My back shesa broken yes.

Okay so maybe not broken but my back is a bit tired after spending two days working in the garden. The dirt needs turned and weeds removed, I also need to add some fertilizer but that will be next week or so. I have a pretty good amount of compost that we created over winter but I think adding some additional fertilizer would be beneficial. We stay away from any of the un-natural fertilizers like Miracle Gro for example, we get enough chemicals without adding them to our food I think.

Weekends are to short

Had a great weekend backpacking in the Central Washington desert. Hiked about 16 miles total over 2 days on blm lands that are also occupied by grazing cattle. Made for an interesting experience, saw pronghorn, eagle, hawks, rabbits, mice and about 16 different wildflower specimens. Our water was obtained from a spring, fortunately we did not have to filter from the water that the cows were drinking from. Odessa was having a motorcycle race so it was fairly busy when we went into town for our post hike victory meal, usually a bacon cheeseburger at a local drive-in for me. 3 burgers, fries and drinks, 26 bucks, ouch. Oh well, its only once in a while and they needed the support.

Really!?!

I know its been awhile so its just a short one, that makes sense right? Backpacking trip this weekend, looks like the weather is going to work in our favor.

New car smell

Okay so its more like strawberry airfreshener smell. The big news this week is that Jamie and I drove over to Seattle on Friday and picked up a new car for her. So its not brand new but its new to us, It is a 1998 Subaru Outback with just a little over 69,000 miles on it. We had been in the market for this particular model for quite some time, fortunately it was not a desperate search so we were able to take out time and not make a rash decision. We had actually looked at a couple of these cars in the Spokane area in the last couple of weeks but they just werent that appealing to us due to aesthetics and also some mechanical issues. I finally decided to broaden my search and begin checking the seattle area for our car. Well last week I came across this Glacier White Subaru Outback, which is the color I had also been looking for, bonus huh? I was a bit hesitant due to the fact that it was so far from home and we couldnt just run over and have a quick look at and decide if we liked it or not. I did what I could from home, ran a carfax report which came back with good results, got all the loan paperwork taken care of and filled up the gas tank for our road trip on Friday.

It took us about 5.5 hours to get to the dealer in Lynnwood from our house so we were a little road weary when we arrived. Our sales guy 'Nick' quickly went and pulled the car up so we could inspect it, he was pretty decent for a used car salesman, he went back in the office and just let us have our own time with the car and didnt try to 'sell' us the car. The car checked out fine in the parking lot, everything worked, it sounded nice, brakes looked good, it was fairly clean and only a few minor blemishes, pretty good for a 12 year old car. We then took it for a short test drive to test its road worthiness and to solidify that we really liked the car. The only bad thing was the tires, I think they may have been the original tires and subsequently were not in good shape at all, thats okay we got 500 bucks off the sticker price right there for the tires being so bad. I had already done most of the negotiating over the phone before we went over so there really wasnt much left to do, I did get a tank of gas out of the deal as well. Why is it when you go buy a car they almost always have less than a 1/4 tank of gas in them?

We spent a few minutes with the sales manager and signed a bunch of paperwork and just like that we were the proud owners of this 'new' car. Jamie had contacted her brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Jenny, who live in Newcastle and so we were able to drive to their place and hang out for a couple hours before we headed home. Thank you to the Martin family for your great hospitality, it was a nice treat having snacks and drinks provided and of course being able to spend a little time with family is always great. Mathew and Zachary are really getting big and showing there independence and are two of the best little boys that we know! Anyway we spent what time we thought we could at their house, to short of course, and then hit the freeway for the return trip home, now driving two cars back since we could not leave the old red Legacy behind for the 300.00 trade in we were offered. Unfortunately the Legacy decided to show some jealousy on the way home in the form of a couple of tantrums. One being that the automatic transmission decided to start leaking when we went over Snoqualmie Pass and two the alternator had also decided to give up the ghost along the way. The transmission did okay after the big hill climb the alternator however continued to give us issues all the way nearly to home as it finally died in Spokane. This led to the car running on stored battery power alone until we were 1 mile from our freeway exit in Coeurd'alene and then the car stopped running entirely. How about that, we drove it all the way to Seattle, 340 miles, and all the way back, well almost, 338 miles and it held up for us until we were basically within site of our house? Thank you Jesus for watching over us and keeping us safe for this trip! Well once the car stopped running fortunately we had the new one and we just threw all our stuff in it and continued the last 2 miles home.

