Resolutions...

So, winter weather has made the hiking plan fall by the wayside. That, and something else that's been taking up a bit of my free time lately. Joe's created a blog about the newest adventure in our lives.

We did manage to fit in a hike before the snow started falling. In mid-November we went on our second hike to Madison Creek Falls near Port Angeles.

It was a bit rainy and there were slippery fallen leaves on the trail, but we enjoyed this SHORT hike (less than 1/4 mile and it's paved for wheelchair access). See all the leaves? This is why we're waiting for nicer weather to do more hikes...

The falls stopped us short as we rounded a corner in the trail - you don't think you're that close until you are suddenly confronted by the 50 ft. falls just feet from the trail. Pretty amazing that scenes like this are not far from where we live and yet for years we've never had the motivation to go out and find them.

Before we left we wandered across the street to take a few pics of the rain-swollen river (and to get a bit of extra walking in - 1/4 mile just doesn't a hike make in my book).

Moss, moss, everywhere

It's been awhile... We actually have been on another hike in the meantime, but I've slacked off on the blog front. I was having Flickr issues. But I've finally sat down and wasted some of my quality time to set up a new account. I'm hoping that this will allow the photos I post to actually be links so the photos can be viewed in more detail. So, this is my test. Here's hoping it works!

Just thought I'd post a few pics which show why I picked my blog name. In the Olympic forest, moss permeates everything and turns the whole world green. Tree trunks, stones, even cars that get abandoned for too long will eventually be swallowed by the stuff.

PS - Okay, so that didn't work so well. I'll have to check with my brother-in-law about how he does it. But here's the link to my Flickr page in the meantime for more photo viewing pleasure!

Hike #1 - Ranger Hole

It's been rainy and cold for weeks [what's new? this is Washington, after all]. So I've been wimpy out and there hasn't been a lot of hiking going on. But we did manage to get one good fall hike in a few weeks ago before the bad weather hit. Now I'll have a couple of bad months to catch up on my blogging and post some hike photos until the nice spring weather comes again.

The hike I chose to be our first is called "Ranger Hole" and is located near Brinnon, WA, just south of the Dosewallips river. It was less than 2-miles round-trip and didn't have a steep incline to deal with so it seemed like a good trail for beginners. Plus, it was the one offered in my hiking book that was the shortest drive from our house. I figured if I had to drag Joe along with me on this adventure, we might as well not have to drive 4 hours to get there and back.

The cool weather had its benefits - there was only one other car parked at the trailhead. And the trail was just about perfect for someone who hasn't done this in a loooong time. It wove through the forest and underneath all of the evergreens and golden fall leaves for 0.8 miles, with a steep downhill trail towards the end as you near the Duckabush river. And such a river! The view is from some craggy rock cliffs overlooking a rapids that forms a brilliant blue pool. According to the info at the trailhead, this trail was blazed by the local ranger as a route to his favorite fishing hole, hence the name. It makes sense, but I have to say it still makes me grin to say or type it [I know, I know...that's just my immaturity coming out, as usual].

The rocks are a perfect stop for a picnic, even though the hike is so short that it's not likely you've worked up much appetite at this point. And you can explore a little bit in each direction up the shore of the river and down the rocky cliffs (carefully!) for some good photo-ops. Then, unfortunately, you have to face that steep uphill climb to get back to the trailhead. Ouch!! That's where I could really tell how out-of-shape I really was!

Near the end, there's a little quarter-mile loop called the "Interrorem trail" (don't ask) with interpretive signs about the history of the trail and ranger station. There's a little cabin which is available to rent. It's not very private, what with the parking lot for the trailhead right there, but it does look charming. Apparently, this was the first ranger outpost built in the Olympic forest, or something like that. I love that it's still standing and open to the public after all of these years. There's even a working water pump out front!

Joe & I managed this hike and had enough fun that we were psyched up for the next one as we drove away through the forest, my new shoes a little more muddy for the wear. I just hope the weather cooperates with us and provides another clear afternoon before too long!

First Steps

After that initial stage of wanting to try hiking, we had a few orders of business to take care of before we could actually go out and do it. First, I checked out a LOT of library books about day hikes. I'm not exaggerating here, either...after 8 years, my husband has long become used to the towers of library books in piles around our house whenever a new topic strikes my interest. My favorite book turned out to also be the shortest (go figure!):

This book doesn't offer so many hikes that the options get overwhelming, so it's easy to pick and choose. I'm such an anal planning junkie that I proceeded to rank the hikes by level of difficulty and how far of a drive they are from our house.

Next, I ordered my new hiking shoes. I'm not a fan of high-top shoes, so even though I knew that ankle support is important for hiking (yeah, that's my mom's voice ringing in my ears), I decided that if this hiking thing actually sticks I can always upgrade to a better quality shoe later. Luckily, I chose well - they're super comfy and don't show the trail dirt too much when I trip repeatedly over all of those forest roots.

Last order of business was the park use permit. We almost drove all the way out there without noticing the fine print about needing a permit. I guess national parks often require some sort of pass (duh!), but if you haven't ever gone to one before how are you supposed to know this? Of course, this all being spur of the moment and all, we were trying to go hiking on a Saturday and the only forest service office remotely close to where we live is only open Mon-Fri. Joe is ex-military and is eligible for a free pass, but I guess we'll just have to lug all of his paperwork over there next summer when we have a weekday off from work. Luckily, our local outfitter store sells day passes for $5 so we picked up one of those. Observe its glory...

How much more ready could we be? At this point, there was no excuse we could make not to get our butts out hiking soon. [Not after spending so much money anyways!] Who knew that hiking was so expensive??

Beginnings

So...here's the basic story of why this blog exists. My husband and I have had a few friends pick up hiking recently and their adventure stories made us want to give it a try. After taking a bajillion photos on the first hike I realized that I would need a place to record our attempts both for my faulty memory and as an easy way to look back at where we've gone.

Going even further back (once upon a time...), my parents are avid hikers and raised me to be the same. With them, I have trekked over much of Washington state and parts of Oregon. These were mostly day hikes, but we did go on one 3-day backpacking trip to Enchanted Valley in the Olympic Mountains when I was 11 or so. As a kid I was very much gung-ho for these trips, but by my early teens I was a sulking monster who had to be dragged along against my will each weekend. By high school, my parents had all but given up (who can blame them). That rebellious attitude toward the activity seems to have stuck, unfortunately, and I now only go occasionally on a short hike when asked to do so as a "present" for some family birthdays.

My husband and I go car-camping annually, but never really the "roughing-it" type that many consider real camping. And we've hiked the short trails near our house in Kitsap county on rare occasions. There's something really sad, though, about living is such a beautiful area and never seeing any of it beyond the weeds along the highway on the way to work each day. This site will hopefully motivate me to move beyond that and better appreciate what a wonderful place I get to live in.