[Ski]

Okay, this was last fall, but maybe this will help a bit, Cobolt: South on I-5 to exit 95 ( Littlerock/Maytown ), through Littlerock, then 8/10 mile to Waddel Creek Road, then 1.3 miles to Bordeaux Road, then 9/10 mile on Marksman Road to Mima Falls entrance to Capitol State Forest, carrying a DNR map printed in 1988. Headed up Porter-Mima #8 trail to Mima Falls. A nice little trail, although very muddy. The trail winds, gradually rising, through fairly dense forest which is intensively 'managed' by DNR. After 1/2 mile, it opens up to a cut-over area, now supporting a young stand of Douglas Fir about 12-15 feet tall. The trail crosses the D-6000 road, then re-enters fairly dense boreal forest again. The trail again gradually ascends and becomes increasingly muddy. After a fork with the Green Line #6 trail, the #8 trail curves back to the southwest, toward Mima Falls. Met two girls on horseback just past the fork, who said the falls was "not much farther". The reason for the horrid trail conditions were then clear: the horse traffic on this trail system has churned the trails into a reddish-brown soup, making for a difficult hike and little opportunity for enjoying the views of the forest, there being so much concentration required to avoid slipping and falling in the mud. Checked the map several times, dismayed that my original estimate of 1.5 miles was obviously quite short of the actual distance. Decided that to avoid the mud, instead of turning back and retracing the route back out, would continue past the falls on the #8 trail about 1/2 mile to the D-6000 road to Bordeaux Road and back to the car via paved road. Finally arrived at Mima Falls and had a picnic there on the table above the falls. Olive bread and tomato pesto and a pear. After a few snapshots of the falls, walked the last 1/2 mile of trail out to the road. Heading south on the D-6000 road, was surprised to find after less than 1/2 mile a landing being used as a campsite, instead of a road as shown on the map. The road branched off to the northwest, and after walking uphill in the wrong direction about 1/3 mile, determined that was not the right way after finding another crossing spot of the Porter-Mima #8 trail. I estimated the remaining daylight to be about an hour-and-a-half, and puzzled over the map. After back-tracking to the landing, with the constant "bang!bang!bang!" of a rifle not more than 1/4 mile away, confirmed that the landing was the last part of the D-6000 road, which had obviously been decommissioned, closed, and rehabilitated during the last 17 years. Fortunately found a well-established trail ( probably kept open by deer or elk ) running alongside the east fork of Mima Creek, which required a fairly easy crossing skipping over some broken rocks. With the light fading and the rifle-fire nonstop, picked way along route, finally coming out onto Bordeaux Road at the Bordeaux Road entrance to the forest. Ran into a deer hunter there, just walking out of the woods along the "Bob Bammert Grove" trail, sporting an orange vest and a high-powered rifle fitted with scope. When I asked him if hunting season was open, he replied "You should be wearing orange out here." Relieved to be out of the forest, off the muddy trail, and out of earshot of the gunfire, walked about 2 miles east on Bordeaux Road, and then the last 9/10 miles along Marksman Road, past the weird bumps along the western edge of the Mima Prairie. What started as an "easy 3-mile in-and-out" turned into an un-nerving, if not frightening, 8-mile ordeal. Two days later drove down to DNR office in Castle Rock for new map.

[Chico]