Pansy Lake
Having some unfinished business around the Pansy Lake area of Bull of the Woods Wilderness, I got up early Saturday morning and drove to the trailhead. I wanted to get home before noon so I could watch the Ducks manhandle Tennessee Tech.
It had been around 20 years or so since I last hiked to the
lake. Back then, I backpacked through the area, into Pansy Lake and south to
Battle Creek shelter. From there, I made my way down Elk Lake Creek and around
to Welcome Lakes and up to the Bull of the Woods lookout. I remember beginning
the hike in the evening, and when I arrived at the lake, every square foot of Pansy
Lake’s water surface was rippled by feeding trout.
During my latest drive to the lake’s trailhead, I recalled
my first trip 20 years earlier. Actually, the most exciting part of the excursion,
not taking anything away from the area’s great hiking, was the drive to the
trailhead. It was then that I spotted my first cougar in the wild.
I rounded a corner on road 6340 and spotted a cougar walking
no more than 50 yards in front of me in the middle of the road. Obviously
surprised by the obnoxious red object rounding the bend, the cat looked toward
the pickup and with a single leap, disappeared from my sight.
Momentarily stunned by the sighting, I hesitated before
stomping on the gas pedal, now wanting to see this secretive creature up close
if possible. After reaching the point where the cougar had crossed the road, I
stopped the pickup and turned off the engine. I looked out my side window and
noticed a large, roadside thicket, large enough for a cat of its size to hide
in. Behind the thicket was a steep incline of about thirty feet, where the road
had been carved out of a slope.Within the security of my pickup's cab, I waited for the cat to spring from the brush. If it was unsure it could make a clean getaway, I figured it might still be hiding in the brush. I honked the horn, hoping to scare the big cat into the open.
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| Cougar (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Nothing happened.
The sun was going down and I wanted to hike to Pansy Lake before dark, so to expedite things, I slowly opened the pickup door. Keeping one eye poised on the thicket, I reached down with my left hand and raked my fingers over the gravel road, picking up a fistful of rocks. I sat back up and quickly closed the pickup door. After rolling down the window, I tossed the gravel into the thicket, hoping to push the cat out into the open.
Pansy Lake
Still, nothing happened.
By now it was obvious that the cougar had scurried out of
sight before I arrived at the spot. I looked around for a moment. That is when
I spotted, behind the thicket, the only evidence left behind by the cat, its
paw tracks along the steep dirt embankment behind the thicket.
Oddly enough, even though it had been 20 years, I am pretty
darn sure on this most recent trip I found the exact spot I stopped the pickup
to roust the cougar from the brush. 
Dickey Lake
Anyway, before arriving at Pansy Lake this time, I took a
left at a junction before Pansy and hiked up to Dickey Lake. Perhaps only two
acres in size when it is full, Dickey Lake sits in a picturesque cirque,
surrounded by old growth forest. Because the parking lot at the trailhead had
six other vehicles when I pulled in, I figured this little lake wouldn’t be a
bad alternate overnight spot if Pansy Lake was packed with folks.
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| Dickey Lake |
In the mid-1800s, miners apparently began to establish gold claims in the area. On my first trip to the area, I bushwhacked from Pansy Lake up the slope of the cirque and found an old mine shaft. It is a deep, black hole at the base of an old stump. Looking into the hole, I couldn’t see its walls, floor or ceiling. I had no idea how sharp of an angle the hole entered the earth. For all I knew, if I had entered it, I may never have come out.
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Mine shaft above Pansy Lake
I arrived home at noon, after stopping a taking a few pictures
of the Collawash River and watched the Ducks thrash Tennessee Tech.
Collawash River
