Walks with Moss: Lower Washington Road Walk and a secret pond.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Lower Washington Road Walk and a secret pond.

Flying Camera panorama

Since my favorite winter hiking place is now open to vehicle traffic, I'm looking elsewhere to have fun.

Noticed a road off the Mount Ellinor road that I had never seen before. Decided to see if that road was closed and hike it if it was closed. But it was open, so I went for plan "B", hike the road below Mount Washington. Ran into snow about half a mile before my turn, so backed all the way back down to the Lower Ellinor trail head. (There are two new pokestops at the trail head!) I was unhappy, the weather was foggy and wet and I did not know where to hike.

Staircase is out of the question with a dog. The Dry Creek trail is too damp and dark this time of year. The road above the gate on Elk Creek is really starting to bore me. I'm bored with Mount Rose and all of the crowds that it now draws. What to do?

When I got back down to the road I had hoped to hike, I was out of the fog and my mood lifted. Sure the road was open, but I was going to hike it anyway. That and the lifting of the fog really cheered me up.

I was carrying a lot of weight in my pack with my flying camera and an extra lens and an external flash for my earthbound camera. I lightened my load a bit by giving Sage one of her baggies of dog food and I dumped out my water. I would not need water from home for this hike.

The hike was quite fun, but I had left my GPS behind in my car after turning on the track log. I had cell service so I navigated by google earth topo and satellite maps. On the satellite map I noticed what looked like a pond and decided I would fly my camera up there on the way back to see if there was a pond. I did not feel like climbing the steep cliff to get there.

On the way in I also passed a parked truck, a real nice truck for a brush picker. I sure wish I had a nice truck.

I opted to have lunch in a flat spot that I noticed below the road. I think the spot was created when the earth slumped a bit. I did not want to be right on the road in case trucks drove by. During lunch I cast my new spell in Draconius Go "Field of Abundance" with that spell I can spin 5-8 pillars all through my lunch break without having to move. No need to enchant a pillar for eggs anymore.

I got chilly at lunch time but soon warmed right up thanks to having hot lunch and hot coffee.
After lunch I packed up and headed out with my fresh batch of eggs all in incubators. When I got back to the suspected pond area it was raining and I could not fly my camera so I climbed up the short cliff leaving Sage behind. Sage was not happy.

I discovered a cute little seasonal pond. I wished I had stopped for my lunch there instead. I did not stay long since Sage was still on the road below howling and barking in her loneliness. When I climbed back down I found a brush pickers coat and took it with me. The rain of course stopped by the time I got down, so I was able to fly my camera up there after all and this is what it saw:

Secret pond

On the way out I left the brush picker coat on the brush pickers truck. I later saw him coming down from the woods . I told him about the coat but was not sure if he understood me.

I flew my camera from the road for a bit and got some interesting foggy views before it started to rain really hard.

For the rest of the hike out the rain began lashing down and I hiked out as fast as I could so I could stay warm. I had extra clothes to wear, but I preferred to hike fast to stay warm.

I think my hike was 8 miles round trip with about 600 feet elevation gain.