Today’s hike was pretty low key and somewhat short – but it is that time of year – short hikes for short days. I asked Nicholas if he and Jet wanted to go and I was thrilled when he said yes. I gave him the option of a few hikes and he said this one sounded good.

We left the house a little after 8:00 so that we could get back early afternoon. We made it to the trailhead just after 9:30 and got ready and headed out. I had forgotten that you head downhill a little ways at the start of this trail. You head thru an old clearcut, down hill to the “real” trail (in the old growth). From there, you travel some mostly level spots with some uphill until you get to the junction with “some” trail (I’m not really sure what trail is what in this area – the numbering is very confusing). From there you head west for about 3/4 of a mile to the spot where the 3369 Trail (coming up from Opal Creek) joins – from there it is a pretty short ascent to the top.

The hike was pretty short – about 2 miles each way. Jet and Thor had never hiked before but they had a great time and we had no problems with them. About all we had to do was to make sure they stayed relatively close to us – same problem I have with Thor – but when we called, they always came running so it all worked out great. Here they are on the trail:

When we got to a small rockslide, there is a small, shallow pond. It was completely frozen, and Jet decided to walk out on the ice:

Amazingly enough he didn’t fall thru until the very edge, where it was a little thinner. The pond can’t be more than 18″ deep or so.

We continued up the trail and soon joined the last push to the top. It gets kind of steep, but we soon made it up. The sky was almost completely cloud free on the way up. We ended up having lunch at the old lookout site and were rewarded with really nice views. To the east there was Pansy and Silver King Mountains:

And to the south there was Mt Jefferson, which was mostly visible – just the peak was hiding in the clouds:

We ate lunch and enjoyed the view for a while. Since we needed to get back, we started back down about 11:30 I think. By the time we headed back down, the clouds had started to roll in. It looked like it might rain at some point.

The trip back down was pretty uneventful. I enjoyed hiking thru the glorious old growth and Jet and Thor were having a great time together. We made it back to the truck about 12:30 and headed home. On the way home, the dogs were tired and Jet kind of took up the whole back seat, but after a while, they figured out how to both sleep in the back seat of my truck:

It was a great day out in the woods – a fantastic fall day. Having my son and the two dogs just made it that much better.