Dry Creek off trail to ridge. Sage's last big hike?

We set out to explore an abandoned section of the Dry Creek Trail but the brush was too wet.   So instead we opted to just hike to the ridge campsite and turn around.  Sadly there was a couple at the summit.  There is no published trail left where I can get solitude in the Olympics now.

We decided to go off trail and explore the ridge past the campsite.  I have always wanted to check out that ridge and by going off trail we could ditch the couple at the summit.

We had lunch at the top of the ridge.  During our lunch break I noticed that Sage was looking bad.  I was not sure what her problem was, but she looked wiped out.  We fed her some nasty fake cheese dip that Phil brought to see if it would perk her up.  I'm not sure if it helped but she enjoyed eating the cheese dip anyway.

On the way back to the summit Sage was having trouble keeping up and she was out of breath.  Sage is too big to carry so we walked slow and took a few extra breaks for her sake.  Back on the summit I gave her an aspirin and shared a pop tart with her.

Sage did okay the rest of the way down to the car but when we got to the car she just laid down instead of begging to get in like she normally does. 

Sage has a had a cough off and on for a few months, we thought maybe she caught covid, I also thought wrongly that the vet would be closed, so I was waiting for the restrictions to lift  a bit so I could take her in. 

The rest of the weekend I kept Sage quite while waiting for the vets to re-open the day after Memorial day.  I was hoping to avoid a huge bill at an emergency vet.  Tuesday morning I managed to find a normal vet to take her, but it was my last choice of the normal vets here because it is a really expensive one.

$430 later we learned that Sage is in heart failure.  She has been prescribed lasix (the vet way overcharged for it) an ACE inhibitor and some expensive new med that could harm her or help her depending on exactly what is wrong with her heart.  I did not buy that $150 medication.

The vet told me that Sage has six to twelve months left to live.  But this is the same vet who wanted me to put Sage on an expensive and lethal heavy duty painkiller for life after looking at her hip.  Sage's normal vet said that was not needed and the hip was not all that bad either.

I'm shocked, I did not see this coming at all.  We thought Sage was only 8 but we got her third hand and I think she is quite a bit older than we have been led to believe.

Sage has cloudy eyes, arthritis, heart failure and she is going gray.  I suspect she is closer to ten years old.   Knowing that she is probably older than 8 helps to ease this blow a little.  I felt so bad for her thinking she had a fatal heart disease at just 8.  At 10 years old it is a little bit easier to take. 

Patches was 14 when I accidentally ran her over with my car at 5MPH and killed her.  My dog before that Oggie Doggie was 15 when I had him put to sleep because he could not use his back legs anymore and was in pain and was incontinent. I'm used to my dogs living for a long time.  So even is Sage is 10, this is a shock.  I've only had 4 years with Sage.  My hiking buddy to replace Patches, she was supposed to last just as long as Patches dammit.  Patches was 4 when I got her, I thought that Sage was also 4 when I got her.  I expected to spend many years hiking with Sage.

The vet said that Sage can still exercise but she needs lots of breaks.  So I will take her on short level hikes if we can get her to stabilize a bit.  She was having 52 respirations per minute while resting we need to get that down to below 30.  After almost three days on lasix Sage is down to 40 per minute.

I am going to try the same hike again tomorrow and sadly I won't be taking Sage with me.   This breaks my heart.  I will hide my backpack in my car tonight so Sage won't see me leaving with it.  She knows that my backpack means hiking and she loves hiking more than anything.

8 miles round trip with 1,500 feet elevation gain  one way.  There was elevation gain on the way out too.

Soaked out on Dry Mountain

Sage wearing her hunter orange to stay safe during hunting season

The last chance to hike up Dry Mountain this year before the wild life gates shut was today.  Yes, there was some rain in the forecast, but I was hoping for some cloudy views at the top.

Well it rained and it rained and it rained.  There would be no view even if we made the trip up.  My rain coat and waterproof boots failed.  Phil’s raincoat failed and he did not have rain pants or waterproof boots.  The higher up we went the more slippery and the more windy it got.

We bagged it, bagged the trip, not the summit.

  Nice fall colors but too wet to get any good photos of them.

I’m now in the market for new rain coat. My REI brand eVent jacket is just not made as well as my first one was.  This is my third one, the second one was not as good either, I should not have bought the third one.

Sad that my boots started leaking.  They are good boots, just too old now I guess.  La Sportiva brand gortex, so expensive!  They seem to last for three years. 

All my Solomon boots barely lasted me one season and sometimes not even one hike before I started getting wet feet.

