Takin' a Hike

Today was a Girl Scout day, taking a hike up to Wallace Falls Park in Gold Bar.  We did this hike as a family last year but didn't get as far as the falls due to the sheer distance and lack of fitness of our family.  We didn't really know how far it was to the lower falls (the maps were really quite bad at telling you exact distances) and the classification of "easy" is relative.  We had followed the Woodsy Trail along the riverside that time and by the time we got just beyond the bridge over the river (about 2 miles), I was done.  I couldn't climb any further and we turned back before reaching the falls.

On this trek, there were three girls from scouts--including Cammie, Miss J, and Miss E--and three little siblings--Ben, Miss S, and Miss K--with three moms, one dad and one dog.  Mr. and Mrs. C both teased me for getting us lost once and for poorly estimating the difficulty of the trek.  Hey, the web site wasn't very clear...nor was my memory of last year!

We started at the trail head at about 11:30 and headed up the path.  We opted to take the easy trail up to the Lower Falls where the picnic shelter was.  Easy is still relative--it was longer, but the first 3/4 of the hike was a smooth railroad-grade path that steered away from the river and switched back to a connecting trail that met up with the woodsy trail just before the bridge at the river.  We took in the sights on the way...what we could see at the time, anyway....

(This amusing sign reads, "Olympic Skyline" and it has arrows pointing to all the mountains in the distance...that can't be seen due to the usual overcast skies of Western Washington)

It was about around 3 miles each way, and the last half-mile was the trickiest--steep, lots of rocks and roots sticking out, and a narrow path.  I tripped often and slipped a couple of times, twisting my right ankle a little...not enough to require a medivac, but enough to slow me down a bit.

There was a lot of interesting foliage, mushrooms, and critters on the route.  We saw slugs, centipedes, a garter snake, and a deer track.  No cougars, bears, or rodents, thankfully.

We finally reached our destination...the Lower Falls!  We had a quick lunch at the shelter, packed up our garbage, then headed back down the hill.  The trip back was much easier as it was mostly downhill (except for the cutoff trail back to the railroad grade path), and I only slipped and fell on my arse once.  We were back at the car by about 2:45 and after a brief rest and two bottles of water, we hit the road around 3:00.

Two weeks from now is our scheduled horseback riding trip.  I have to call the farm and make sure we're on schedule for it.  Then I have to figure out how to get the bookkeeping straightened out after my treasurer put in her notice (she recently moved and her daughter is transferring to another school).  Given the level of participation in Scouting, I think I'll end up being the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer for this troop.  Luckily, I've arranged to co-conspire with another troop leader to have our troops meet together to do activities and badges and share the burden of leadership.  She's much more in tune with what the guidelines for scouting are and how to fulfill the aims of the badges.  I've been flailing around trying to figure it out for myself, and not always hitting the target.

Now I'm done for the night...I took enough Advil to kill the throbbing so I can get to sleep now.  I hope that I will be able to move in the morning.  I'm looking forward to doing a sit-down kind of project tomorrow, like working on the baby quilt for Diana and Miguel, whose daughter was born this morning!  They named her Valentina and the photos they posted are beautiful.  I'll post pictures of the quilt tomorrow when I get the borders attached.