WHT Day 8

Two walks! Ten miles! I took the littles (Becky the Boston, and Tyler the Puggle) from the VW house to Doyle Road today. We met up with the Labrador (I forget his name, but he’s a sweet boy), on the way back. Becky of course, the brat, wanted to beat the crap out of him, but I finally convinced her to be a sweet girl and she was glad to finally kiss noses. Tyler initially grumped, but then ignored him.

Short walk,because Miss Becky shouldn’t really walk very long, thanks to her luxating patellas. I love walking with the littles; much more relaxing than with Bear. We get to meander, and sniff, although because two dogs are tugging at leashes, it’s harder to take pictures! We also happened to see three railroad spikes, while walking the 2 littles and later w/the Bear dog. Yes, it’s “rails to trails”, but why today?? And I did not pick any of them up! What do I need w/railroad spikes?

With Bear, I started at Doyle Road and went all the way to a farm road, mile post unknown, so I took a picture so I would know where to start next time. Rusty orangy red roof on a barn with no house close by. It’ll be easy to find for our next walk.

We went through Lebam, which I cannot help thinking of as Mable; Lebam spelt backwards. Named after the founder’s daughter, according to a friend of mine. Why backwards? Why not Mable? There’s a school and a fire department; as well as the store (closed) & the tavern, also closed. Bummer! Could be a cute place to stop & have ice cream or a soda on the way to Chehalis.

And then through Frances, which may be incorporated (or not), but does not have a store or tavern, closed or open. But there are houses. A few anyway. And no speed limit through Frances, unlike Lebam & Menlo.

I really do like the walk from Doyle Road to Lebam. Lovely forest, cool and quiet. You do have to jut over from the trail to the road, to avoid the broken bridge over the creek. Didn’t know about this the first time I traversed the trail and I ended up bushwhacking down the bar ditch & up the other side. This time I remembered in time to use the cut over from the trail to Robertson Road and skipped the bit of trail to the end of the road. Lebam is just past this, where there is a really good parking area for horse trailers & bike carrier vehicles.

The rest of the trail is the usual mix of gravel, scattered large gravel and dirt/grass. Some shady bits, some sunny bits. I managed to hit a cloudy coolish day, though I still brought water for Bear. And at the tag end, we encountered a pickup driving on the trail. Looking for a loose horse. I hope they found said horse! Unfortunately I didn’t get details & I’ll never know the outcome.

Starting out. Love the grass! Must admit, I am not fond of the “scorched earth” practice most Raymondites practice!

Lovely bridge. Maybe next traverse I should record all the bridges?

Gail & both love this little house.

Grassy, natural trail! End of the line today.

Lots of wildflowers of course! And salmon berries! Who knew they are in WA too!?

Grape-like plant. What the heck is it?

They eat leaves, the little buggers!

And one of the spikes I saw. Why’re they popping up now?

WHT Day 7

Excellent walk today! Still a bit warm, but cooler than yesterday. And we started earlier too. Beginning at Lily Wharton Road, we went all the way to what I call the “Volkswagen house”, a bit over 9 miles round trip. Lucky Bear, we found a couple different spots for him to get water today.

Just leaving Lily Wharton Road, there was a patch of that yucky large stumbly gravel, and happily that was it. Most of the trail on this bit is dirt and grass, with scattered large gravel. Early on, it was pretty shady. The sun had moved by the time we headed back, so what was shady earlier was quite sunny by 11-ish.

We saw a couple deer, preceded by much rustling and crashing through the trees. Bear behaved himself, and didn’t so much as lunge after them. And I was very happy to see the deer, and not some lunatic running through the forest!

I’d hoped to get all the way to the fish hatchery, but I wasn’t ready to do a ten mile day. Nine miles was quite enough for a pretty warm day. And I don’t need to race down to Chehalis! I like having time to stop and take a picture, or examine a plant, or just enjoy the scenery.

The “Volkswagen House” is a long abandoned structure with a very decripit, stripped VW Bug in the yard. I’m sure it’s a mundane story in reality, but I wonder what caused someone to desert the house, the car, and such a pretty spot? Did they get convicted and sent to jail? Died of drug overdose and the family never found out? Took off for Europe and never came back? I’ll probably never know.

Here’s the beauty that was left behind. Lovely fishing spot; there’s a narrow trail, and on parts of it, someone took the trouble to layer plastic bags and cover them with dirt. I’m guessing that keeps the trail somewhat clear. There’s also a nice place to swim, or at least I thought it looked good. Nice beach… though that might belong to the neighbors.

I wanted to walk up into that cloud!

Willapa Marine Products; they were super nice when I stopped by to look for a jacket.

A marshmallow farm! Haha! Hay baled into plastic bags. Fascinating to watch the hay get baled this way.

And of course, wildflowers. The wild iris is much smaller here, than in AK. Makes me wonder if it’s hybridized or escaped from yards.

And this one escapes me. It’s the Notti Boppin Memorial Estate. What the heck?? Notti Boppin, “A dance that disrespects a slain OY crip rapper from Harlem”; Notti Osama was only 14 when he was stabbed to death.

And I finished the Hike 365 challenge on this stretch!! Yay! But am still tracking my miles, till I finish the WHT.