Once at home, now 11:00 pm Friday, I called a towing company as we have towing on our insurance and directed them to my broken down car. Within a minute of making that call I received a call from the Idaho State Police and was threatened with immediate removal of the car if I didnt get it removed very quickly. I learned that in the state of Idaho if you break down on the highway you need to pull completely off the pavement or its considered a road hazard and they will tow your vehicle immediately, good information to know. Well the tow company was on the way so everything was under control, I thought. The tow company then called me next to inform me that even though I had towing insurance I would be responsible for the drivers mileage from his last call to our car, at the rate of 3.00 per mile this was not going to be cheap just to get him to our car. I told the dispatcher to forget it, I would take care of it myself. Jamie and I jumped in our Toyota Tacoma with my tow strap and raced out to the car on the side of the freeway and I quickly hooked up my strap so we could tow it home. I kept the speeds pretty low, 20mph on the freeway and about 10mph on the city streets, overall it took us about 15 minutes to get the car to our house with me the towwer and Jamie the towee. What a great way to end our day!

I bought an alternator Saturday and installed it Sunday morning to get the car running again and now as I write this have set up an appointment to have the transmission looked at. My nephew is interested in purchasing the car so I need to make sure its not going to die on him in the first couple of weeks.

Weekend fun

This past weekend, Satuday to be specific, we went up to Priest River to Tyrel's river lot. We took the little Toyota pickup and had it loaded down with lots of tools, chainsaw, mower, brushcutter and so on. The plan was to spend the day cutting the grass and also cutting down a tree for firewood for the coming winter. We also stopped by Tyrel's house and borrowed his brushcutter too so we could get his property mowed quickly. Jamie and I spent 4 hours running the trimmers and I followed up with the mower to chew up all the grass we had cut down. It was pretty deep, over 2 feet in some areas, so it took us quite awhile to mow about a half acre. We worked on the grass for a couple hours and then decided we would take a break and cut some firewood.

The tree we were after was a rather large tamarack, western larch to some, about 110 feet tall and just 2 feet across at the base. We have been watching it die for the last few years and finally last year it was finished. It appeared to have been struck by lightning at some point and that may have contributed to its demise. Anyway all the better for us, as we now had some prime firewood to gather pretty close to where my mom lives since she is the one that burns wood it worked out nicely. I fired up the Stihl ms 362 and went to work knocking the tree down, it took me about 5 minutes as I was being pretty cautious as I only had a 10 foot hole to drop the tree into. The final blows were made with a splitting maul and a wedge placed in the cut to get the tree to fall. It came down with a thunderous crash and a huge cloud of dust. Once it was on the ground the enormity of the tree was fully realized, we would end up getting 1.5 cords of firewood from it which is alot from a single tree. I cut up most of it myself with my younger brother Dave cutting some of the smaller sections with his smaller chainsaw. Jamie did alot of chopping and ended up with 5 blisters to show for her hardwork, Dave and I finished the chopping and then we loaded up our trophy, er I mean wood. We hauled two pickup loads back to town and finished the last bit of stacking at 9:30 Saturday night, it was a very long hard day for us!

Backpacking and other stuff

Well its been a busy past few weeks. Jamie and I put together a mothers day barbecue for my mom and a few of the moms on my side of the family. The weather was not the greatest but at least it did not rain out our party and everyone had a great time.

We have also been doing quite a bit of riding and hiking when we can in prepartion for a few trips we have planned. At the end of May we went to Upper Priest Lake on an overnight backpacking trip. The hike in is mostly flat and only 3 miles and so only takes about an hour. The weather forecast had called for rain showers and temperatures in the 30s. Fortunately for us the rain never came but it did get down to freezing at night, we were glad we brought down jackets to wear and had down sleeping bags to sleep in. It turned out to be a nice easy trip in preparation for our trip to Oregon for my birthday. You will have to excuse me here but I am just going to copy and paste what I wrote for my post on the portland hikers website as I dont really want to retype what ended up being an 8 page trip report so read below for the full story.

