Klickitat Rail Trail from Harms RD TH 3/15/14

8.8 miles 300'EG

WTA Field Guide 

PH Field Guide
Garmin Track 

For today's hike, we decided to head to Washington.  We stopped in the town of Lyle for a few snacks and then headed north on Centerville HWY to Harms Rd.  The TH is about 0.5 miles down the road.

A view of MT Hood from Centerville HWY

Some fellow travelers on the road

When we arrived at the TH, we were surprised to be the only ones there.  We headed west along the creek.  There are a few gates to go through, as this area is an open range.  

watch out for attack cows!

getting started

It is a nice wide rail that goes along an old railroad bed and follows the creek the entire way.

nice easy trail

lots of shrubbery along the creek

There are so many things to look at along this trail.  Not only to you get to enjoy some beautiful landscapes of the canyon, there is a menagerie of wildlife and some wonderful pieces of trail art.

altar that looks like it is straight out of "True Detectives"

that is a rattlesnake skin laying on the skull

lots of "trail art"

Some of the wildlife we saw were marmots, birds and lizards.

marmot in the rocks

sunbathing lizard

garter-snake

We hiked for a few miles, until we came to bridge 26-9 and decided to have some lunch.

bridge

bridge and creek

time to relax

After a little rest and refueling, we headed down the trail for a few more miles.  About 1/2 mile after the bridge, there is a nice waterfall that flows into the creek.  We decided to splash some water on our heads here.

We continued on until we hit about 4 miles and decided to turn around.

enjoying the view

canyon walls

Columbia Desert Parsley

Grass Widow

 

contrail shadow on the clouds

On our way back, we stopped at the waterfall again to cool off a little.  I noticed a spot on the dog that isn't normally there...IT WAS A TICK!! Minor detail that I forgot about this area...Ticks galore!!

I found two more on him upon further inspection.  We decided to wait to look for more. 

We got back to the car and packed up and headed out.  

Once we were in the car, I spotted a Western Meadowlark on the fence that decided to spend a few minutes performing for us.

Western Meadowlark performance

We enjoyed the song and then headed to The Dalles to stop for some dinner at Cousins.

On the way back to Portland, Cher was trying to pull a "dead leaf" out of her hair, only to discover that...IT WAS A TICK!!  Her first response was to mildly flip out and flick it.  Luckily, it landed in the cup holder, so she was able to grab it with a tissue and kill it.  

After getting home and getting cleaned up, we did thorough tick checks.  Luckily, we didn't find anymore of the little parasites.

We both got a little farmers "tan" (burn)

It was a great hike and a beautiful day!!

Mt St Helens snowshoe 2/22/2014

6 miles  780' EG

Today we headed up to do some snowshoeing on Mt St Helens. 
We parked at Marble Mountain Sno-Park with plans of going to June Lake.

When we go to the Sno-park, there were a lot of snow-mobilers already there.  Surprisingly, we found a parking spot right in front of the TH.

getting started

 We started up the trail.  The trail was in great condition.  After a little while along the trail, we came to an opening in the trees to a nice snowfield.

 Continuing up the trail, we realized that it was just going to keep climbing.  It was a nice slope.  We came to a steeper section of trail.  The picture below doesn't do it justice.

a nice "little" hill 

At the top of the hill, we came to a group of four that seemed to be having some issues.  We noticed that a few of them had been post-holing (they did have snowshoes but were not using them for some reason).  We passed them by and eventually they caught up and passed us.  And then we came upon them again.  One of the girls had post-holed and her entire leg was swallowed up in the hole.  Cher saw her toss her poles into the bush in some sort of tantrum(at least that's what she looked like she was having).  As we passed them again, Cher asked " Dont you have snowshoes?" and the reply was "yeah, but we thought it would be easier to not use them".  After we got further away we couldnt help but laugh.  And at the same time, we were slightly annoyed ant the holes in the trail they made that we had to navigate around.

My little snowbunny

We passed a few people on the way up that had mentioned that the trail to the lake was pretty difficult due to the snow conditions, so we opted to just go up 244 and try to make it to the Loowit trail junction. 
About 1/4 mile from the Loowit trail, the hill got steeper and the snow got deeper, so we decided to turn around.

beautiful snowy trees and trail

Us at our turn around point

representing "Team Sparks"

We headed back to the lake trail junction and found a spot for lunch.  After starting to rehydrate our beans and ham and making up some hot cocoa, we noticed the little camp robbers (grey jays) had started to congregate nearby.

Cher enjoying some cocoa

hanging out and waiting

Jen enjoying her cocoa with a little something extra

come a little closer

"can I have some beans and ham?"

all warmed up

We spent about 40 minutes enjoying the birds and lunch.  Eventually the post-hole gang came down the lake trail with reports that the hill was impassible.  We wished them a good afternoon (they all had their snowshoes on at this point).

After a warm-up and re-energizing, we decided to get headed back to the car.
As we were heading down the trail, it started snowing.  We stopped to watch the flakes and noticed that the flakes were perfectly formed little shapes...like one would only see under a microscope(at lease thats what our impression was). 

perfect flakes

fun on the trail

peek-a-boo

We got back to the car at about 1 and got on the road. 
Our post-hike meal was burgers at Five guys Burger and Fries.  Their burgers never disappoint.