Saturday, August 29, 2015

Coal Creek Falls

August 29, 2015

While Andy was at the WCSS event in Port Townsend I decided to take Toby out on his first hike and my first solo hike. I wanted to take it easy and chose Coal Creek Falls in the Cougar Mountain area. A gentle climb and proximity to home made it an ideal hike even though there would be no water or waterfalls to see.

Despite the rain and wind in Mill Creek, the east side was blue skies and sunny. There was plenty of parking just before 9 am and also plenty of trail map print outs. We took Red Town Trail up to Coal Creek Falls and made a loop back to the car. All in all it took us about an hour.

During the hike I ended up stepping on a giant slug. It was a dense one so ended up rolling under my shoe instead of squishing. I think Toby will do well on future hikes. He happily stepped off to the side to let other hikers pass. We have some work to do on leash pulling, but he slowed down when I said "Toby, with me". He would deliberately walk through the small water puddles on the trail and then get all buck wild and run down the trail. It was a good workout for both of us!


Nice wide trail
No water here
Tree tops, but no apple juice
Sittin' on a bridge near the restoration area. 
Hi
The morning of Summer Stormpocalypse 2015 was actually a perfect morning for hiking..
Toby ♥ water puddles
Selfie!
We got home just as the big storm was beginning and prepared what we could for Andy's birthday weekend!