Ten mile dayhike with an overnight load.

(I'm going to make a video like this for the Cedar tree in my back yard too)

I'm was feeling pretty distressed when I learned that the beautiful cedar tree that has graced the view from our back window is about to be cut down.  Also a bit distressed about a work situation.  So at the spur of the moment I decided to do a short overnight backpack trip.

I did this trip two years ago at about this same time,  and there was no rain in the forecast so I though I was good to go.  I packed only my 6 ounce cuben fiber tarp for shelter from the condescension.  I needed to save weight since I was packing two cameras and and external flash unit.

This is a destination that is not a secret but still, I don't care to advertise it at all.  I could easily turn into the tourist nightmare that is Lena Lake.

My plan failed.  It started to rain and I was not prepared for rain.  I had to stop and repack everything that was on the outside of my pack to keep it dry.  Then I hit snow.  I was not afraid to camp in a little bit of snow, but then it kept raining and raining.  The snow was getting deeper and I was getting tired.  The though of hiking through the grey rain on the cold snow and then camping in the snow and the rain was demotivational.  Trudging through snow with a 25 pound pack was demotivational too.

I turned around just half a mile from my goal and that is something that I rarely do.  The rain kept coming down for a while after I turned back and I knew I had made the right choice.  I stopped at a popular dispersed car camping spot and had a nice lunch and I had some fun flying my camera on the way out.


In spite of being turned back and having  to do a day hike with a full overnight load, I enjoyed the hike.  Mentally I felt much better.  I'm perimenopausal and I have an emotionally liable personality at the best of times, so I'm really suffering lately.  Hiking is the cure though.

Now the day after I almost managed to go all day without thinking about the beautiful tree in my back yard that is about to die.  I was told that it will be cut down before they start construction on a title company building. 

We are not looking at all forward to losing our open view to a giant commercial building, but at least it is going to be just one story tall and it should be a fairly quiet neighbor.  At one point there was talk of building a fast food place with a drive through window back there and that really would have been hell for us.


9 miles with 1,000 feet elevation gain

Rhizomnium glabrescens, I think

Magical alder grove that I always fail to capture the way I want to

Practicing my off camera flash skills on my most willing subject

Lunch by Cedar Creek

Sage action shot.  It is very hard to get action shots with my hiking camera

High water and fence post reflections on the Skokomish Valley road

Moooo

Close to where I turned back

Very ugly road to trail conversion

The top of a gaint old growth tree

Same tree

Kamilche or McCleary Geocaching in a Daze in the Rain

My GPS(r) with a geocache
I prefer this Garmen GPSmap 60CSX over the newer models

A sudden change of fortune this month has prompted me to stay closer to home.  Also the weather has been awful.  Never ending rain.  The sun breaks only serve to trick me into going outside just to be rained on.  Such dreadful weather is doing my head in.

I decided to revisit a geocaching area about halfway between Kamilche and McCleary.  I was last there just over a year ago and I had started working on a puzzle cache.  I've looked for all the other caches in the area, but I'm just not a fan of puzzle caches.

Started my hike in the rain with Sage.  I always try to get out of the car and onto the trail without anyone seeing me get started.  I try not to advertise that I am a woman hiking solo.  But there was so much traffic on the road, I'm not sure if I succeeded.  My efforts to stay safe can also rouse suspicion.  Why is that person hiding?  They must be up to no good!

So I wandered around in the rain in a terrible mood looking for geocaches.  Because I was in a down mood,  I fell a lot and because I was in a down mood each fall hurt much more than usual.  I hiked 2.6 miles in five hours!  I was moving slow and taking lots of pictures during the brief sun breaks.

When I had found the last cache and it was time to turn back I honestly had no real idea what way was back.  I was dazed and confused.  I mean, I knew that downhill would take me back, but I did not remember the lay of the land at all and without my GPS(r) I would have gone down the wrong drainage.  Okay it turned out it was not the wrong drainage, just not the one I came up.

An oldgrowth cedar stump  is all that is left of the ancient tree that once grew here.
I am going to really start documenting these stumps. One day even the stumps will be gone
 and then no one will have a clue how much has been lost and how big trees are supposed to be.

At lunch time I found a perfect log with perfect trees aligned perfectly so I could pitch my tarp.  It was a nearly perfect tarp pitch on the first try, I only had to tweak it one time!  But the log was not so perfect, it was bumpy and uncomfortable.  To add to my discomfort Sage began to shiver, so I knew it had to be a short lunch break.  I shared hot soup with Sage to help warm her up.

Sage was wearing her raincoat that keeps her back dry, but it was not enough.  I think Sage gets cold easier than Patches did too.

While under the tarp I got out my camera, mini-tripod, two wireless controllers and an off camera flash.  I used this to take pictures of some fungi that I had carried with me.  There under my dry tarp I was able to photo the fungi, while Sage shivered and I felt guilty.

I use my old half broken flash units for hiking, but I think I will start using my newer flashes for dry hikes.  I need to memorize how to use my flash system.

Poor person's gumdrops (Guepiniopsis alpinus)

This area is fascinating and probably about to be logged, so I intend to go back soon.  The forest is getting nice and that can only mean one thing in a tree farm.  As soon as a tree farm starts to resemble a forest it gets logged.  The moment you catch yourself thinking to yourself  "those doug-fir look big enough to support chanterelles" the forest will be logged.

The two gates closest to the gate where I went in said that there was active logging in the area and I could hear some logging noises in the distance. 

I found all of the caches,  but could not solve the puzzle to get the final cache.  I might never solve the puzzle.  Perhaps I should do like most cachers do and get the answer from someone else who has already solved it.

Red track is today I actually could have gone right down
that drainage and been fine instead I steered back towards the ridge

I know have 995 geocache finds.  I'd like to do something special for my 1,000th find.  I have not decided what that will be yet other than a hike somewhere new.

2.6 miles with almost 500 feet elevation gain

More Wynoochee wandering

Tetraplodon mnoides moss.  It only grows on dung and bones.

Back to Wynoochee for another hike before the gates open and give and take away hiking opportunities.  My poor little car could not make it to the wild life gate thanks to a stupid water bar.

  Water bars protect roads while making them impassible for anyone who does not have a truck or a Jeep.    I had to add almost two miles to my hike thanks to just one water bar.  The road was okay for my car before and after the water bar.

The plan was to carpool to this site with Phil.  But he was running two hours late and I did not care to wait around any longer so I told him to meet me at the gate.

Phil missed his turn and parked at a different gate and met me at the lunch destination.   After lunch we both hiked back out our separate ways.

There was less snow this time and I did not use my snowshoes at all on the way down.

I’m still need a pickup truck, but my family has just taken a hard hit to our monthly income. I don’t know if I want to pay for tabs and insurance on another vehicle with my monthly income being so low.  

I’ve found a great printer and am offer very high quality prints of all the photos on my blog for reasonable prices.  I don’t have any good photos from this hike though.

Next week I will hike behind another gate.

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Why does water always come in waves in these culverts?

Pretty road hike

Waterbar that forced me to park