Photos ~ Pack Forest Hike and Alder Lake

I needed to get out yesterday so I took in a hike at the nearby Pack Forest. It's a UW owned forest used for research but it's open to the public as well. I hadn't been for over 10 years since I went with a PLU friend Heidi so thought it might make a good outing. I chose to do the hike up Huge Peak. It only climbs 500 or so feet but it make a nice wind through some beautiful forest and showed off some vistas of forest and distant development worth seeing. I took another trail down that wound around this minor mountain and through some beautiful, dark stream-cut hillsides. Fortunately the weather held most of the day but some of the rain I did get only made the forest smell that much more authentic and me that much more distant from the real world.

After the hike I drove towards Elbe, past the impressive Alder dam, and stopped to eat my sandwich at an old boat launch on Alder Lake. All in al, it's about a 40 mile drive to all this straight down Hwy 7. Aside from wandering the trails at Point Defiance Park, it's a pretty easy way to get away for a day. Eh? ;)

I endeavored to shoot in B&W for the day. Though I didn't end up doing so exclusively I'm pretty proud of what I got. Enjoy!