Hello, hikers,

What a beautiful day for a hike! Three of us were energetic enough to tackle the trails today. Wait, make that four counting Iris. Cindy, Iris (the beagle), Vanessa, and I (Janice) drove out to the Darrington area for this hike. We were all strangers before today and enjoyed getting to know each other on this hike. We were first greeted by a tree across the road about 1 mile before the trailhead. This did not stop us! We headed up the road on foot and on to the trail. The river was a constant roar way below the trail. This was a very easy hike and was uneventful for the first mile or so. The recent wind storm provided us with a bit of work as we cleared the trail of debris. Vanessa took the lead and soon found herself clearing way of large branches and small trees which had blown down. There were quite a few places on the trail that we had to crawl under and over branches and trees. We were hoping to make it to the end of the trail before stopping for lunch but we came across a very large pile of trees and branches after about 3 miles and decided to turn back. We returned to a large clearing and took a short lunch break. Iris got some nice treats and kept us safe as we ate lunch. She was very serious in her role of guard dog and I for one felt very safe with her along. We hit the trail, crawled over and under again and found our vehicles right were we left them. This really is a nice, easy hike and I plan on returning to it another time in hopes of actually finding the end of the trail.

I hope to see you all on the trail soon,
Janice.