McIntosh Lake

Independence Day! I'd be off even if I hadn't taken the week off, but as it is today falls right in the middle of my whole week off. I've been working on getting a bunch of projects caught up as well as finishing my novel Full Moon Nights.

On Monday I went out for a ride down around McIntosh Lake. I wasn't sure exactly how far my route would take, but I knew that it'd have a few hills along the way.

It was a good day for a ride. Not too cool, but not hot. I had a nice ride down the Yelm-Tenino trail. It's pretty much downhill from Rainier to the Deschutes river. After that there's some climbing but not much. The trail drops back down to McIntosh Lake. There aren't any houses on the trail side of the lake, just trees and brush. The signs of the winter storms are mostly hidden in all the Spring and Summer growth, but you can still see signs of it in broken off trees and sawed trunks that had fallen across the trail.

At the lake I passed a man sitting beside the lake with two fishing poles in the water.

When I reached the far end of the lake I discovered a historical marker had been installed on the trail.

McIntosh Historical Marker

I found an article from a couple years ago talking about how Edward Echtle wanted to create in interpretative display. I'd guess this is the first piece of it , but I'm not seeing much online talking about the marker.

I think this sort of thing is a good idea. You can ride along the trail and hardly even think about what was there originally. I'm glad to see the marker and just hope that it won't get vandalized.

From there I rode up the hill on the streets around the other side of the lake. Expensive places up there that run long down the hill to lakeshore homes.

I stayed on the road, crossed the Deschutes river again, and on up the hill to the highway. I crossed there at the intersection and took the back roads around back home to complete a loop over 14 miles long. That's not much compared to the Tour Divide, of course, but I'm just starting out. I have to remember that!