Another solo hike, nice day, good workout but still a fail because I was unable to achieve my goal.
I wanted to continue south on the Change Creek trail, past the pond trail, around the Change Creek gorge to check out the bottom of a trail I spotted going down from the Great Wall. But the trail south of the pond trail is gone, replaced by a solid wall of bushes and small trees.
So I made a quick decision to take the pond trail and see what it looked like on the other side. I knew the new Olallie bike trail was on the other side of the ravine but I had forgotten whether or not it was steep.
A view from the Change Creek trail:
It is pretty steep, and I calculated the bottom of the trail, if it existed, would be a good 1.5 miles south, since I spotted it not all that far north of the place where the Great Wall splits, going west to Mt. Washington or south and then east to Songbird Peak and Greenway.
The temperature was climbing and I didn’t feel like adding a possibly fruitless three mile back-and-forth on a steep trail so I reluctantly turned right and headed back via the Great Wall connector trail and the Mt. Washington trail.
A perfectly nice hike, great workout, fun, but not doing what I set out to do kind of stings. So I will be going back on my first weekend chance (I am avoiding the Great Wall on weekdays) to scope out the mystery trail from the top.
Speaking of mystery trails, I have, a couple of times, noticed a steep bank just off (south) of the IHT where someone has attached a rope to a tree to help boost yourself up. Every time I have noticed this quasi-trail it has been at the very beginning of a hike and I have forgotten exactly where it is located by the time the hike was over.
But today, having parked at the 2nd Exit 38 lot but having come down via Mt. Washington main trail, I had to walk east on the IHT. I noticed the rope and here is where it is: it is on the west end of the Change creek bridge. Another little trail to investigate.
Lots of rock climbers today:
At the very end of the hike, as I was about to walk underneath the Hall Creek bridge I heard what sounded like an explosion to my left, in the vicinity of Hall Creek. I was taken aback; I looked up to see several idiots on bikes tossing big rocks off the bridge. I yelled at them to let them know there were humans down there. I passed 3 people coming up and warned them.
I am not sure how to understand the thinking of people tossing rocks – big ones! – off a 150-foot high bridge onto an area where you can expect hikers to be hiking. Takes all kinds.
Here is the track:
https://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/djhiker/change-creek-8-27-2017#.WaM8c8aQypo