Lime Kiln Trail #49

This last weekend we were supposed to go camping with my in-laws. However that did not happen because my husband had to work, and my in-law's vehicle had brake problems. I was rather sad not to go, but then I texted L and asked if she wanted to go hiking on Sabbath. She said yes, and we deiced that we were going do the Lime Kiln Trail. (FYI Washington Trails website says that the trail is 7.0 miles, according to our GPS we did 6.7 miles and the Alltrails website states that Lime Kiln is 6.7 miles.) We were finally going to do one of the 102 trails on hiking list!
We left at Church and used my phone app Waze which lead us clear to the other side of Granite Falls and into some random neighborhood. So we stopped and asked a lady and she didn't give very good directions, so we finally headed back into town to get cell phone service and googled mapped the directions. Definitely get directions before you head out. The parking lot is pretty large, however there is no bathroom and no water.

We finally found parking lot and the trail head!!

 Make sure you leave before dusk. We started hiking around 2:30 pm and made it back in plenty of time with 2 dogs, 4 adults, and 3 kids; aged 10,10, and 6 years old.

A spot of sunshine!

So pretty.

The trees make a perfect "V."

Cookie crosses these single log "bridges" like a pro now.

Some sections of the trail aren't really much to look at. Like the one below, if I remember correctly the trail goes through some private property, so please be respectful!

Stay right at this section.

I don't know why H wanted to drag this limb around. He did for a few seconds and then put it back.

Of course we found mud, we have had so so much rain.

Stay left.

The kids, well I should say the boys wanted to go under the bridge and play in the creek. I quickly put the kibosh on that idea.

Stay left again.

The trail gets rather narrow in some spots and there are some rather large drop off. Please watch your footing.

This section, as you can see had a slide come through.

We were trying to find the bird that we heard singing. I couldn't spot it.

The tree, however, I did find interesting.

If you look closely in the picture below you can see a kayaker between the branches.

The picture below is the grain of the tree that you have to walk around or under to stay on the trail. I found the grain pattern really pretty.

She fell and had muddy hands, she wiped them on my pants, but she had some little scrapes on her knees and had to pull up her pant legs so they wouldn't rub on the scrapes.

Surprise more mud and a puddle!

There is a total of 918 feet elevation gain on the entire trail. Here is one section of the incline.

H, G, and Miss A thought that this log was fun to go over.

There is quit a bit of bit in pieces of old broken machinery as you get closer to the kiln. Like this piece, wish I new what it was.

We finally arrived at the kiln!

We had a grand time exploring and walking around it.

I tried my hand at some fancy photography of the "skunk cabbage."

The sun finally peaked out again and I thought that it made a really cool picture of the river. The river was grey colored from all of the silt in it from the rain.

Once again we stayed left.

The kids were glad to reach the rock so we could eat our snacks and drink our water. Plus they had to throw rocks into the river.

We found the bridge site, which was really neat to see. Of course the boys wanted to go down to it, but the trail was gone and it was really steep,  I said absolutely not.

This was a fun hike to do because of the history that lies along it with debris from the old machines, the signs and the kiln. We had a very good day, the kids did amazing and enjoyed it, plus they didn't start to complain until near the end. I am so glad that the days are longer and that soon, the sun is hopefully coming to stay! Until next time!