Maidenhair and Wynoochee Falls

Maidenhair falls

Note: All photos on my blog are all rights reserved, no replication or sharing without permission.  Prints are available too.  The price for prints in 2018 is  $20 for an 8X10 plus $6.00 postage or no postage if picked up in person

Back  to Wynoochee.  I don’t know a lot of places to explore in the area, so I hiked to two waterfalls.  This was my second or third time going to Maiden hair falls and my second time going to Wynoochee falls.  I really need to get a high clearance vehicle, a truck I think, so I can haul stuff too.  I worry about the cost even though I can afford one.  I’ve just got to force myself to buy one.  I know I will love it as long as it is reliable. 

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I loved my Jeep, but it was always breaking down, so I got rid of it.  Every time I look at the price of used trucks I am shocked by how much people want for worn out high mileage vehicles.

I started my hike at about 9:30 and went to Maidenhair falls first.  I had hoped to fly my camera there but could not get a clear enough signal.  I got confused finding the trail near the bridge over the Wynoochee, there is a dearth of signs there.

Wynoochee falls, this photo is copyright protected.
Prints are available for purchase.  $20 for an 8X10 plus $6.00 postage
or no postage if picked up in person

Next I walked up the road to the old Wynoochee Falls campground.   It was pleasant for a road walk.  The air was clean and there was very little chance of vehicle traffic on the road and no chance of having chemicals dumped on my head.

The trail to the falls is unmarked but not hard to find.  I was able to fly my camera at Wynoochee falls and I hope to incorporate those shots into a video of the hike.  I had lunch at the base of the falls and then I went up an explored the area above the falls before brush crashing out to the road.  I enjoyed my forest brush crash but seeing all the old growth stumps made me sad.

7.5 miles for the day

Wynoochee falls

Basidio lichens

Rotten chicken of the woods

Post apocalyptic campground

Really did walk with moss today

Cowiche Canyon Trail

A somewhat urban hike in a different biome.  I wanted to do the Yakima Skyline trail while I was in the area, but I read that the road was rough.  I don't have a good trail car since I sold my Jeep.  So, I looked for something else with a better road.  Google helped me find this trail.  I still drove around in a circles a bit while looking for the trail head since SIRI had never heard of it.

I knew there was a side trail to a winery and I wanted to start there for car trail head security.  I was on the road,  so I actually I had some valuable stuff in my car.  I left half in my car and half in the hotel.  I found the East Canyon trail head before I found the winery trail so that is where I started.



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I had the trail mostly to myself at first.  As I got near the far trail head the crowds picked up but were still not too bad. 

After hitting the Wast trail head and turning back I headed up the winery trail.  I had a glass of wine and cooked ramen at the top. The wine cost $7.00 for one glass.   I cooked my ramen kind of on the sly as I knew it would leave a temporary mark in the grass. 

 This was not my typical hike at all.  I had a great time seeing and doing something new.  The skies were so blue here too.

The trail got really crowded as I reached the end of my hike and the parking lot was so full that I was almost blocked in.

7 miles with 300 feet elevation gain

Wynoochee Lake Shore Trail

Found a football, set  it down to take my boots off and forgot to pick it up
again before I crossed the river.  Was not about to cross the river again to go get it

Dosewallips road has been on my hiking radar for a while.  I think the hike is actually 13 miles now with the washout before the washout.  Perhaps the washout before the washout will never be repaired.  I did not want to do a 13 mile hike, so I thought about the Wynoochee Lake Shore trail.  But Wynoochee is such a long drive for me, or is it?  I opened up my map program to compare and found that Wynoochee is actually 5 miles closer to home than Dosewallips. 

I opted to do a loop hike around the fake lake.  The lake was created by a flood control dam that caused the entire valley to be flooded and destroyed.  The dam produces power now.  The original Wynochee river trail was destroyed by the dam and the Wynoochee Lake Shore trail was built around the new lake.  The Wynochee watershed was treated savagely by logging companies, not much of the original forest is left.

Video of this hike

The Wynoochee Lake Shore  trail was 12 miles long before the foot bridge that crosses the lake washed out.  I never got to see that bridge, so I’m not sure when it washed out.  Now the only way to do this hike via a bridge is to take the car bridge plus a road detour around a side stream that also has a washed out bridge.  The hike is 16 miles if you do it that way.  No thanks!

So I make my own way, crossing the river about a mile before the old foot bridge.  When bridges washout it is best to find another place to ford.  Bridges are built on deep and narrow parts of rivers.  When you ford a big river like the Wynoochee on foot, you need to find a shallow and wide spot to ford. 

I’ve done this hike twice before in the counter-clock-wise direction, today I decided to change it up by going clock-wise.  I crossed well before the bridge and had lunch on the lake shore.  The crossing was so cold and so long!  This was the first time for Sage to cross a big river and she did great.  Sage did not even shiver, since Sage was not shivering I was able to have lunch right where I crossed instead of haveing to hike a bit to warm up first.

I felt good on this hike until I saw a sign listing the mileage.  The hike back was going to be longer than the hike in!  The hike was just shy of ten miles according to my GPS. I must be a little out of shape because it really wore me out. Perhaps my painful tooth wore me down a bit too.

My tooth still hurts a lot but my sciatica was a bit better.  I think I will be able to cure it with stretching.  I think I have something like piriformis syndrome.  I know that my mother had it.  Today my tooth is actually finally starting to hurt less too.

We had to navigate around a few blow downs and the trail is getting faint in places.  I had the trail all to myself and I did not hear any traffic on the roads that go around the lake, so it was quite pleasant.  I might start going to the Wynoochee more often.

Scapania liverwort on a rock

Oregon beak moss

Peltigera lichen on a tree

How did Sage manage to squeeze through this?

Aulocomnium in wetter conditions than it is used to according to David Wagner

Found this Western toad on the trail, it seemed to be near death
maybe an elk stepped on it.  We heard some in the bushes.

Looking down from the road bridge