Three of us took my dog for a pre-Turkey Day hike on a beautiful brisk morning with frost and fog that burned off by mid-morning to make for lovely photos. We parked at the bottom of the Licorice Fern Trail so I could show friends where the recent WTA work parties have been improving the tread, widening paths, building new stairs, and laying absorption straw to remove some moisture.
We left the cars around 7:15 a.m. and encountered one early-riser trail runner, with more people and their dogs the later it got. It was nice to see so many people out enjoying themselves pre-feast on such a beautiful morning.
After checking out Licorice Fern Trail, we continued across the street to join with Indian Trail and encountered several downed trees from the bomb cyclone that hit the area a week ago. If you're willing to deal with some clambering, the trail is passable. It smelled like Christmas in places with all the fresh pine boughs.
Our next destination was a right turn onto Quarry Trail where we started a more serious climb to our final destination, Coal Creek Falls. We stopped for a 25-minute snack, drink, and some photos. The falls are raging! I'd only seen it once with a trickle. Unfortunately, the cyclone blew a tree down right in the middle of the view so I had to clamber around to get a decent Falls shot.
Two of us had a 10 a.m. turn-around time and my dog was trembling from the cold. We scrapped the idea of continuing to Doughty Falls, instead returning the way we came. Trail runners and a group of Mountaineers hikers were out, as well as a few dog walkers.
By the time we returned to the cars around 11 a.m., the sun caused the pavement to steam with evaporation. On the day, we heard 11 bird species including a downy woodpecker, got some lovely fresh air, traded stories, and got in about 5.8 miles and 830 elevation gain. I'll save Doughty for the next trip.
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