Today’s hike had one simple purpose – to enjoy a beautiful old trail. Little did I realize that it had been COMPLETELY cut out end to end, which only made the day that much better! I haven’t taken much vacation this year, so I burned a day to do this hike. It was just Thor and I and the plan was to hike the trail all the way to the end, about a mile and a quarter above the 4672 road.

We headed out at our usual time and got to the trailhead faster than I thought we would. We headed up the trail – I was pleasantly surprised when I saw evidence of some tread work near the beginning. It wasn’t a lot but it did look like someone had cleared the tread. Kirk and I hiked this trail about 4 months ago and turned around at the 4672 road where there was still a couple feet of snow.

Near the beginning of the trail I had to take a picture of how nice the trail actually was:

At several place on the trail, I found spots that looked similar to this- I don’t know what it is – my first guess is a bear butt that made a print in the trail, but….

We continued across Rho creek, (easy rock hop), up the switchbacks and continued up the trail. One thing this trail is very consistent about is gaining elevation. Most of the trail the grade isn’t too bad – a few spots get a bit steep, but mostly it is just a continual trip up.

It wasn’t too far until we got to Fadeaway Spring – it was full and ice cold – weirdest spring ever:

There were also a lot of ripe huckleberries around the spring, so we spent a few minutes picking and eating huckleberries. Thor even got in on the act:

After eating some huckleberries, we continued up. I got this view looking kind of northeast back over the Rho Creek drainage:

We got up to the 4672 road and crossed and continued up. It was obvious the trail below 4672 had some work done on it when they cut out all the logs. In the lower section the only log that was not cut was a rather large log, but was a relatively easy crawl under.

Once across the road, the trail continues its ascent, but this section has also had recent work and it was beautiful:

At one point in this upper section, I saw this carving on a tree but I don’t know what it is – it kind of looks like a triangle but could also be a G – at any rate I thought it was interesting:

We continued up the trail, enjoying all the recently cut out logs. When we got to the old collapsed shelter, we stopped for lunch. It was a pretty quick lunch, but while we were there, I looked around a little bit. I found something I had not seen previously – an old piece of armored cable – wondering if they had some sort of battery powered something at the shelter at some point (kind of like what we found at Fish Creek Mountain):

After eating, we continued up the trail to the point where the real trail kind of stops abruptly – not sure what happened here, but the trail is really good and then just kind of stops. We turned around at this point and headed back down. Not too far from the end, Thor got interested in something in the woods. I went over to see what it was, and it was the remains of a deer – didn’t look too old either:

After that bit of excitement, it was a pretty uneventful trip back. One thing I neglected to mention – I can’t remember when I realized it, but at some point I realized I had lost my hearing aids. Near the beginning of the trip, I was sweating quite a bit and one of my hearing aids was beeping at me and got in a constant reboot loop – every time it reboots, it plays a little tune. It was really annoying me, so I took out both hearing aids and put them in my pocket. I did not bring the case for them since I was planning to keep them in all day – lesson learned – either keep them in, or bring the case – NEVER put them in a pocket. I’m pretty sure what happened was I had my bandanna in my pocket and when I pulled it out the hearing aids came with it. I didn’t see it, and they are laying somewhere on the trail. I remember taking out my bandanna at Fadeaway spring, so after we got back to the truck, I drove up to the upper end of the trail where it crosses 4672 so I could walk back to the spring to see if I could find them. Long story short, I looked for about 10 minutes and did not see them. I walked back to the truck and headed home. If there was any good news it is that Costco offers a one time free replacement if you lose them. I took advantage of the offer and should have new hearing aids in about a week. Tough lesson to learn…. But in the future they will either stay in my ears, or if I take them out, they will go in the case.

The hearing aid saga was kind of sad, but it didn’t spoil the day – today was a fantastic day in the woods on an absolutely beautiful old trail.