Opening pic
After about 2.5 miles you cross Swale Creek on an old Trestle, dirt has been pushed between the beams on the trestle sides & so it was easy to walk across.
Just after the first trestle crossing is the Junk Yard Homestead, hard to believe you could even haul that much junk in there, must be a lifetimes work. I was going to take a picture but the owner was out in the "garden" so I decided better of it.
.The trail & surroundings are more scenic once past the junk yard.
Just before the second trestle crossing there is another archaeological curiosity, the shot out remains of an old Station Wagon!
We also found what we think were the remains of Brad's Metal Man.
We couldn't put him back together from memory & so rearranged the bits to make 2 smaller metal men
The second trestle is a lot more fun to cross as it's still the original with the gaps between all the beams. Lots of frogs were croaking away happily in the creek below.
We continued on for another 2 miles or so to MP 22 or 23 then found a spot for lunch.
The Dessert parsley was out in force!
On the way back we took a side road that joined the trail at about MP 18. It climbed up a little higher then pretty much paralleled the trail back to the Wahkiacus TH. Lots of no trespassing signs along this 2.5 miles of road/track for the land on each side but since the the road had several state highway signs (including one that was for a 50 mph speed limit which we thought was kind of funny) along it we felt confident that it was a public road. We actually thought it was a bit more scenic than the same 2 miles of trail were!
Hiking the old road/track from MP 18 back to Wahkiacus
All told we logged 12.8 miles & 1100' of EG.
A few more pics of the day here.
Parts of the Klickitat we have hiked so far..
