10.2 miles, 1300' gain, 2400' descent

Every long trip has to have one day when you just aren't feeling it, and today started out trying to be that day for me. I was tired, and probably still a bit dehydrated from yesterday. I had a headache. I didn't sleep well last night. My camera broke. On paper this trail is just my kind of thing, deep dark primordial forest, but my mood was not where it needed to be.

Down the lower part of the Cowlitz Divide Trail I went, to where it intersects the popular Grove of the Patriarchs and Silver Falls trail. I encountered odor-free day hiking families, and heard my first motor engine for 4 days. What a strange, unnatural sound that is.

A realization hit me. Grove of the Patriarchs has been inaccessible for a couple of years after a flood damaged the suspension bridge used to access it, but the level of the Ohanapecosh River was really low right now. Perhaps I could ford it? I scouted around. There were a couple of spots where others had obviously done that, but I didn't feel great about either of them. One shallow crossing spot would require damaging undergrowth to get from the Eastside Trail to the riverbank, while another offered easy damage-free access to the river but would take me into the Grove at a spot of dense brush where I'd have to damage plants to reach the big trees. Then I figured it out: enter the river at the lower location, walk up its bed for a few hundred feet, then exit at the higher crossing spot. I was in in the Grove, and I successfully Left No Trace while getting here! It's a truly special place, made even more so during this time of inaccessibility.

My mood was restored. Miraculously, my camera started working again.

Back on the Eastside Trail, the rest of the day was a long but oh so gentle uphill. Trees. Waterfalls. The big views of my first three days were replaced by closeup zooms onto small things and fine details. The color palette was reduced to endless shades of green plus brownish reds.

Trip reports from earlier in the year indicated many blowdowns affecting the Cowlitz Divide and Eastside trails, but they had all been cleared by the time I visited. All praise the repair crews for their endless labor keeping these trails in good condition!

Deer Creek camp is another quiet forested spot, and I had the camp to myself. It has the joy of being right next to several spectacular bathing spots at the confluence of Deer Creek, Chinook Creek, and Needle Creek.