Walks with Moss: Duck a Bush! Another night hike on the Duck.

Usnea longissma lichen, Lobaria pulmonaria lichen, Porrella navicularis liverwort, possible Orthotrichum moss

This turned out to be my last hike in the Olympics before my husband died.

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My husband is getting demented and driving me up the walls, between dealing with his literal shit and dealing with my teenager’s shitty attitude, I need to carve out some me time.

A good long hike was called for. I thought about Dosewallips, but with the permanent closure of the road at the washout before the washout, it is too far to go now. Plus it’s getting popular. I can do 13 miles, but I’m not sure that Sage is up for a thirteen with her hip.

Then I hit on the idea of Duckabush. I don’t particularly like the Duckabush trail, and it’s been too damaged by forest fires for me to be able to make it beyond Big Hump for quite some time.

It seems that a lot of people don’t much like that trial though, so I figured I could get some solitude there and maybe the way was now clear to five mile camp.

I got off to a late start thanks to working late the night before. I did not hit the trail until about 10:30. My turn around time if I wanted to hike out before nightfall was 1:30.

The way to five mile camp was clear and I missed my turn around time by nearly an hour and a half. Oh well, I’ve done this trail in the dark before. As long as I could make it back down Big Hump before dark I would be satisfied.

The hike to five mile camp was exactly five miles, but it was longer than I remembered. The camp is kind of dreary and certainly haunted.

Lunch was hot ramen without the seasoning packet but with ground beef, tomato sauce, hot sauces and soy sauce. Dessert was a homemade grape leather roll. Lunch was good!

I started my hike out at 3pm. Just as I started coming back down from Big Hump, I saw the only other hiker that I would see all day. She was a woman with a dog who also was not afraid of hiking in the dark! The woman was still hiking in as I was hiking out! I told her that sunset was in forty minutes, just in case she did not know, I would tell a guy the same thing, and she thanked me but kept on hiking in . She passed me on the way out, about one hour after sunset.

I wore Sage out on this hike, maybe it was too much for her. It is hard to know what to do with a dog that is so determined to go hiking, but suffers for it in the end. I’m suffering today too, but I knew full well I would be suffering the next day.

Russula brevipes in the dark with a headlamp

I packed my mini tripod, off camera flash and flash controller, but did not have time to use any of that stuff. I did do some after dark photography with my headlamp.

My backpack is wearing out and I ripped a huge hole into my water bottle pocket on this hike. I have the material to make a new pack, I better get started on it!

This next pack will be my fourth handmade pack but for the first time I have bought material to make the pack with it. My first three packs were made from an old tent rain fly. The material was old to start with.

I need to go back and look at my records to see how many miles this pack lasted. I also need to patch it before my next hike. It does take me more than a week to make a new pack.

10 miles with about 2,000 feet total elevation gain on an up and down route.