Capitol Forest

This morning our largest Yoh! group yet of 9 people and 2 dogs hiked for 6.25 miles at Capitol Forest about 20 minutes southwest of Tumwater.  A huge wind & rain storm blew through the area last night, but luckily by this morning, we just had the tail end of it to contend with.  We did still get rained & hailed on a few times, but there was hardly any wind.  The hardest part of the hike, I think, was trudging through so much mud and water on the trail.  We were pretty coated in mud by the end, but it was still a lot of fun.  Thanks to everyone who came!

This was Gabby's first Yoh! hike and she was super excited as you can see.  She made up a new Yoh! motto:  Through rain and snow, through sleet & hail, we are hikers, we will prevail! 

Ok, this sign lied to us.  We wanted to see the Mima Falls, but after walking 3 miles, another sign said the Mima Falls were 3.4 miles away!  They needed to mark their trails better.





I absolutely love bridges!  This one is over Waddell Creek.



Brenda in a dryer part of the trail.



Scott & Susan

We walked through an area that had been logged & replanted.

Gabby, Kathryn, Corey & Brenda

Jesse & Pam trying to figure out which way to go.

Scott, Gabby & Corey

Brenda giving Pace a little reprieve from the cold & rain.

More deliberating on which trail to take.  We never found Mima Falls, but our awesome guides brought us home alive!

Corey & Kathryn

Group photo taken by Gabby.
  First row: Jesse, Kassia with Ringo, Brenda with Pace, Susan
Second row:  Pam
Third row: Scott, Corey & Kathryn

Dosewallips State Park & Rocky Brook Falls

What happens when you hike in January in Western Washington?  You get wet, of course!  We definitely encountered rain on our hike at Dosewallips (pronounced doe-see-wall-ups per a local woman) State Park today along with sun, hail, snow & wind.  It was kind of a crazy weather day!

We hiked both the Steam Donkey Trail and the Maple Valley Trail which went down to the Dosewallips River.  Some highlights of the day: we saw 2 bald eagles, some large animal tracks (per the WTA description it appears there is an elk herd that resides there) and a really gorgeous waterfall (Rocky Brook Falls).  It was a small group, just me, Corey, Brenda & Pace, but we had a ton of fun!

Corey & Pace in the car.  Poor Pace got a bit car sick on the ride up there on all those windy roads & threw up all over Corey's sweatshirt.  Luckily Brenda had a spare fleece jacket in the car.

Brenda & Pace on the first of several bridges we crossed.

Corey, Pace & Susan on the 2nd bridge of the day.

Corey & Brenda

Some of the original train tracks.

Corey with some more old railroad items.

The top of a waterfall that we encountered.

The waterfall above was part of this Phantom Creek.

Peekaboo view of the Dosewallips River.

Corey next to some really cool roots on this tree.

Look closely and you will see the 2 bald eagles right in the upper middle of the picture on a branch.

We walked right down to the river and found some oyster & clam shells.

Corey & I next to a really cool tree.  How did it grow like that?

This is the Rocky Brook below the falls.

We were all in awe of these falls.  They were huge!  And you could get up really close to it.

Group photo:  Susan, Corey, Brenda & Pace.