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16 miles of hiking • 3250' elevation gain •

Decided that the misty-cloudy forecast called for a nice long walk in the woods. Hadn't ever explored much beyond the waterfalls areas at Moulton Falls county park before, so took a long ramble along the Bells Mountain Trail. Somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the area covered had been clearcut in the not too distant past. In fact, I wandered right through an active logging operation. The weather added a real touch of eerie-ness to the clearcuts, some of which had these bizarre "islands" of trees left standing sentinel over the destruction all around them. I'm sure I missed some good views of Mount St. Helens and Dole Valley, but I'm not so sure that experiencing these cuts on a clear day would've been preferable at all. They were clearly the dominant feature of the day. Otherwise, wetness simply ruled. The arctic blast had left a mark; there was still some ice here and there. But mainly just penetrating wetness. I was soaked at the end of the day. And muddy. Portions of the trail were extremely muddy. Still, another great day in (what was left of) the woods!

Full trip report now up on PortlandHikers.