I took a few hours this afternoon to go a little further than I had ever been on the east side of Stave Lake, to a spot called Grotto Falls. I didn't quite reach the falls, as that would require fording the river to go up the far bank, and I was solo for this run. As it was, I had to take a couple of pretty sketchy bypasses around some washouts, the first one of which had a young lady winching her Jeep to get out of, as she couldn't make it without a locking axle. Even with my rear locker engaged, I had to make 3 attempts to get up the short, steep climb.
The weather was great, a nice warm, sunny spring day in the mountains, so it was a pleasure to be out there. I didn't see any game or obvious tracks along the route, but I enjoyed the time in the mountains anyway.