I don’t want to have to buy new boots, that will kill my budget for a month.  I might just try some snow seal on them for now.

I’m  thinking of getting my next rain jacket at Cabelas.  I’ve had two people recommend them and the price is right too.

6 miles with 1,900 feet elevation gain

Sage blending in thanks to her orange coat

I hope that the animal who took a bit of this poison black and white Russula is okay. Looks like a deer bite. Only one bite taken and probably spit out, this can't taste nice. I keyed this out to Russula albonigra.

I hope that the animal who took a bit of this poison black and white Russula is okay. Looks like a deer bite. Only one bite taken and probably spit out, this can't taste nice. I keyed this out to Russula albonigra.

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

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

Our complete brush crashing track going down

Old forestry marker buried in tree

Old forestry marker on the ground date says
7-15-92

Coffee break on Lebar Creek

My kind of forest festival

We had to pack lots of water for Sage

Attention Mount Rose Trail Crew or anyone else who may want to reopen part of an old trail

I found and old map showing where the Dry Creek Trail used to go and  I think that from the 4 way intersection up,  the old trail tread would still be findable and in old growth forest.  The old trail tread could be found and the old trail could be reopened!  I think only one little section near the upper switchbacks in the road that goes to the current trail head has been logged.  No reason the trail can not be reopened at least from where it crosses Lebar Creek up to the current trail head, thus avoiding building a new bridge to cross Lebar.  It would be nice hike in a pretty area avoiding the overgrown road.

As it is I have to park at the 4 way due to the state of the road up there, my hike distance would be the same if I started at the 4 way but on the old trail.

I'm going back out there to see if I can find the old tread.  Update, we found it!

Cut log on the abandoned section of the Dry Creek Trail

A rough drawing of where the old trail went based on a 1953 map of Mount Tebo
http://historicalmaps.arcgis.com/usgs/

Dry Creek from the South off Trail Exploration

              Watch me crash through the brush looking for something that is not there

The plan was to climb Dry Mountain.   Motivation however was very low.  Not sure why I felt so unmotivated.  I forced myself out the door at about 9:30, a late start, but the days are long now.

The drive up to the 4 way intersection where I have to park was fine, the road is clear of fallen trees from the winter.  I have to park at the 4 way due to the obscene water bars on the last mile of the road to the trail head.  I hate it when they make the water bars so big that you can barely even get over them in a Jeep.  Seems pointless to take such extreme measures to save the road that the road is undrivable.

Energy levels at the trail head were still low, maybe I would just hike to the pass and call it good.  About an hour into my hike I realized that my birthday was the next day!  My spouse had mysteriously said I was going somewhere at 11:30 on my birthday.  Where was I going?  Would it be bad if I was really sore from a hard hike?  I guess it was either a manicure, a pedicure, a massage or skydiving, all things I had never done before.  If I was skydiving, I did not want to be sore.  So to my relief I decided to just hike to the pass and call it good.  Sage and I had a nice lunch on the pass and then headed back on a brush crashing route.

I’d like to find out where the trail went before it was mostly destroyed by logging.  I very much doubt that the trail followed the switchback in the logging road, that was blasted out of a cliff!  I think the trail might have gone straight down across the current switchback in the road, but I’ve searched for it two other times with no luck.  The area in the middle of the road switchback is mostly old growth, so there is a chance of finding the old trail there.  Most of the trail though was destroyed by logging and there would be no chance of finding the old trail tread where it had been logged.

I brush crashed down a tributary to Lebar Creek, but I did not find any trace of an old trail.  I’ll keep looking.  It would be nice to talk to someone who got to hike this trail before it was destroyed.  I wish that the road section of the “trail” would be eliminated by the construction of a new trail that goes through the beautiful old growth forest.  Why force everyone up an ugly old logging road?

Later I was pointed to a map that shows where the trail went and it did not cross the switchback, it completely avoided it!

The Dry Creek trail ends at a road with a big switchback. I was always sure that the trail never took that same route and must cross the switchback and I've even gone off the road to look for the old trail crossing the switchback three times. I never found it because the trail completely bypasses the the road with the switchback never crossing it at all.
 :) Here is a map of the trail as it was in 1953 layered onto a current road map.  Current
trail starts right at the sharp switchback in the road.  

on the drive in

On the dive out, some parts are missing now

Male pheasant on Skok Valley road

Lebar creek crossing is always too slippery to do with dry feet

Blasted out road 

Where the trail now starts

Beautiful old growth that was spared

Trail goes through an old burn here

Crashing through the brush looking for something that is not there.

Off trail and road

Apple mos

Hendersons Shooting star

The route