Well looks like Don already beat me to the report on this particular loop even though I completed it a day earlier than he did. In my defense I did have to drive back to Coeur d' Alene before I could post and catch up on some much needed sleep.

My wife, Jamie, my younger brother, Dave, and I drove in from Coeur d' Alene Wednesday afternoon and decided to stay the night before starting our grand hike at the Viento State Park located about 15 miles east of Eagle Creek, that was a mistake! The campground is bordered by freeway and train tracks and the noise was most deafening throughout the night. All told we maybe slept for 4 hours. The hot showers Thursday morning barely made up for the fitfull nights sleep if you could even call it sleep.

We had a great breakfast as my wonderful wife had brought all the necessary ingredients for some awesome breakfast burritos and then we hit the freeway for the last few miles of driving before we started our hike. If you are westbound on I-84 you need to pass Eagle Creek and go an extra mile and then turn around and come eastbound to access the trail as there is no exit for westbound traffic. As I approached the exit a bright orange sign notified us that the Eagle Creek exit was closed due to construction, I exited anyway weaving between orange cones and large Road Closed signs. A flagger was stationed about 50 yards down the exit ramp which indicated to me that the exit was somewhat open rather than closed completely. We stopped as the large stop sign the somewhat grumpy looking flagger was holding indicated we should. Her scowling face told me that we were not the first to not heed the Road Closed warning. She then got on her radio and called someone down the road that we could not see and then instructed us to proceed to the next person holding a stop sign located about 75 yards further down the exit ramp. This fellow was considerably more happy and jovial and told us it would be about 10-20 minutes wait as they were grinding up pavement in readiness for a new layer to be put down. I quipped that maybe 5 bucks would get us moving a little sooner to which he replied that for a hundred he would walk us through the construction zone. Wow the exchange rate between Idaho and Oregon is incredible! We actually only waited about 3 minutes before we were let through and made our way to the main Eagle Creek parking area. Supposedly it is safer to park near the Campground rather than drive the extra ½ mile to the trail head for Eagle Creek Trail.

My wife and I hiked this very same route 2 years ago but it was in August, this trip would prove to be a bit more challenging due mainly to the spring run off conditions. It took us about 20 minutes to get all our gear in order and set out on the Gorge Trail in the direction of Ruckel Creek Trail. Our plan was to hike up Ruckel Creek to Wahtum Lake the first day and set up camp at Wahtum Lake and possibly do some day hiking from there and then hike to 7 ½ mile camp on day two and camp there and do some day hiking in that area and spend the third day hiking the final miles of Eagle Creek back to the car. The weather appeared to be cooperating as well since the forecast had been calling for significant rain and even some wind but was now just slightly cloudy with bright spots of sunshine here and there. Little did we know this plan would need to be drastically altered later in the hike.

Gorge Trail 400 is a nice meandering mostly dirt trail between Eagle Creek Campground and Ruckel Creek Trail 405 except for about a 200 yard stretch that is actually a narrow paved road, no worries vehicle travel is not allowed on this stretch, this is just before you reach the Ruckel Creek trail. Ruckel Creek trail almost immediately lives up to all the hype of being incredibly steep as you are introduced to a 45 degree slope within a few steps. The trail only follows the actual Ruckel Creek closely for about 100 yards and then quickly climbs steeply away from the creek. You will not see the creek again for approximately 4.5 miles until you reach the Hunters Camp on the edge of the Benson Plateau. The trail climbs mercilessly for the first 1.5 miles and then you reach an area of hanging meadows and somewhat meandering trail, it still continues uphill but after what we just hiked up it almost seemed flat if not slightly downhill. The trail conditions to this point had been very good as the recent rains had a chance to soak in and leave the trail in that perfect “sticky” stage. You know the stage, it is not muddy and it is not dry and loose it is just right and your boots seem to just stick perfectly to the trail. Strangely the further along we went and the more elevation we gained, at an incredible rate really, the wetter the trail became. The relative levelness of this section of trail allowed for a fair amount of runoff to be directed onto the path and seemed to flow both up the trail and down it as well, Gore-tex hiking boots are certainly a necessity if you want any chance at keeping you feet dry and comfortable. Fortunately for me I was wearing my trusting Montrial Torre GTX boots, unfortunately for my wife she was wearing a pair of Merrel mid top hiking shoes, albeit they are Gore-tex they are a ventilator version and are not a solid leather upper so they allow moisture to contact the Gore-tex liner quickly and eventually that leads to wet feet. My brother also had the same footwear as my wife but in a low top version. After a mile or so of the hanging meadows and reasonable climbing the trail ascends once again for the final mile at a wicked rate. I stayed far enough ahead of my younger brother to not have to constantly hear his bickering of unending uphill and how is legs hurt and he couldn’t breath and his head was hot and so on and on and on and on.

