Grief on the Dosewallips

This was the hike I was packed to do the night my spouse died.  I finally made nearly two months later on my spouse's birthday.  Ouch.  I needed to do something for his birthday.  Every year for the last 15 years I've celebrated his birthday and now that he's gone there is big void to fill on February 7th.

The hike to the Ranger station is now 13 miles round trip and I was not up for that. Sage was probably not up for that either.  We walked to the waterfalls and turned around there.  I always grieved for my spouse on this hike even before he died.  He was never well enough to hike to the falls, so I never got to take him there.  I thought of him every time I was there though.

At the falls I passed a wilderness youth outreach type group going in to spend the night at the ranger station.  I asked if they had snowshoes since the forecast called for very heavy snow the next day.  Not only did they not have snowshoes, but they were unaware of the forecast.

Here is a video, but it is not very good.  You tube took away the stabilization feature.  I'll have to change how I record video clips with that nice feature gone.  I will have to make sure I am standing still and not hiking.

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I hope that group is okay up there in all that snow.  They were moving really slow, so I wonder what kind of hiking condition some of the kids were in.  I hope they were not intending to try to go up to Lake Constance next.  They did not have a car at the trail head, so I was really surprised to run into them out there.  I really thought I had the place all to myself.

This is the same outfit that I ran into the the Lower Skok a week or two ago.  I was surprised to see a group camping out there on a weekday.  It seems they also go to another place that I really like on the weekdays.  I might not get any solitude this winter.

From now on when I do this hike the falls will probably be my turn around point.  I really don't enjoy doing a day hike that is longer than 12 miles.  It is a shame that they shut the road even farther back.  I will miss having my lunch in that campground.

On this hike I had my lunch at Elkhorn camp on the way back.

11.5 miles with 1000 feet elevation gain