St. Paddy's Day Hike

Day 155: St. Paddy's Day dawned clear and crisp, and matured into pleasant temps by 10 AM. It's been months since I took any serious exercise, so I decided to go for a hike on the Bud Blancher Trail in Eatonville. Where exactly I was going to wind up, I had no idea, although I did want to check out the one spot along the trail where I've occasionally seen Skunk Cabbage. It wasn't blooming yet, so I went up a spur trail a little ways, finding that it didn't seem as familiar as it should have done. Was it because there were a few small trees down? I didn't think so. The lay of the land was foreign to me, and I have a very good memory for those kinds of details even if I can't tell you if a friend of forty years wears glasses. The trail took a sudden jog to the west, and I was even more convinced that I'd never been on it before. I followed it until it came out on a grassy secondary road. I definitely didn't recognize the intersection. How had I missed this one all these years? I kept heading west and connected with the familiar 1000 Rd. after about 3/4 mile. Not wanting to backtrack, I looped down past the Upper, Middle and Lower Mashel Falls trails without bothering to detour to the falls themselves (too many people), taking great joy in conversation with this chatty brooklet as it wound its way down to the Mashel mainstream. Out and about in the green! St. Pat would have loved Washington's forests.