Big Creek

I went up Big Creek today. I wanted to take it a bit easy again because I have to do Pilates in class tomorrow. Today my ankle did not flop over at all! But my knee hurts. I wish I knew what was wrong with my knee. I don’t think its bad enough for a doctor to diagnose, so I’ll keep plodding along until it either gets better or gets bad enough to require medical attention. I’m really feeling my age this year, no doubt about it, I’m not going to live forever…

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches,
and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.
-John Muir

I got off to a late start so I could let my husband sleep in a bit. I hit the trail at about noon. My average moving speed going uphill was 2.3 MPH. My average moving speed for the entire hike was 2.6 MPH. I took it real slow hiking back down so I could protect my ankle. The strategy worked. My ankle did not flop over at all. I ate my lunch at the overlook as usual and I headed back down the trail at 2pm. I did spent about ten minutes trying to meditate and relax before I hiked back. One of the classes I am taking this quarter requires me to meditate for 20 minutes a day.

Lunch Time

There were more people on the trail than I would have liked, but that’s the price for hiking a popular trail on the weekends. One of the other hikers on the trail really did not like dogs and my dog felt the same way about him. My dog was on leash when we met up with that hiker. That hiker was hating on dogs because he had a bad experience several off leash dogs earlier in the day. The hiker was glad that Patches was on a leash, but he was still hating on dogs and Patches could tell, so she barked at him. It is not normal for Patches to bark at other hikers, in fact this might have been the first time she has ever barked at another hiker. I don’t remember her ever barking at other hikers before.

I did not let Patches her off leash for much of this hike, due to the amount of other people on the trail. When I did let her off leash, I made her walk behind me. I did not know that Patches had been trained to heel off leash! But she did it so well today, that I am certain someone trained her to do it in the past. She was five years old when I got her and I don’t know much of her history.

The only snow on the trail was on this old logging grade

The trail was mostly free of snow all the way to the lookout but some hikers that had gone higher said there was a lot of snow near the lower Ellinor trailhead. I really wanted to hike up there and take a look, but I forced myself to turn around at the overlook due to having to do Pilates tomorrow.

I ate two poptarts for breakfast 400 calories, and comsumed about 800 calories worth of terra chips and one cup of tea with milk and sugar, on the hike.  I hope I lost some weight today.

7 miles
1,700 feet elevation gain
Average Moving Speed 2.6 MPH

Mystery Mushrooms, I also saw winter chanterelles today

Track log and Elevation Profile

This used to be my water source.  Something must have changed up stream,
It should have been running good today with all the recent snow melt and rain.