[Opus]

With the dreary forecast and still feeling tired I opted for another flat forest hike, this time with Yumi along for the trip. As a side quest we decided to find a wild ginger flower, which neither of us had seen. Unfortunately we didn't bother to research where exactly to find them and what they look like before hand! Despite a helpful trail-register log from Quark (Did you find Jimmy?) we proceeded to call every weird looking little flower a wild ginger simply because we didn't know what it was. In the end we neither saw nor smelled one. The road in is in good shape aside from some potholes and the gaping chasm near the fork for Sloan creek campground. At the turn off from the Mountain loop a sign announces a road closure from June 22 - July 3rd for repairs! Along with the repair theme a lot of recent work has been done along the trail. A large group was camped out at Sloan creek as we walked through. This was at first puzzling since no vehicle was seen anywhere. We assume it was the trail maintenance crew and their van was parked elsewhere. Lots of freshly cut logs and not a single blow down all the way to Red creek, our turn around point. The creek was really raging and there didn't appear to be any easy log to cross. I believe we did spot the new log which is still standing vertically and rooted to the ground. One large snag was cleared of brush and had a red ribbon tied around it. Not far away on a large tree a metal wire loop was tied, I assume to drag the felled log. I wished this was already in place since I'd hoped to reach the shelter further up the trail. Despite no wild ginger findings it was a nice trip. The sun came in and out of the clouds, rain came on and off, but everything was consistently green and pleasant. Click here for the photos. More macro fun too. I'm finding I'll need to invest in some kind of macro tripod to get the depth I need for some of these tiny objects. I just cant hold the camera steady enough.

Road washout

Puff balls

Little flowers

Giant skunk cabbage

Fern

Trail

Tiny flower

Rain drops

Giant trees

Green hollow

Closed columbine

Trail math

Red creek

Droplet

Weird flower

Weirder flower

Drop

Curled leaf

[Hiker Mama]

Really nice photos! Thanks!

[Quark]

I would have loved to join you guys - that trail is chock flippin' full of wild ginger! a big patch about 3 feet from the trailhead sign. Finally, a picture of Red Creek! Looks like I'd definately wuss out on a crossing of that right now...... That wierd flower is fringe cup. Wierder flower - don't know. (I love signing trailhead registers! I can say with relative certainty that Jimmy Hoffa is not on the N Fk Sauk trail this side of Red Creek).

[Hulksmash]

All of your photo's are great! But what jumped out and smacked me around is how fast the washout is getting taken over by vegetation. This was May 11th

Washout on fs 49

[Toni]

wild ginger on trail up to Necklace Valley.....6-13-09

wild ginger on trail to Necklace Valley

These wild ginger flowers were hiding under some brush on trail up to Necklace Valley, 6-13-09. a little blurry....

[RichP]

For all of you old growth forest lovers, this is a must do trail.

[Opus]

[Quark]

The thing about wild ginger is that you can't see the flower unless you are on your hands and knees and looking under the leaves. Here are some pics of the flower, and of the leaves, which are similar to false lilliy of the valley leaves (I have one pic of them next to each other so you can see the difference).

[BPLlama]

I've called names before but this is first

Giant skunk cabbage

We didn't see no wild ginger...we should have know to go on hands and knees Quarky-style to search for such obscure cyclops-alien flower. Man! My neck hurts from looking for em both in-and out so hard! Or was it because it was all hanging down all over the place on the ride back home snoring? Didn't find Jimmy either but Dan Cooper said Hi. He didn't give us any change though that cheap ba$tard....

permitted here

green tunnel

old growthed

[Quark]

[Opus]

[BPLlama]

I forgot about that one &&& I rather be a GIANT skunk then just any ol' skunk if I were a skunk