Lower Big Quilcene Trail

Track and elevation log

Red backed salamander

8 miles with 600 feet elevation gain.

Algae

Anacolia menzeseii

Bleeding hearts

Olipanix horridus (Devils Club)

fern

Wild ginger flower

Pacific rhody

Vannila leaf

False Solomon's Seal

Shroom with veil remnants and vulva

Mount Rose Thunderstorm

The Glorious Summit View


This was the most high energy hike I have ever had. But I survived the drive home. I'm too manic to type. Damn! I can't imagine what kind of trouble I would have gotten myself into if I had stayed in town today.

I made a very long movie of the final push to the summit. I think this will play if you right click and save the file.


Over 1000 feet per mile!



I hiked up in the pouring rain. At one point a thunderbolt crashed and I screamed with glee and yelled "bring it on mother nature!" "You made me, you can come and take me!" The thunder frightened my dog so I had to reassure it that it was ok, it was all good.

The view at the top? Lol I made my own view once I got up top. Maybe I'll have the nerve to post it here.

Brought my doggie with me. She did well, but she shivered a bit on the summit. At least she had her coat on. I saw bears heads and chicken of the woods and a lobster mushroom. The creeks all swelled up and turned into rivers. All that water came down while I was up there.

Mount Rose is now flushed of all the summer hikers. She is clean again and she was all mine. I only saw one piece of toilet paper.. Actually a baby wipe. I picked it up with my trekking pole and pushed in into a hole under a tree.


Yep that's how it felt




Dog shaking off the rain




Salamander hiding from me (rough skinned newt)


(I know the rule of thirds but where does my dog fit in?)
It rained so hard and the ground was so dry that the rain flowed down the trail.



(Found the time to make a tight composition on the way down)

I saw a sexy looking guy at the gas station on the way there and I smiled at him a few times. He looked a bit strange. He was dressed in deer or bear killing cloths from head to toe. I bet he's not used to having strange women smile at him. He looked a bit surprised by my smiles.

I bought some food at Arco. Too manic to be on a budget and look for the cheapest power bars in town. So I splurged and bought a bag of jerky and two overpriced cliff bars. Too bad it turns out The Cliff bars had caffeine in them. I could have done without caffeine today!

I had to share the jerky with my dog because I left the canned cat food in the car inspire of making great efforts to remember to pack it.

It took me awhile to leave the trail head and start my hike because I was so disorganized. But I just gave myself the time and re-did everything a dozen times unlock the door, lock the door, whoops I forgot something, unlock the door, now why did I unlock the door what did I want, oh yeah I remember what I wanted but it's not in this door, re-lock the door, close it. Unlock a different door, get what I want. Remember there was something else in that first door go unlock it again, try to remember what it was. Repeat several times with each door of my five door. Such is life.
 But the system must work because I've never left my GPS on my car roof and I've only locked my keys into my car at the trail head one time.



This is like this and that. (Hint white stripe on tree and on dog, sharp black pointy stump and spot on dog's side.)


Handrail


Chicken of the Woods, water on the lens


My first glimpse of my true love Mount Rose!


Manic



For the first time ever I took my I-pod on a hike and I listened to it for most of the hike. Water song played to deaf ears! I took it off for a bit though. I mostly listened to John Trudell but also listened to Enigma and Ronnie Gilbert and some other stuff. It did make hiking more fun and helped me with the push to the summit.
*********
3 hours up
2.75 hours down
3,500 feet
6.9 miles
177 miles on my shoes
)))))))))))

Other times I have blogged Rose
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Saturday, June 09, 2007





I took a lot of pictures on the way down but most of my pictures are blurry from water on my lens. I'm kind of glad that some of them came out blurry!

I hope my camera survived this rainy trip. I did not take proper care to keep my camera dry.

My husband had dinner waiting for me and I really enjoyed that. I did not cook lunch or make tea on the summit because it was too cold so I was ready to eat when I got home.



Before Starting (Wow, black really is slimming!)



Fall colors and rain on the lens


Fall colors and rain on the lens


Overhanging mossy rock and dog



Wet!


Floodgates about to burst


This tree survived multiple forest fires only to fall to the (firefighters?) Chainsaw


A sense of place


More dead stuff

Spaniel eyes


How many times have I photographed these trees?

I ran through my favorite forest instead of taking my time.



Setting up the shot


Different realities was my listed trail register destination


Bears head about to be decapitated


Flush baby flush! Flush away the tourists and the greeners. You're all mine for the winter.


Flush! I sure am glad the wildlife department cleaned up all the anglers poop before this happened.



The Day After

So it is the day after the hike and I felt really good for the first 4 hours after I woke up but now the beast is back. But I felt really good this morning. Not too anxious, not too manic, not depressed, clear headed, able to think. It was nice. I must try to get out every week, it does me a world of good.

I am a lot sorer than I expected to be. With the condition I am in I did not actually expect to be at all sore today.

Yeah the manic monster is back now but at least my body is too tired to pay it much heed. Just my thoughts are racing.

I'm reading a book called "Tracks" it is about "A woman's Solo Trek across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback" copyright 1980. I found this book in a dumpster a few months ago. This reading makes a nice change from the gender-centric musings of Edward Abbey. Abbey writes some good stuff in Desert Solitaire but it is hard for a female bodied person to read. Female bodied people are just an after thought, he never seemed to think that a female bodied person (a woman) might read his books! But Abbey is a product of his times and I grew up during those times, so his writing style is all too familiar.

