Raptor Ridge loop trail

The skunk cabbages are coming up! Spring is definitely on the way. Today, nine Senior Trailblazers walked from the Pine and Cedar Lakes trailhead to take advantage of a newly blazed trail that goes from Raptor Ridge over to Madrone Crest, creating a possible hiking loop. This new trail is not actually much of one, yet, at least not from the Raptor Ridge side. Once we got towards the far end of the new trail, it was obvious that it even though it has been blazed, it has a ways to go before you could actually call it an established "trail."

After taking a quick look at the view from the Ridge (which as you can see from the picture below was not much of one today), we went back to explore the new trail. We hiked two and a half miles to the Ridge, with our total distance today a little bit of a mystery at this point, as none of us had actually hiked the entire loop.

Al, our leader, had been on the new trail two days ago to check it out and only got lost once. He placed some additional flags to make sure we wouldn't miss the trail markings and get us all lost. He also wrote an interesting post about his adventure on his own blog here, calling it "Putting the 'Lost' Back in Lost Lake." He did an out-and-back on Tuesday and suggested we consider doing the loop today, which is what we did. We called the entire hike a "lollipop" because we headed out on the trail, hiked in a loop, and then went back down on the same beginning trail.

As you can see, it isn't much of a trail on the Raptor Ridge side. But as we picked our way across logs and soft forest mulch, it became obvious that most of the work has been accomplished on the side of the trail that joins it to the Madrone Crest trail.

We had lunch at the Madrone Crest viewpoint, with little view because of the clouds, but this scene shows you that the sun was trying to break through, even then. As the day wore on, we had more sunshine coming through the trees, and by the time we finished having lunch, we had intermittent sunshine! What a treat!

The only real difficulty I had with the 9 1/2-mile hike is the steepness at the beginning. It was bad enough that we went UP the steep part, but my knees were not happy about having to go back DOWN the same very steep trail. Fortunately I don't forget my trekking poles when doing any of these really challenging hikes. We went up and down 2,500 feet of elevation gain and loss, and now that I am home writing this post, my knees feel almost normal again. Only a few of us don't use the poles, but it takes some getting used to in order to use them to full advantage. I am anticipating some questions in the comments, and I found this very informative piece on the REI website about trekking poles. I bought my poles there and couldn't have done this hike without them.

Another great day in the Pacific Northwest, with NO RAIN and even some sun! And great companions to hike with. I am amazed at what a difference a little time outside in the sunshiny woods does for my mood.
:-)