Lower South Fork Skok

Skokomish Valley, I realized I had not packed my boots while I was
taking this photo

 This was the first trail I hiked after my maternal grandmother died, could that be part of the reason that I'm not very fond of this beautiful trail? This is the closest trail to my house by about four miles I think.  I've been pretty miserable with grief over the loss of my spouse, but much less miserable than I was a few weeks ago.   Hiking is helping, but I don't like being miserable while I hike.  I'm going to be miserable for awhile no matter what I do though.

I left my house at about 9:30 and planned for a long hike. I made it to the viewpoint overlooking the Skokomish Valley when I realized that I did not recall putting my boots in the car.  The shoes on my feet were crocks and they are not at all suitable for hiking.  I searched my car and yes, I had forgot to pack my boots.    I drove back home got my boots, put a spare pair of shoes in the car in case this ever happens again,  got some gas and restarted my trip.   

 The days are getting longer, so I did not stress myself out too much about  losing time.   This is the first time that I have ever left my boots at home, but there was one time that I packed two left boots or two right boots and had to go home, I was wearing crocks for that drive too. 

 They call this forgetfulness I am having right now "Widow Brain".    Widow brain is a small part of what made me afraid to hike again for a while.  I did not trust myself out in the woods alone.

I packed a big camera, two lenses an external flash, a mini tripod and a flash controller for this hike.  I was torn between doing big miles and taking lots of photos.  With so much gear weight it might be hard to do big miles.  This hike turned out to be sort of an in-between.    Pretty good mileage and a fair amount of photos taken.

My new back pack makes it easier for me to carry weight.  I designed this one with much wider shoulder pads than my first three packs.

Lunch spot

I took my lunch break on the gravel bar about 3 miles in and I was surprised to see a couple of hikers come down the bank to have lunch very close to me.  I have never before shared my lunch spots on the gravel bar with other hikers on a weekday.  The other hikers seemed surprised to see me.  I took a fairly long lunch hoping they would leave before me, but they did not.   I got away from them by picking my way down the gravel bar and then brush crashing back up to the trail.

At the start of the hike I felt anxious and sad.  I miss my husband.  I remember a college class I took that went to this trail over and over.  It was a terrible class and the people in my study group let me down bad.  At the time I told my husband that I feared that group had ruined the trail for me forever.  He told me not to worry,  I started hiking this trail way before they arrived and they were all gone back to their home states and I was still there, they were just visitors to my woods. 

Well now my spouse is gone too and used to hike this trail before I met him and I'm still here hiking this trail.   I pondered for a while how to relate that to what he said about the others coming and going from this trail.  I never did come to a  real conclusion other than I should start talking to the trees again

After lunch I did feel better though, the food helped, the rest helped and the exercise helped.   I barely cried at all on the way back.  I found a reshi conk (Ganoderma oregonese) that was fresh enough to harvest so I did.  Reshi is supposed to help suppress cancer and my immune system is sure to be stressed right now.   I've read different figures on the increased death rates for recent widows and colon cancer was mentioned in most of the stuff I have read.

Dog with the sun for hair light and an external flash for fill light

During my hike out, I took a second coffee break near the site of the old homestead.   That is where all the stumps are, I think it was the Lebar homestead.   During my coffee break I chopped up the reshi into pieces small enough to add to a cup of tea.   I have no idea what the right dose is though.  It is possible the chemicals need to be extracted with alcohol instead of boiling too, I just don't know.  I'll stick with boiling it and hope I get some of the good stuff out of it that way.

Towards the very end of my hike I begin to feel really peaceful.  I think the dimming light helped.  The forest was getting sleepy. During my coffee break,  I checked my watch and saw that sunset was near, so I picked up my stuff and headed out.   I would have liked to have sat there longer.   I made it off the trail at sunset, with just a bit of light left.

7.5 miles with 300 feet elevation gain

At seven miles with barely any elevation gain this does not count as a "real" hike, but my body thought it was a real hike.  My back is sore now.  Grief takes a lot of energy they say.  

During this hike I resolved to try to solve the problem of my washing machine will not spin clothes by watching YouTube videos once I got home.  I've watched a few videos now and done a test and I think the problem is the door lock.  I do my best planning while I am out hiking.

I think I'm pretty much done with ever calling in the pros to fix my home appliances, they can never seem to fix them for less than the cost of a new machine.

Sigma 10-20mm

Someone lost their glasses Sigma 10-20mm

Coffee with a bit of Ganoderma in it