Late morning sun illuminates the trees on the west side of Salmon Creek Estuary.

Salmon Lake trail follows Salmon Creek up from the end of Silver Bay to Salmon Lake, and then further on up the valley, ultimately branching with the main current trail going over to Redoubt Lake Cabin, and a historical trail that leads up to the Lucky Chance mines (though I’ve been told it’s difficult to find and follow in many locations). Last Sunday I had the opportunity to go out to the trail and hike around for a bit.

Bear Mountain is reflected in the calm waters of Salmon Creek Estuary.

Given the early winter season and a blanket of snow covering the trees and much of the ground, there was not too much to look at in terms of plants, but the scenery was quite stunning. There were deer tracks around, but I never saw a deer. A mink showed up on along the frozen lake shore, and there were several species of birds, including American Dipper, Brown Creepers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Mallards, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and a late Hermit Thrush.

The valley bottom forest structure seems much different than I am used to seeing in Indian River Valley (the place with which I have the most familiarity). The wide spacing of trees and predominance of Sitka Spruce are particularly notable. I’m not sure what might be the underlying reason for these differences.

A thin layer of clouds partially blocks the sun in this view of the upper end of Salmon Lake.

Salmon Lake was covered in a thin layer of frozen slush/ice. It might have been an inch thick, not nearly enough to support my weight, but a mink that scampered along the ice near the shore seemed to be in no danger of breaking through. At the inflow, there was still a patch of open water above the main body of the lake.

In clearings above the lake, both the upper lake sedge marsh/meadow, and muskegs further up, the snow was 1-1.5 feet deep or so. It was not as deep in the woods, nor the openings at the edge of the estuary below the lake.

This was only my second trip to Salmon Lake, the first being in October 2007. Neither trip has been especially well timed for seeing how the distribution of herbaceous plants growing in the valley may differ from other locations, but I do hope to get back for a future visit to look into it a bit more.

While out there, I also learned that owls (probably Western Screech-owls) are a frequent visitor to the NSRAA weir site, and toads are also not hard to find.

More Salmon Lake Trail photos.

Trumpeter Swan: At first I was not even sure this was an animal call. After a couple of listens I realized it sounded like a swan, and a quick check of the Birds of Alaska CD confirmed it. Download Trumpeter Swan

Hairy Woodpecker: I am not absolutely sure about this call, but I’m confident that it’s a woodpecker. Although it seems clear the woodpecker must be flying from left to right, the wingbeats that are heard in this clip are probably from a Raven, not the woodpecker.
Download Hairy Woodpecker

Dark-eyed Juncos: These juncos were getting after each other a bit. In recent days I have been realizing that I have not seen many Dark-eyed Juncos around lately. I’m not sure why that is, but apparently they’ve returned to the neighborhood for at least one morning.
Download Dark-eyed Juncos