So now to read about adventures from a female point of view is a refreshing change. Right now I'm on page 74 and Robyn Davidson is depressed, it is nice to read that other people get depressed too. I hope I can do some more reading today. I hope my mind will be calm enough to allow me to read.






Dead Manzanita for a certain forest ecologist

Fir Lake Backpack

South Side of Lake

I've seen this lake in the pouring rain and I've seen it covered with snow. I've never been able to hike around it due to snow and time constraints. This week we camped at the lake and I finally got to thoroughly explore it.

Hiked up to the lake with both kids. We had the lovely lake all to ourselves for two days. The lake is surrounded by old growth forest. Only 15% of the old growth on the Olympic Peninsula is left. This lake is special but it has no protection.

The highlight of the hike in was finding a huge can of unopened beer. The brand was Sapporo Ichiban or something like that. I am always on the look out for interesting cans that I can make alcohol stoves with. I was not expecting a full can of beer; I just wanted a closer look at a pretty can with a dragon on the side of it.

When I prodded the can with my trekking pole an animal bitten hole opened up and beer started squirting out. I was surprised to see beer squirting out. I grabbed the can with my hands and let the beer squirt out until I felt the can was clean and the animal bite hole was sterilized. The animal was not able to bit all the way through the can but the slight prodding with my trekking pole opened the hole.

I drank as much as I felt I could safely drink while backpacking and then I gave the rest to my dog. The hike in was really fun after that. I sang to the banana bunch tune la la la, la la la la; I found aaaaaa giant can of beer. The kids were pleased to see me in such a good mood. I think I'll start bringing beer on all my trips now. (Joking)




We brought our bad dog with us because we figured we would have the place to ourselves. The solitude was awesome. We were so happy to be there alone and not be sharing the lake with boy scouts. We knew we could not get this kind of solitude at Lena Lake. I chose this as my five year olds first backpacking trip (under her own power) because it is gentle like Lena Lake but it is not crowded and horrible like Lena Lake. Lena Lake was one of my oldest daughter’s first backpacking trips.

On Our second night my youngest got cold so I zipped her Sweetie Pie Sleeping Bag Expander into my sleeping bag. That made her warm but it made me cold. I had to sleep in my rain pants to stay warm. I had left my warmest sweater in the car at the trail head. Doh! Next time I'm going to bring a real sleeping bag for my youngest. I'm also thinking about getting a new sleeping bag for myself. It seems that the down in my bag had all drifted to one side.




Tall Grass



Mint Lake



Largest Spearmint Patch I have ever seen



Inside Tent


Cold Morning Mist




Cold Misty Morning





Blueberry eating on the way back







Our Camp



Our camp right before we left



Our campsite last winter



Our campsite last fall

We spent our time exploring the lake, eating blueberries and drinking spearmint tea. On the morning of the second day we added blueberries to our brown rice and then we had purple rice!




Then in the afternoon of the second day, god created quads. Luckily we were already thinking about leaving before the Church group arrived on quads. They drove up the closed roads, hauling their backpacks up on Quads. There were about 18 of them, 14 young teenagers and 4 adults. The arrival of the Church made the decision to leave easy. Wow, there went the neighborhood. Shouting, fishing and swimming, ripping the heads off off newts for fish bait and so on. They were much better behaved then the usual boy scouts at Lena Lake, but still they totally shattered our solitude and demystified this special area.

  I think they should have gone to Lena Lake. At Lena Lake they would have fit right in and disturbed no one. But I am glad that the Church used a chain saw to clear the trail for their quads, I am also glad that I did not hear the chainsaw running.



I wish the group had at least stayed away from our campsite while we were trying to eat our final meal. Why did they have to surround us? Why couldn't they murder newts on the far shore? My 5 year old was very upset when she saw they were murdering salamanders. I was upset to have so many people staring at us. I was also too upset to eat our last supper at the lake.


On the hike out I found my geocache by the side of the trail, it was not in its hiding spot. It was right on the trail and inside my cache I found a loaded shotgun shell, a live bullet and a cigarette. I removed all that crap and re-hid my cache. I don't think the church group was responsible for the problems with my geocache.

We removed a tent and an air mattress that had been abandoned at the lake but we left an abandoned raft behind. The quad riders said they might haul the raft out.

On the way home we saw that Lake West has been raped by Weyerhaeuser, so much for that once beautiful area. That was one of my favorite winter time hikes. Interestingly at the same time, Simpson Lumber Co. will take downtime at its operations in Shelton and Longview, Wash., the week of August 3 due to market conditions.

When we got home we had no place to park because someone had parked three cars right in front of our house. I gave up and parked on the sidewalk.

Now I need to go on another hike so I can get my peace of mind back.

6 miles RT (unless you drive there on a quad)
600 feet elevation gain (about)
140 shoe miles


Trees damaged by nearby Forest Service thinning operations






40 acres were "thinned" here. The (profits went to a timber company) the forest service used the money it made here to decommission 1/2 mile of a road. The 1/2 mile of road covered part of the Skokomish trail and now it has been converted back to trail.


Trail in the winter



Trail in the winter