I’m not too happy with ODOT. It’s bad enough that they closed Interstate 5, but why couldn’t they close the entrance to the ramps instead of letting cars drive on the ramp and get stuck. All they would have needed to do is park the truck with the freeway closed sign a hundred yards back. Then I could have taken an alternate route. There, I got that out of my system.

Since it had rained yesterday, I stopped at Salmon Falls Park to change into waterproof boots and put on gaiters. When I pulled into the parking area, I noticed a new kiosk with bright orange life jackets hanging off the front. It’s the Blayk Austin Memorial Life Jacket Loaner Station. It’s never a good thing when something like that is named after you.

I had forgotten just how bad the gravel road heading to Opal Creek is. It’s certainly passable with any car, but the going is slow. As soon as I got to that part of the drive a light clicked on in my head, and I thought, “Oh yeah, I remember how slow this road is.”

Well first of all, I was surprised to find myself going to Opal Creek at all. I had planned to visit on a week day since it’s a popular place and I don’t like crowds. The reason I switched locations for today is because this was supposed to be the only partly cloudy day this week, and I wanted to take advantage of that.

As expected, there were plenty of people enjoying Opal Creek, but it wasn’t that bad. Well there was that one persistent border collie who wanted to play fetch with a stick that he found. I was talking to his owners for quite some time. They told me not to throw the stick or I would have to keep it up all day long.

I wanted to check out the 2013 realignment of the Mike Kopetski trail upstream from Opal Pool. A couple of guys were standing at the trailhead when I arrived. On said that I wasn’t going to see anyone else on the trail. It was pretty rough – mostly roots, rocks, trees to climb over, steep sections, etc. At one point I stopped to take some pictures and noticed that my lens pouch was soaking wet from brushing up against all of the vegetation encroaching on the trail. I was thinking about maybe turning around, but I decided to keep going. Later I had to climb up on a slippery fallen log in order to climb over another log. I slipped and was unable to catch my balance until I landed on my butt. Then my balance was perfect! It was at that point that I decided I wasn’t going to reach Cedar Flat. On my way back I was surprised that I did, in fact, see two other people on the trail. The women asked me if that was the way back to the parking lot. Someone had told them that was the way to go. Luckily they hadn’t yet traveled very far. I gave them the correct directions, including information that once they cross the bridge near Opal Pool there it was a bit confusing with all of the social trails. That turned out to be outdated info. The Forest Service has put up signs and tried to block off the social paths.

I didn’t end up taking many pictures today. The weather forecast was wrong. It was sunny and pleasant all day. A good day to hike, but not a good day for the sort of pictures I like to shoot. And to tell you the truth, Opal Creek just didn’t have that wonderful color today.