Week 43 Jun. 26 - Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge

Total Distance: Approximately 4 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 10 ft.
Time: 10:50 am - 1:10 pm
Weather: Sunny, scattered clouds, mid-70s.

Is it possible to have a busier summer than school year?  Lately, I have felt this to be the case.  As a result, this Sunday is my only free day, until next Sunday.  Then a week from Tuesday, I leave on a 14-day backpacking trip.  I just wanted to stay in bed this morning.  Adding to this lethargy was the smooth move I pulled earlier this week when I rolled my right ankle pretty hard at summer volleyball practice.  So when I woke up to a brilliantly beautiful morning, looking out on the Puget Sound, I tried to get motivated to pick a hike.  I wanted to hike a big distance, but I have not done laundry in too long and I haven't been home for days, so I ruled out a long hike.  I also did not want to travel far, and I have just about exhausted my nearby hikes.  I did find a 4 mile hike only 20 minutes away in the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.  So here is how it went.

I get to the parking lot, and I could tell right away, this was not the same crowd I usually would see.  I was gearing up, putting my pack together, getting my poles out, and putting my gaiters on, when I stopped.  I was going to hike 4 miles on a really nice boardwalk with moms with strollers and families with 3 generations (grand parents, parents, and kids).  I pulled my gaiters off and left my poles in the car. 

I immediately got all judgmental and pretentious about the place I was visiting.  But all of this changed quickly, when I took a spur off the main boardwalk trail into the riparian forest next to the Nisqually delta.  The panel said that this particular forest has the largest concentration of song birds in the western United States.  Standing there in the mid-morning I would believe it.  Even though the roar of traffic from I-5 was still audible, the birds were singing their hearts out.  As I continued back to the trail, I began to notice all the fancy binoculars and tripods other people were totting around.  I am not a birder myself, but now I know where to find the birders and the birds. 

The hike continues out into the open delta on an earthen dike, then a huge boardwalk 10~15 feet above the delta bed and 8~10 feet across stretches out a good 1.5~2 miles out towards the Puget Sound.  I was there at low tide, so I got to see the delta and all the birds flying around playing in the pools.  When the tide is up, most of the delta is flooded with salt water from the Sound.

When I got out to the observation platform, I had it to myself for about 5 minutes.  Mount Rainier was shinning to the south east, and the weather was absolutely perfect.  I went back to a bench on the boardwalk and ate lunch in the sun.  On the way back, when I got to the forested area, I saw a raccoon.  I watched him climb trees and scourge picnic table areas for dropped treats.

Orchid: The songbirds in the forest.

Onion: Not having binoculars.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 42 Jun. 18 & 19 - East Fork Foss River & Necklace Valley

Total Distance: Approximately 13 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 2500 ft.
Time: Sat. 10:50 am - Sun. 2:20 pm
Weather: Light rain, overcast with periods of heavy rain and periods of no rain.

There are days now where I know I need to be out in the woods; Saturday was that kind of day.  A little over a week ago, I started thinking I was going to go somewhere overnight.  I hopped onto my favorite site, www.wta.org, and there was a hike posted under their "Hike of the Week" section that sounded perfect for an overnighter.  I sent an email out to the Outdoor Club from my school to see if there were any kids who wanted to come along.  I got no response, except for a young man who works at my school, who has recently become an outdoor instructor for the school.  Then at graduation last Saturday, I bumped into an alum from last year who had said he wanted to join me on a hike and when asked if he wanted to join he said yes.

The three of us met early on Saturday and took off for the trailhead.  We made it there by 10:40 am, geared up, and hit the trail by 10:50.  The trail took off along the East Fork of the Foss River, and about 5 miles in, the trail crosses the river and heads west, up into the Necklace Valley.  There is a camp right before the river crossing, and this was our destination.  We were there around 12:45 pm.  We set up camp, had lunch, and explored the area.  Around 2:30 pm, we were getting a tad restless and decided to continue on the hike as far as we could with only water bottles.

