Mount Walker, up the road and down the trail

The forecast was dreadful and I was desperate for a hike.  When I can’t get out and hike at least once a week, I can’t sleep at night and I  get really anxious.  I actually need to hike, doctors orders.  The weather looked to be better up North near the rain shadow, so I  decided to try Mount Walker. 

I drove my car for a change, I did not want to deal with bus schedules and dog  politics.   My main goal was to put some Pokémon in the gym at the top where I know they will stay for a long  time.  There were three cars at the trailhead when I arrived, oh well, can’t always have the trails all to myself. 

As I was getting ready to hike disaster struck!  Two happy, chatty, bubbly hikers arrived at the trail head and they liked my dog.  Sigh, basically the opposite of me this morning.   I got back in my car and thought about going to a nearby trail that is less popular.

Logging is coming to
Mount Walker

The problem with steep trails like Rose and Walker is that you can never really  get away from noisy people.  The noisy people might be a quarter mile ahead of you on the trail, but they are just one or two switchbacks above or below you in elevation.  On a straight flat trail other people will be out of earshot in short order, but on trail like this you may never get away from their blabber. 

So I was going to hike elsewhere and miss my Pokémon goal.  I was not happy about that.  Then I realized I could hike up Walker, make my goal and avoid all the noise by hiking up the road instead of the trail.  Sometimes I do hike up the trail and then down the road to save my knees on the descent.   The trail loses 2,000 feet in just two miles and that is hard on the knees.

My camera today was my Ricoh GR II, I also used an external flash.
Ricoh GR II Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD (Black)

 I’ve never actually hiked up the road and down the trail though.  So that excited me in two ways, one, I was getting away from the noise, two I was taking a new route.

I could still hear the other hikers on the trail way above me for the first quarter of a mile of my hike but soon their noise faded away and I had the road all to myself all the way up. Near the end I left the road and  took a short cut through the forest to get to the look out.

 No view at the lookout today, just fog, also it was too cold at the lookout , so I wandered over to the middle to complete my Pokémon goal.  When I was done with that, I was so cold that I thought about just hiking right back down without having coffee or lunch.

I walked to the view point near the trail, no view there either, just fog.   I nearly walked right back down the trail, but I was really hungry and could not think of any very nice lunch spots on the trail.  So I stopped and made hot coffee and lunch.  I warmed up and felt better while eating lunch in all my layers, so I was glad that I did take a break.

Sage makes sure that I practice
"leave not trace" hiking.

At about 2:30 I got out my trekking poles to protect my knees on the descent and hiked back down to my faithful car that always waits patiently for me at the trail heads. 

The weather was dry for my entire hike, while it had rained all day further South.  I do love the Mount Walker area rain shadow.  It is not as dry as the rain shadow up by Port Townsend, but it is so much dryer than Mason County and much closer to home.

About 8 miles with 2,000 feet elevation gain.   The trail is two miles and the road is 4 miles.  Miles are added to the hike this time of year because you have to walk to the trail head as well.

One the way home I decided to go up to Quilcene just to have a look around.  As I was passing the Forest Service Rangers station I remembered that they had bought a bunch of pictures from me several years ago.  They bought the pictures to put into a new map.  It has been so long now that I was wondering if they were ever going to use my pictures so  I decided to go in and ask.  To my pleasant surprise I found that my pictures finally got used just a few months ago in November. 

Five of my photographs are on the new map for the Hood Canal Ranger District!   They paid me and credited the photos to me.

The map is really nice, so go buy a copy,  but if you have older maps hold on to them too.   The newer maps do not have all the old roads on them.  I made a point of getting a copy of all the old maps while they were still available to the public.