Got my camera fixed by buying a junk camera and swapping out the parts. I decided to go back to the
swamp with my camera even though the peak of fall colors has passed.
There are no landmarks in the swamp, so I
tend to get turned around there, I drew a route to follow and put it in my GPS
before I started.
I got off to
a very late start, I got up at ten and did not hit the brush until almost 2:30!
My plan was to slowly meander around the swamp taking
photos while making my way towards my lunch destination.
Before I
knew it I was way off route. My GPS made
it look like I had been going in circles, but I thought the circles were from
the time I went in there in 2016 and walked in circles.
When I got
home I realized those were new circles that I made. I made several circles and I never made it to my lunch spot.
Thanks to getting
so far off route, I did a lot more brush crashing than I had planned, but I
also discovered an old road complete with old trash.
It rained briefly
while I was walking in circles so I hung my tarp over a few arched vine maples and
had coffee and a dog biscuit out of the rain and in comfort.
When I got
to Lake Quilcene I saw that it was darker than expected. I looked at my GPS and saw that it was
5pm!
Sunset was in one hour and I was three
miles from my car. Whoops.
I decided to
stop and have my coffee and snack and turn around right there. I brush crashed all the way to the lake, but I
walked out on the road as I don’t care to brush crash in the dark.
I had to
headlamp hike for half an hour, I made it out one full hour after sunset. For whatever reason, I was not very spooked
hiking out in the dark this time.
Maybe
I was too tired, or maybe it was the openness of the road, I really don’t know.
For the most part I was able to think about
things other than mountain lions.
I did make a
point of making some noise though so there would be no chance of startling a
giant cat. I make noise by singing this song from Barney:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cm7ALC1BAE I read that cougars are most active at dawn
and dusk and there have been a couple of cougar attacks in this state recently.
Sage was
wearing her reflective orange vest so I pulled out her little light that is
made to attach to it. The light is kind
of cheerful too look at and makes it easier to see Sage when she runs away to
chase all the things she can smell in the dark.
I did not
get as many photos as I had hoped with my late start and it being too dark to
take photos on the way out.
6.5 miles
with 250 feet elevation gain. 3.5 of those
miles were in the brush.
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| Green was the plan, yellow is what actually happened |
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| Coffee under a tarp in the swamp |
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| Twilight coffee at the lake before the long dark hike out |
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