Eventually we reached the edge of the Benson Plateau and the uphill quickly turned to a nearly flat wonderful trail hiking. Within a few minutes we crossed into the Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness and a few minutes later came to a small trail intersection. My wife wanted to continue on what appeared to be the main Ruckel Creek trail and I wanted to turn to the right and follow this unmarked trail, she turned out to be wiser in this decision as I later discovered the trail I wanted to take is the Ruckel Ridge trail and not what we needed for this trip. About ½ mile later we came to the Hunters Camp and the intersection with Benson Way Trail 405B, which is the route we were following, I am sure glad my wife steered me clear of the previous trail. My wife and brother donned sandals to cross this area of Ruckel Creek as they couldn’t find a relatively dry crossing, I on the other hand picked an area and with my rugged hiking boots found my way across without getting creek water in my shoes. Once on the other side we decided it was time to filter water for the rest of the days hiking to reach Wahtum Lake. I purchased a Steripen purifier last year and had really been trying to like it but after this trip I will be taking it back to REI. I question if it actually does what it says, kills the bugs in the water, I know it doesn’t filter the bugs so even if neutralized you are still ingesting them. It also takes 3 times longer to use than say my Katadyn Hiker pump filter and seems to leave lots of room for contamination of untreated water.

The trail to this point had been relatively clear of down trees save for 3, including one that was about 18” across on the last steep section of Ruckel Creek. Incredibly this tree has been blocking to the trail for at least 2 years, this I know as a remember fighting my way over it in 2008 when I last hiked this trail. Once we started across the Benson Plateau towards the PCT we would cross no less than 30 downed trees on the short 405B trail. Majority of these trees were just small poles, less than 6” in diameter, and were laying directly on the ground and really didn’t give us any trouble. There were a couple trees on this section of trail that were a bit larger but were also easily crossed. Just before reaching the PCT we spotted some snow patches but these were well off the trail, they did appear to be fairly deep and we were glad we were not encountering snow blocking the trail and forcing us to route find.

We reached to PCT and few minutes later, after following it south we found our way to the famous Camp Smokey. It was now 4:00 in the afternoon, we started from the car at 10:30 that morning, we lost a lot of time climbing Ruckel Creek with my brother as almost everytime I looked back at him he was stopped on the trail and leaning over his hiking poles. My wife and I only stopped twice for a quick food breaks 2 years ago when we did this hike, this time with my brother along we stopped for at least 4 big breaks and many other smaller breather breaks. I was very frustrated with him for dragging us down so severely, we should have made it to this point in about 3 hours.

I called it the famous Camp Smokey for this reason: 2 years earlier my wife and I camped here and endured one of the worst wind storms I have ever been through that night it also rained but the wind was what I remembered the most and barely sleeping since I had visions of a large tree falling on us as we lay in our sleeping bags. Also a couple from Romania showed up in the middle of the night to set up their camp, which took them nearly an hour in the rain and wind unbelievably! We later found out they had just started their journey on the PCT earlier that day and were bound for California, welcome to the Oregon section of the PCT I thought to myself.

