The Stoopidest Trail

Day 189: Yesterday, I did an 11-mile invasive plant patrol in Pack Forest and took the opportunity to explore a brand-new trail which was apparently laid in over the winter. I'd noticed it on my last trip up, but didn't have time to explore. I theorized that it might be a new route to Windy Ridge, since it started about 500' from Kirkland Pass on the west side of the 2000 Rd. The old Windy Ridge trail has had issues with small blowdown over the last few years, so it seemed logical that they might have established the new trail where the forest was more stable. Indeed, the trail climbed up from the west 2000 Rd., gaining 150-200' before levelling out about a quarter mile in. Then, to my surprise, it started back down again. Expecting only a small elevation loss, I continued on, but it kept going down and sure enough, it debouched onto the EAST 2000 Rd. about 200' shy of Kirkland Pass. I'd made a half-mile detour and got nothing for my pains...no new lichens, not even an invasive! Shaking my head in bewilderment, when I walked past the trailhead on the west 2000 to continue on my adventure, I addressed it, "Fool me twice, shame on me! Not gonna happen again." Why did they go to the work of putting this trail in? Practice? Stoopid idea, if you ask me.

You don't go very fast when you have to stop every 50 feet or so to take a GPS reading and jot something down in your field notebook. I quickly tired of marking every instance of Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove, to most of you) and shortcut my entries by saying, "Sporadic occurrences of species from waypoint 200' south." Even so, I had almost 30 instances to put in my report (map, right), and it took me over an hour to write up. The issues were not all Digitalis, although the species accounted for roughly 80% of the total report; other invasives noted were Tansy Ragwort, English Ivy and English Holly.

My original plan had been to complete a particular loop off the 2300 Rd. (it branches off the 2000 Rd.), but when I reached the spur I'd intended to take, I found it signed as closed for logging operations. That's one of the problems with Pack Forest: it's "multiple use," and of course it's the University of Washington's Center for Sustainable Forestry. Much of the forest consists of plots where different management practices are put into effect. With the loop closed, I chose instead to continue on to "Pack Peak," the true high point of Pack Forest (not Hugo Peak, as many people believe). I took lunch there, and then swung back to take the Windy Ridge trail...the real Windy Ridge trail, which doesn't connect to the Stoopidest Trail at all.