The trail after the crossing, got steep, fast.  It was fun, but I was definitely happy my pack was not on my back.  We got glimpses of the ridges that make the valley in between the dense fog and cloud cover.   We hit snow at about 3200 feet, and with only minimal gear, we decided to stop.  I was happy we made it up pretty far, but I am a little sick of the snow cutting off the high country.

We came back down, and I prepared dinner.  My new thing is to make dinner for friends in the backcountry.  Many people invite friends over to their homes and make them dinner, but I have decided I would much rather take a friend camping and prepare dinner out there.  I made a pizza appetizer and a pasta main course.  I was a little lazy on dessert; we had a big Cadbury® Dairy Milk Caramel Chocolate bar.

We cleaned up after dinner, brushed our teeth, and hung our food and smelly items (we were in bear country).  Sitting around camp, the boys started talking about card games, and I was too tired to stay awake.  I got into my tent around 9 pm and was asleep as soon as I could get into my sleeping bag.  I woke up a few times, but I still was able to sleep till about 8 am.  I got up, got the food down, made hot coffee, and sat by the river.

After three cups of coffee and some solid reflection time by the river, I woke the other boys up at 10 am.  We ate breakfast and started breaking camp around 11 am.  We were on the trail by noon, we hiked a solid hour then took a 30 minute break, and we were back at the car at 2:15 pm.

Orchid: Making it up into the Necklace Valley Saturday afternoon.

Onion: Leaving Sunday morning. Why I can't I live out in the wilderness?

Picture:

Google Map

Week 41 Jun. 12 - Capitol Forest

Total Distance: Approximately 15 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 2500 ft.
Time: 11:50 am - 5:20 pm
Weather: Sunny turning to partly cloudy with a few sprinkles of rain.

If there was ever a week that I didn't think I was going to get out and hike, this was it.  Saturday was graduation at my school.  The ceremony began at 6 pm, but I had to be there at 4 pm to help with parking, and I had a graduation party for a student running from 3 to 5 pm.  After the ceremony ended at 8:30 pm, we went out as a big group of faculty and staff to celebrate another year, but also give special thanks to those colleagues not returning in the fall.  I got home, exhausted at 1:30 am.  I slept until 10:30 am.  I was so tired, and I still have all my finals to grade.  I had done some research (on wta.org, of course) the days before.  I knew I was going to hike in the Capitol Forest, since it is close to Olympia.  I was going to attend another graduation party after the hike in Olympia, but I was not super excited by hiking the Capitol Forest. 

I got into the forest boundaries with no problem, but soon my GPS was telling me to turn where roads no longer existed.  I meandered around on logging roads, taking a spider web network of one lane, gravel roads with surprisingly few pot holes.  My phone told me the location I got off the wta site was in the middle of a dirt road.  There was no trail around and no place to park.  At the intersection a few hundred feet away, there was a big, red truck with a huge horse trailer.  There was room for my Subaru, and there was a trail crossing at the intersection.  It was already 11:45 am, and the party I was going to end at 7 pm.  I got my gear on and hit the trail with my phone set to record the walk.  I recognized the trail name from the notes I read, but I did not have a map.  I was out to go find one and use my cell phone to back track if I had to, but I did not want to.  I was close enough to Olympia and the surrounding area that I had cell reception and could actually see where I was on a map.

I walked for a solid hour before taking any real breaks.  Then I took a 30 minute lunch.  I looked at the GPS, and it read 7.66 in the stats for this track.  This is the point on the hike where I start thinking I am a hiking machine.  I didn't feel like I was going that fast, I actually felt slower than usual and really tired.  But my cell phone said the statistics, literally.  And I do mean literally, at one point the phone announced to me the distance and speed at which I walking.  I should have known something was off when this happened.  I remember just this week I updated the My Tracks app on my htc Aria.  I love this app, and it only gets better with each update, but I forgot that the default settings are always in metric units.  I love the metric system, but I think like every other American.  I think about distances in miles, feet, and inches.  When I realized my mileage mistake, right before writing this blog, but not before boasting to several people at the graduation party after the hike, I changed the settings to show statistics in Imperial Units.

