Twin Falls - North Bend

This sweet little hike, 3 mi round trip, is close in to North Bend.  Easy to find and easy to walk, it was a really good choice for this Sunday.  The day was cold, yet hovered right at freezing, so even up in the hills the persistant precipitation changed from rain, to snow, to rain.  Under the trees on the trail hikers were protected from it a bit by the trees.  On the downside, the rain was causing the thick white frosting of snow on the trees to melt, and it cascaded down through the woods making miniature avalanche sounds.  It landed in front of us, behind us and on us... by the end of the hike I was wet and a little chilled.

It was beautiful out.  Four of us hiked with three dogs and the canines probably did 6 miles instead of 3, with all their racing back and forth on the trail.

 

The trail went along a river, then up some switchbacks and we came out on a solid little bridge over the top set of falls, stunning in cold icicle-lined beauty. 

Going back down the trail a bit there was a set of stairs leading to an overlook of the lower falls.  I had forgotten my camera at home, so all these were taken with my iPhone.  I wish it could have captured the full scale of this fall.... the water had done strange things with the rock, carving it into waterslides and curving channels leading into deep pools.

What a gorgeous winter.

Big Creek Falls - North Bend

It was a gorgeous sunny day and this hike was like a winter wonderland.  I got good use of my trekking poles, but didn't feel that I needed snowshoes or other traction.  The snow on the trail itself was just patchy, but the way it lay over the evergreens, weighting their boughs down and the ice that formed in the streams was lovely.
I had tried to get here before in my car, but it couldn't handle the 12+ miles of pot-holed dirt road.  I gave it a shot on a snowier day than yesterday, but ended up having to turn around where the road was completely covered with water and I couldn't see how deep it was.  This time my friend, Dan, drove his 4 wheel drive and got through all the obstacles with no problem.
I was following the Washington Trails Association's online description for this trail and never saw some of the signs they described, like for Taylor River Rd, nor was the trailhead marked for anything but Snoqualmie Lake (17 mi round trip), so I wasn't sure we were in the right spot at first.  We were aiming for Big Creek Falls, 5 miles in.
At about 2 miles in, we crossed a bridge over Marten Creek.  It had a tiny waterfall, and a really nice deep pool below.  I think it would be a terrific spot to hang out on a hot summer day, but yesterday it looked a bit too nippy.  (picture of me with Cedar & Clark Kent, courtesy of Dan)

The dogs were very hyped by the snow and rolled in it, bit it and chased each other.  It was pretty cute. 
As we walked along, we saw other un-named streams crossing the trail as well, and most had icicles gleaming in and around them.  It was truly beautiful.

Let's zoom in on those stick-cicles....

At 5 miles in, there was the waterfall and bridge over Big Creek.  There were two things that caught our attention here... one is that the bridge is a huge road-grade bridge.  I believe this was an old logging road, but it has long since overgrown and eroded, leaving just a trail cut through with streams and in places overgrown with young cedar, spruce and fir, so when you come out of that onto this bridge it looks extremely out-of-place. The second is that the waterfall itself is just stunning... icy clear water roaring down over the barely-broken face of sheer rock.  No picture can really do it justice.

We ate lunch on the bridge and Dan had brought a nifty little butane stove, not much bigger than a travel mug that he boiled water in and made us some soup.  It was really tasty and warming, since once you stop moving, you lose your heat really fast.  Poor Adventure Dog got all frosted.

It was a great hike, and hardly any elevation gain so you really couldn't feel the 10 miles.  All the people that we met on the trail seemed to be enjoying the pretty weather.  There were mountain bikers, other dogs, groups, couples, and one man who ran the trail and then ran back to the rest of his group and hiked it again with them!  I'd like to do this one again in the summer.