We ate some snacks quickly and then the rain started, as I said it had been cloudy and fairly nice to this point but now began to rain. We threw the packs on our backs and helped each other secure our rain covers and set out for Wahtum Lake. We found 1 small patch of snow on the trail but only had to walk in it if you wanted to as it was only just touching the trail on one side. The rain continued to pick up as we made our way off the Benson Plateau and onto what I call the North Ridge of Chinidere Mountain. I had hoped to climb up Chinidere and have a look around but the rain was coming down steadily when we reached the trail up it and fog was pretty well socked in. Not to mention my brothers mood was darker than the skies since he was really done doing any climbing after Ruckel Creek, I had not remembered that the route to Chinidere from camp Smokey was slightly uphill, no problem for my wife and I but he was pretty burned after the climbing he had done earlier in the day. Note to self, don’t bring younger brother on anymore somewhat demanding hikes. We had all opted to forgo rain gear and just endure the rains instead opting for pushing on to Wahtum and then getting out of our wet clothes and into long underwear and rain gear. Not far past the Chinidere trail junction is the Wahtum Lake cutoff, you can continue on the PCT and reach Wahtum but the cutoff saves a bit of distance. We headed down the cutoff, my brothers mood had lightened again as I assured him that there would be no more climbing for the duration of the trip. The weather however was turning worse by the minute and as we would find out later it would rain for the next 17 hours non-stop. The Wahtum cutoff trail had water running down it most of the way and we had one large tree to cross, it was at least 2 feet across and had most if its branches still on it and was at just the right height that going under was nearly impossible and going over was very difficult as well. We removed our packs and took turns getting over it and quickly continued on our way. As we approached Wahtum on this trail the snow patches began to increase quickly, the first camp site on the north side of the lake was completely covered with at least 2 feet of snow. We made our way to the crossing at the head of the lake which due to the water level proved to be quite difficult with the loads we were carrying. The last thing any of us wanted to do was fall in that log jam of a crossing and become any more soaked than we already were. Once we were across I headed east towards the other camp sites but new immediately it was going to be ugly considering I was now walking on large patches of snow some of which were 3-4 feet deep. We wandered around for a few minutes and finally found a site that we would be able to set up our two tents at, all the while the rain continued to soak us through.

Once we settled on our site, it really was the only one that was somewhat clear of snow, we threw our packs off and just stood in the rain. The cold had us all feeling pretty low and was really affecting our minds, not allowing us to think clearly or quickly. If you are thinking of going in and camping at Wahtum Lake I would wait at least 2 more weeks for the snow to clear and make sure you aren’t going to be caught in a monsoon as we were. I had just purchased a new backpacking tarp and so we took turns holding it over one person while each tent was erected doing so in hopes of keeping them somewhat dry inside as the rain was really coming down. We quickly got the tents up and then tied the tarp up to create a shelter for cooking and general staging area outside of the tents. My brother much to my chagrin appeared to be suffering from early hypothermic conditions, I told him to get all of his wet clothes off and get dry and get his rain gear on and we would eat dinner and then go to bed. My wife and I did the same and it was the first time in hours we felt dry albeit we were not very warm. It was now about 6:30 and the rain was showing no sign of letting up with a temperature of 40 degrees it was not pleasant to think about what if we couldn’t stay dry and warm until morning. I boiled up water on my trusty MSR Whisperlite and we poured it into our Mountain House Beef Stroganoff freeze dried meals. If nothing else at least this would give us some hot food before we went to bed for the night. My brother was really not doing well and did not want to eat his meal, I tried to no avail to convince him that eating something hot would be the best thing for him but he just wanted to get in his sleeping bag and sleep. After a few minutes of arguing I relented and allowed him to go to bed without eating but over the next 2 hours continued to inquire if he was warm and dry to which he replied that he felt much better being in his sleeping bag now but his stomach hurt and he just wanted to sleep.

My wife and I ate our meals and also my brother’s unfinished meal as well as some freeze dried ice cream for dessert. Yeah I know the irony of ice cream was not lost on me while the thought of dying of hypothermia was a very real threat. If you ever feel like a treat though the Mountain House freeze dried ice cream desserts are actually pretty good and a nice treat while on the trail. I burned up half of my fuel bottle to keep us somewhat warm under the tarp while we finished eating and then preparing for going to bed.

