Walks with Moss: Sleuthing out an Abandoned Section of the Dry Creek Trail

Cut log on the old abandoned trail
N47 27.736 W123 23.683

Decided to go look for the abandoned but not logged section of the Dry Creek Trail. There is a 1 mile long section that was abandoned when it was cut off by a logging road and that section was never logged.

Most of the Dry Creek Trail was destroyed by logging and I’ve always wondered what route it took to get from the pass down to Camp Comfort. Meck on NWhikers net pointed me to a map that showed the old route. I was very excited to know the old route and when I looked at it I immediately realized that there was an abandoned section of the trail that was never logged, so we set out to find it.

Why was this cut and left to rot?
N47 27.918 W123 23.536

We started like I always start by brush crashing down from the current trail head. I always knew full well there was no way that the trail took the same route as the logging road. I’ve been looking for where it cut the switchbacks in the road for quite a while now. I don’t think I will ever be able to find that part though. Even having a rough idea of where it went did not help, since most of that section has been logged. The section was logged but not not clear cut, so I had hoped to find some traces, but no luck.

We came out of the woods onto the next switchback down on the road and then headed into old growth to look for the trail below the second road cut. It was not looking good, we went down and down searching for any sign and could not see the trail. We did find a Hemlock tree that had been cut and left to lay in the forest. It was a strange sight, well away from any logged area, just one cut tree. We could not even find the stump. I suspect it was a timber cruiser. Perhaps when they saw the center was rotten they decided not to log that section?

Down we kept going looking for the trail, it did not look like we would find it at all. Then I looked up and saw a tell tale cut log. Just one section was cut out of it and rolled away, it had been cut to clear the old trail when it fell down across it. YES! I was so excited! We found the old trail. The trail was very clear with lots of cut logs and we could see the grade. Then suddenly the trail was not clear.

Trail tread goes through the middle, cut log near upper right in photo

Log cut for trail

We kept going down finding the trail cut here and there and then losing it again due to blow downs or maybe switchbacks that we missed. We want to go back and look some more but starting lower down on the road since the angle of the old trail indicates we left the road in the wrong spot.

I would like to see this old section of the trail re-opened, as it is in a beautiful old growth forest. Right now, most people cannot reach the current “trail head” by car due to the obscene water bars dug into the road. People have to hike one mile up the road just to start the hike and the hike then starts on a closed logging road. If the trail was reopened down to where the road crosses Lebar Creek it would be a much more interesting hike and folks would not have to wade across Lebar Creek at all.

I intend to go back and flag the entire route in hopes that I can convince someone, maybe the forest service, to reopen the trail.

We had a great time on this hike. We did over a mile of brush crashing looking for the old trail, but it was fairly easy brush crashing and it was great to be in the old growth sleuthing out a trail.

Meanwhile Shelton was celebrating with its outdated deforestation festival. I always make a point of leaving town to hike in an old growth forest when Shelton is doing that. Our forest festival was about being in the forest, not about destroying the forest.

Fallen old growth that hid the old trail tread

Lebar Creek

Lebar Creek near where the old trail crossed it

Green was our route today. Purple was a line I drew guessing where the old trail was
based on the 1953 map. Magenta is a line I want to follow next time