Wandering the Closed Roads - Caution heavy doses of sarcasm in this post

Mount Humptulips looms over the Kenai River Valley

New week, same story.  People think the trails are closed and the state parks and national parks are closed, so everyone is crowding into the secluded areas where I normally hike in complete solitude.

I saw three other people on my hike, to me that is an unwelcome crowd. (sarcasm)  It is so startling to see people in my normally private places.  At least when I only see three people over the course of 8 miles round trip, maintaining a six foot distance from them is easy enough.

I often hike this closed road that I never name, to a nice spot that I also never name.  It was a wonderful bright sunny day and I did some sunbathing, but not too much.  I need my vitamin D.    I would normally have complete privacy in this spot but I knew that Covid-19 has turned everything upside down. 

At the start of my walk someone had scratched DANGER into the dirt in big letters.  Well now, I knew better than that,  but still I could have done without seeing it.  A tenth of a mile later in big letters on the road were the words GO BACK.  Wow someone was being silly.  I decided that the people who wrote those words were scared and that was where they turned back.  Still, with all the poaching that goes on out there, one never knows.

I did not go back, I kept hiking to my destination. 

I had a nice long relaxing break in the sun and I felt so much better for my hike.  Hiking is essential to my health both physical and mental.  Walking in town can be an okay crutch, but having to avoid traffic and pedestrians is not the same.   A lot of men probably won't understand why it can be very difficult for a woman to relax while walking on a street with traffic.   

I have had nasty things yelled at me, stuff thrown at me and have been threatened with rape,  all while walking in the city.  Most of that stuff was in Seattle.  I've only been shouted at a few times while walking in Mason County or on the Ocean beaches.  It was always when I had let down my guard and was least expecting to be harassed. 

One incident when I was 22 landed me in the er with a concussion and 9 stitches in my head.  Walking alone in the woods is far safer for a woman, than walking alone in the city.  Statistics will bear this out I am  certain. 

On the way back to my car I was shocked to find a couple sitting on a river bank in lawn chairs 4 miles down a closed road.  What the actual fuck?  Damn this SARS 2 menace.  I said whoa and then hello as I crossed the river and passed them while maintaining a 20 foot distance from the intruders.  (sarcasm)

Shortly after I passed the couple I found a bike locked to tree.  How odd, two people and one bike.  Since they were on bike and there is only one way out, I knew I would be seeing that couple again. 

 I took a strategic coffee break in a nice spot and I timed it just right.  As I was getting ready resume my hike,  I saw the couple.  I crouched behind a rock and petted Sage until they were gone.

Why I do that?  I did it because I knew that I could better relax knowing that the couple was ahead of me and the road was all mine.  No one would be startling me from behind.

Neither of them were on a bike though, so the bike belonged to a third person.  Crap, three people on the same road as me and one was still behind me somewhere sneaking up on me. 

Where was the cyclist?  Had he written those menacing words in the dirt before sneaking in on his all black bike?  I could not see any bike tracks on the road, maybe he came in from somewhere else?  I spent the rest of my walk looking back from time to time to see if the person bike was overtaking me and he never did.

Just as I reached my car the guy on the bike appeared.  He was friendly and had a dog.  I told him (from a ten foot distance) that I had never seen anyone on this particular hike before and he said he was there because every thing else is closed.   He had gone to the same spot as me, so it was good that I had limited my vitamin D production.

Go figure.  All the closures designed to spread out the hikers are actually robbing me of my normal solitude.  Oh well, this will all be just a bad dream someday for those of us who survive without losing a loved one.

My love one is on the other side of the ocean in a country with closed borders.  I sure hope my fiance can come visit me in July as planned.  My strategy of throwing myself into my work to help with the agony of being separated was great until all of my work stopped.


On my drive in I stopped at Lebar and the South Fork Skok and Browns Creek to photo the covid changes.  Lots and lots of people were camped at Browns Creek.  The forest service signs were a bit conflicting with the biggest sign of all saying that camping is open.   
Camping is not open anywhere in the National Forest.  Also where will all those people be pooping with the restrooms are locked shut.

