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

Week 39 May 29 & 30 - Packwood Lake

Total Distance: Approximately 10 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 600 ft.
Time: Sunday 12:45 pm - Monday 1:15 pm
Weather: Gray, cloudy, and cool, light rain off and on.

Avid readers of the blog might remember my Packwood Lake snowshoe hike back in week 28.  I wanted to use the long weekend to get out and at least overnight somewhere.  A good friend from work wanted to join, then quickly two other friends were also convinced this would be a good use of the three-day weekend.  Asking around at work, the same friend who suggested I snowshoe to Packwood Lake, said the snow would probably be melted enough to hike in and at least have a nice backcountry spot.  I geared up Saturday, and we hit the road decently early on Sunday.

We started hiking from the trailhead, and we were at the lake in an hour and a half.  A great pace with a pack on, and after a short snack and water break, we strolled along the shore of the lake looking for a campsite.  We found a beautiful site, and we began to do all the little tasks to have a fun, safe backcountry trip.

The evening was great.  We ate a ton of good food and had good times around the campfire.  By 10:30 pm, everyone was in their tents sleeping while I waited for the fire to die down.  Around 11:15 pm, I heard loud cracks and commotion way off to the southeast.  I am almost positive it was an avalanche up on the surrounding ridges or a massive tree fall. 

The trail had quite a few down trees.  I was awed by the power the winter has.  Huge second growth trees up-rooted as their massive limbs and trunks obstruct and destroy the trails below.  Previous to the last 39 weeks, I would say I was a casual hiker.  I went on trips with work, and a few personal trips, but all in all I only hiked occasionally.  I might see a down tree every once and a while, but nothing like what I get to see as winter's clinched fist is finally starting to relax its grip on the high country.  It has been amazing to be out week after week and start to see a small, small glimpse of how the forest changes throughout the year. 

I went to bed around midnight and woke up at 6 am.  I probably could have gone back to sleep, but I thought why waste my time in the tent sleeping.  I got out, stoked the ashes, revived the fire, listened to the forest, and watched the lake in the morning fog.  We had a leisurely pace in the morning and were packed up ready to walk by 11 am.  We were at the car by 1:15 pm.

Orchid: The 3-course dinner I made for my friends. Pizza, Pasta, and chocolate cake.

Onion: Blisters on my big toes.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 38 May 21 - Duckabush Trail

Total Distance: Approximately 17 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 2000 ft.
Time: 10:45 pm - 4:15 pm
Weather: Gray, cloudy, rainy, and cool.

What was to be a school outdoor club hike devolved into a walk in the woods with the same senior who went on beach hike with me.  As I said in the beach hike blog entry, the senior was on that hike to serve as an intern in the school's outdoor education program.  While the beach hike took a lot of work, the internship must be at least 60 hours of work, with at least 40 being during the last 3 weeks of school.  He still has hours to earn, so I was trying to help take him hiking.

Crazy busy weekend at school. Friday, the entire high school was out doing different community service projects in the morning.  I was with kids building trails in the back wooded area that the school owns.  That afternoon, after the bar-b-que picnic lunch, I played with some colleagues in the student dodge-ball tournament.  After this was over, I had enough time to run home and pack for the all night walk and bike-a-thon at the school.  I was going to stay up, as late as I could, and then take three kids on a hike with me the next day.

I got about two and a half solid hours of sleep, when I was woken up at 5:30 am.  One of the other 4 adults was waking me up to be with the kids while he got donuts.  An hour and a half later, I was leaving campus to go to the grocery store, buy my food, and wait for the kids.  I already knew we were down to two because one of the three was at the lock-in with me, and he was too tired to go hiking.  By the time I got to the grocery store, our meeting place, the other kids were there.  It was raining slightly.  An annoyance only because the forecast the night before was for late evening showers on Saturday.  I ran in bought food, stopped at Starbucks, ran into my boss, chatted about the lock-in, and went back to the car.  When I got back, one of the kids was saying she no longer wanted to go.  She took her stuff and went home.  It was at this moment I realized I forgot my digital camera.  So, it's here where the hike story begins:

This senior and I hit the road at 7:45 am with the Duckabush Trail Trailhead as our final destination.  Google maps said 2 hours.  We had no trouble, except the last 2.6 miles.  We saw a sign saying Duckabush trailhead 2.6 miles ahead.  We went on, and came to a three way fork.  I remembered reading about forest road 2510, so I followed that.  And I was on this road for so much longer than 2.6 miles.  I don't know why but I didn't even look at the odometer.  Instead, we took a 25 minute detour up the forest road before turning around and getting to the trailhead at least 45 minutes later than we could have. 

