Cataract Falls Loop
Hike Review:
The loop hiked consisted of the Cataract Trail, Laurel Dell Fire Road, High Marsh Trail, Kent Trail, and the Helen Markt Trail.
The Cataract Trail was a beautiful trail with lots of stairs that made the hike that much easier, IMHO. The trail tracks Catract Creek and passes by waterfalls every minute. The sounds of the waterfalls is a constant during the hike and only lets up once one gets above Cataract Falls.
The High Marsh Trail , Kent Trail, and Helen Markt Trail were single track trail that snaked its way through marshes and forests.
All the trail were clean with lots of shade.
There was zero signal on Verizon.
What I Learned:
There are a few environments where I truly feel like one with nature, and hiking in a forest while it was raining was one. Every one of my senses (except for taste) could feel and sense the overwhelmingness of the environment. From the sounds of rain and waterfalls, the wetness of the rain on my skin, the smell of the rain and the trees... it was a sacred feeling.
My windbreaker did a great job of not getting me wet, while my waterproof shoes kept my feet dry. I was very comfortable (from a temperature sense) during the hike.
Friends Made:
I hiked this trail with Jo, and it was fun hiking with someone for a change. I didn’t listen to an audiobook, but I had a great time either enjoying the environment or listening to some fun stories.
What Happened?
7.8 miles, 3 hrs 58 mins, 2229 ft of ascent
I met up with Jo at 6am at my car, then we drove two hours to the trailhead. Because it was raining, I had expect us to be the first ones at the trailhead, but there were already two cars parked.
We started hiking and while Jo struggled a bit through the stairs, she did a great job in channeling Dory to just keep walking. For me, I would hike at the speed I wanted to, then wait for her at the bend of the trail while taking a picture or video, then to start hiking again. I did ask her if she needed a break quite often, and I think in the future, I can be less of a mom about it and just let my friends know that they can tell me when they need a break.
Because of the early start, we did avoid seeing too many other hikers until the end of the hike, which was nice given our slower pace and the fact that we got to enjoy the forest without too many others breaking up the peace of this place.
There was one point in the High Marsh Trail, where we hiked through a grove of burnt Manzanita trees. What made this remarkable was that many of the trees had survived the fire, even though the old bark that I could see was totally burnt. You could see that they survived since their new smooth red bark was covering up the scarred tree. I wondered while looking at this beautiful transformation if one would see my soul, my soul would look much like these Manzanita trees.
When we were done with the hike, we found the parking lot to be absolutely full. The cars were spilling out to the roads next to the trailhead and blocking parts of the road, actually. We were feeling a bit hungry, so we headed off to Amy’s Drive Thru to sample some delicious vegan food.