clouds. We had no views and it was moist though not raining. The runners began to thin out now. We still saw some but not every few minutes. The flower show was better on the last mile to the trail junction above. Most of the trees were now silver snags with grass below. We saw a lot more of the Sierra larkspur as well as some columbine, Indian paintbrush, lupine, various penstemon, field chickweed, and more. When we reached the Dalles Ridge Trail junction we had one more decision. A short off trail climb of several hundred feet to what we call Ignoble Knob or call it a day and head down. At first we headed up. It began to rain. Visibility would be zero on top. We did not need the summit this day. We had one last short break at the junction. The Dalles Ridge Trail has parking less than a mile away with little elevation change. A big party hiked by us. They reached this point in 1 mile while we had hiked 8 miles. We had more than 3000' more gain. I would rather have had our hike.
I switched from a damp short sleeve shirt to a dry long sleeve one. It was late July but it was quite cool at our 5500' high point. The trip down was pretty easy. the trail is very nicely graded. We still saw a few straggling runners but most were below us. The two crappy spots in the trail were not too bad to descend. We saw one mountain biker at the high point junction. He went down the Palisades Trail and then part way up the Ranger Creek Trail where we met him again. On the way down John pointed out some colorful plants just below the trail. This was the fourth time we passed this spot with our smoke induced turnarounds and the first time we saw it. I knew immediately they were gnome plants. These are the rarest saprophytes that I have seen. John and I saw them on the Pratt Lake Trail once and I was alone the first time I saw them. Call it three times in a dozen years. This rare sighting was an apt conclusion to a day that did no at all as planned but will be one of those memorable hikes I will not soon forget. It was also the sixth different saprophyte we saw. We reached the car at 4:01 pm.
What should have been a hike up the Laughingwater Trail with clear skies and few people seen turned into something very much different. Instead of a few people we saw well over 100. We lucked into one of the best saprophyte displays I will likely ever see. Then throw in gnome plants to top it off. for the day we ended up hiking 14 miles with about 3500' of gain. Over 400' of it was hiking the same stretch two times. We did not get views from a nearby summit but we had both been there before. We did end up with a day that just kept changing the farther we hiked. It was a memorable day.
 First Wintergreen |
 First Candy Stick |
 A Very Nice Candy Stick |
 Pinedrop & Leaves |
 Another Pinedrop |
 Pipsissewa |
 Multiple Pinedrops |
 Colorful Wintergreen |
 Spider Web |
 Big Candy Sticks |
 John At Viewpoint |
 Coralroot |
 John On The Trail |
 Runners Coming! |
 Pinesaps |
 Bent Pinesaps |
 Colorful Pinedrop |
 Pinedrop Opening Up |
 Twinflowers |
 White Moth |
 Colorful Penstemon |
 Blue Sky & Burn |
 Mushroom |
 Different Penstemons |
 Fireweed |
 Yellow Wintergreen |
 Columbine |
 Runners Descending |
 John Near Shelter Site |
 Yellow Flowers |
 Sierra Larkspur |
 John In The Mist |
 Lots Of Larkspur |
 Indian Paintbrush |
 Spirea |
 Hawkweed |
 Prime Tiger Lilies |
 Past Prime Tiger Lilies |
 Great Lupine |
 Field Chickweed |
 Thistle |
 Arnica & Foamflowers |
 Pearly Everlasting |
 Misty Burn |
 More Larkspur |
 Bramble Flower |
 Yellow Monkey Flower |
 Twin Wintergreens |
 Gnome Plant Close Up |
 More Gnome Plants |
 More Pinesaps |
 Exploded Trees |
 Biker Again |
 Final Candy Stick |
 John & Rain Gear |
 Dog Vomit Slime Mold |
Trips - 2026
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