Trestle Creek (Digital)

This afternoon I went for a drive up Trestle Creek not far from the lake. It is a Forest Service logging road. Along the way I stopped at a couple of random locations and scrabbled over fallen logs and brush. There was no trail or destination in mind. I was there to immerse myself in the dark wetness of the steep ravine at the bed of which runs the rambunctious Trestle Creek. An above average snowpack in the Cabinet mountains higher up feeds this fast torrent of clear water as it pours off the mountain eventually to make a small contribution to Lake Pend Oreille. 

The Cabinets are a chain of mountains in Norther Idaho along the border with Montana. They are called this because in places the flat faces of the rocks appear as a pile of cabinets left on the landscape. This makes them also very steep; today there seemed to be no place for the water in Trestle creek to rest or pool, it seems always to be rushing off the mountain.

June is a very wet month I am told most years and it certainly is this year. We swing from warm cloudy days to gray mist and light rain to heavy prolonged rainstorms with thunder and lightning some nights. Here alongside Trestle Creek and its tributaries it becomes a rich temperate rain forest. The forest floor a water saturated mulch of all things rotting and growing. Every step seems impeded by the fallen logs of trees blown over in storms or having succumbed to the weight of a winter’s snowfall. There are old stumps it it seems the area had been logged over perhaps 80-100 years ago if I judge the tree sizes correctly. 

Speaking of snowfall the cool spring has left the snowpack higher up at almost 3 times its seasonal average. The result is that the lake is not up to its summer level yet being short by almost 2 feet right now. 

Lake Pend Oreille Facts — The lake is the fifth deepest in the country at about 1150 ft. In terms of area it covers 148 square miles. The summer lake level is maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers at Albeni Falls Dam at 2062 feet above seal level. Lake Pend Oreille is a natural lake with Albeni Falls Dam used to raise its level. 

Here at Trestle Creek the late spring of Northern Idaho leaves the ferns just emerging. (Fuji GFX 50s ii with Mamiya 150mm f4.5 lens)

A small creek spills into Trestle Creek

I was a little surprised to see so much fungus emerging as I associate this with an Autumn activity in the UK. Later I confirmed this as many people were out today gathering mushrooms and fungus higher up the mountian. 

I explored a small side creek whose tangled course was covered in little gardens of fresh green growth. 

Finally I drove up the road as far as I could but was thwarted by snow still lingering in the higher parts of the mountain. Up that high it was apparent the effects of the Trestle Creek Fire last year that was burning during our visit.  

Snow on the tops of the Cabinets 

Spot fire remnants from the Trestle Creek Fire