Once a week I am meeting with a couple of friends and enjoying a hike. Hikes are awesome all on their own, but hiking with friends and ending the exertion with a fine meal make me anticipate my weekly forays into the local flora and fauna be=speckled wonderland that I call home more than I can even relate with proper diction and vocabulistic flourish. Or something.
Anyway, about fifteen minutes up the road from my house stands the Edgemere Grange. A wonderful turn of the century log cabin with a most pleasant weathered patina, the Grange is a familiar place to me as it is my voting precinct. What I didn't know, however, is about fifty feet past the Grange's driveway is another graveled parking place and trailhead. Talk about an instance of hidden in plain site!
The Potlatch Timber Corporation (Now known as PotlatchDeltic) owns a lot of land in the Pacific Northwest, as does a handful of other gigantic timber companies like Stimson, Weyerhauser, Inland Paper, etc. One excellent thing that these companies do is allow people to enjoy their massive tracts of land for recreational things, like hiking.
Which is how I found myself bounding after my rather tall friends along an old logging road into the forest. Another nice thing about hiking with my two pals is they are both giantesses, well to me they are, so I literally have to trot when we hike to keep up. It's a much more intense and rewarding cardio experience this way. Well, at least my phone says it is.
The absolute best part about hiking on the chunk of forest land down the road from my house is that we didn't see a single other human on the trail for the entire five mile hike. It felt like we were alone in the universe, I adored it! What I did see was tons and tons of wildlife signs, from scat, to discarded robin egg shells, to tracks galore. Once, while my friend was regaling us with a tale, I spied the floofy coat and profile of a juvenile coyote on the side of the hill right above us. He tailed us a for a bit before moving on, and it tickled me endlessly that my friends never noticed his presence, nor did he seem overly spooked by ours.
Most of the trails are not very steep at all regarding incline, but there was one section that went vertical on us. Not that I minded, for the panoramic views of the Hoodoo Valley were worth the glute strain. Plus, as I have been trotting, er, hiking with my friends on lots of hikes here lately, lets just say that I felt very mountain goat-like as I bounded up the hill without experiencing too much strain.
Another cool part of the hike is that we just wandered. I made note of the sun's position and general direction of where we parked our cars and then we just ambled like a bunch of aimless ramblers. After a few miles we came out onto the Southwestern edge of the massive plot of land, and to my endless delight there was a farmer mowing a huge field of hay. One of my all time favorite smells is freshly cut grass hay. Sigh.....
After a few more rousing conversational interludes, we came to a locked gate that spilled out onto Bandy Road. There were a bunch of large white signs across the road that were embellished with all manner of Bible verses, which instantly let me know where we were, about a 1/4 mile north of our cars. So the last part of our hike was a blissful promenade down the side of the road punctuated with an occasional passing late model pickup truck that was accessorized with some sort of flag. I don't know why, but flag accessorized vehicles is definitely a thing that is here to stay it appears. It kinda makes me want to get one that says "Free The Mahi Mahi" or something, but that is a post for another day.
After drinking a respectable amount of water, I followed my friends down the road to Willow Bay Marina. I have lived in these parts for decades now, and I had never explored Willow Bay Marina, nor experienced its culinary delights, until yesterday. I now intend to make up for lost experiences, as the setting and the snacks were just plain phenomenal. That and I think food and drink taste better after you have burned a bajillion calories trotting after tall people. I should probably apply for a grant to study that premise.
Next week's hike is a return to the Pack River area, as I am going to be staying up there again. My friend says she wants to head up the hill and hike out towards Caribou Lake, and I am pretty excited for that journey as my brother rode his dirt bike out that way, and just by looking at the pictures he took , let's just say that the views and scenery are something I am looking forward to peering at with my own two eyes.
Once again, you are writing about places in my general vicinity about which I have never heard. More places to explore! (When? I have no idea.)
It's amazing how much there is around us that I have yet to explore or am just getting to! Guess we'll never run out of options, there's just that time to do it problem lol lol!
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Thank you!!!:)
And as always, a beautiful account of how another event went.
I also try to make out time to hike every once in a while, it has this ability of lifting the spirits and relaxing the mind. And the views are always breathtaking.
I need to do that more often.
Thank you @generikat for sharing, i'm glad i read it😁
Ah your most excellent comment makes me want to stroll out for a bit of a hike now, as ambling almost aimlessly is one of my most favorite things! Hope you get to take a hike soon my friend:)!!