On my drive out I could see that the forest was going to be very busy for Easter Weekend.  Cars and people and tents everywhere.  I even saw a recent car crash with the occupants of a car outside phoning for help.  The occupants were not injured but the car looked to be totaled.   It was either a one car crash or a hit and run.

I'm glad I got out of there and got a good local hike in before the weekend.  I'll be back in the tree farms for my next hike.   I have been keeping it local, I have only filled my tank with gas one time since the stay at home orders, I filled it the day the orders started and I still have over a quarter of a tank left.   I am so thankful to live in a state that lists hiking as an essential activity.

28 miles round trip with 2,000 feet elevation gain.  Hell no I'm not gonna give out the real stats on this hike.  I have to guard my semi-private spaces.

Stay safe everyone.

"Camping Permitted in Designated Sites Only"  is the most prominent sign at Brown Creek Campground.   Thank you forest circus.

Intruders!  (just kidding)

Magic Mountain water springs from a tree root

Intruder! (just kidding)

Poaching?

Post Apocalyptic Backpacking Trip. Laney Camp.

Sage keeping warm in her condensation covered sleeping bag. Sage got to sleep inside of the tent as long as her body was completly enclosed in her bag so she could not foul the tent.

First night in my Tartpent Bowfin.

So many car campgrounds have been shut down. I even found an old viewpoint that had been shut down. I've been hiking into the old closed car campgrounds. I'm starting to call these post apocalyptic campgrounds. The infrastructure in the National Forest is falling apart, funds are being cut and we are slowly being excluded from the forests.

 How many permanently closed campground on public land can you name?

I wanted to photograph star trails with my one year old camera.  My camera has a special feature that shoots and compiles star trails.  I was really eager to try out this feature but it took me a year to finally get to do it.

I picked Laney Camp because it has a nearly clear sky view to the North and because I know I would get solitude there with the wild life gates shut.  The shut gates are another way to keep people out.

My hike started at the gate the blocks access to the Upper South Fork Skokmosh trail head.  I don't like the wildlife gates, but at least they do offer new hiking opportunities when they are shut.  The hike being mostly on a logging road was not pretty or even very fun but it lead to a nice place.

I pitched my never used Tarptent bowfin two near the river and waited for sunset.  Just before sunset thick fog moved in blocking any potential view of the stars. 

The fog eventually moved out but the moon was up.  I did a few start trails with the moon up and a few after moon set. I like the pre moonset photos the most as the moon lights up the foreground.

  It was quite cold so I stayed in my sleeping bag while my camera worked for 25 minutes at a time for each start trail.

I have a great cold weather sleep system now with a 800 fill power down comforter, two sleeping pads, down booties and a down hat.  But all that getting in and out of my bag caused me to lose too much heat even while sleeping in full rain gear a down vest and a fleece sweater.   My new USB hand warmer came to the rescue!  The new hand warmer gets much hotter than my old one.  It also doubles as a flash light and a USB battery charger for all my electronics.

I turned on the hand warmer and put it between my legs and against both of my femoral arteries and before I knew it,  I was fast asleep.

Star trails over Wonder Mountain while the Moon was up

Star trails over Wonder Mountain after moon set.

I brought my GPS on this trip so I could keep track of celestial things and I brought my Delorme inReach so I could sent messages home.  I brought my Ricoh GR II camera for astro photography. I also had my cell phone.  So many electronics, oh well, it's fun.  There was no cell service, I only brought the phone so there would be no risk of it being stolen from my car.  I used the phone to time my photography and to tell me the time of day.  My phone has a huge font for the time and I don't have to put my reading glasses on to see it.

Sadly my tripod broke before I could do any astro-photography.  I had to find things to lean my camera on and could not get the exact views that I wanted.  I was planning on maybe staying for two nights but the broken tripod and the cold convinced me to spend just one night.

Massive amounts of dew settled on the ground and on my tent by morning.  I mostly stayed dry in my tent, only a little bit of condensation dripped onto me when I moved around.  This is a good tent!