#hikers365challenge

WHT Day 6

Bear & I finally got out for a nice long walk yesterday (June 5). Started out cool, but warmed up quickly, so I was glad I’d made a last minute switch to shorts. We backtracked over the part I missed with Tyler (about 1/4-1/3 mile down Heckard), and then headed out.

This part of the trail is packed dirt, with dried grass, and nice soft green grass in a few parts, as well as some of that large gravel (1-2” diameter) in isolated spots. That gravel is hard to walk through, and it must be even worse on a bike! Luckily it’s only in very short stretches.

Just down the trail from where we started, you have to get off the trail and use the road bridge to cross a drainage ditch. There’s almost a washout on the trail, where the Willapa River has cut away the bank, just before the bridge on the trail. There is absolutely no shoulder crossing the road bridge, so I made sure no cars were coming and hustled right along!

#hikers365challenge

Now if I could get this to show up on the WHT trail map!

Sightseeing along the trail.

Wild roses; Nootka rose I believe

I believe these are either Cashmere or Angora goats. Would love to talk to the owner & find out more.

Menlo Store. Menlo is named after Menlo Park, CA, where Gail & I were both born. If I’d known that, I might have looked for a house there!

I love seeing the texture and topography of the river bottom.

Little brown grass snake; I’ve seen several of them. Harmless little guys, and the dogs try to eat them. Yuck!

I was bummed to find out this place is closed! We could have walked or biked for pizza and beer.

Last winter both these spots were wet and muddy. I was happy to see the grass that populated the trail here.

WHT, Days 3, 4, 5

This section of the trail, from Dick Kindle Park to the end of Heckard Road, is nicely graveled. It’s just a tad over 3 miles. Lots of wildflowers at this time of year. And berries! Lots of berries, but watch out for those nasty berries-Himalayan blackberries. They love to snag bare skin! Up to Oldani Road, the trail is fairly shady; from Oldani to the end of Heckart, there is some shade but it’s mostly quite sunny. Great in the winter, but too hot in the summer.

The last 3 days of walking the WHT-from the park to the end of Heckart-haven’t gone so well. I took Becky & Tyler from Dick Kindle Park to Garden Street, which was a bit shorter than I’d like, but it was just too warm for Becky. She has a very narrow comfort range, temperature-wise! I do love that stretch of the WHT though; I really enjoyed taking foggy morning pictures there last fall.

I took Bear the next day, Day 4, from Oldani Road to Garden Street & back. But he was limping, and he really didn’t want to walk. Very unusual for him. He broke a bone in his foot a couple years ago, and he was being pretty athletic with his ball the last couple days, so I figured he was feeling the effects of that old injury. So only 2 1/2 miles that day.

And Day 5 was Tyler’s turn for a solo walk. He likes to trail behind me, which I don’t mind when I have two dogs, but with just him, it feels like I don’t have a dog. He also walks pretty slow; understandable since he is pretty danged short! And it was too hot for him (I think it was 62 degrees), so I ended up packing him for a couple short stretches. I didn’t bring Becky-she’d already had one walk this week, she has luxating patellas which can be quite painful for her. So, long story short, she doesn’t get to walk as much as she (& I) would like. So another short walk, only 2 miles; I was hoping we’d get the whole 2 1/2 miles. Oh well!

I did at least get a few photos from along the trail. Mostly wildflowers, as you can see.

Tyler is so short-he couldn’t enjoy the cool breeze because the berry bushes blocked him from it 😦

WHT, Days 3, 4, 5

This section of the trail, from Dick Kindle Park to the end of Heckard Road, is nicely graveled. It’s just a tad over 3 miles. Lots of wildflowers at this time of year. And berries! Lots of berries, but watch out for those nasty berries-Himalayan blackberries. They love to snag bare skin! Up to Oldani Road, the trail is fairly shady; from Oldani to the end of Heckart, there is some shade but it’s mostly quite sunny. Great in the winter, but too hot in the summer.

The last 3 days of walking the WHT-from the park to the end of Heckart-haven’t gone so well. I took Becky & Tyler from Dick Kindle Park to Garden Street, which was a bit shorter than I’d like, but it was just too warm for Becky. She has a very narrow comfort range, temperature-wise! I do love that stretch of the WHT though; I really enjoyed taking foggy morning pictures there last fall.

I took Bear the next day, Day 4, from Oldani Road to Garden Street & back. But he was limping, and he really didn’t want to walk. Very unusual for him. He broke a bone in his foot a couple years ago, and he was being pretty athletic with his ball the last couple days, so I figured he was feeling the effects of that old injury. So only 2 1/2 miles that day.

And Day 5 was Tyler’s turn for a solo walk. He likes to trail behind me, which I don’t mind when I have two dogs, but with just him, it feels like I don’t have a dog. He also walks pretty slow; understandable since he is pretty danged short! And it was too hot for him (I think it was 62 degrees), so I ended up packing him for a couple short stretches. I didn’t bring Becky-she’d already had one walk this week, she has luxating patellas which can be quite painful for her. So, long story short, she doesn’t get to walk as much as she (& I) would like. So another short walk, only 2 miles; I was hoping we’d get the whole 2 1/2 miles. Oh well!

I did at least get a few photos from along the trail. Mostly wildflowers, as you can see.

#hikers365challenge

Tyler is so short-he couldn’t enjoy the cool breeze because the berry bushes blocked him from it 😦