The thousand mile hike

On Saturday we went for a hike.

We chose Ledbetter Point State Park and the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge, near Long Beach.  It was a beautiful day.  We were prepared for the forecast-ed rain, and it ended up being sunny and warm and gorgeous.  The hike we chose was three miles (or 2.9, according to some sources).  It started out in the dunes.  We saw TONS of birds.

 

This heron greeted us, as we first stepped out of the forest, and onto the dunes.  We walked along the dunes for about a mile.  We saw heron, sand pipers, geese, American wigeon, canvasbacks, scaup, buffleheads grebes, and this guy.

 

He just watched us walk by.  Maybe he was wondering if we'd make a good snack?  At the point of the trail when we could have left the dunes, I decided we needed to add another loop to the hike.  The extra loop added 1.1 miles.  I thought a four mile hike would be good for us.  Kidlette would sleep well!  Ashley would be a happy dog.  G. would get his exercise.  I was doing a good thing!

 
So we walked another 1/2 mile up the dunes, then turned into the forest, for the last 2.5 miles of the hike, that would loop around and bring us back to our car.
 
I love how you just never know what you will run into on a hike.  I wonder how long this guy had been sitting there?

So there we were.  G., Aunt L., Kidlette, Ashley and Moi.  We had less than .5 miles to go.  We were very proud of ourselves.  We were hungry and planning on where to go for lunch.  And then we ran into this.

 

That is a flooded trail.  As far as we could see in all directions.  How did we miss this?  (From the website... "Be prepared to hike in water if you plan to enjoy Leadbetter during the annual winter flood season.", and on the big sign in the parking lot, and and and...)

We were not prepared to hike in water.  So we turned around.  And walked back around the loop.  Another  three miles. All in all the hike ended up between 6 and 7 miles.  Or as Kidlette proclaimed, one thousand miles.

And we all slept really well.