Packin' It In

Day 132: When I left home this morning, I had no clear plan other than to go for a hike after picking up some screws for Max at the hardware store. Several options presented themselves: Bud Blancher Trail, Nisqually-Mashel State Park, Pack Forest, or any of the lesser-known trails in the area. As I drove past the trailhead at Bud Blancher, I said, "Nah, boring...boring and mostly flat. That's not what I want. I think I'll go to Pack." Shopping for screws was a five-minute job requiring focus on the task at hand, so I had still not made a determination as to which trail I'd take until I was again on the road. It's only a few miles to the entrance of Pack, and by the time I'd got to the gate, I'd decided on a loop which would take me over a section I haven't hiked in several years, i.e., up the 1000 Rd to the 1400, up 1400 and thence down the Hugo Peak trail to the gate, and back up the paved road to parking for a grand total in the neighbourhood of three miles. At least that was the Plan when I shouldered my pack, but as Kevin would tell you, I'm not one for sticking to a Plan. I was feeling quite perky and invigorated when I reached the 1400, and what was left ahead of me seemed too short for my energy level. Standing there at the junction with the 1400, I said, "Screw it, I'm going up Hugo." From there, I came down the regular trail, did the short section back to the gate (which I seldom cover), and then back up the paved road to parking. Five miles and a thousand feet elevation gain spent in almost total silence but for a Pacific Wren or two, the occasional airplane overhead and one insistent mosquito in my ear satisfied a longing to be out and about which has been plaguing me all winter. Bits of botanical and natural history interest will surface over the next few days. These photos are just to give you an overview of what it's like to pack Pack.

A New View

Day 128: The overhead went an odd colour overnight, so I decided I needed to get closer to it to see if I could figure out what had happened. Since I can't get into the Park (the road won't be fixed until at least mid-March), the next best option was the summit of Hugo Peak. Never mind that the frost hadn't disappeared (and wouldn't do so all day). A hike was definitely in order. My first surprise came roughly three-quarters of a mile up from parking. The trail had been rerouted to make a longer, lazier ascent through what had previously been a rather unpleasant section. A little further on, I noticed more evidence that Pack Forest's trail crew had been at work. The old fence-wire clad footlogs had been removed from a particularly wet portion of the trail, gravel had been put down and a new puncheon bridge allowed passage over rechannelled runoff. By the time I got to the top of Hugo, I'd counted at least six places where the trail had been refurbished or rerouted. All the nastiest sections were gone! But an even more substantial surprise came when I turned away from the overgrown, brushy view of Eatonville a thousand feet below. A small yellow diamond bore the magic-marker legend, "Viewpoint 0.15 mi." and indicated an entirely new trail which sloped away to the east. At its end, I found this view, still somewhat obscured but a vast improvement on that offered on top of Hugo. There was one more surprise awaiting me, and it was the best of all. En route to a corner where I hoped to find Snow Queens in bloom, I ran into an old friend, my former supervisor from my Carbon River days. Our paths have crossed a few times over the years, but oddly, never on the trail. We chatted until we both started shivering in the rapidly cooling afternoon, and then went our separate ways, John and his dogs to his home, me to find the Snow Queens. I did, although the highlight of discovering them was overshadowed by the other events of the day.

Picked For Proximity

Day 348: Yesterday, I was entertaining all sorts of ideas about where to go for an end-of-season hike, but when I woke up this morning, the inspiration had fled. It wasn't that I didn't feel up to the miles; no, it was that I didn't want to drive to get there. Consequently, Pack Forest won out on two counts: proximity, and offering multiple options in case I felt like going farther than planned. I decided to make the hike do double-duty, and packed my GPS and field notebook so I could record invasive plants.

When I reached the halfway point in my original plan, I wasn't nearly ready to go home. As I was coming off Hugo Peak, I ran into some Park friends who suggested going out the 2130 Loop, a route which I thought was closed to all traffic, vehicular or pedestrian. "No, it's fine. They don't mean hiking," I was told, so off I went, game to add another 4 miles onto the day. I have to admit I was a little foot-weary when I got back to the car after a total of 14 miles, about half of which was spent on hard-packed road gravel and half on "softer" trail. Unfortunately, I didn't find any chanterelles for dinner, but I will be writing my invasives report from now until bedtime. Common tansy, tansy ragwort and foxglove abound.

Stereocaulon Tomentosum, Woolly Foam Lichen

Day 104: My customary route to the top of Hugo Peak goes up the trail and down the road, a clockwise loop of five miles. Today after hiking three miles with a friend, I did a counterclockwise turn just to be different. I'd actually planned to go only as far as Kirkland Pass, but when I arrived at the five-way intersection of Pack Forest roads (not open to the public), Hugo seemed to be calling my name. Eh, what the heck...it's one more mile for the Park fitness challenge.

That benefit aside, walking the loop in the opposite direction allowed me to see things I might otherwise have missed: a mushroom under a branch of salal, a cluster of Cladonias, orange Tremellas on the "back" side of a log. Although there were no surprises, there were bits of flora I hadn't seen since last year, old friends whose doors I've passed by repeatedly without so much as a nod in their direction. I'm a bit ashamed of myself for neglecting to visit these neighbors on the many times I've made the circuit. I need to go backwards more often.