Skookum Flats

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we visited the Skookum Flats trail.

We visited this trail over the summer but it was one of those hikes that was photoless.  Read: not very interesting.  (looks MUCH prettier in the now)  It's an eight mile stretch that is fairly flat and borders the White River. 

There are actually two trail heads for it.  One on either end of the eight miles.  The first visit, we started from the closer trail head (to us).  We walked well over the half way mark before turning back.  There are a few waterfalls on this trail which are the main attractions but they were sparse at the time of our last visit.  Rumor had it there was also a suspension bridge but we never found it.   Many of the hikers we passed on the way back asked us if we reached it but we told them that apparently we did not walk far enough.

This trail is open to dogs, bikes and horses and as we parted the first time, we decided it would also be good if the kids ever want to come along as it's not difficult walking.  Perhaps we'd bring a couple dogs as well. 

The other thing we decided was that this would be a wonderful trail to hike in the snow.  And so it was.

We and an elk herd were the only ones there.  We never saw the elk but we did follow their tracks the entire way.  One of them, Mark said, was lazy like Bud because he could tell it drug its feet through the snow rather than pick them up.  (Bud is offended!)

The majority of this is woodsy with light grades.  The snow added a little more work to the uphill but it was fine.  Snow doesn't scare me anymore.  In fact, I am really enjoying it. 

I enjoy nothing more than doing the things I never thought I'd be able to do.

We did find some bridges on this side of the trail, but not the suspension bridge.  We didn't walk far enough to meet up to the place we stopped on the last hike though.   We arrived late and weren't able to walk as fast in the snow.

Every time we came to an outlook, we would hope for a glimpse of the bridge in the distance but we never saw it.  Then the question becomes, "How much farther do we want to go?"  Of course it would suck to have walked this twice and find out the bridge was just around the next corner.

I watch the time more than the mileage.  How long have we walked?  Will another 15 minutes really kill us?  We'd walked about an hour and a half through mostly forest with occasional river view areas that were way too high for us to actually get down to the water.  However, another 15 minutes brought us to an area where we believed we could get to the river and apparently the elk had the very same idea because it was their tracks we followed down.

Yeah!  I love this. 

The bigger picture.  How awesome is this?

 It's coffee time...  This is what it's all about.

Now, it's picture time.  Okay, THIS is what it's all about!

And all too soon, it's time to head back.  Obviously, we never found that suspension bridge.  (I love bridges)

4x4ing.

This was such an awesome hike!

There was one cliff edge on this trail that had a makeshift fence added to it.  We thought it was a little strange since there were other cliffs that weren't guarded.  On the way back, I actually tripped and nearly fell as I was looking at the odd way the fence was attached to the cliff.  After we arrived home, I looked this trail up on the Internet to see if I could find anyone who posted a picture and/or an exact location of the suspension bridge.  I did find it.  Only, the storm of 2006 destroyed it.  That was the same storm that took out the road to the Carbon River trail set which we visited so much with Samuel. As it turns out, the strange fence was where the bridge used to be.   Well, that answers that!

On the walk back I was counting the bridges to determine how close we were to the trail head.

There were two of these.

The second one meant were were nearly there.  This was the part of the trail where my knee was telling me it was done.  The place where every step was an effort.  I actually like this part (after the fact) because this is where hiking becomes hard and yet rewarding. 

The last little bridge and we're so close!  My poor camera got so cold that it froze while it was on.  Thankfully we were both warm the entire time.  (Of course I was dressed like the abominable snow man to stay warm.  I was actually too hot most of the way.) 

When Mark went to fix the camera, his body heat steamed up the lens making a few pictures a bit blurry.  It's okay, I still like it.   It adds "personality."

Next hike will occur when it is actively snowing....

Can't wait!