
Chetwoot Lake Toilet project weekend of September 7-8, 2024. From front, Snoqualmie Ranger Maybel From, HL Josh Burke, Will Henson (friend of HLs), and HL Jon Jones. Photo Skykomish Ranger Sonny Bates-Mundel.
The Hi-Lakers are back doing community service work in addition to lake surveys. The club recently helped install a backcountry toilet, a laudable deed as anyone who’s seen toilet paper in pristine mountains would attest.
The hearty participants over the sunny September 7-8th weekend were Hi-laker Jon Jones and friend Will Henson, Hi-laker Josh Burke, plus Snoqualmie ranger Maybel From and Skykomish ranger Sonny Bates-Mundell. They humped the disassembled cedar-wood toilet plus shovels and other tools to Chetwoot Lake in the Foss Lakes area.
Chetwoot lake sits at about 4900 feet elevation and is more than eight miles from the trailhead. The rangers had identified the lake as badly in need of a privy.
“After having this project on hiatus for several years it was a great feeling to get this accomplished,” said Jones, the club’s immediate past president (2023). This project was initially conceived before Covid struck in 2020 as part of the HL’s commitment to service. Inaugural honors for the loo were left to an unknown next party who no doubt enjoyed the fine sign and carefully chosen woodsy location. Jones described the weekend proceeding as follows:
<<Meeting at the West Fork Foss Lakes trailhead at around 8:30 AM, we distributed the partially assembled cedar toilet and tools amongst the group and proceeded up the trail. Big Heart was our destination for the evening knowing the final approach to Chetwoot would be eased by leaving overnight gear down below.
Sunday morning we slung into our packs carrying the various pieces of toilet, making it to Chetwoot by 11 AM. A spot for the toilet above the outlet in a copse of trees had previously been identified by the Skykomish backcountry rangers. After a brief snack, part our crew began to excavate while others worked to assemble the toilet and signpost. Fortunately by 1:30 the job was finished. Josh and I managed to catch several WSCT in a handful of casts then Will, Josh, and myself turned back to the trailhead picking up our gear at Big Heart along the way. Sonny and Maybel continued on their beat through the High Route.>>
Makes you want to visit and check it out, no?
According to Jones, there are already some ideas in the works for another toilet placement in 2025.

On the way to Chetwoot Lake
The Hi-Lakers have done other major service projects in the past, most notably maintaining the Granite Mountain lookout for about 15 years.
The exact dates are unclear but best guess the lookout project began in the late 1970s or early-to-mid 1980s. I interviewed HL George Bucher, a stalwart club member, on Jan. 25, 2005, about the effort. “Many environmental and outdoors clubs were looking for public service outlets at the time,” George recalled. He said he proposed maintenance of the Granite Mountain trail because it was close to Seattle with two good lakes, Crystal and Denny, nearby. “If we kept up that trail, we could go to the lakes.”
“We put it to the Forest Service,” Bucher continued, “and they said great, but to do the trail we’d have to do the lookout. We agreed. We put on a new roof, took out the stove, did numerous paint jobs; it needed a lot of paint. We kept it looking good. Packing up 500 pounds of roof shingles was something else. Jamie [Van Etten] had access to a helicopter but somebody got wind of it and we couldn’t do it, had to pack it. Had quite a time [with the project], and a lookout party every year. Made noodles and fed everybody and stayed overnight.”
Reaching the lookout along the I90 corridor near Snoqualmie Pass requires 3800 feet of elevation gain, at nearly 1,000 feet a mile, so carrying up roof shingles was an impressive feat.

Granite Mountain Lookout, 27-28 July 1985. The Hi-Lakers maintained the LO for about 15 years. Chores included painting and re-roofing. Bringing up supplies was hard work.

Hi-Laker Dick Cranz, foreground, was a carpenter and intrepid club member. That’s HL Vern Cohrs behind him. Granite Mountain Lookout, 27-28 July 1985.
According to Bucher, the HL mainstays for the project, besides himself, were Dick Cranz, Gene Frasier and Jamie Van Etten, all no longer with us. Maintaining the lookout lasted until few years before 2000, when interest waned and stewardship was passed to two other outdoors groups.
But the tradition of service benefiting the mountains and lakes continues for the Hi-Lakers, with the many annual survey reports, and now with toilet installation.
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