Day 17

What did I miss?

Today, July the 2nd, Monday... Had to verify some paperwork to make sure I could get into Canada easily with my pistol, so I got up early... well, not that early, 8:30ish, called Canada... Closed... something about Canada Day. I guess I'm stuck in the Seattle area for another day. What to do, what to do. I guess I could go to Mt. Rainer, I haven't been there yet.

The original plan was to find a short trail, walk around a bit, and drive around the entire park. We all know how well plans work, so as soon as I heard that Glacial Basin Trail had been washed out by obscene amounts of water (yes, it does appear to be about the same time frame as Glacial National Forest's washout) that knocked over trees, strewn boulders all over the place, and generally wrecked the trail so it had to be marked temporarily with yellow caution tape to follow, well, I just had to see it for myself.

The trail was originally about 3.1 miles long, but given the destruction and the new windy path it was by far the hardest and best trail I've ever hiked. For about three hundred feet you walk over a huge boulder pile right where the trail used to exist. Soon, you're dodging large trees that fell across the path. Before long you're almost ankle deep wading across streams left over from the washouts that come from somewhere above and crash down to the temporary path in little waterfalls.

The visitor center lady told me she hiked this trail, in it's current condition, in about an hour and a half, one way. With all the waterfalls and distruction to document, I found it pressing to get there under two and a half hours. I can't wait to look at those photos closer, but I'm guessing that you couldn't take a bad picture of that hike. Every few steps it seemed there was another waterfall, another boulder pile, or another flower patch that needed it's digital duplicate made.

After getting down in just under an hour and a half, my feet, legs, back... well, I was tuckered, and rather than continue around the park, I just drove back to Dee & Wally's place for the night and recounted my excersion to them. That wasn't a trail I'd suggest to most people to take, but for me, that was a good day.

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