We got in our tent just a little after 9:00 and spent the next 30 minutes mopping water up from setting the tent up earlier as well as wiping off our rain gear and getting the sleeping pads and bags out. For the next 2 hours I layed in my down bag listening to the rain as it pounded us with no signs of relenting. I also discovered that my rainfly was letting the larger rain drops splash up underneath it and was now getting us wet through the netting of my tent, not nice getting a splash of water in your face every few seconds. I slept off and on until about 2:30 and then decided I was going to have to get up and see if I could stop the water from splashing in as it was really starting to get us wet. I donned my rain gear and unzipped the tent to my vestibule and now realized we were in a sort of bowled area and the tent was resting in about ½” of water, great I thought. Once outside the scope of the rain storm really hit me, it was just absolutely pouring and was really cold feeling, my wife also got up with me and together we dug a small trench to try and drain some of the water away from us. I also moved the stakes for the rainfly up next to the tent so there would be less area for water to splash in, we grabbed a snickers bar and a milky way from the packs and headed back into the tent. Once again spending a few minutes drying off the rain gear and then settling back into our down bags with our candy bars. We never eat in our tent but I thought if I was going to die of hypothermia or drowned then who cares about an animal smelling my food. The work we had done paid off and we were able to at least sleep until 6:30. We stayed in the tent until 8:00 all the while hoping the rain would subside, finally at this point we determined the plan for this trip would be altered. We would no longer be hiking the 6 miles or so to 7 ½ mile camp and staying another night in these soggy conditions, we would hike the entire Eagle Creek trail from Wahtum back to the car that day. The prospect was not altogether appealing as we were all very tired from the previous two nights combined 8 hours of sleep but sometimes you do things you don’t want to because you have to. We ate a breakfast of energy bars, honey stingers, fruit leathers and other assorted snacks under my new tarp with the stove burning more for comfort than heat. My brother was in much better spirits by this point partly due to getting some sleep but also because we would not be camping another night in these conditions as the new plan was revealed.

We broke camp and packed all our soggy gear in our packs and hit the trail just after 10:00 Friday morning. We were all in our full rain gear as we did not want to get wet during this part of the hike. The rain had all but stopped by this point but the underbrush held water and released it onto us as we walked by as well as the river that was also the trail we walked down. About a mile from Wahtum Lake is a small camp beside a stream crossing and I decided that since it had pretty much stopped raining I would put my wet hiking pants back on since I was overheating with my rain gear on. I really like my North Face rain gear but even though it is supposed to be breathable I always get kind of swampy feeling while wearing it. We continued hiking crossing numerous small streams that don’t exist in the summer and also a couple of the larger ones that were a bit difficult due to the massive run off. We arrived at a small camp about a mile before you reach 7 ½ mile camp and decided it was time for a break, I also would be changing back to my North Face waterproof pants as the underbrush was so wet and getting my pants wet and now was beginning to soak my socks and subsequently my boots even though I was wearing gaiters. The trail had begun to dry again and the footing was very good except for a couple of spots of mud here and there. We ate some more food and hit the trail bound for what was to be an amazing Tunnel Falls experience. We crossed more streams and everyone did their best to keep their feet dry during the crossings, my boots did the best unfortunately the shoe wearers I was with suffered many wet crossings. We quickly passed 7 ½ mile camp area which was completely empty and continued down the trail with visions of waterfalls keeping us motivated. We arrived at the the first falls of Eagle Creek, which I don’t believe has a name, a short time later. This falls is pretty impressive but has limited viewing areas so the sound was the big draw of this one. Next on our descent was the falls that some call Twister Falls, this is due to the creek separating a small bit just above the falls and joining back together as it goes over the edge. We knew judging by the flow of water on the main Eagle Creek that this falls would be impressive and it certainly did not disappoint us, although the twister or crossover aspect wasn’t as visible just due to the volume of water. The water was thundering over the edge and making its first landing on the shelf of rock that is about 60 feet below the trail and then made another drop to the creek bottom. The sound was deafening and the amount of mist rising from the crashing falls made it seem that it was now raining upwards. Our feet and legs had been feeling pretty tired and sore but now we quickly forgot about any sort of discomfort and relished this moment at these incredible falls.

We spent a few minutes taking pictures and enjoying the immense power before heading to what I feel is the main attraction of this trail, Tunnel Falls. It is only ½ mile to reach these falls but is along one of the most dangerous stretches of trail as it is a sheer drop off of at least 200 feet to the creek. There are some larger cable hand rails that have been polished by many hands located on the inside of the trail in areas but for the most part its just 2 feet wide trail with nothing to hold onto. This really doesn’t bother me but I could see how some would be absolutely terrified and would not be able to hike this trail.

