Mount Rose before and after

The view from the summit of Mount Rose before the fire



After the fire



A forest service photo of Mount Rose on fire.



The charred remains of Mount Rose

Copper Creek and Shady Lane

Car Bridge at Staircase that allows access to this trail



With the causeway breached the only way to reach the Copper Creek trail is to park at Staircase and start out on the Shady Lane Trail. The Shady Lane trail is a segment of the Dry Creek trail that has not been logged because it is in the National Park. The difference between the two trails is remarkable.

There is a huge washout on the road near the Copper Creek trail head. I think they were planning on closing this road anyway so I doubt it will get repaired. This is a shame because there is a lot of good blueberry picking up this road and I have a geocache up there too.

I have managed to hurt my ankle on some debris on the trail. This is an injury that I get a lot and it is actually an aggravation of a very old injury and subsequent surgery. This time it seems worse that usual but normally the pain goes away quickly. Tonight my ankle is slightly swollen. I lose my medical insurance at the end of this month but I don't think I'll need it for my ankle. I took my own stitches out of my finger this morning, I'm so glad I did not bother going to a doctor and paying for that. It took all of 10 seconds. Two weeks ago I cut my middle finger on a can lid and managed to cut it deep enough to nick a tendon! Now that the stitches are out I can see that I'm going to have a big ugly scar on my finger.

I had a nice hike, my mind was a bit scattered but just being in the woods and not having any human contact for hours on end helped a lot. I always pick trails that I think will be nearly deserted. That is why I chose Mount Rose over Mount Ellinor all the time. I have never been hiking in the Cascades, they are not as close to home and I hear they are very crowded.

I'm in slightly better shape then I thought, I'm not sore, but I might be sore tomorrow. I took this hike really slow and easy to ease my body back into hiking. If my ankle is ok I might attempt Mount Rose in a couple of weeks.

The Copper Creek trail is nice and shady and cool on a hot day, I think I made a good choice. When I woke up this morning I did not want to hike. Normally that means I have a cold but I know that I am not physically ill so I forced myself to go anyway. I was going to hike to big log camp on the North Fork Skok trail but I changed my mind and that change of mind gave me more motivation to hike. I'm glad I did not go on the Skok trail, I saw a lot of cars at the trail head so I don't think I would have gotten the solitude there.

The drive to the trail head was a bit of an ordeal for me, I thought I was being followed and pulled over a couple of times, but the drive home was better so hiking did me some good! I had to go back to May 3 to find out how many miles to add to my shoes. The disaster in my life (fueled by the CDIU) that caused all my symptoms to go into overdrive happened on May 21st. Before that I was happy and had a fragile sort of stability.

Beauty:

Difficulty:



51 miles on my shoes now
GPS says I went 8 miles with 2,500 feet elevation gain
I this hike is actually about 6.5 or 7 miles
Gasoline burned: $7.75 or 1.85 gallons at $4.19 per gallon
Money saved by not driving the Jeep $5.86










I wonder if this gaaging station still works?



Culvert washed out by a creek that I have never seen running. This is right at the Copper Creek Trailhead




I think these two trees along the shady lane nature trail fell this winter.



View of Skokomish river



A polypore



Trial is getting overgrown with tree seedlings



Trailhead Register, I thought I would be the first after the storm but I am off my game several others beat me to it.

Fire Photos, Trinity Lake and Highway 299

Some fire photos for Greg..

The fire came down to the road in one spot but I was too scared of all the hot falling rocks to take any pictures.

BTW Staircase is now open. I'm going to go camping there with my family and do some day hikes. I hope to go up the Copper Creek Trail and then out to Big Log on the Skok trail. I know I'm not in shape for the Wagon Wheel Lake trail. I'm 30 pounds overweight

I will day hike tomorrow but if I'm still in this state of mind tomorrow I will have to ask my husband to drive me to the trail head and then pick me up later, I'm not fit to drive today. But maybe I will be calmer tomorrow.




Along Highway 299



Along Highway 299



Along Highway 299




We did not know that mountain was there until it started to eat the sun. Yes that is the sun! We could not see the mountain for the smoke




Trinity Lake is surreal even without the smoke.. this was one of my strangest camping experiences.



Stump on the martian shore of Trinity Lake



A taprooted stump, perhaps cedar..



The sun in the smoke. The moon was almost completely blocked out by the smoke and the sun looked like the moon.



Oyster Plant in Yreka.




A flower in the Redwoods

48

Fun little hill behind my motel in Yreka California.. I hiked up it twice because I lost my hat up there.  Hill was covered in California Black Oak. I think this is called Greenhorn Hill.


I never did find my hat.


I'm a senior now! My Spring quarter credits were just posted, I've earned 48 credits since returning to college after a 20 year break.

Maybe I will get some hiking in this week. I was looking forward to doing some solo backpacking trips this month but I don't know if I'm up to that. I think I could handle a few dayhikes though. I'll try to get my family to set up a basecamp near a trail head and they I can hike out during the day and re-join my family in the evening.

I really want go to a shelter that I just discovered on the South Fork Skokomish trail and camp there with my family. The place is so peaceful but I know there are bears around I saw plenty of scat near the shelter and I smelled a bear in the bushes when I was eating lunch there.

Yes I know when a bear is around because I can smell it. Bears smell really bad! What do bears smell like? They smell like bear shit. I learned this on my Enchanted Valley hike last summer.

I'm wondering how far into the back country I can go with my 4 year old. Not very far I'm thinking since just walking to the grocery store with her can be torture as she stops to pick every plant and pet every strange dog.

I was really out of my head during my most recent hike a few weeks ago so I won't write about it but I will post a few pictures from it. I actually forgot to bring my GPS on that hike.. now that is just not like me!

I can't post the summit shot of me from my hike in Yreka because well.. because this is a family blog.. (grin)



Near the shelter I want to camp at. I smelled and heard a bear while I was drawing this




One of many washouts on the Skokomish trail bewteen the two shelters




Other side of same washout, I bushwacked around it.




The shelter



This was the third large washout and I turned around here


Now some highlights from my redwood hike when I was even more out of my mind..


A tree penis to go with my mushroom porn

Now a before and after picture.. the same kid is in both pictures..poor kid she's only 11 but has all the issues of a teenager



When my oldest was the same age as my youngest



My oldest and my youngest together




Wildfires fouled the campground air but provided spectacular sunsets over Trinity Lake

Update

I finished up the year at college but still have some work to do to get my credits. My mental health started to deteriorate near the end of winter quarter and I was lucky to get through spring quarter. I don't know if I will go back in the fall but if I do I will be a senior. Hopefully my head will clear this summer.

I did a short hike in the redwoods last week (my husband had to do all the driving) and a couple of really short hikes in Yreka. No hiking other then that. I hope to get out hiking soon, hiking is my therapy and it keeps me well but right now I feel too ill to hike. I had so been looking forward to hiking in the redwoods but I was out of my head during the hike so I don't really know if I got anything out it.

We will not be driving to New York this summer. The trip to the redwoods with the kids fighting in the back seat was stressful enough. Driving to New York would be torture and I'm not up for it. We had wanted to go to Frisco but called that off. Well I did not want to go to Frantic Frisco but my SO did.

My ex husband stalks me and my daughter, somehow he found this blog. He pretends to be friendly but often works to destroy me in the background. I really wish he had not found my blog, I don't feel safe posting here anymore. I'll try to get over it though.