Lime Kiln Trail revisited

Despite weather reports, the rain had its time overnight and today was a lovely sunny day.  The wind had died down too and it was perfect for another hike.
Adventure dog and I put in 13.5 miles this weekend, and I'm proud of him.  His little legs have to move so fast and he runs around and explores, so he put in more than just the trail distance.
We went with my friend and his dog Clark, who had joined us for Ebey's Landing previously.  I think there were even more rusty relics visible this time than last time. I'm not sure if I was more observant today, or if people look for them and then move them near the trail for the rest of us to see. 

I wandered a little back in the trees looking for some more antiques and found a partial saw blade sticking out of a tree. 

We wandered around the lime kiln and looked at it from all angles.  I had reset my camera settings and it did a lot better.  Even with the sunnier sky, it was still a little gloomy under the moss-draped trees here and there.  I was surprised that there was some snow here and there on the ground.  I picked some up and it was like Dippin' Dots... little round ice pebbles.

I got a nice picture of this particularly pretty waterfall on the far side of the Stillaguamish. 

When we got down to the rocky "beach" area to eat lunch, someone had spent considerable time building little rock stacks.  At first I thought the large one with the pointy rock must be sticking into a hole in the rock above, but it wasn't... it was just balanced perfectly.  I found it funny and odd that the dogs both went straight to the stacks and checked them out too.  I'm not sure if it was the smell of people, or if they could tell it was not a natural formation.  I never though that dogs thought about how rocks should be though.  : )

I think about rocks though.  As someone who had once dreamed of being a geologist, I love rocks. Or to quote Luto from The Labyrinth, "Rocks friends."  lol  This one was really pretty though.

So I think I soaked in enough miles, dripping moss, muddy dog, creek water, cool rocks, and rusty artifacts to get me through another week of work.  : )  What a great weekend.

Oyster Dome - Northwest of Mt Vernon

It was a fantastic day for a hike this morning!  A little breezy, but the rain hadn't started yet and the clouds were high enough that I was pretty sure there would be a nice view from the top of Oyster Dome.
This is a 6.5 mi round trip hike off of Hwy 11, northwest of Mt Vernon.  A 1900 ft elevation gain, so with my backpack on, it would be a great training workout.

The trail was pretty steep in a few places, but mostly it just steadily climbed through a young forest, which creaked, groaned, squealed and rattled in the wind.  The wind in the tree tops sounded a little like the sea.

At about one mile there was a nice overlook with a bench.  It would be a fabulous place to take pictures of the sunset sometime.  I'll have to try to time that out right sometime.

As with most trails in the NW, it was cut with streams.  Cedar and I did pretty good getting across and staying dry, until the way back while I was laughing at Cedar as he was slipping on things as he tried to cross one.  Then I got down there and slipped myself and sprawled right into the stream.  I landed on my leg and elbow, so I was wet and muddy, but kept my face and camera out of it.  With the layers I had on, I didn't feel wet either, which was great.

 I thought this stump looked cool with its wild salal hairdo.

As we got closer to Oyster Dome, we took a little side trail to check out the bat caves.  First we had to cross the rickety-est bridge I've yet encountered on a trail.  I was really surprised that Cedar crossed it himself.  He usually doens't like bridges he can see through.  In fact he ran back and forth across it 4 or 5 times.  I do have to admit it was pretty fun.  It wobbled and the "handrail" swayed a little.  The batcaves themselves were hard to photograph due to the dark forest with darker holes under rocks.  I couldn't tell if they were just holes underneath or if there was some interconnectedness going on.

From the bat caves we could look straight up at Oyster Dome... our goal for today!

We re-crossed the rickety bridge and then began our last climb for the top.  It wasn't too bad and I met some people coming down that said I only had 15 or 20 minutes until I was on Oyster Dome.  That felt very encouraging. 

It was about that too, when we came out on the top.  The view was gray, but phenomenal and the wind blew cold, whipping Cedar's hair back.  We at a little lunch and then started down.  An excellent day, and it didn't start raining until we were back on the freeway.  : )