Big surprise. We went hiking for Father's Day. Way back in 2003 we spent the day at Franklin Falls and in 2004 we were at Northwest Trek. (Don't ask about 2005, we don't remember, but it was probably all about Lilly.)
This year the goal was to find an approachable trail that Clara could hike on her own. I looked and looked and turned up Barclay Lake outside the town of Baring. (By "town" I mean Der Baring Store.) After an early morning visit to church and a stop at Starbucks we were on the road east. I always think of Highway 2 as being nearly inaccessible, but it took only a hour to get to the trailhead from Amy's parents' place in Kirkland.
We geared up and were on the trail at about 11:45am. Not exactly an early start, but the trail is short and easy so it wasn't a worry. Clara tore down the trail while the rest of us struggled to keep up.
The USFS describes the trail thusly: "Extra Heavy" visitor use and of the "Easiest" kind. They didn't put in that it was very pretty, travelling through second growth forest with loads of trillium (past blooming), bunchberry (just blooming), and queens cup (not yet blooming). Deer ferns were everywhere, just unrolling their heads, and fields of Devil's Club discouraged going off trail. (There were, however, lots of little-used side trails that might have been heading up Baring Mountain.)
After our Otter Falls adventure with Nana and Papa I was worried to how they were faring, but it turned out to be baseless. Nana's new boots did well, after getting the lacing right, and Clara's pace was a little slower than if I had been leading so although it took a little longer, we were all pretty comfortable.
There weren't many views, but there were lots of boardwalks and causeways that Clara loved. She also hopped from one patch of sunlight to the next where it broke through the trees. When we crossed Barclay Creek on a bridge she oohed and ahed appropriately.
Of course, no two mile trek would be complete without an emergency potty break. Clara declared she had to go and that, no, she couldn't wait until we got to the lake. So we found a good spot where a spring creek must flood down the trail and climbed up it so we weren't directly in view of the trail. Thankfully, Clara's not shy in the woods and we were quickly back on the trail.
As we neared the lake I broke out the Special Hiking Bites (SHiBs) to boost Clara's engery levels and diverted a few into Nana's hands, too. We crested the last rise and saw the lake through the trees with Baring Mountain looming overhead.
Although the sun had teased us all along the hike it pretty much abandoned us at the lake. We had a tasty lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese sticks, grapes, and bugs. Bugs? Oh, great. There were oodles of little flying bugs that were soon crawling on everything. Ick.
This is where we discuss the wonders of applied science. DEET is good. Forget what people say it does to you and remember that where DEET is bugs aren't. We had a couple of citronella-based bug-repelling bracelets (one on Clara's back and one on the backpack) that smelled great, but didn't work all that well. Actually, come to think of it there were no bugs on the bracelet, so maybe they did work, but we didn't use them properly.
Regardless, we took the arrival of the bugs as our cue to head back. Aside from the bugs and lack of sun the only problem with the lake was that Tokul didn't get to go for a swim since her seat in Papa's truck was at my feet. She was already destined to hair up the car, we didn't think adding mud and that special odor would be good, too.
The trip back was pretty uneventful. Clara rode on Amy's shoulders most of the way. She got down only to walk the bridges. While we waited at the bridge across Barclay Creek for the others to catch up she played in the water lapping on the rocks being careful not to get her feet wet in accordance with Amy's desire for dry shoulders.
On the drive back we stopped at that place which must not be named for ice cream. Clara and Lilly, sitting side by side in the third row of seats, shared Clara's ice cream as Papa sped us back to Kirkland.
The happy totals were 4.4 miles round trip with 300 feet of gain. With Clara walking to the lake it took 1.5 hours. With Clara riding on the way back we improved the time by 15 minutes.
Best quote from the trip was Amy's: "Happy Father's Day. I love you so much I peed in the woods."
