East Fork Foss - Necklace Valley — Sunday, Apr. 22, 2007

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

I took my dog Daisy for an easy hike in the wilderness on Monday. I chose the East Fork Foss River to have a snow-free hike with little elevation gain since we were not going all the way to the Necklace Valley. The drive in to the trail head provided two pieces of good news: the road was being graded and re-graveled, and a work crew with a backhoe was heading up the road to Tonga Ridge to make repairs. The TH was deserted when we arrived, and the trail is in great shape for the first 2.5 miles. There were a few blowdowns, but they were only minor inconveniences. We took a nice long break at about 2.5 miles in, where the trail briefly touches the swampy area, soaking in the delicious sunshine. Mosquitoes were out in force, bad enough that I used some spray on my outer clothes and on the dog's pack. After this break the hiking became much harder, with more-frequent blowdowns, made up of much larger trees, including a few real giants. We continued on for another mile, always hopeful that the current blowdown would be the last for a while. No such luck. We eventually called it quits 1.5 miles short of our erstwhile goal, the river crossing at about 5 miles in. The hike out took about as long as the hike in, due to the flattish terrain. We ended up going 7 miles in 6 hours, but we spent 2 hours resting and picnicking, so only hiked for 4 hours. There was a lot of cool things to see and hear on this hike. Plenty of rich moss gardens, huge trees, cascading waterfalls on side streams, the sounds of various birds and insects, it really felt like spring has arrived in full force. One odd note: as we were hiking out, about 7:30 pm (we started at 2 pm), Daisy became very nervous, spooked even, by something she perceived to be behind us. She kept giving me that look, the one that says ""HELP!"". The kind of look a sick dog might give right before throwing up. I would stop, look behind, and see nothing, and also hear nothing, not even the twittering of birds, which was very spooky. After that I walked with my bear spray out of my pocket in one hand, and my other hand on my knife. Of course, at the last blowdown, I lost my balance and slipped on a root, taking a rather hard fall on my right shoulder. Luckily my pack took some of the impact, so I only have a slight sprain in the shoulder today. But while I was on the ground just after the fall, I thought to myself that if we were being followed by a cougar or something, now was it's chance to get me or my dog. I have little faith in bear spray alone under such a circumstance. But no attack occurred, there may not have been anything there to attack us, and my shoulder was soon limber enough to hoist the pack and hike out. I must admit though that I had a very hinky feeling there for a while, that we were being watched and perhaps followed, by something very stealthy.