Kelsey Creek to Maple Falls

Nine of us headed south to go see Maple Falls that is up the Kelsey Creek trail. The weather was perfect – cool and clear skies. The trail is steep for the first third, then is more normal pitch after that. All was going as planned until we started hitting downfall, which continued on and off for much of the hike. We also created a new hiking activity – “bushwhacking while on the trail”. Check out a few pictures – the trail has either not been maintained or the bushes have grown a lot over the last year. We easily did a mile pushing through bushes that had grown over the trail. However, it is Wednesday, so all seemed to take on the challenges without complaining.

Of course, the weather has turned warm, so the ticks were out in force. Being the first through the bushes, I ended up with several of the very small variety and one had to be removed from my neck by nurse Karen. Lunch was taken near the falls, which were significantly impacted by the large 2017 slide that happened there. Listening to the falls was an excellent experience as we enjoyed the view.

Then, once back to the cars, there is the fun of trying to determine how far we had hiked and how much elevation gained. As most of you know, no two GPS trackers will give the same results, even if you have the same GPS. On top of that, the software you use to show the results vary. If I send my tract to Dan, his software will increase the results from my GAIA tracker and lower the results of my Garmin tracker, which tracks 28 satellites on average. It’s always entertaining.

Not sure when we will be doing this hike again, but some think that the trail maintenance crew will clear the trail this spring. I will send a report to the USFS, so we will see what happens.

Hike Leader: Keeley

Photos By: Francie, Keeley