A friend and one of my employees went for a day 6.5 mile hike starting at the Staircase Rapids trailhead, we walked on the east side of the river to the suspension bridge, up the trail, then back across the bridge to the trailhead. This means we didn't do the loop, but half the loop twice.
One weird thing happened on the way to the trailhead. We saw a bison in the road near Quilcene. That was a first for me.
We drove in along from 101 on Forest Service Road #24. It was in great shape. The final few miles to the ranger station, which is often in terrible condition, was also good. Not great, but the best I've ever seen it on my 10 or so visits.
We hit the trail at 8:45 a.m. There were still lots of spots in the parking lot. The trail was in excellent condition. Thank you to all the volunteers who work to make that happen. I'm sure people are clearing this trail of fallen logs at least every month.
The hike was beautiful. The leaves were just starting to turn. The river was at the lowest I've ever seen it--which is probably normal for this time of year, and the several small streams along the trail which must be forded during the winter and spring were dry. We had lunch at 3 mile log (about 3.3 miles from the trailhead) and turned around. At lunch we were joined by battling chipmunks, very funny. Oddly, we saw no other hikers on our outbound leg. On the return leg we saw about 50 people.
We enjoyed all the sites along the trail:
- Ridicule Fence
- Toenail Rock
- Suspension Bridge
- Minor Impediment Rock
- 3-mile log
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