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OK folks, we’re getting on halfway through the summer. It’s time to do an outdoors check. How are we all doing at getting into the glory that is wooded Washington?
Many of you have had glamorous globe-trotting vacations. That’s great. But it’s not what I’m talking about.
If you haven’t made a foray into the forest primeval of the Evergreen State, you’re wasting your summer, plain and simple. There. I said it.
There are lots of options. There are freebies, like the century-old forest at the Seminary Hill Natural Area in Centralia or the “feral parks” atop Chehalis known as Dobson and McFadden Parks.
A few come with a cost: $10 a day or $30 a year for a Discover Pass when your woods of choice are in most state-owned lands. There is one free day a month, so you can get out into our state’s public lands at no cost on Aug. 9 (Smokey Bear’s birthday) and Sept. 27 (National Public Lands Day) among others.
My family ventured out to a few classic spots over recent months.
A trip to Rainbow Falls State Park in west Lewis County started, of course, at the fantastic falls. It’s a hoot to get right down to the water, hiking over the pockmarked rocks and watching the placid pool shoot into a churning cauldron.
But don’t neglect the south side of the park, which is a more subdued wonder. The trees and trails are a delight, including a hollow cedar big enough for my 14-year-old son to compare with the hollowed-out tree in “My Side of the Mountain.”
Another great wooded walk is the venerable forest at Lewis & Clark State Park, between Mary’s Corner and Toledo. Your hike will be through towering giants, trees hundreds of years old and massive to behold. This time of year you’ll find a bounty of berries, from sour red huckleberries to the sweet deep purple of blackcap raspberries.
If off-road is not your speed, you can pedal along the Willapa Hills Trail and still get a great woodsy experience. You’ll see farms and swamps alongside and pass over the beautiful Chehalis and Newaukum rivers as you pass under the dabbled shadows cast by oak and ash trees. Perhaps you’ll meet local wildlife, like the noisy crow caw-menting on our visit. I didn’t get a chance to eat any of the purple plums growing along the trail near the Tune Road crossing, so when you go, enjoy one for me.
This week my wife and I enjoyed a new-to-us wilderness during a visit to the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge between South Bend and Ilwaco. It’s worth a drive west from Lewis County to visit this treasure.
We took a short walk up a steep hill into an enchanted forest filled with ferns, nurse logs, butterflies and just maybe an Ent or two. (Any Lord of the Rings fans out there? You know what I mean.)
A major part of that wildlife refuge is a wooded island open for visitors, but it’s BYOB (bring your own boat), so we’re putting that on our list for another day.
Through all these walks we saw almost no one else on the trails. That’s good if you want solitude but bad if, like me, you think everyone ought to go out into our beautiful Washington woods. But there’s still time, folks, so find some trees and dive right in.
And I’ll be right with you. This weekend is our family campout to Millersylvania, which features a beloved tradition of getting deep into the forest and getting so turned around that we never quite know where we’ll pop back out. And yet somehow we always find our way back again.
Exploration of our state’s natural beauty is truly Washington’s summer at its finest.
Dad Joke & Pop Quiz of the Week
Q: What does your humble Hills & Valleys columnist essentially tell his readers in today’s column?
A: Get lost!
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What are your favorite wooded walks in the greater Lewis County area? Let me know and I’ll share the good news.
(Oh, and make sure that you only get a little lost. I’d like to see you back here next week.)
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Brian Mittge is a community enthusiast who has written for The Chronicle since 2000 as a reporter, editor and columnist. He can be reached at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
