CCC Road: Blowout Creek Trailhead — Tuesday, Jun. 22, 2021

I've never in all my years quit a hike after 10 minutes, but that's exactly what happened this morning. I'm deleting this one from my hike spreadsheet forever (and hopefully my memory). Mostly it was the bugs. Giant, giant mosquitos. All over me (and they don't usually like me). All over my dog, especially around her eyes, like she was some tiny sub-sahran cow. Normally she loves hikes, but within the first minute of this one she was giving me the same face of utter betrayal she normally saves for bath time. The "trail" (road) itself is also incredibly nondescript and ugly, and it has a creepy "Stand By Me" vibe like you're on your way to see a body (or you're the body). Finally the last (and first) insult to injury is the parking situation. They've put cones at the gate so you can't park there, you have to park several hundred feet up the road at Oxbow Loop trailhead. Which is fine, but the shoulder is overgrown and tiny so you have to walk right on the highway, which is scary by yourself nevermind with a dog/kids. Skip this hike, there are plenty of other ones in the area, or in my case I wanted to get far away from those bugs so I went all the way to Talapus and Olallie Lakes (which were amazing!)