Fireweed - Bigfoot Trail Journal - 2016

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Banana slug

The Kelsey trail--finally maintained

I decided to take it easy on my poor stiff knees after the 4,000 foot descent of yesterday and the pack wrestling in the brush. What a difference to hike on a trail where the tread is actually there--although there's lots of blowdown that needs to be cut off the trail. The creek trail was beautiful with sword ferns, redwood sorrel. The weather was the characteristic sunny one minute, raining the next. I tried to get through the showers without putting on rain gear, but an unexpected long stint of showers soaked my pack. Luckily there was an hour of sun through the trees and I dried everything out. The trailhead is a lonely one and dark clouds made the evening gloomy. The US Forest Service map on the TH kiosk proudly proclaims the Kelsey trail as a wonderful primary trail--what a lie. Someone wrote on the map with a sharpie or other marker(the map was covered with glass) about how bad the trail was above Harrington Lake. Amen!! This info needs to be public. Yellowjacket Creek--a big creek right before the TH was like being in Hawaii--multiple levels of little waterfalls and ferns. Many mosquitoes finally surfaced after carrying bug spray for a week. Down to the elevation of poison oak--I brushed against some, but my skin feels ok--it usually starts tingling right away at even the slightest exposure.

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