I made a trip to Static on 9/13/09, my first in well over a decade. Here's an access report:
Sultan Basin Road is closed to through traffic, but you can detour via Kellog Lake Road. I assume this is a short term road work diversion.
The road is gated at Olney Pass, and sign says it won't reopen until mid October. There's a rebuilt culvert at a slide path near the top, and work ongoing at a muddy section just before the bridge. There's some work happening at the bridge too, with steel plates on the far side and a bunch of equipment parked on the road.
The Static Point spur is blocked by a large pile of trees. There's no clear trail though it, but it's pretty easily penetrated on the right. Clearly no provision for keeping the access open as a trail though.
The road is indeed thoroughly decomissioned, with 20 some berms at former culvert sites. Some of the berms are large and steep, and while there is the beginning of some boot built tracks on these, it would have been better if an actual trail had been built, berm wall erosion may become a problem on some of these. Again, it's obvious no provision was made to keep this as an access trail.
After the two rocks at what has most recently been considered the parking area, the going gets tough. I suspect there was a lot of damage last winter, lots of downed trees in the 3 to 4 inch diameter size across the trail at about waist height. By "lots" I mean probably more than a hundred. At numerous points its actually hard to find the old road bed, and the trail is in poor shape, very vague and discontinuous. We encountered a dispirited team of four who had been unable to find the uphill trail, despite having been to the crag several times in the past.
We pressed on, looking for the large wash with the view of the peak that I recalled. There were a number of culverts on the road, and we prospected up one gully I concluded was not the correct one, then finally arrived at the bright white granite filled wash I recalled. I'd gauge our speed in the bushwhack realm as well below a mile an hour. I was just amazed to think I used to park at this location,
The trail up through the woods has had some blowdown on the lower bit, but my recollection that it stayed near the gully edge made it fairly easy to piece it together. It wasn't hard to follow above that, though the tread is slowly disappearing.
After climbing, we opted to continue down the wash and boulder hop down the river to the bridge. I wouldn't say it was any easier than the bushwhack, but at least it was a different flavor of difficult.
So, you who have dealt with DNR, how are they likely to react to a volunteer trail repair project? The stretch between the old parking area and the turn up the hill needs it badly, and it would be best to have chainsaws & brushcutters involved, a machete and pruning shears would not be sufficient. Static Point is a great slabbing area, but the present arduous approach (likely the worst to a cragging area in Washington that I have done in 30 years) is a significant impediment.
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09-14-2009
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