During Lockdown last year I had the marvelous fortune to visit The Post Falls Community Forest for a hike with my most excellent neighbor. Even though I have lived in the area for most of my life, I had never perused the jagged granite filled halls of the riverside park of gloriousness (can you tell I liked it?).
The park itself is pretty massive, full of nature-ish atmosphere, and extremely fun to ramble through. My neighbor's husband is a rock climber, one towering granite section along the park's many trails is devoted to our area's local rock ascending crew.
There's also an assortment of well marked trails. They range from sedate and non-taxing to mountain goat level rock scaling in difficulty, and after my first trip to the Forest, I vowed to come back and do the entire Purple Diamond Loop. I wanted to experience it all!
So, as it was Friday hike day yesterday, and I was in charge of hike selection, guess where we went? That's right, it was time to circumnavigate the Forest!
After parking at the trailheads, we started at the dam spillway end. Now, the last time I visited it was spring melt-off season, so the river channel was a mighty, cacophonic roar. After a summer of historic temperatures and drought it was a bit eerie to have literally no water running through the channel. I mean, I know they had the dam spillway shut, but still, it was creepily silent.
But also awesome! We have some gargantuan rainstorm on its way to the Pacific Northwest, so yesterday's weather could be described as Fifty Shades of Impending Storm Gray Friday. There was a nice little coastal mist layering itself upon us as we hiked, and that in and of itself kept people at home, which meant that during the entire three hours we hiked we only saw three people, it was magnificent.
Speaking of people, one of the folks we saw during our trek really did make me feel like I was with Frodo and Sam marching our way toward Mordor. As I scaled one granite-spiked croft I spied a couple people beyond a copse of trees, one of them was bearing a weapon of some sort. It was a creature dressed a lot like Link from The Legend of Zelda. He even had an exact replica of the sword! He also had a photographer on his heels. I guess even world famous game characters enjoy a good Fall photoshoot on occasion.
Now, after a summer of being roasted like elote at a Puerto Vallarta street faire, I was so delighted to be misted by the sky as we tromped through the rocks and golden-leaved trees. It flashed me back to my Southeast Alaskan childhood, a time where I was never truly dry and my hair was always beaded in droplets of moisture. Maybe that's why I was bouncing about like a little mountain goat, my statuesque friends were giggling at my rock bouncing antics, but I couldn't help it, I just love rainy day hiking!
We meandered our way along the banks of the Spokane River, taking in the Cerulean blue still pools of water, the golden Larch needles, and the slightly darker than the sky granite outcrops. I don't usually lead the hikes, and I must say it was fun to scramble up and down the hills at the front of group. It must also be mentioned that we apparently climbed the equivalent of 99 floors during our 7 miles of hiking, which I thought was impressive!
Oh, and relevant fitness side note time: If you do strength training, including maxing out on squats and deadlifts, two days before hiking a pretty intense 7 miles of hiking, I recommend lots of collagen, magnesium oil spray, and a rice bag. My quads and glutes are rather irritated with me today. I told them to shut up it was worth it.
Okay, back on track....After following the banks of the silent river due to the dam spillway shutage, we swung to the south and followed a track along the actually allowed to flow part of the Spokane River, which I must say felt a little more normal as the water was rushing the way it is supposed to. We chatted amiably until we got climbed a mountain and realized that while we were all walking astride and chirping with each other that we missed a turn, so that meant we had to walk down a local road for about a half a mile so we could dip back into the trail system again, no biggie, but I did chide myself a bit for BSing and not being aware of stuff. (Okay not really, but it makes for dramatic effect).
Back on the trails we made it to one of my favorite parts of the whole Forest, the gigantic, rocky canyon that is right in the middle of the place. My whole little Kat mountain goat self went into full rock hopping mode as I scaled and descended one rocky outcropping after another. I mean seriously, there were some places where you have to grab the rock and pull yourself up the hill, it was fantastic!
Finally, after the canyon portion of the hike, we wandered into the Full Fall Assault section of the trail. Talk about a yellow leaves atmospheric explosion! I was surprised to not see a gaggle of artists with palettes trying to capture the scene, I mean, just look at the setting:
Upon arriving back to the car we were beyond thirsty and hungry, for that is always the end awesomeness of Friday hike day, we go out to eat after our exploration. We headed down the street to Capone's, a local pub and sports bar, and I demolished a Greek chicken sandwich, garlic cheese fries, and a cup of homemade clam chowder. Plus, there was added rural heathen bonus points because we all looked like drowned rats among the slightly over-coiffed sports bar attendees who were there to watch football recaps and drink IPAs. Good times.
And if you ever happen to roll through Post Falls, Idaho and wish for a soul-restoring stroll, do yourself a favor and meander through the Forest, you won't be sorry!