Sunday, February 12, 2006
Lower Gray Wolf River, Olympic National Forest
Having been abandoned by Sara (the dutiful daughter that she is, she was in Minnesota helping her mother post-surgery), Bella and I soothed our fragile psyches by taking a trip over to the Olympic Peninsula. Sara and I had actually hiked this trail maybe 5 years ago, but too much lead in my head has made those memories quite distant and hazy. Anyway, it took us about 2 hours to reach the trailhead (including a well-timed trip on the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry), with only one time when I thought our Subaru was going to fry itself. The trail starts off down an abandoned road, soon passing a sign for the intriguingly named Cat Creek Loop. After about a mile or so the trail dives down to the river. I got way turned around in this section, as the river has been on the left and then all of a sudden we descend off to the right to reach the river. It's because this section of trail is at a big incised meander bend, so in effect the river is in all directions! The trail then heads about two miles up the river, climbing at times, through beautiful forest. We encountered numerous blow-downs which were fairly easy to navigate except for one or two. Bella showed off her agility skills by deftly navigating each challenge in front of her, including dog walks across elevated fallen trees, and lots of leaping. Her owner had several heart attacks watching her and dreading having to carry back a 60 pound dog with a broken leg! We turned around at a section where the trail had landslided away which was presumably close to the actual end of the trail, where a footbridge had washed away years ago. Bella and I high-tailed it back and caught the Bainbridge Ferry (after following a car of elderly folks driving 35 in a 55 for the last 6 miles to Bainbridge, watching my 15 minute window for getting on the next ferry dwindle to 5 minutes!).
Distance: 8 miles
Elevation Gain: 1000'? Lots of up and down
Weather: Sunny, 50
Dog Rating: Dog agility in the wild! Woohoo! Four baroos!
