While we may not get to full-fledged Into the Wild this year, we had our first of our bi-monthly hikes yesterday, to Goat Creek Falls in the Mt. Helens area.
JC, a surprising candidate, showed up at 9am on Saturday morning and he and I drove out to Riffe Lake towards Morton to meet up with Lou, Ainsley, Chris and three others. The trail began about 4 miles down your typical rough-ride forest road. Although fortunately not as pot-hole-y as usual, we did come across some small felled trees which JC took great pleasure and pride in being able to expel from the road for us.
Although the weather had been unpredictable on the drive, we ended up having decently mild, overcast conditions for the hike. One of the kids that was with us - Jordan - was absolutely engaged with every moment. He was ecstatic to discover that it was the same trail his mom and siblings had once hiked and he could remember every little milestone and marker. As we started out, he highlighted an overlook that would be coming up shortly that was "absolutely incredible". Sure enough, just after the trailhead was a clearing that overlooked Goat Creek. It was a nice view but I could only hope to have the eyes that this kid had. He was enthralled with everything. I enjoyed his vibrance on the hike.
The hike was beautiful. It took us over a couple of fast-flowing streams and small falls that hugged the hills. Some mid morning fog set in and illuminated the silhouettes of the trees. The trail was fairly short, taking us only about 45 minutes to get to the falls. The trail was relatively level until the last little push to reach the overlook. But from there, a sloping muddy trail allowed you to go down to a rock directly in front of the massive spout of water and mist. It was glorious and had I not gotten soaked from standing in the line of fire, I would have stayed for hours.
We paused for a snack and then curved along a path of concave wall underneath and to the other side of the falls. The kids got a brief lesson from Lou and Ainsley on how to find True North and Magnetic North on a Compass and then Marcus took lead and led us the way back.
All in all, a great first outing. Although, perhaps not worth $150. Tacked to the cars back at the trail head were two 75-dollar tickets for parking violations. The charge was a ripoff, as there was one, illegible sign that warned of leaving turnaround space, plenty of turn around space anyhow, and no where that told you where to park. Land and money don't belong together.
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