Hiking Twenty-two Creek

	In summer 1996 my daughter-in-law Thea, Karen and I hiked along Twenty-two Creek to the calm Alpine Lake Twenty-two, near Mt. Pilchuck, east of Granite Falls, an hour or so from Seattle.
	Who would be so blasé about a place of such beauty to name it with a number? The answer must be it was named only on a map. The creek is in the small quad marked 22 on the US Geological Survey map (most of the lake is actually in quad 27) that spells out the names as Twenty-two Creek and Lake Twenty-two. The creek and lake just to the west are named Heather and those to the east are name Hemple. Perhaps it's a distinction that 22 never got a proper name.

Try to look into the past with us and consider what spectacular calamity caused these old trees to bend like this.

They stand not far above a large boulder field, the remains of a land slide. Clearly the ground under these trees tilted when they were young and they bent to the new vertical as they grew.

Who walked among these trees when they were saplings? Consider where your ancestors lived and what they were doing then. The next time you walk in the woods, look for time portals like these. They may go back only fifty years instead of a thousand, but you will find them.

In summer 2005 we returned to Lake 22 with my son Jeff, Thea staying home with young Leo, who's not quite ready for this excursion. Still immensely enjoyable, it was different hike.
It was sunny and warm this time, giving the woods a different atmosphere. Instead of darkness into mist it was darkness into light as we walked. Every hike, even in the same place, is different from the last.

The trail is longer now, extended all the way around the lake, but so unobtrusive as to be invisible in the photo at left.
Last time we saw snow on the far slope. This time no snow and a tall waterfall that feeds the lake was only a light mist, visible only from the far shore.

Here's the same view of the bent trees as above. Close examination reveals some changes in the near decade since our last visit. A branch here, a twig there, a log not there. Timeless, but not quite.

The same, but changed. With Jeff.

Except the map, this page and its contents © Copyright 1997, 2005 Michael & Karen Crisafulli. All rights reserved.
Revised 1 Sep 01, prompted by a query from Santosh Gupta
Revised and augmented 31 Jul 05