I really like the approach to Tunnel Falls coming down the Eagle Creek trail since you basically come around a corner and it just hits you in the face, literally. The falls is located in the back of a horseshoe shaped bowl with the trail set in about the middle between the top of the falls and the floor below the cliff side. Once again the mist was very prominently rising and spraying from the falls not allowing you to stay dry unless wearing waterproof gear as we all were at this point. The sound from this falls as it cascades nearly 200 feet straight down brought to mind visions of train cars crashing into each other if you can possibly imagine. My wife, barely 50 feet from me on the trail, could not hear me yell at the top of my lungs, the ground beneath our feet shook with the thunderous force of the falls. For those of you that don’t know the trail curves around and actually goes through a tunnel behind the falls. This tunnel was blasted out of the rock and allows you to pass behind the falls without getting wet although getting to the tunnel and out the other side we would have been thoroughly drenched had it not been for the rain gear due to the streams of water flowing from above the trail. We spent better than 30 minutes at the falls before reluctantly going down the trail, we stopped at the corner just down from the falls and took a lunch break before the falls would be completely out of site.

I will be honest the rest of the hike was just that to me a hike, nothing can compare to the majestic raw beauty of Tunnel Falls, even Punch Bowl falls in all its splendor is meager in comparison in my opinion. The trail is very beautiful this time of year and I am very happy that we came for the spring runoff. It felt like a rainforest type of hike with so much water running down the steep hill side above the trail in so many places and splashing on to us. I felt like a kid again playing in the puddles every time we came to one of those “shower” spots and even stopped and just stood under them a couple of times allowing the water to just run over me and wash away all. We had hiked about 8 miles by the time we left Tunnel Falls and our legs were certainly feeling it after the 13 miles the day before. It was a difficult hike to make the last 5 miles and I more than once wanted to stay and camp at one of the numerous camp sites along Eagle Creek, the thought of all our wet gear in our packs quickly dissuaded me from doing so though.

We stopped at the Punch Bowl falls overlook and changed into dry socks, I think I was just sweating mine out is why they were wet. We entertained the idea of hiking down to Punch Bowl falls but after talking to another hiker who had done so decided against it as he said you could not see the falls from below due to the water being so high. The final 2.5 miles back to the car seemed to take an eternity and once we hit the paved road for the last ½ mile we were really feeling the weight of carrying our packs for all those miles.

We made it the parking lot at 6:00 Friday evening and gladly removed our packs and started the process of removing layers of wet gear and boots. I drank some Gatorade that had been in the cooler and ate a small handful of Lays potato chips before we hoped on the freeway. We went back to the Viento State Park to take advantage of the awesome showers. It was a welcome treat having super heated water warm us all up and scrub away 2 days of heavy sweat and dirt. We then drove to The Dalles where I ate a giant bacon cheeseburger with a huge mound of delicious French fries and drank a cold beer. We then jumped back on the freeway for the 300 mile journey back to Coeur d ‘Alene as the clock now read 10 pm. We arrived home at 3:00 Saturday morning and as quick as we could dumped our soaked gear out of the packs and hung it all up to begin the drying process.

All in all it was a great trip and certainly one for the life experience book. I can’t stress enough how close I felt that we were in real trouble camped at Wahtum lake during the torrential downpour in 40 degree temperatures. I will come back and do the hike again someday but first must spend some time ticking some other hikes off my list. My wife is generally opposed to doing hikes over especially when they involve traveling so far since there are so many excellent trails to be experienced.

So in summary Ruckel Creek trail is in pretty good shape, a couple downed trees and a little muddy in places. The Benson Way Trail 405B has about 30 trees down on it but all are easily stepped over. PCT from 405B to Wahtum is clear of snow and has only 1 or 2 trees down easily stepped over. Wahtum Lake needs at least 2 weeks before the snow will be mostly clear with patches 3-4 feet deep in areas now. Wahtum to Eagle Creek was muddy with water flowing on the trail in areas. Eagle Creek trail was clear except for a large tree near 7 ½ mile camp and had numerous soft spots as well as lots of water flowing on the trail and onto the trail from above. Get out there and enjoy it!

