North Fork Quinault River Trail

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.

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.