Lime Kiln Trail

Over the last week or two, we've seen the return of fall weather. Cool, crisp mornings. Drizzle. Earlier sunsets. I love everything about it.

While Matt took a trip to Canada for a paddle race, I decided to seek some fall foliage with Melissa. We headed out for Lime Kiln Trail, a long but easy hike in Granite Falls.

This is the first hike I've ever done without Matt, so I was in charge of Zoe and the backpack. Fortunately, once I figured out the fit, I found the pack to be incredibly comfortable. It almost felt like I wasn't even wearing it! Unfortunately, Zoe refused to pose for pictures and it was hard to wrangle her without Matt's help, so my photos of the hike are sadly Zoe-less...but she was in attendance.

We arrived at the trailhead around 2:45. The hike is an out-and-back of approximately 7 miles, and we figured it would take us about three hours, so we weren't too worried about losing sunlight. 

This hike was everything I love about being outdoors in the PNW. The moss, the rocks, the bridges, the trees, the MOSS. Every single step was gorgeous. The trail winds along and above a river, and at the end there's beach access.

While this hike is graded as "moderate" on AllTrails, I think that's really just due to the distance, because there's almost no elevation gain at all—something like 900 feet. Other than a few short, steep hills, this hike was flat and easy to navigate. It was incredibly muddy in some places, and I was glad I chose to wear my boots; Zoe seemed pretty unconcerned with the mud and did very well hopping over the few fallen logs we encountered (although there were way more logs to climb under than over).

About 3 miles in, we reached the titular kiln. I wasn't thrilled to see the area littered with rusted saw blades and other detritus, but it was still a cool place to venture to.

We continued on for another half mile until we got to a spot where we could access the beach, but opted not to climb down to the rocks because a pretty large group of people had taken over the area.

The whole hike did take just about 3 hours. It was absolutely perfect for the start of spooky season. There were parts where the canopy and moss overhead was so thick, we had barely any sunlight. It felt like being on another planet.

This hike was exactly what I needed. It was long, so I felt like I'd accomplished something, but it was easy on my very sore legs, and for a first hike without Matt, it really increased my confidence. I highly recommend this one!

Ali