White Pine Trail

I bought a new pair of shoes yesterday, O'Rageous Boy's Watersport shoes (size 6, which is roughly equivalent to a Woman's size 7 or 7.5). I wanted a pair of Mountrek Cascade Women's Sandals, but they don't come in half sizes. The size 7 was too small, the size 8 too big. And the O'Rageous shoes were on sale for only $16 instead of $50 for the Mountreks, so that decided that.

I'd been meaning to hike the White Pine Trail at the watershed recently; it's one of my favorite hikes and I needed to check it anyway since my characters in Shadow Trail are hiking it. So I put my new shoes on, with a new pair of light nylon-blend socks, and drove down to the gristmill.

Unfortunately, I totally forgot to bring my new tree identification handbook--probably for the best, in retrospect, since it was around 6:30 pm when I set out; if I'd dawdled on the trail identifying trees, it would have been dark by the time I got back.

The quickest way to get to the start of White Pine Trail is the same way I got to the High Point Spur last weekend: from the gristmill (where I parked), take the short Deer Trail to Longmire Trail, take Longmire up the ridge to High Point Trail. White Pine Trail branches off High Point only a matter of yards from where Longmire meets High Point.

The second I stepped onto Deer Trail, I started smelling something dead. Ugh. It was about 95 degrees so anything that dies starts to stink almost immediately; I figured it was a rabbit or squirrel or something. But as I hiked, the smell got worse and worse and worse. I put my shirt over my nose and mouth, then my hand over my shirt, and hiked really fast while trying not to breathe. Honestly, it's a wonder I didn't faint from lack of air. Right before I left the trees for the field, I saw the bloated corpse of a deer lying in the weeds. So I guess that's why they call it Deer Trail. (Ugh.)

Longmire Trail is fairly steep, and I continued to hurry since I wanted to get to White Pine Trail before the light started to go. When I got to High Point Trail, I realized I hadn't had any trouble with my new shoes. I hadn't even noticed my feet at all. The shoes are light, well-ventilated, and comfortable.

I always like hiking White Pine Trail. It's a very pretty trail, not at all strenuous, that follows along a wet-weather creek first, then passes a spring that turns the wet-weather creek into a creek, then meets Clear Creek Trail that follows along (duh) Clear Creek as well as Lower Clear Creek Road. The Clear Creek spring is where Norris gets its water, which is a plot point in Shadow Trail. I wanted to get a look at the clearing and pond partway down White Pine Trail, and then I wanted to check out the actual location of a spring across the trail from the Clear Creek spring. When I got to the pond, I was really worried when I saw how low it was. We badly need rain.

Then, when I got to Clear Creek Trail and reached Norris's spring...I couldn't find the other spring. I walked back and forth, back and forth. I know it was there just a few months ago, water rushing up out of the ground among a lot of rocks, then crossing under the trail via a culvert before joining Clear Creek. I mean, I drank from that spring last time I hiked past, because I figured it would be safe because it was water right out of the ground, right? And three days later I had a couple of days of explosive diarrhea, so kids! Always treat your water!

All I can figure is that the spring has temporarily dried up due to the drought, and that plants have grown up over the opening. If it ever rains again, I'll hike back to make sure it still exists and I'm not insane.

When I reached the little water treatment plant downstream, I was only around a quarter mile from my car and figured it wouldn't hurt me to get my new watershoes wet even if they didn't shed water as well as advertised. So I stepped into the stream, which felt very nice and cool. It was fun to see the water squirt out of the mesh panels in the uppers, but my feet still squished around in the shoes. I thought that might have something to do with my socks, though. But I didn't want to walk a quarter mile in wet shoes and no socks, so I waited until I got back to the gristmill to take my socks off and get back in Clear Creek.

My socks, incidentally, were body-heat-warm and sodden, which was exceedingly unpleasant to touch because they felt just like a toddler's garment that had just been peed on. The shoes were pretty comfortable even without socks. But they didn't shed water any faster without the socks holding water in. I wish I had the Mountreks, which have little screen-covered ports in the soles to let water out. That would be so cool. Also, when I got home I discovered that I did actually have some mild blisters that I hadn't noticed on the trail. Of course I'd just hiked four miles in brand new shoes. So overall, I'm happy with the shoes but I probably won't wear them for hikes longer than a mile or two.

On the other hand, the color of the shoes warns animals away from eating them. Yellow and black is nature's way of saying, "These shoes are poisonous!"