I was driving through fog and mist until I got through the little town of Carbonado, about 45 minutes into my drive. I've always liked our windy roads, with the evergreen trees, and the craggy rocks where they cut through for the roadways.
Not long after the fog lifted, I came to a one lane bridge, which felt so high it sort of scared me. Claustrophobia has always been my only real phobia (I thought). I stopped the car and walked back out onto the bridge to shoot a few photos, but the railing was only about mid thigh in height. The Carbon River was so far down there that I could only ease myself slowly to the edge and look over. I took some of the shots by just holding the camera at arm's length and aiming down.
The Carbon Glacier Ranger Station is at an elevation of 1700' , and the roadway is still blocked off about 3 miles before any trail heads. It washed out or something a few years back. I started up the road, which was very nice!
Good ol' NW country, with our tall green trees, the lichen and moss hanging down, ferns, small little pine cones crunching under foot, and the early morning sun filtering through the trees. I love it!
Walking on a gravelly relatively flat surface like this, unlike the regular trails where you have to watch for roots and stones, etc, I could indulge myself and explore the surroundings with my eyes. I saw only one other hiker, back-packing out, and a Forest Ranger who came up behind me with a 4-wheeler. He asked me how far I was going, because I just had a day pack, and I was wearing tennis shoes. I told him I only had a 2 hour window of time, and were there any trail heads not far away where I could at least get onto a trail? He told me about an old mine that most people don't know about, but the trail is "not maintained", so don't get hurt or anything - "because we won't be able to get in there to bring you out." I told him thanks, and "I'll be careful."
So cool! But there were a lot of overgrown parts where I had to search a little for the trail, and there was some very steep switchback stuff. I almost missed the little mine when I was walking over a downed tree, right in front of it.
All in all, a wonderful detour.
Not far beyond the mine, there was this huge boulder the size of an overgrown VW Beetle, where roots had snaked up the sides and converged on the top where they joined forces - and voila! a big tree continued up in search of the sun. I couldn't step back far enough to show how really large it was because the hillside was so steep.
I'm excited about my hike next week, but I hope to get to a trail head earlier, so I can have more time...
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