Alas, there is no way to the Great Wall right now, it is shut down for either logging or some kind of maintenance.
We learned that on the hike we did on Sunday, 8/16. No photos since then because I somehow left the camera on the hike. I have a new one but we did lose a bunch of pictures.
Anyway, we got to the trailhead and started at 5:05 AM. I was wearing a headlamp, it was dark. We planned to go up Change Creek to the Great Wall and wing it from there – perhaps go to Change Peak, perhaps explore some side trails – but we hit a sign that told us the Great Wall was closed. And I don’t have the photo we took of the sign.
All was not lost, though, as our original plan included side trips to explore the vicinity of J’s Landing and Hall’s Point, which we did. We went down to the little pond as well.
All told it was about 8 miles, a bit less than 3,000 feet of elevation gain, and a nice day.
The 8/21 hike was last Friday. I was in the area of Derek’s house because I was scheduled to be a marshal at the pro golf tournament around there (The Boeing Classic, won by Billy Andrade by the way) so I stopped at Derek’s house about 6. We hiked the trails around his house for a couple of hours, probably covered six miles and then he had to get ready for work.
I was going to do a solo hike last Sunday but I wussed out. This is fire season, the area is reeking from the smoke of the out-of-control fires east of us, and I decided not to risk being in the middle of the woods with such a fire danger.
We are planning a hike this Saturday (rain forecast for Friday and Saturday, which is actually good news, as rain never stops us from hiking and it does reduce the fire hazard) and following that I will be driving Fin and Cam home for a stayover visit.
So – great weekend planned. And I will take better care of our new camera.