Where Nisqually Meets Little Mashel

Day 148 (bonus edition): Once upon a time, there was a bridge here where the Little Mashel's gentle flow meets the galloping Nisqually River, connecting Thurston County to Pierce County with a sturdy concrete expanse. It served the public little and was known only to loggers and locals who enjoyed being able to shave twenty miles off a trip to Mount Rainier each way, but it also held appeal for those folk looking to conduct drug deals or to conduct under-age beer parties. Law enforcement was called to the site too many times, and the result was that the bridge was road was gated at either end, cutting off legitimate travellers as well as those bent toward illegal activities. Finally, the bridge was blasted apart, its four pylons standing like pillars in the river, gathering dead wood around their bases until it was swept away by flood.

Today, few people go here except the workers at Pack Forest and a handful of fishermen in salmon season. The view isn't particularly scenic, nor would you expect to see much wildlife along the way. It is, however, a quiet walk which passes through scotch-broom prairie, thence to enter mossy green forest where trickling feeder streams chuckle and Pacific wrens fill the air with song. It is a pleasant walk to the river, and one I enjoy taking alone.