Walks with Moss: Lost all sense of space and time in the enchanted swamp

Got my camera fixed by buying a junk camera and swapping out the parts. I decided to go back to the swamp with my camera even though the peak of fall colors has passed.

There are no landmarks in the swamp, so I tend to get turned around there, I drew a route to follow and put it in my GPS before I started.

I got off to a very late start, I got up at ten and did not hit the brush until almost 2:30!

My plan was to slowly meander around the swamp taking photos while making my way towards my lunch destination.

Before I knew it I was way off route. My GPS made it look like I had been going in circles, but I thought the circles were from the time I went in there in 2016 and walked in circles.

When I got home I realized those were new circles that I made. I made several circles and I never made it to my lunch spot.

Thanks to getting so far off route, I did a lot more brush crashing than I had planned, but I also discovered an old road complete with old trash.

It rained briefly while I was walking in circles so I hung my tarp over a few arched vine maples and had coffee and a dog biscuit out of the rain and in comfort.

When I got to Lake Quilcene I saw that it was darker than expected. I looked at my GPS and saw that it was 5pm!

Sunset was in one hour and I was three miles from my car. Whoops.

I decided to stop and have my coffee and snack and turn around right there. I brush crashed all the way to the lake, but I walked out on the road as I don’t care to brush crash in the dark.

I had to headlamp hike for half an hour, I made it out one full hour after sunset. For whatever reason, I was not very spooked hiking out in the dark this time.

Maybe I was too tired, or maybe it was the openness of the road, I really don’t know.

For the most part I was able to think about things other than mountain lions.

I did make a point of making some noise though so there would be no chance of startling a giant cat. I make noise by singing this song from Barney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cm7ALC1BAE I read that cougars are most active at dawn and dusk and there have been a couple of cougar attacks in this state recently.

Sage was wearing her reflective orange vest so I pulled out her little light that is made to attach to it. The light is kind of cheerful too look at and makes it easier to see Sage when she runs away to chase all the things she can smell in the dark.

I did not get as many photos as I had hoped with my late start and it being too dark to take photos on the way out.

6.5 miles with 250 feet elevation gain. 3.5 of those miles were in the brush.