The Denny Creek Primitives
(a three-box series)
location: Denny Creek Trail, WA
nearest town: North Bend? maybe
county: King
placed: 9-1-02
by: Eliza B/Moderngypsy

DIRECTIONS:
Take I-90 to the Denny Creek exit. Go left. At the stop sign, go
right. Then at the first left, go that way and follow the signs to the
Denny Creek Campground. Go past it .5 mile to the Denny Creek
Trailhead. (Turn at the sign and drive OVER the bridge. The second lot is
the Denny Creek one, not the first.) Fill out a little doohickey form so
that the rangers know you're there, and head on up.

These boxes are beyond the first box, placed by someone else. Get that one
first. They're called "the Primitives" because I got all the way to the
(insert expletive of choice here) top, and realized my carving tools were
on the couch....at home. The first was carved with a pen and a sharpened
stick. The second, I discovered that if I pulled the eraser out of my
pencil and squeezed the metal together, it made a nifty tool (compared to
the Stick Method, at least.). So these are...well....kind of
primitive. But it's a faboooooo hike. You must go.

BOX ONE: TABLE ROCK
From the Denny Creek box, get back on the trail. Go up the hill, through
the sawed-in-half tree, and around several wooded (steep)
switchbacks. After a few of these, the forest will just STOP, and it will
be a rocky field. Go through several switchbacks (not as steep, but rocky)
until you get to the place where the trail has to go around a large, flat,
light grey rock with very little moss on it that looks suitable for laying
upon. The trail will curve slightly left around it. Where the path turns
right again (and away from the rock), hop up and sit facing the sound of
water. To your left and under the lip of the rock, under some foliage and
wedged in, is the box.

BOX TWO: MOUNTAIN FALLS
Hop off the rock and continue on the trail, up. And I do mean UP. Go
through all of the rocky field, to where there is a small copse of
trees. There will be a felled log to your right, and large snags on both
left and right of the path, like sentinels. To your right will be a path
going down.

Please skip this box if you are less than sure footed, or are extremely
afraid of heights. I don't want to be the one to be responsible for your
death. That said, continue down that narrow, steep-stepped path, through
the huckleberry bushes and over a dry creek-looking-thing, onto the flat
parts that look like steps for a giant. Go all the way across without
going up or down, to the creek and admire the beauty further
upstream. Stop at the large standalone boulder on the near side.

Scale the steps to the left at 240 to a small stand of twisted
pines. Closest to you is a protrusion that looks like a crooked finger,
pointing the exact wrong way. Look behind it (closest side to the falls)
under a grey rock for the box. Some other, small rocks are covering it.

BOX THREE: CLOUD DANCE
Get back on the main path, up that steep ol' embankment/trail. (Or, if you
skipped box two for height-fear reasons, continue on.) Go up. Up, up. up.

Go through all the small switchbacks. There will be a long, root-filled
straightaway that goes through a large felled log. Up a bit, on the right
side of the path, there is a thin tree and a mostly rotted stump. If you
step down, just past it, there's another stump, this one even more rotted
that the first. Under the long protrusion on the north side, behind some
bark...is the Cloud Dance box! Please make sure to return this one
carefully -- this is a popular trail and this one can be seen from it if
you don't really cover it up.

Up ahead, about 200 feet or so, is a fabulous creek and a one-log crossing,
and another few miles or so up are two lakes that shouldn't be
missed. Unfortunately, I was out of boxes, so you'll have to go just for
the hike. :)

---e
member: IALC