When we finally did get to the trailhead, it was packed.  We were able to make a spot near the end, and I got geared up and we hit the trail at 10:45 am.  The trail starts in the Olympic National forest and according to the trail signs hits the National Park boundary 6.4 miles in.  My senior hiking buddy needed to be back relatively early, so we were determined to get there quickly.

The hike had a good amount of elevation gain, but I was feeling pretty good.  The kid, of course, is a ridiculously strong hiker, remember the 25 pounds of trash he hauled off the beach, while still going faster than me.  We cruised up switchbacks, past many people with full packs looking to overnight.  We ended up walking with no breaks the entire way to the National Park sign.  It took us a little less than 2 hours and 30 minutes.  According to my cell phone GPS Track, this point was about 8 miles in.  We took about 30 minutes to snack and rehydrate.  We were in a wide open area, and by the end of the break, the rain was a little more constant, and we were getting cold.  We began our walk about around 1:50 pm. 

At this point, my feet were tired and sore.  On my last hike, among the multitude of onions, one I forgot to blog about was a busted boot at the very beginning of last week's hike.  I guess 37 weeks in a row will put some wear and tear on gear.  I was hiking in a new pair of hiking boots.  I wore them Thursday night, and almost all day and night Friday.  After three hours of hiking on Saturday, my feet were tired of being in them.  The boots are awesome, I just need to keep breaking them in. 

I needed a water break on the way back up, but after only about 10 minutes, we were walking again.  We did not slow down much, and we were back at the car by 4:15 pm.

Orchid: Great co-hiker.

Onion: Sore feet.

Picture:



Google Map

Week 37.5 May 18 - Kayaking Chambers Creek

Total Distance: Approximately 2.5 miles

Elevation Gain: Approximately 500 ft.

Time: 12:30 pm - 1:40 pm

Weather: Mostly sunny, warm.

This was not really a backcountry trip, but this was worth blogging about.

My friend who teaches high school Biology takes students every year to a creek near school where they study the natural environment.  He was interested in looking for other sites upstream on the creek, and asked me if I wanted to go help him scout the creek by kayaking down.  With our schools schedule we both have one day every two weeks were we are free between 9:30 am and 1:50 pm.

We left school at 11:30 and dropped one car off at the park where the kids already explore.  We drove a few miles up the road, and found where we could put in, just north of Steilacoom Lake.  

We got our kayaks inflated, life jackets and helmets on, and launched at about 12:30 pm.  I have never kayaked before.  It was awesome.  There were definitely scary sections, where trees had fallen over and the creek was moving really fast, but the adrenaline rush and the feeling of ripping through the creek was awesome.  There were some really sweet whitewater sections, and I only had to bail out two or three times.  My friend said I did great for a first timer, I loved every second of it.  Especially the private property portaging we had to do.  Nothing like the thrill of trespassing.

I will be out on kayaks again before the 52 weeks are up.

Orchid: Being in a kayak.

Onion: Almost being late for my last period class.

No Picture

Google Map, GPS Track

Week 37 May 14 - North Fork of the Skokomish River

Total Distance: Approximately 17 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 3000 ft.
Time: 8:50 am - 5:00 pm
Weather: Partly cloudy, sunny in the morning, turning overcast and sprinkling at the end of the hike.

I was up for some distance but not the driving variety.  Using the Hike Finder map on wta.org, I found a 15 mile hike to the Flapjack Lakes in the Olympic National Park from the Staircase trailhead.  I decided to get up relatively early and do it.

