karensykestrails
What's happening now
A change in Direction - My column at the Seattle Post Intelligencer has come to an end - recent hikes will appear on my blog at http://www.karenshikes.blogspot.com/
INDEX-GALENA, TROUT CREEK ROAD
The plan was to hike the Index-Galena Road as far as we could get. Knowing the road was damaged we were still surprised when we couldn't hike past the "road closed" sign. Water was running across the road, too deep for hiking boots.
We settled for the nearby Trout Creek Road instead. That road was in poor condition with ice, mud and snow. Not good for vehicles but OK for boots. We hiked about 1.5 miles to the old bridge that spans Trout Creek and stopped there, finding a sunny spot.
There are problems with this hike - though it is beautiful it is also a popular site for other activities such as target shooting. The future of the Index-Galena Road is unknown. For now it's a wild and lonesome place; perhaps a little too lonesome. Or find it an ideal spot for scenic photos. Or both.
Coal Creek Trail 3/1/09
We beat the rain on this short, pleasant hike on the Coal Creek Trail on Cougar Mountain. The Red Town trailhead was busy but we found a spot to park at Red Town, crossed Newcastle Coal Creek Road and hiked the Coal Creek Trail to the Coal Creek Parkway trailhead (about 6 miles round trip). We weren’t able to make a loop via the Primrose Trail – the trail is closed for now.
Signs of spring are still few and far between but it feels like the brink of spring. Nettles are just beginning to pop up and the buds on Indian Plum are bigger than they were a week ago. There’s hope.
We were surprised at how few hikers we met on this trail. Perhaps because the trail is signed as a “primitive” trail. Well, yes, the trail is muddy and slippery in spots but other than that it doesn’t have a primitive feel at all. The trail is well signed, closures are posted, the bridges are good – scenery and coal mining history mingle along the trail.
If you like lichen, you’ll find lots of it, lots of turkey-tail lichen. Ancient stumps with springboard notches seem to stand as sentinels near Coal Creek Parkway.
We carried umbrellas but stayed dry and as is so often the case, just as we were changing out of our boots into shoes at the trailhead, the rain started to fall. It rained hard on the way back to Seattle.
Drive time from Seattle is about 25 minutes. The map is Green Trails No. 203S “Cougar Mountain, Squak Mountain”.
