North Fork Quinault River Trail
Since my new raincoat and pants have not arrived yet I decided to take an umbrella with me. I figured I could stay reasonably dry by combining my umbrella with my leaky rain gear. Since I am a Seattle native this took a bit of a mental adjustment. Tourists and wimps carry umbrellas, Seattle natives tough it out, or so they say.
Well I have to admit the umbrella was a good addition and I might carry one even after my new rain coat and pants have arrived. The umbrella allowed me to take pictures without getting my camera wet.
Since my new raincoat and pants have not arrived yet I decided to take an umbrella with me. I figured I could stay reasonably dry by combining my umbrella with my leaky rain gear. Since I am a Seattle native this took a bit of a mental adjustment. Tourists and wimps carry umbrellas, Seattle natives tough it out, or so they say.
Well I have to admit the umbrella was a good addition and I might carry one even after my new rain coat and pants have arrived. The umbrella allowed me to take pictures without getting my camera wet.
It's a 2.5 hour drive to the North Fork Quinault Trail head from my house and the days are really getting short. So I got up at 6:00am nursed the baby for half an hour, had a cup of coffee, read my email and then left the house at five minutes to seven. I arrived at the trail head at 9:30 and started out at about 9:40.
Mine was the only car at the trail head and the trail head ranger station was locked up for the season. There was no register at the trail head either. I enjoy hiking alone but there is a such thing as too much solitude.
2.5 miles into my hike I spotted a small heard of elk. The bull was quite large but very skittish compared to the bull elk at the North Fork of the Skokomish herd.
This was a wet muddy hike, I had to cross several small streams the trail was a creek in some place and a mud puddle in other places. In a few places the trail was actually a trail.
My goal was to hike to half way house for a ten mile round trip journey. But about 4 miles down the trail I came to an un-crossable stream. I might have tried crossing it if I was not hiking alone. Thanks to the unexpected shortening of my hike back I had time to take lots of pictures.
I found an old elk skeleton next to the trail. A bunch of mushrooms were coming up right were I suppose the elk had laid in it's death.
There were a few Chanterelle mushrooms on the sides of the trail but they were mostly way too soggy and past their prime to bother picking. I spotted three new to me mushroom types. Lions mane, Chicken of the Woods and Bear's Head. Lions and chickens and bears oh my! I picked some of the Chicken of the woods but when I got home I found out it was too far gone to eat.
Also when I got home I read that Lion's Manes and Bear's Head's are very good to eat but these mushrooms were so beautiful that I could not bear to pick them. So I had picked the poison one and left the tasty ones in the woods.
Chicken of the Woods
For lunch I sat down next to the Chicken of the woods and made myself a cup of hot chocolate and boiled up some instant noodles. I put three of the freshest chanterelles I could find in my noodles. They were yummy!
I tried to rig up my umbrella to the top of my trekking pole so I could sit under it while I ate and it sort of worked. I may work on this system some more before my next hike.
Before I left the house I did a hasty job of trying to fix my leaky boot. I did not get to find out if it worked. On one of the first stream crossings I took a mis-step and got water over the top of my left boot. I did manage to keep my right foot dry for most of the hike though.
Since it had been raining steadily all day the little streams that I crossed on the way out had all grown in size and boulder hopping across them on the trip back was out of the question. I plowed right through them without trying to stay dry. I may as well have worn my running shoes. I normally hike in "trail running" shoes but I wore my boots in the hopes of keeping my feet dry. I think my boots weigh 20 pounds each when they are wet.
I stopped by the Northshore grocery store on the way home and bought possibly the weakest cup of coffee I have ever had. I had to stop again in Aberdeen to get some real coffee.
My husband who had been watching the kids all day was grateful when I arrived at home and could take over the child rearing responsibilities.
Someday I want to go back to the Quinault rain forest but I will wait until the days are longer so I have more time to explore.
Note 08/28/09
I see that going back to college has improved my spelling and grammar. Looking back at these old posts is a bit painful; I may have to run all of them through a spell checker.
Two significant things happened during this hike that I did not realize until later. First I took a picture of a Lions mane mushroom while I was on this hike and that picture took first place in a mushroom photo contest. Second, I discovered that MSG is the source of my Migraines. The noodles I ate on this hike gave me a migraine five minutes after I ate them.
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