Deer ? – Women 0

When you are planning a hike with a group of women, you are thinking about dates; weather; snacks; restrooms, etc.  What does not cross your mind is if it is opening day for rifle season.  Which it was.  Today.  For our hike.  Thankfully, no one shot us, but we could hear gun fire all around.

Before I tell you more about the hike, let me amuse you with the ride to the trail head.  Knowing that it was going to be a “rough” road, I asked fellow blogger Laurie (lifeonthebikeandotherfabthings.com) to drive her 4 -wheel drive, big ass truck!  I don’t think anyone else in the group had a vehicle that could have made this trip.  Just to give you a preview of the road:

Even though a couple of passengers experience car sickness, we thought the trip was so funny, that we laughed most of the way up.  In fact, our distraction had us drive past our trail head the first time and forced us into the bumpiest part of the trip.

A friend had given me very specific instructions and they were spot on.  But when we arrived at the end of the road without seeing the trail, I knew something was wrong.  Had they taken down the sign?  How did we miss it??  Oh well, we decided that even if we never found it, the adventure so far had been worth it.  So, after inspecting the truck, we turned around and headed back down the road.

Laurie had so much fun driving through the “puddles” and splaying the water, that we all had to be careful getting out of the truck to avoid the mud.

Next, Beth decided to ask Google where the heck this trail was, and to our delight, Google took us right to the pullover for the trail head.  Guess what?  It was exactly as my friend had said, and the sign was there plain as day.  However, there were a couple of cars parked on the opposite side of the road, we must have been so busy inspecting them, that we totally missed seeing the sign.

As we started down the path, it was not long before a couple of hunters approached us.  Having already heard a gunshot, I asked if we were safe to hike today.  That’s when they informed us that today was the first day of rifle season.  Swell.  So I asked, “You don’t shoot women do you?”  They assured us that they were focused on their targets and we probably would not be mistaken for deer.  So we continued.

This was my 3rd trip to Barney’s Wall, but the first time from this approach.  Usually, it’s an 8 mile round trip which includes the famous local waterfall, the Cascades.  But this approach was a much shorter hike, albeit a much longer and more treacherous ride.

But we made it.

And it was so worth it.

Our fearless driver, Laurie – we decided on the trip back to the truck, that we needed to surround her, to protect her from gunfire – none of us wanted to have to drive back down that road.

Another fun outing with some fabulous women!!

Fellow hikers, Tiina, Beth, Laurie, Liz, and yours truly!