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Thursday, January 31, 2019

Brush Crashing on the Lower Skokomish

Sunrise

Back to the Lower South Fork Skokomish.  This is the closest forest trail to my home.  True, there is a road on either side of it and homesteads have been built, so this is not a really wild trail.  It's hard to reach the real wilderness this time of year.  It all seems to be  too high in elevation or locked behind wildlife gates or off limits to dogs or too far away to drive to.

So, back to the Skokomish.  I noticed the cell phone reception is getting closer and closer to the trail, but it is not there yet. I hope it never reaches there.  I need an internet free place to go to so I can read.  I have too much trouble reading at home with the distractions of the internet and the land line phone and people.

I got off to an early start, I woke up at about 7:05 to see if my child was actually going to get the school bus on time.  It was a struggle but I got them on the bus.

I hit the trail at 8:30. The plan was a short hike with lots of photography and a very long lunch.  How do you make goddess laugh?  Tell her your plans.

I ended up going off trail to explore a line of ribbons.  The ribbons were marking a property line and led to two signs that marked the forest service land boundary.  I found this worrisome.   Surveys usually mean logging and destruction.  Will they log right down to this trail now too?  The marked off area is almost all Maple.  Maybe some music maple in there?

Next I decided to try to find the actual site of the old Lebar Guard station.  I don't know if I ever found it.  I suspect that the 140 access road was the original road to the guard station.  The area has been logged, so hard to tell what was there.

Next I wandered up the 140 road a bit hoping that it would take me to a jumping off point to reach an interesting flat area I had waypointed.  It did not take me there, there was a ravine in the way.


By this time I was quite hungry so I decided to skip looking at the flat area and go down to the river on an off trail route that would take me to a wide spot on the gravel bed.  Most of the wide spots are on the other side of the river this year.

My route to the wide spot was more interesting that I had hoped it would be and I was getting really tired and I got water just a little bit over my boots.

Once on the river bank, I settled down for a nice long lunch.   During lunch I brewed three cups of  pu erh tea,  cooked a bowl of noodles and read 37 pages of the book "Boundaries, where you end and I begin".  I found that book on my mother's bookshelf after she died.   My mother had a lot of books and it hurt to get rid of most of them, this was one of the 50 or so that I kept.

I'm also reading a book that my husband wanted me to read called "The Money Personality".  That book is 10 ounces heavier though, so it stays at home or in the car.

On the hike out I saw a group setting up three tents on the gravel bar near the trail head.  This trail is now getting campers on a weekday in the winter.  Days of solitude are fading fast.   Summer will bring crowds for sure.

In the summer I will have  have to go off trail to get any solitude, sadly,  crashing through the brush is a great way to get covered in ticks.

8.5 miles with 300 feet elevation gain

I've begun to dread going home to see what damage or mess my child has made while home alone.  My child is 14 and still makes messes and accidentally destroys a lot of stuff.  

When I first got home everything seemed fine.  My child had played with the corn skewers and left them in the sink. But my child had swept up a mess they made and took a shower without flooding the bathroom.

My child hesitated when I asked what he had done with the corn skewers though.  The said he stabbed leaves with them.  Well that was true but in the morning I discovered that he had stabbed leaves that were on the dining room floor.  He destroyed the floor under the leaves, leaving three new holes in the vinyl.  Great.  Can I never leave that child home alone?  At least the vinyl is old and worn out.  I was hoping to remodel the kitchen and dining room after my spouse died.  His hospice bed was in the dining room and I found him dead on the dining room floor.

Clearly it is still too soon to upgrade anything, if my child is still this destructive.  My child will turn 15 next month.  Perhaps I need to wait until he is 18 and moves out before I can fix up my house?



Bob's Conk.  I did this for my Grandma and my Mother when they died too

Part of a row of ribbons

Ribbons led to these signs


Rime Ice


Lunch on the river bank






Yellow is my track, green is the 140 access road.  The waypoint for
Lebar guard station is from my GPS map and might be wrong.



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