Olsen Creek 2011

Crossing the Olsen Creek bridge

I guess we must have used up all our sunshine credits last week. We left for our hike in rain then (same thing today) and drove to our destination only to see it clear up and be really beautiful. Not today. We drove to the trailhead in a light misty rain, which stayed with us for most of the day. Sometimes it was more than just a little rain, and sometimes we thought any minute the sun might break through the fog and mist.

Ten Trailblazers met at the Senior Center this morning and carpooled to the parking lot. As you can see from this picture, taken fairly early in the hike, it was wet and cloudy, with no view at all. We left this logging road after a while to starting hiking uphill. This trek, or a variation of it, is one we do a couple of times during the winter months, and it's always got mud issues. Today's experience was, however, one I have only experienced a few times before. One I called "Adventures in Mud" when we ventured out on this hike last April. We also slogged up it again as our last hike of 2010, and I wrote about that trip here. I've been hiking with these guys long enough now to be able to compare the treks and notice differences. They vary mostly because of the weather and time of year. There must have been a lot of rain lately for us to have this much mud:

Those are Peggy's boots in front of me, and I stopped momentarily to pull out my camera and try to show what we were dealing with today. The trekking poles were essential to keep from slipping in the mud. We did wonder if the mud has healing properties and if we should just give up and wallow in it. I managed to get spots of mud even on my glasses!

We had a nice spot in the mist for our lunch break. The small group today didn't linger during lunch, and it was again not very warm. Being wet from exertion and rain and then stopping usually makes me pretty cold, so I carry an extra fleece and even an extra raincoat if necessary. The hardest part of the hike is trying to warm up again after taking a break. We were all getting pretty hungry when we stopped here for lunch:

I think we are all looking forward to the days in the summertime when we have sun and a great view, but we go out anyway, rain or shine, to get our "fix" of some extended exercise on Thursday. We covered almost ten miles and went up and down our usual elevation gain and loss of 2,500 feet. All in all, as I sit here on Cinco de Mayo after having slogged through the bog and laughed and groaned with my buddies, I can say it was a good day. I'm glad it's over, though.
:-)