Saturday, March 27, 2021
Today I explored two sections of the Klickitat Trail, an old rail line converted into a hiking trail. In the morning I parked at the Wahkiukus Trailhead and headed east:
This section is forested and protected from the wind:
I passed what I think is a hunting cabin. There was a car that had clearly been sitting there for a long time:
Most of the time Swale Creek was out of sight, but occasionally it came into view:
Another cabin:
After hiking for just over an hour I reached this old trestle at the three mile mark:
Hills above the trestle:
Just beyond the trestle is another piece of private property. This one had a whole lot of junk laying around:
I turned and headed back to the car:
After that I drove over to the trailhead on Harms Road. If I had kept hiking another eight miles past that trestle earlier I would have ended up here:
This part of the trail was very different from where I had just been. It was much more open with hardly any trees, and therefore less protected from the wind. Swale Creek was much more visible than it had been on the other section:
There weren’t many wildflowers, but I did some grass widows:
I believe this is a northern harrier:
I took a break sitting on a rock by the creek for a little bit and spotted this killdeer:
I only hiked 1.5 miles before turning around and going back to the car.
