1) You’ll be very hard pressed to find just one grass widow. The grass widows are now outnumbered only by the hordes of wetsiders starved for sun and a dry place to walk. Note to Scott Cook: You need a new maximum setting on your obscurometer for all things Catherine/Coyote.
2) You’ll still be very hard pressed to find a dry place to walk for awhile. Catherine/Coyote is doing what it frequently does in the springtime. With not much flow for most of the year and thin to non-existent soil, all water is happy to flow down any convenient channel. And since most trails in the area originated with zero thought to drainage, most trails are very convenient channels.
If you like them ultralight Goretex trail runners, I hope you don’t mind ruining them. Full leather boots fitted by a pro are still my footwear of choice. And if you get wet, well, it probably won’t kill you.
OK, our route: Starting from Catherine TH, up Rowland Wall (Rowland Ridge?) trail to the connector, then the short jog east to Sunflower Hill trail (all CA2, per Burdoin/Coyote/Catherine Rec. Plan map) to Atwood Rd. Labyrinth creek (I'm making up the name-- is there an official one?) is still flowing like mad under the new and welcome footbridge. West on Atwood to the Burns Farm. We opted against the Old Ranch Road (CO3) to reach Coyote and continued on "Atwood". (explanation in quotes later..)
Along "Atwood", we first encountered a pair of NFS boundary stakes. And a bit further is a gate with a “No Trespassing” sign facing the opposite direction to keep up the ambiguity whether that stretch of Atwood is really public access or not. A bit further along we came to the junction with Cook road next to the vineyard.
I checked out the Klickitat County GIS, and found a copy of the Green Trails Columbia East maps after the hike. Looks like the county has designated this stretch as "B&B road" and it is marked as a private road, crossing both Burns Farm & Barton properties. Green Trails still calls it Atwood Rd, though it does show it crossing private lands. Oh, and Green Trails also has added yet more names to the same trails just for fun.
I’m guessing the county just wants all these pesky recreationists to go away and drink beer in the Bingen bars. One of these days I must bring along some really good wine and cheese for the folks at Burns Farm and thank them for their forbearance.
Anyway, a friendly landowner at the vineyard assured us the stretch of Atwood west of Cook really is a public road. Not that you'd want to drive on it. Turned on to the Coyote Wall trail (CO1) back on NFS land to the Great Big Ponderosa at the summit, where we were buzz-bombed by a squadron of turkey vultures while we ate lunch.
Thence down the Crybaby / Agony section of Coyote Wall trail, meeting ever increasing hordes of hikers, bikers and dogs (oh my!) travelling in all directions, many neophytes wandering asking questions about which track went where. There was a fine signpost at the Burns Farm indicating the top of Old Ranch Road Trail, and further down another signpost indicating the Traverse Trail to the wall, but just a blank post in the ground at the Coyote wall-end of the Traverse Trail. Fortunately, there’s a good signpost at the junction of Old Ranch Road and Coyote Wall Trails, and the top of Little Maui and Little Moab too. And even more wandering and questioning neophytes here as well, dodging the many bikers whizzzing by, and many dogs sniffing each others butts. A regular cacophany of outdoor lovers indeed.
One look over to the Locke Lake parking area said it all. Cars spilling all over Courtney Rd and Hwy 14, and one of the county’s finest writing tickets like mad.
Well, onward down the first leg of Little Maui (CO5). We left the trail at the 1st switchback and took a shortcut over to the Labyrinth trail (CO7, Hidden Valley). Interestingly no tire or boot treads here, just hoofprints. Very glad the poison oak is not yet extant. Labyrinth creek has receded a bit, drm's submerged plank crossing is now high (well, 2 inches high) and dry.
Found the barely evident junction of lower Labyrinth (CO7) and upper Labyrinth (CO8). There's an iddy biddy stake in the ground in the crotch of the junction. Continued on CO7 / Lower Labyrinth / Rowland Basin / Shoestring / Loose Lucy (I’m sure NFS has designated with another name & number). Not sure I’ve ever hiked in an area with so many trails with so many names. So very many trails. So very many names.
Watched a couple of high-speed cyclists completely ignore the trail closure sign when we got to the junction of CO1. Guess they don’t care much for nesting peregrines. Otherwise, CO7 was the lightest trafficked section of the day, and quite pretty.
Ascended the gap in Rowland wall back to CA2 thence to Catherine TH where yet another of the county’s finest was hard at work raising county revenue. I’m so very glad we got to the car park before 8 AM.
Some pretty pix just because without pix it never happened:
- pretty morning
- pretty mountain
- pretty flowers
- pretty rocks
- pretty water
