Nakashima Barn Centennial Trail #50

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A couple of weeks ago on a very beautiful Sabbath afternoon we went hiking at the Nakashima Barn. We left church early so we could get out and enjoy the amazing weather, it had been very rainy for a while; and when you live in Washington you get out as soon as the sun comes out.
The parking lot is very large and there is an outhouse, but no water. In the picture below the path to the barn is paved. The only thing that I don't like is that the barn is all boarded up so you are not able to go into it. There are however giant pictures on the barn with information on the pictures.
The Centennial Trail is paved the whole way and is very easy, it also only has 682 feet elevation gain on the whole entire 30 some odd miles.
This path leads from the parking lot to the main trail.

There are fry in the stream, I don't know if you can see them in the pictures above and below.
This is the main trail, we went to the right and walked on the old railroad grade,
but first we read the sign about the history of the Nakashima farm and family.
The old railroad grade started off pretty wide.
 One of the views from the trail of the barn.
The old rail road grade is pretty is still pretty wide in this section, the boys took off on their bikes and left L, the dog and I in the dust.

I don't remember why I tool a picture of this little thing of water, probably because it is a wetland and is on the edge of the trail.
In the picture above you can see how it quickly becomes narrow from the vegetation. It also reminds me of a scene that is similar to the old Ann of Green Gables movie.

Then the railroad grade becomes even more narrow. The boys at this point decided that they wanted to turn around because the trail was no longer fun and H had to keep lifting his bike over the logs that were further up. I told the boys to wait for us at the main trail, then they took off again.
"Cookie did you find the boys?"
We caught back up to the boys and decided on a time that we had to leave by, then they took off again.

This tree was really neat, it had petals that looked like a lilac, however it didn't smell like one.
Beaver Dam.
We continued walking on for some time, and became very hot, I tried to get the dog to drink but she would have none of it. She was so hot from the heat and being black. She eventually found a shaded spot and sat down. She was done. She rested for a while then we turned around and headed back to the parking lot.
On the way back to the parking lot Cookie finally decided that she was thirsty enough to get a drink. From the beaver dam to the parking lot is not very far and she knew it, she was rather excited to get back to the vehicle. When we arrived back at the cars she crawled right under the truck for the shade. We waited for the boys to show up, loaded the bikes and headed home.
Until next time!

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