So the rest of the hike, now feels a little weird.  I was hiking down the Mima Porter Trail #08, and there were consistent mileage markers every half mile counting down.  They weren't on the whole trail, but I remember seeing them from 5.0 all the way to 0.5.  It was taking 10~12 minutes on average to hit each one.  I know that means 3 miles per hour, I even did that math in my head.  Why didn't I catch the units before saying something to all my colleagues?

I was going to follow the the trail down to zero.  I assumed when it ended, I would hit a trail head.  I did see more a few more people as I walked.  I saw hikers, and bikers, and horse back riders.  Despite seeing a couple people, I felt alone while hiking.  There was a map when the trail ended.  After making use of it, I continued on back the way I came back to take a right at a trail junction I passed, and I think I could spot on my map and on the map at the trail head.  I was also able to see where I parked, looking at both maps together.  I walked back, all the while, thinking I was cranking out big distances.  All this checking my phone, recording tracks, and trying to take pictures since my camera was left at school Saturday, took a toll on my terrible battery life.  My phone was dying, which is why I stopped recording the track.  I had to keep using the app to get back to my car.  I had stopped recording when I got to a road, and walked the last 5 kilometers or 3.2 miles on the road.  The trails were awesome, but I need a map when I return.

Orchid: Seeing my car, I felt lost at points on the hike.

Onion: Mileage psych-out.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 40 Jun. 5 - Rainy Lake

Total Distance: Approximately 8 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 3000 ft.
Time: 9:00 am - 4:30 pm
Weather: Sunny, partly cloudy.

So this was the last weekend of the school year, and It made sense to me to take the club out on a hike.  We had a great turn out for our last hike with 5 kids and 5 adults (including me).  Looking for a hike this week, I wanted some distance and some elevation gain, but also short driving time and something I had not done before.  I checked wta.org (as always) and found a hike to a place called Rainy Lake.  As I read the description of the hike, I became more and more intrigued.  First off, the trail is abandoned.  For whatever reason, the trail is no longer maintained.  Now, once a trail exists on a map, no one can tell you you cannot hike it.  Remember these are our public lands and we have every right to enjoy them the way they are meant to be enjoyed.  Rangers can advice against hiking abandoned trails, but without closing them down, the trail is open.  So I thought, what a great way to end the year, hiking an unmaintained trail.

We took off from the trailhead hiking on a brand new section of trail.  It went from the middle fork of the Snoqualamie river down to Pratt River.  Within about 5~10 minutes we were at Rainy Creek.  The crossing was a little sketchy.  There was a down log, but it was steep and narrow.  We all crossed with no problem, and began a bit of a bushwhack up the creek.  Within minutes, the trail presented itself was easy to follow.  It was steep in parts, but a lot of fun too.  We walked for about 2 hours, taking breaks every 30~45 minutes, again pretty steep hiking in parts.  The breaks were short due to the swarms of bugs that were attacking our flesh the minute we stopped.

At around noon, we hit the snow.  At first we were just following what seemed to be the trail, but soon we found ourselves in the middle of snow fields trying to find a lake.  we hiked up and up to the top of a ridge, but there was no lake to be found.  We stopped and had a good snack.  We actually had cell reception on the ridge, but we could not get the gps working on our phones to give us our location.  We started our hike out after a 30 minute break.

The hike down the snow was fun.  We ran/shoe skied/fell down the snow covered hill. The kids were having fun, as we stopped and they were trying to do front flips and slide in the snow.  We got out of the snow, and then the group separated a bit.  Some boys went trail running, and some were going a tad slower.  I came up on the boys, and one was in significant pain, from tweaking his calf muscle.  After getting one of the adults to look closer, we ended up wrapping it up, and carefully walked out.  We were back at the cars by 4:15 pm.

Orchid: Snow flips and slides.

Onion: Getting back home, and realizing I lost my knife.

Picture:

Google Map