Dry Creek Trail and Lake Cushman

Yesterday, Melis, Abigail, Mark, Matty and I headed out to Lake Cushman and hiked along the Dry Creek Trail. This is the same trail where Brian&Melis heard the low, gutteral roar of a mountain lion just a couple years ago. There were warning signs about the big cats at the trailhead, but thankfully, none were heard or seen while we occupied the trail. The weather, although threatening to rain, turned out to be quite pleasant: mid-50's, cloudy, but only a few wandering sprinkles. The autumn colors were gorgeous and the trail was matted with large, soft, bright yellow leaves.











































We passed these little falls there and back, and on the way back Melissa very randomly put her head under and drank three large gulps. I was aghast and chided her for drinking beaver-fever water, but then gave into the very strong temptation myself, and had my own gulps of very refreshing goodness. I'm not sick as of yet, so hopefully we were lucky. Mark, prob very wisely, opted out of our little water russian roulette game.

My favorite part of the trip was hiking along the eastern edge of Lake Cushman in an area filled with very large old tree stumps. The trees were cut in the 1920's when the city of Tacoma built a dam on the North Fork Skokomish River, thus enlarging the lake.

Here I am, pointing with humor and disbelief at the action that resulted in Matty looking like.....
























this! Clearly, Matty (aka Spot) was in paradise and loving every minute of it!































































As always, the star of the show, showing off her walkin' skills....