Ralph's New Place Up on the Hill

I headed up this closed logging road to check on geocache and see if I could find Ralph the bear.

"Ralph is not your average talking bear: he's well-read, he claims to have read everything Shakespeare ever wrote, has strong opinions on every subject and has a decidedly jaundiced opinion of the human race."
--Pete Merrill

I also wanted to get out today because I am doing the Christmas thing with my family tomorrow and I'm usually feeling mellow the day after a hike. But I did not want to be too tired so I picked what I thought would be an easy hike. The snow and one of the river crossings made this a bit tougher than I expected.

My feet stayed dry in my boots and my old gaiters but the price for dry feet was blisters. I saw a lot of elk signs and a few piles of mystery scat.

This is an interesting road walk due to all the nice views of the Skokomish River, Lake Cushman, Mount Lincoln, Wagon Wheel Ridge and Mount Rose. Also a bunch of old mine shafts dot the left side of the road.. I passed three "road closed" signs but with all the washouts and rock slides the signs seemed a bit redundant.

There is a wonderful view point on this road but it was too foggy to see the view today. I found this spot while out blueberry picking with my family. Now the road is closed, very closed.

10 miles
1,800 feet elevation gain
45 miles on my new boots

So far this year this year have hiked 26 times for a total of 248 miles and 60,741 feet elevation gain.




Road closed sign














Old mine shaft







Crossing here was a bit tricky