Explorer Falls 03-04-2018

A new hike!  I had never done Explorer Falls before, and it is so close in!  I would say it's borderline a walk instead of a hike, as most of it is on a wide gravel road, but there are some stream crossings and some logs to scramble over/around, so I'm going to count it as a hike.

This little day hike is only 2.5 miles round trip, and hardly any elevation gain.  It was a cloudy day, but not raining when we set out.  The first bit has beaver dams on both sides of the trail and I could see a couple yellow skunk cabbage bulbs.  Spring is definitely on its way.  After the beaver ponds, there is a thick forest of young moss covered trees looking furry above bright green sword ferns. 

The way is marked with spray paint and a couple signs, and was easy to follow despite some forks.  Most of the not-the-trail directions say No Trespassing. 

We went down a little bank to our first stream crossing and Luna ran around my legs and then leaped.  She took out the slack around my legs and fell short about 3/4 of the way across.  It was shallow and not too cold out, but here she is sticking out her tongue at me like it's my fault. 

Not much farther and there was a little dirt trail on the right that led into a tiny ravine with the waterfall at the end.  It was lovely, and there was a "hobbit hole" to the right.  I was going to check it out closer, but there is not a trail to the falls and as we attempted a scramble other people showed up with a larger dog.  We'll save the hobbit hole for another day.

As we got back on the gravel road, there was a patch of snow (well, mostly ice) and the dogs went crazy rolling and running in it. I let them have some fun before releashing and heading back out.

The rain didn't start falling until just as I saw the car.  It was a great mini adventure!