Alicia in the World: Capitol State Forest, June 28 2013

Little Flower

Because of last year's state budget, all state employees took a 3% pay cut until July 2013, but received extra leave time under the temporary salary reduction (TSR) leave. I started my position in mid-March and have built up a few hours of this leave, which I had to take by July 1 or I'd lose it. So, I squeaked it in on Friday, June 28 when I took a half-day.

Fallen Tree

Initially, Jon and I were hoping to take a weekend out-of-town with Max, and were looking at staying in Forks (home of the Twilight movies/book). But, it turns out, if you plan that sort of thing last minute, all of the good places are scooped or cost the soul of your firstborn child. So, we ended up sticking around Olympia, which worked out well for a number of reasons. One of those was that our friend Matt was around town, so he crashed at our house all weekend, which we'll talk about later when we discuss the trip to Mt. Ellinor we did on Saturday.

I got home from work a little after noon on Friday, and Jon and I ran to the California Taco Truck for a quick lunch. The Taco Truck has quickly become one of our favorite places for a quick meal because it's close to home, delicious, affordable, and the people who work there are always so nice. My favorite is the mulita, which is basically pico de gallo, avocado, melted cheese, hot sauce, and a choice of meat sandwiched between two small tortillas. Great meal for a small person. Jon always get a burrito, which is gigantic, and oftentimes he is unable to finish it!

Peaceful Leaf

After a quick lunch, we ran to our neighborhood REI store to get a Discover Pass so we could go explore the Capitol State Forest. The Discover Pass is all of $30 and gets you into any of the state-owned lands (e.g. state parks and forests). It's good for up to two vehicles. We figured it was probably worth getting the annual pass, since the daily pass is $10, so three times in a state park and we've already paid for it.

Haunted Forest

Capitol State Forest is just southwest of Olympia and is over 90,000 acres in size, spanning the Black Hills region of Washington. (To note, I was unaware that there was a Black Hills region in Washington until we went to the forest.) We entered the forest through the SW entrance just past Littlerock (From Olympia: I-5 south to exit 95, then head east), and wound our way through the gravel forest roads up steep hills until we found the spot where the McKenny trail crossed the D-4000.

We ran into some very dirty and happy mountain bikers about a quarter mile into the hike, and ran into some horseback riders much later, but otherwise, there was no sign of anyone or anything. It was so quiet, except the babbling streams and calls of the forest birds.

We walked the McKenny trail for a while, until it crossed a road, then we turned back to try another loop. We then hiked through until we were close to the Falls Creek trailhead, then turned back when we hit a pretty muddy area.

It was a peaceful walk. The forest was damp, though the trees let beams of light in on us. We hiked about 6 miles in a couple hours, and it was a nice easy walk. There were a couple of spots where there was a lot of growth over the trail that we had to make our way through, but it wasn't too difficult. Max Dog thoroughly enjoyed prancing along the muddy trail.