This trail is located in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, accessible via the Clackamas River corridor. It has quickly become one of my favorite places in Oregon. It's less than 40 minutes from my front door, offers gigantic trees, gorgeous water, deep green, ferny growth and relative solitude.
We arrived at the trailhead about 11am-ish and there were two cars parked there. We never saw the owners. In fact, on the first 80deg sunny weekend of the year, we didn't see a single soul the entire time we were out.
The trip was meant to be a shake down hike. We haven't been on an overnighter since last year. We didn't go far, maybe 4 miles in. Before we went, several non-hiker friends said I shouldn't/couldn't go out because I'm 19 weeks pregnant. Even my husband was a little concerned given my serious exhaustion levels in the beginning and even now I get tired easily and quickly. However, it was one of the most amazing trips I've ever taken.
We set up camp early afternoon and just relaxed. Chris practiced his casting into the water, Koza pointed at imaginary fish, Thor slept, and I dozed in the hammock I sneaked into Chris' pack. We talked and dreamed of what life will be like when our baby arrives in November and the future. We decided she/he will be bilingual, play the piano and go to Wittenberg, our alma mater. Big dreams.
Dozing on the dog mat since I took control of the hammock he carried. Hey, I'm pregnant!
comfy camp:
Rare quiet moment:
Giant tree:
so mossy and ferny:
The sun was everywhere, even in this deep forest:
Trail conditions were fine the first couple miles. Serious water though. Some parts of the trail were a river. Lots of mud. After a couple of miles, it became very very brushy. This wet weather has helped the greenery explode. Tons of salmonberry everywhere.
This was fun climbing over:
Seriously mom. please stop torturing me with photos
You can't really tell in this photo, but this tree is about 4 feet in diameter and growing on top of a fallen tree that is about 6 feet in diameter that isn't even sitting on the ground - it's perched a couple of feet above the ground between two other trees sitting on the ground. It was kind of neat to see such a big tree growing out of another tree in the air like that. On top of everything was a six inch layer of moss. such a beautiful spot.
This was truly a fabulous weekend. I came back feeling great. I was able to carry my weight, and could have hiked much longer. The star of the show, the sun, giving us such a long performance that day made it all that much better. I hope everyone else had a great weekend too.
I'm sure Chris will appreciate me suggesting this... BTW, great photo of him fishing, and neat campsite, too. One of the best along the trail, actually. There are a few others hidden behind a veil of ferns.