For the first time ever I let a dog sleep in my tent with me.  But she was only allowed in her sleeping bag and fully zipped up so she could not touch anything in the tent.    Perhaps the tent was a little bit warmer thanks to her.  She stayed warm enough in her new coat and inside of the sleeping bag.  She did not shiver at all until morning when we left the tent and she refused to stay in her sleeping bag.  

Morning Coffee as the first rays of sun hit Wonder Mountain

I did not sleep as well as I usually do.  The river made too many random noises as rocked rolled down stream.  I find that I sleep best up on the silent ridge tops with a view of everything around me.

I sat around reading "Lady Chatterley's Lover"and slowly packing up until 2pm.  The sun rays were never strong enough to dry all the condensation from my tent.  The sun is so weak at the end of October.  I'll have to finish drying out my tent at home.

The second sentence of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" says.  "The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes".  This reminds me of what it is like to try to set up camp in a post apocalyptic campground.

This campground is post apocalyptic due to the road washing out.  There is no maintenance here now and all that remains is old fire pits, empty signboards a falling down outhouse and half a picnic table.

Half a picnic table is all that is left along with blank sign boards and a falling down outhouse.
Two boards and one bench are missing from this table.  But it was real luxury to have a picnic
table in the "back country" of this post apocalyptic campground.

Closed road leads to closed car viewpoint.  All that remains is the split rail fence to keep
people from falling over the edge.

The road to the campground was very freshly graded.  The grader was still parked there when I walked in, but it was gone when I hiked out.

What evil is this?  Stewardship has become a dirty word to me as the forest service
always finds a way to cut down trees while doing "stewardship"

This outhouse has seen better days.

The old viewpoint

Found on the road just like this.

8.4 miles rt with about 300 feet total elevation gain.

Secret Skokomish Cabin Site

Ouch am I out of shape.  I'm hurting today after this hike.  We reached the start of our hike at about 10:30 after showing our pass at the gate.  I did not want to be delayed by a bunch of blabbing or having papers forced on us, so maybe I was too brusk with the fee collector?  I did not mean to be brusk, I just wanted to hike.  Normally they ask all kinds of questions at the booth and then force dog biscuits and literature onto me.

No dog today though so no list of dog rules were forced on us.  The road to Staircase is in great condition but they are chip sealing 119 and we had a very long delay getting through the construction. The area is probably best avoided until chip sealing is done.

We had a nice hike and then stopped for lunch and explorations.  We were in a familiar area and doing as we normally do, exploring off trail.  It is amazing how much neat stuff you can find if you explore off trail.  Today we found the foundation of a 20X30 building!  We also found a saw blade and lots of mining equipment and old cut logs.  This was all at least 75 years old and some of it up to 122 years old.

The first thing we found was a very level spot.  I said this is not natural, this looks like a cabin site and then my sharp eyed daughter spotted a VERY old fire ring with rocks that had been set up around it for sitting on.

Pack is leaning on a sitting rock, other sitting rock is on the bottom of the photo, fire pit
is near the upper right.

Very old fire ring.

I've started up a Patreon page so that readers can support my blogging and photography and get some great rewards in return. The subscriber levels start at just $1.00 per month.  Subscribers will get my 2018 Olympic Mountian Calendar and other rewards such as track logs and directions to some of the places that I go.   Here is the link: 

Then I found a bit of a stone wall. It seemed like maybe it was just a camp site with a fire ring, but it was so level I think there might have been a small building there at some point.

Next my eye spied and old wheel barrel and some old tubs.

We continued to explore and found a saw blade propped up against a tree with some heavy mining equipment.

Then my daughter exclaimed in excitement as she spotted a building foundation.  What find!  We know that there old cabin sites in the area, and logic told us there must be one here, but we have never heard of this cabin.  The entire foundation could be clearly seen, but all the wood was long gone.  I think this cabin was torn down by the park service.

The entire foundation can be seen

Evidence of old logging

Another cut log

We know about Hammer Cabin on a near by trail, but have never heard of this cabin.

We had so much fun exploring that we thought we might get caught in the dark, but we made it out well before dark.

These three large trees in a row grew on the same nurse log

A known cabin site

A nice waterfall right on this trail

Pot shards.  We took nothing.

Hiking out