Blog slacker

Okay, okay, okay, I know I haven't been writing very much lately, or I guess not at all these past 2 weeks. In my defense I have not been very busy either, wait that was supposed to be in my defense oh well, I don't have a good excuse for not writing other than I don't feel that anything to exciting has been going on. We went for a hike on Coeur d'alene Mountain a couple of weeks ago and being out in the woods I felt it was time to let Commando walk without being on his leash. This has taken me awhile to get comfortable with as we have tried it for short times in the past but I always get nervous and worry about him running off after some unseen animal. Anyway we hiked about 7 miles and just let him be a free range dog and he did do quite well, just be sure your foot doesn't dislodge anything that could roll from the trail as he thinks its a game of fetch the moment said item begins to roll down the trail or off the trail and over the edge of some gaping canyon. Okay so maybe not the gaping canyon although we have hiked in some very technical settings in the past I don't think Commando will be able to go with us on those types of trips, see Borah Peak Idaho. We usually will hike for about an hour before we stop for any snack break and it is at these times that Commando gets bored and begins to whine a little bit. That's to bad dog, we do stop and rest occasionally and you will need to get used to it! On this particular hike we did encounter a small amount of snow still dwelling on the north side of the mountain, about 18 inches or so, it is late season snow and is packed down pretty good and so it was not really a problem to get through it. Unfortunately seeing this small amount of snow confirms the fears of not enough precipitation this season. Granted this is just what we saw on this one hike but I am pretty certain that it was a fairly dismal year for snowfall elsewhere as well.

Last week we took a trip up to Farragut State Park, it is located about 25 miles north of us and is an old favorite of ours for bike riding. I looked back through my notes and realized that we had not been out there for a ride in 4 years, a travesty! I went through a spell where I did not want to drive someplace with the bikes just to go for a ride it just seemed counter intuitive so we pretty much stuck to rides that we could start from the house. Anyway as I said it had been awhile, to long actually, since we had been on the Farragut trails. This is an old naval base that was quite large back in the 1940's and 50's, something like 300,000 armed forces personnel trained here, it has, fortunately for us, now been turned into a state park and boasts nearly 40 miles of trails. Some of these trails are just that, small dirt single track hiking and biking trail while others are old roads that have limited access by vehicles and subsequently have grown in and now are used by hikers, bikers and horses too. We prefer to ride on the eastern side of the park where horse use is not permitted, mainly due to the horse poo that is frequently left behind but also because the horse hooves make for a rough bike ride. This is also my first year riding with the clipless pedals, why they are called that I am not sure as you are actually clipped into them and therefore attached to the bike. So far I have not had any spills with them to which I count myself lucky, I mean who wants to fall over while trying vainly to remove a foot from the pedal? So anyway I saved my first crash with them for the Farragut ride, most of the trails are fairly level with just brief hills to manage but the trails are quite technical in the aspect of rocks and roots being everywhere. We had been riding for maybe 5 minutes and just starting to get into the groove when we came to the first serious rock garden and I had made it about halfway through when suddenly my bike came to a stop, I had ran right into a small rock sticking straight up, well I guess my bike didn't actually stop it just ceased all forward movement and now began the quick upward movement which then is accompanied by forward movement afterward, yeah its called an endo. Anyway before I could even think about unclipping from the pedals I was head over heals and crashing to the ground in an oh so unpleasant way. I really didn't get hurt to bad just a couple of bruises to show for it and as is usually the case my concern was more for my bike since it had just landed violently on its side on a pile of rocks. A quick inspection revealed that I had dinged the disc for my disc brakes and it just made an annoying clicking noise as I rotated the tire around, no biggie. It took me a few minutes to get my confidence back which was good as our route took us down to the shoreline of Lake Pend Oreille which this next mile of trail is the toughest in the park. It is completely covered with rocks and roots and if you are brave or stupid enough to tackle it when it is wet you are sure to go down, fortunately for us it was nice sunny day and there had been no rain for a couple days and we made it through with no further incidents. The rest of the afternoon we spent pedalling around the park and revelling at all the beauty surrounding us.