Cloquallum not a Loop Hike in the fog to start the year.

9 miles 700 feet elevation gain

Check out this Yew wood spoon that Phil made for me!

 

Sage knew it was hiking day so I had to sneak my pack out the back door.  She is not well enough to hike anymore, she has a bad heart. 

I decided to go back and do the same loop but counter-clockwise.  I wanted the best view to coincide with lunchtime this time.  So up I went, up the logging road but there was no view at all.  The spot I had in mind was totally socked in with fog.

It was cold and windy and I did want to get my feet wet on the brush crashing section of the loop, so I decided to double back instead of completing the loop this time. 

As I as heading out I saw a truck so I jumped into the bushes and hid.  I almost always hide when I see a car or truck on the logging roads when I am alone.  I was only able to get about two feet off the road and was not really concealed as the truck went past.  The truck said "champion" on the side at it appeared to be commercial.  The driver never saw me.  It is amazing how easy it is to hide from passing cars.  Drivers don't look to the side much.   But even deer hunters who drive slow and look to the side never see me hiding.  

So far every time if I see the car first I get away without them seeing me.  A few times a car has come up on me and surprised me and I had no time to hide, but that is very rare.

I hide because I don't want to talk to anyone, I'm out there for solitude.  I don't want my chain of though destroyed and I don't want to risk negative interactions.  The way to 100% avoid negative interactions is to have none at all.

I figured the truck would be back soon, cars on these roads often due and this truck seemed lost and even more likely to come back.  I decided that was a good time to head into the woods I had been eyeing and have my lunch break up in the trees out of sight from the road.

I had a nice lunch break, but I was wrong about the truck coming back, I never did see that truck again.  This was my first time hiking on this road and seeing another person.  My perfect record of solitude on the route has been destroyed.

I am moving to New Zealand in late March.  I need to get back into the National Park and do some of my favorites hikes there.   They days are getting longer now so I can drive further.  Also Sage is not fit enough to hike so I may as well go enjoy the park where dogs are not allowed.

Witches butter fungi

Foggy view

Cloquallum Loop Hike in the Rain to finish up the year.

 

This area is not the most exciting but so far I have gotten total solitude out here, so I love it.  The plan was to hike a 7 mile loop on logging roads.

I hit the trail at about 10am, that’s early for me.  My days and nights are reversed.  I have done part of this loop before.  I decided to do the loop clockwise so I could see new stuff at the start of my hike.

The forecast was a 30% chance of rain and that is the best forecast into the foreseeable future. 30% may as well be 100% in December on the Olympic Peninsula so when I got up I put on my thin long underwear and my rain pants.  I think rain pants are uncomfortable when worn over regular pants, but they are quite comfortable when worn just over long underwear.

Shortly into my planned loop I hit an abandoned logging road.  I had used Google Earth and my old Western States Topographic map to plan my hike.  When I saw the closed and ditched up road I was a little worried that my plan for a loop hike would not pan out.

I was glad that I had not brought my bike for this hike.  It would have been very hard to push my bike up the closed road.  Luckily the abandoned section was only about half a mile if that and then it came out to a new road.  The new road was in an area that had been clear cut in 2018.  The view from the clear cut was grand.  This is on Greed Diamond Land and I don’t know how much land Green Diamond got honestly or how much was stolen with phony homesteads, or gifted or grafted in back room deals, but this area is a tree farm now. All the old growth is gone for good, so it does not bother much when they do fresh logging.

The view was nice but it seemed a bit early in my hike to have lunch and the wind was blowing.  I kept hiking and completed my loop much faster than I expected to.  There was no danger of me getting caught in the dark on this day.

I stopped and pitched my tarp to have lunch at about 2.5 miles from my car.  At that point the rain was coming down pretty good, so it seemed wise to pitch the tarp and take a break.  

I forgot my noodles so just had hot coffee with a dog biscuit (what I call a Mayday emergency bar).  On my last hike I spilled all my coffee water so just had hot noodles with cold water.  

 

This was a nice hike to finish up 2020 with.  I will add up my totals for the year soon. I know that I did get a lot of miles in though and I got in some great backpacking trips.

Happy New Year!

6.5 miles with 700 feet elevation gain

The end of my road

Old Chicken of the woods on an Old Growth Stump.
I sure wish I could have seen this area before the logging companies destroyed it.

The going got rough here

Back on the road

Cut clay caught my eye

I used to call road cuts that looked like this ham slices when I was a kid

Not the prettiest lunch spot but at least I was dry.  I sure miss hiking with Sage

My route, I went clockwise

Nothing but tree farms as far as the eye can see

Cloquallium Hill 2

 I tried to go up the highest hill in this area a few weeks ago and ran into an impassable road.  So I went back with a new route in mind and made it up the hill.

I love the solitude in this area.  I hope blogging about it does not change it.  I don't think it will since it is pretty ugly and a permit is required.

I really need my solitude these days, it helps me to clear my mind.  It seems that I value solitude over scenery now.  That is not so good for my photography though.

I knew there would be no view at the top of this hill.  Google Earth showed it was tree covered.  I just went up the hill because it was there and I needed some exercise.

I took my bike so I could coast back down and make it out before dark.  I can't seem to drag myself out of bed before 10am and that makes it hard to get in a good hike before sunset in this, the darkest time of year. 

It was very cold at the top and I only had a limited amount of water.  I managed to tip over my boiling tea water so I only had water left for noodles and no tea.  The hot noodles were enough to warm my hands up some.  By holding the hot cookpot in my gloved hands while eating I can get my hands reasonably warm. 

10 , I'll count 5 of them as hiking miles since I mostly had to push my bike up the hill. 

A levee Walk

 

The ocean was too wet and then it was too crowded and I was a bit out of sorts.  I decided to head back in the direction of home in search of quiet logging road to walk on.  That is when I found this short walk along a levee.

I saw some police activity when I got home so I photographed it.  

Cloqualliam Hill with a turkey sandwich

 

Back to the hill that I call  Cloquallum  Hill.  This walk is just off  Cloquallum  road and behind a Greed Diamond permit holders area. 

This is one of the nicer logging road hikes that I do and the distance an elevation gain make for some pretty good exercise.  I have yet to run into anyone else on this route.  The crowds prefer to go to the nearby lake.

I've started selling my stuff as I prepare to move to New Zealand in April.  I'm so anxious about the logistics of my stuff.  What will I take?  Maybe I will just take a couple of suitcases and call it good.  Maybe I will mail some stuff to myself too.  Maybe I will hire a moving cube and ship some stuff.  

It is so hard for me to know what to do.  I look forward to a fresh start with less stuff.  But I also have some family heirlooms that no one seems to want and are too big to fit in a suitcase.  I wish I was less anxious about my stuff.

Is attachment the source of all human misery?  Do I own my stuff or does my stuff own me?

This was a cold hike but when I realized I had forgotten my water bottle I decided to leave my stove, pot and fuel in the car.   I had packed at wonderful smoked and brined turkey sandwich and two cans of Kombucha. So instead of a long session of cooking noodles and making coffee I just had a quick sandwich and a drink.  Quick because it was wind and cold and a bit of rain was spitting down. 

No view to speak of today, but plenty of good exercise.   There are still chanterelles popping in the woods.  I don't recall ever picking them this late in the year before.

6.5 miles with 1,000 feet elevation gain

Just cell phone pictures today, I was too disorganized to pack a camera.