Fossil Rock with Barlow

Lindsay called me and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her out to Fossil Rock, a popular climbing spot in the local surrounding area, with her.  She wanted to do some scouting on how well and maintained the area was for climbing.  I wasn't doing much of anything so I said sure, it would be a fun adventure.  She wanted to park at the gate (it is Weyerhauser land) take the bikes along the dirt road and lock them up at the other gate that takes you up to the destination.  I went and got my bike and the bike rack and safely fastened my bike to the car.  I grabbed some water, the camera and some snacks and was well on my way to meet her at the said gate.

When I got there, she wasn't too far behind me.  We parked the cars away from the gate, just in case a logging truck or the staff needed to get in and out of here.  We unloaded the bikes and made our way down the gravel road towards the fossil rock gate.  Find out how far the gate is from the parking area.

Once we made it to the gate, we took our bike locks out and locked them to the gate.  You can never be to sure around these parts especially since we are near the Clearwood area with all of the interesting people living out this way.  We started our hiking portion of the adventure.  In some places it was pretty steep.  We walked past a large boulder that seemed to have made its way here when this area was covered in glaciers thousands of years ago.  We stopped to take a few pictures.  We moved on.

As we reached the base of the rock, it was a steep climb.  The area was surrounded by molting Madrona trees and some areas you had to pull yourself up by the trunks.  It was hikable without having to actually climb, but the grade was at least 60%.  Plus the leaves and bark that fell off of the trees were slippery when you lost your footing.

I came out here last year with another friend and I remember it was tough to climb even back then.  When we finally got to the top I grabbed a handful of the tree debris and threw it up like confetti.  I showed her where the cache was and she signed it mostly because she wanted credit for finding it.  We took a lot of pictures.

This time you could clearly see Mount Rainier to the east unlike the hazy view I got last time I was up here.

We were up here for a bit.  The second half of our visit was checking the climbing areas out.  We followed a trail to the backside of the rock while she looked at her climbing maps.  She explained to me what everything meant on the maps and what we were looking at.  Each climbing area had its own name and difficulty.  I found it interesting but at this point could not afford the gear to actually start doing it.

Within the hour, we made our way around the entire base and managed to follow this very narrow trail that led us right back down the trail near the giant boulder we passed on our way up. As we made our way back, we enjoyed the warm weather and the conversations.  We talked about needing to get together with our friends in the next few weeks or so before the weather turns.

We reached our locked bikes, unlocked them and rode our way back to our cars.  I thought we might run across other people who knew about this area.  Each time I've been out here I've never run across anyone.  We put our bikes on the cars, said our goodbyes and went home.  It was a fun little day adventure.

**Update:  As of August 2013 Weyerhaeuser decided to close all of their land and you only have access with a permit or winning a hunting tag through a lottery.  I'm still not clear on if you can access Fossil Rock without a permit or not.  I really never needed to go back there unless I was going to climb with some people.**

Next Adventure:  Caching I-90 Eastbound