Walks with Moss: Steel Creek Aborted, Brown Creek Nature Trail

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Steel Creek Aborted, Brown Creek Nature Trail

Finally everything came together and after weeks of being homebound, I was able to go hiking today. Well, almost everything came together; I've come down with a cold, but I was able to get out. Since I'm ill, I decided to take it easy and just ride my bike instead of hiking.   My goal was the site of the old steel creek shelter near the Skokomish River. It was to be a 17 mile round trip bike ride down a closed logging road, with only 1,000 feet of elevation gain. But it was not to be.   There was too much snow on the road, I was glad to have studded snow tires and 4 wheel drive well before I reached my parking area. Still I attempted to ride my bike a bit, the snow was not slick, but it was too deep and biking was too much work.

So I had to come up with a new plan. I did not want to hike in my biking shoes, in the snow, without poles and on my weak ankle.   I wished that I had packed my snowshoes and trekking poles so I could go for a hike. Then I remembered that the nearby Skokomish river trail was open to both hiking and biking, so I decided to bike it for the first time ever. I've hiked this trail dozens of times but never biked it.    I knew there would be less snow on the trail than there was on the road. As it turned out there was hardly any snow on the trail, but I only made it about 1 mile down the trail before I decided I was just too ill to go very far today. I stopped right before going down a long hill that I knew I would have to push my bike up on the way back. I was not up for pushing my big up that hill, so I took a long break and then rode back to my Jeep and put my bike away. When I was putting my bike away I discovered that a piece of cloth was wrapped around the crankshaft, that must have made peddling harder than usual.

It was time for a new plan. It was a beautiful clear day and the air at home was filthy but the air in the mountains was clear and clean, so I decided to stay in the mountians, even if I could not hike. I drove to the nearby Brown Creek Campground and parked in my favorite campsite and sat by the river to relax. But I could not relax, I needed my sketch pad (or a beer) if I was going to sit still. I did not have my sketch pad, but I had my camera. Sooooo I decided to wander around the campground a bit and take pictures.   Then I remembered that there is a nice little trail in the campground. It's called the Brown Creek Nature trail, it is level and only one mile long. The trail is so easy that maybe even my husband could have walked it today. I took him on this trail about two years ago and I have a geocache hidden on this trail.

It was cold and the days are getting short so I only went around the loop trail one time before I decided to go head back and see if I could get some good pictures of the mountain in the alpenglow. There is a spot on the 23 line, that I always want to stop and take pictures from, when I am returning from hiking, but I never do, because I'm either too tired or, it's to late. I decided to head for that spot and take some pictures of stumps and mountains. There were many handy stumps to use as tripods while taking pictures of the mountain. I'm pretty happy with the results, the sky was VERY clear and I had my new polarizing filter; I really like the polarizer.    Strange, how the sky was so clear while the air was so foul down below at home. Today was that clear winter day that all landscape photographers long for. So anyway I did not get to do much hiking, but the day was not a total loss, because I took some pictures that made me happy.
I hope I feel better by Sunday because I have a mega geocaching adventure planned.

I guess I went about 3 miles today, certainly not enough to bother adding to my excel charts. I'm calling it a year.

My totals for the year: I got out 28 times, hiked 269 miles and gained 55,953 feet in elevation. My average hike was 9.5 miles with 2,000 feet elevation gain.