I woke up at 6:15 am and was on the road, packed and gassed up, by 7:05 am.  Made great time getting to the trailhead at 8:40 am.  I geared up (gaiters and strapped snowshoes to the pack) and went on with the hike. 

I immediately fell in love with the trail.  I don't know what it was, maybe the wide trail or the easy grade or the sun rays beating on my back. Either way, I was loving it and already was daydreaming of coming back in the summer.  After about 30 minutes the trail did start to climb a bit steeper, but I was feeling great and was keeping a steady pace. 

By 10:00 am, I was 4 miles up the trail at the junction to turn off to the Flapjack Lakes.  I drank some water, then got a move on.  Still feeling good, this trail was a bit steeper, but my pace only slowed slightly.  After only 5 or 6 switchbacks, the trail hugs the west side of a peak and slowly climbs.  At 10:40 am, I hit Madeline Creek, about 6 miles from the trailhead.  I was stoked, I was going to try and be at the lake by 11:20.  Seven and half to eight miles in two and a half hours, oh yeah! 

After Madeline Creek, the trail started to have bigger and bigger patches of snow cover.  Still not enough for snowshoes, but there was enough to slow me down.  As the trail started to bend to the east, running parallel to Donahue Creek, the snow was no longer in patches but a continuous slope of slick icy snow. I put on snowshoes, but I was still having trouble. 

It was 11:05 when I put my snowshoes on.  I must have spent the next 2 hours moving about 2 miles, back and forth in the same half mile radius.  I kept losing the trail, but in my defense it was covered with snow.  In addition to countless falls, I slid down the snowy slopes at least 7 times.  One, very scary, was about a 200 foot skid, down a 40 degree slope, barely stopping before a large, down tree.  I marched back, found what looked like previous hiker's footprints, and tried again.  I came to a clear snow field, took one step, and sunk down to my waist.  Trying to get out, I fell over, rolled down a few feet, got my foot caught and twisted, and landed on my poles.  I screamed, "you're done." Talking to myself, of course.  I got up, walked to a relatively flat place, matted it down with my snowshoes, and took a lunch break.

After a good 35 minute break, I got up to pack up, and when I turned around the pad I was sitting on was gone.  I watched it slide down about 300 feet.  Leave no trace, right?  I walked down, got it, and walked up.  It took 45 minutes with all the slipping and sliding on the snow.  I walked back to the west, found my tracks, and followed them back to where the trail was actually visible.  I decided to walk out.

I got through all the snow, found a sunny place on the trail, and took another long break.  I was soaking wet from the snow, so I was enjoying the sunshine as it helped dry my clothes.  I needed to use my knife to cut some of my block of cheese.  I set my knife on the side of the trail.  I packed up and began down the trail.  Twenty minutes later, I thought about my knife, I didn't remember packing it.  I stopped, checked every pocket and emptied my pack.  No knife.  I left all my stuff on the trail, grabbed a water bottle, and jogged back up the trail to find my knife.  Sure enough I found it 15 minutes later.  My father gave me this knife.  It is not crazy expensive or irreplaceable, and it's not like it was his father's knife or anything like that.  But I remember the day he gave it to me.  I wasn't into backpacking at the time.  Years later as I got into backpacking and hiking (thanks to my school's outdoor education program), this has been my knife out on the trail.  For this sentiment, it was worth going back for, and I wanted to keep it.

I was back at my pack another 20 minutes after that and began my walk out, hopefully for the last time.  After about an hour and a half, I started to see people on the trail.  We were all heading out.  The walk out was nice.  It got dark and cloudy.  It even rained a bit, but only enough to cool you down, and not get you wet.  I was wetter with sweat.  When I got back to the car, I got everything packed up, and it began to pour.

Orchid: The first 2 hours of the hike and the last hour. For whatever reason, I was cranking out the mileage during those times.

Onion: The lost trail, the runaway pad, or forgetting my knife.  All were bitter moments at the time, but now strangely they are good memories.  True onions...

Picture:

Google Map