What started as a great day for some decent snow hiking (packed the snow shoes just in case) at Baker Lake…Zach and I were thwarted by inches of deep slush and the lack of a truck. We both didn’t really feel like getting stuck in the slush/snow later in the day when we were still another 20 miles from the trailhead. So while I slept…like the good little hiking buddy/passenger/slightly narcoleptic person that I am, we shortly arrived at Rockport State Park (in between Rockport and Concrete, WA off of Highway 20) for a 3 mile loop trail. I’m assuming it was only one we could do given weather/road conditions in our location.
We had some difficulty finding the trailhead, but we finally did and the trail turned to be a lot more pleasant than expected. Full of old growth trees and about an inch of snow along the trail…it ended being a great walk. The trail twisted and turned and was a lot more interesting than we had anticipated.
What we also didn’t anticipate were the blow downs. Half way through the loop we encountered some massive blow downs. We ended up crawling over and under fallen trees, stepping onto snow banks we weren’t sure would give way not knowing what was underneath, for about a half mile. It turned out to be a little exhausting, but definitely made for a much more interesting trail and definitely felt a little more worth our while.
As Zach says, “Mother nature did not want this trail. She just demolished that section.” This picture can help give you a scale of how large these trees were. Zach is 6′ 3″ and he’s already had to climb some roots to get part way up that trunk. I might be the only girl who thinks bushwhacking is fun, but it might be because when I’m out with my friends I’m pretty naive. But I’ve been lucky to befriend some incredible guys who have never steered me wrong.
Eventually we made it out. But not without being soaked and a moss covered beanie. It was a great day.
