Old Robe Canyon — Friday, May. 15, 2020

I've been looking for short, easy-ish hikes to do as I wade slowly back into physical activity - I recently had a major surgery and also am woefully overweight/out-of-shape - and this was perfect. 

I arrived at 7:15 am, hoping to see some birds doing their morning thing. Unfortunately for bird nerds, the entire trail is quite thickly wooded, so it's a familiar lesson in frustration - you can hear *all kinds* of birds, *interesting,**new* birds, but you can't see any of them :). For my bird people - I definitely heard the iconic buzzes of the common nighthawk, along with what I *think* were western wood-pewees (that incredibly high, fast-paced twittle).

The first part of the trail is flat and gorgeous, green and a little muddy but not bad. It quickly drops into five mostly-gentle switchbacks that had my bad hip moaning a bit, but were well-maintained even with obvious washout and erosion issues. You'll arrive at the bottom of the slope to a beautiful, soggy, marshy area with a lot of underbrush. Here, again - a lot of bird noises, but the only ones brave enough to show themselves were the robins. 

The trail makes a long, easy "U" around the marsh, through old growth and new nurse logs, and you suddenly find yourself at the river. Right away, there are places to sit and enjoy. Continue along and you will start needing to clamber over some low longs and under some slightly higher ones. You also start to see the signs of the railroad - ancient ties and pins in the ground and concrete structures. Very cool.

The river noise grows considerably here as it funnels into the canyon and begins to turn white. There is ample evidence of slides, old and new, so be careful. The rocks are slippery near the end - which is clearly marked by a sign explaining that you'll die if you continue. There was a clear path through the slide area that seemed to go on quite a ways, but - as I value my life - I didn't follow it. I sat on the big rock by the sign and enjoyed a very lovely view of this little canyon. 

The way back was great up until those switchbacks, at which point my fat behind struggled. But! I made it up - there are lots of places to catch your breath. :)