A Memorial Day Weekend hike, with consequences

While I would have been content with a 3-day weekend spent in the garden, Andrew had other ideas. He wanted to return to the Salmon River Trail, a magical place we visited last fall (my posts here and here). 

Back then we hiked the main trail up to the point where the salmon were spawning (I shared a video of that on Instagram, here), but now he was curious about what lay around the bend. So why not? I deserved a day out playing, off we went...

Oxalis oregana was everywhere, there were huge patches of it in many places but I only managed this one shot.

There were also many fallen trees, some already serving as a home for an entire eco-system.

I could have spent an hour just looking at the plants here, but instead we marched on...

I thought these looked a little like orchid leaves popping up through the moss. I have no clue what they actually are. (update from Evan: Clintonia uniflora, a lily relative) 

Moss sculpture!

There were only a few skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) along the trail, but they were looking rather luminous. 

It was nice to see there's still water up in the mountains, it's been a very dry spring here in Western Oregon.

Here's 15 seconds of tranquility for you (sound on)...

There was sun at the high points on the trail, usually filled with Sedum spathulifolium.

So back to the title of this post; "a hike with consequences"...

Here's a lovely river view I enjoyed for a short stretch of time while Andrew fished. Unfortunately I wasn't just relaxing. I was soaking my ankle in the ice cold river hoping to reduce the swelling from a nasty ankle twisting incident. 

As we stood on the trail, looking down at the river—Andrew heading down to fish—I said "I think I'll stay up here"... then looking it over closer and seeing a navigable pathway, I decided I'd go down too. That was a big mistake. I slid on some loose dirt and small rocks, and my foot didn't slide with me. There were snaps, I felt them and they were loud enough that Andrew heard them. Damn. All I could think was "how am going to get all the way back to the car?" which was something like a mile and a half away...

I walked. I'm sure it wasn't the best thing that I could do—we did stop so I could give it an icy soak again—but what other choice did I have?

Back at the car I snapped these photos of Oplopanax horridus, aka devil's club (I think). Nope! Another Evan update, this is Heracleum maximum.

And Maianthemum racemosum (formerly Smilacina racemosa), aka false Solomon’s Seal

As I write this post my ankle is swollen up something awful and the bruising has set in and is making all quite dramatic. Since I can stand and walk (carefully, flat footed) without any pain I am assuming it's not broken, but I may have torn some ligaments. So much for active gardening for awhile...

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