[Slugman]

I headed out into the rain on Tuesday determined to get in a decent wilderness hike without sweating under my rainclothes, so I chose this one for the lack of elevation gain. I got to the trailhead at 1 pm, and it was raining harder than I was happy with, so I hung out in the car reading the paper until 2:45, when it pretty much stopped raining, so Daisy and I were on the trail at 3 pm. We hustled in to the first nice side falls in 1/2 hour, then stayed there for another 1/2 hour. The falls were running very strong as was the river itself. The sun actually made a few brief appearances through the clouds, illuminating the dripping, foggy forest. It took another 1/2 hour to reach the second nice side falls, and we stayed there another 1/2 hour as well. I love a good waterfall on a rainy day. It was too early to head back at 5 pm, so we continued on upriver. I passed the giant blowdown tree that was cut through last year. Man, that must've sukked big time before it was fixed. We hiked 45 minutes upriver from the second falls, crossing the cool log bridge with the cable handrail and coming to another bridge that was sort of crashed. It was still passable even though a tree had smashed the bridge, but due to the time (5:45) I decided to make that the turn-around point. One thing about this trail, it takes the same time to hike out as in, so we didn't get back to the car until almost 8 pm, even with just one 15-minute break and good, steady hiking. It rained hard all the way back, starting at about 5:30. The trail is hosting many a run-off stream, better bring waterproof boots to this one if it's been raining recently. There are a few deep mud holes, too. I used my LED headlamp after 7, as much to avoid slippery roots as to be able to see the trail. Just think, next week we'll have daylight savings time to give us hikable light until 8 pm, pretty sweet.