On rare occasions I feel as if the current situation is perfect. I could not improve it if I tried. Today, for about an hour, I felt that way.
My plan this past Friday, when I did a short hike prior to babysitting, was to hike to Dirty Harry’s Museum on Sunday. But we wound up hosting our grandson Camden overnight on Saturday into Sunday afternoon – a nice alternative.
So today I decided to try to find Dirty Harry’s Museum. The weather was excellent, approaching 70, blue skies, not too hot, not too cold. I encountered no snow on this trail.
The Dirty Harry’s Peak Trail has a lot to offer. In addition to four basic destinations – you can stop short at the balcony, go a little farther to the museum (which is just Dirty Harry’s old truck, Dirty Harry having been a logger long ago), farther yet to his “bathtub” (a tarn north and east of the Museum) or all the way to the peak. The trail also hooks into numerous side trails used by rock climbers. On weekends the place is packed – a couple of weeks ago, Derek and I showed up on a Sunday at 8:30 am and the lot was full.
Anyway, I did find the path to the museum, thanks to a recent trip report. Some kind soul has put small cairns (piles of rocks) to mark the way through the trees. It is only about .3 mile from the main trail and voila! There is the truck.
I hit the main trail about 7:30 and was alone for the entire way up, except for a couple of young people who, faster hikers than me, passed me on their way up to, I assume, the peak.
This is a great trail and it offers amazing views along the way:
The view from the Balcony is awesome. Prominent is McClellan Butte and, immediately east, Mount Kent:
6.71 miles, 2,769 feet of elevation gain.
What made that perfect hour was this: when I got back to the car and fired it up, the radio came on automatically. In fact, I don’t know how to set it to not come on automatically.
It was tuned to the local classical music station and what should I hear but the very first notes of Beethoven’s 6th Symphony, the Pastoral. My all-time favorite piece of music!
So I cranked it up and, driving home via the back route, through Carnation and Duvall, I was as happy as I can be. A wonderful solo hike, nothing but sun and fun, topped off with such a serendipitous musical moment.
UPDATE: Forgot to add a picture of the route, via my Garmin:
