I have a routine of hiking up into the back country every July 4th to get away from the noise. A number of times I have hiked up to Camp Pleasant on the North Fork Skokomish. Several years, Jeff has joined me. This is the story of the hike in 2016. Jeff drove down to Olympia in the morning and we left to get to the trailhead before “the big crowds”.
After checking in at the North Fork Ranger Station, we started up the trail.
We took our usual break at the Flapjack Trail junction at 3.8 miles. That is were the old road ends and the “real” trail begins. (and I always think about having driven my MG Midget to that point back in 1970). We hiked up the trail to Madeline Creek, where we found a park trail crew installing a new bridge.
We took a break and enjoyed the sound of the creek and the sun… and filled our water bottles.
The big leaf maples on the flats up river from the 6-Stream bridge were spectacular.
We got to Camp Pleasant and found our favorite campsite empty.
It was early enough that we had a leisurely time walking around, enjoying the neighborhood…
and enjoying what flowers were still blooming
We had a nice evening sitting around the campfire. The few sparks were our fireworks and the smoke was more fragrant.
We started our hike out in the morning at a leisurely time and enjoyed the big woods the trail runs through.
At the bridge at Six Stream, we stopped to admire the “canyon” the river has created at that point and to have a bite to eat.
Our next stop was at the Flapjack Lake trail junction, where we took our last break and reflected on our return to “civilization”.
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