Kevin Bae: Okay, we arrived at the trail. We are at the
trailhead for the three forks trail. It's just the parking
areas just off the main road but the trails down there somewhere
so we're gonna go find out so the very first thing I met with
is a pretty deep water crisis is immediately so going to try to
get across that log are these rocks see what happens
Unknown: the question is can I make it across this log? We'll
find out well change my mind not to
Kevin Bae: go over the log. But I will choose the rocks I'm too
old to fall off that log in into the water
Unknown: but I'm pretty sure I can make it here All right, here
we go
all right. God bless. Come on this way. Let's see.
Kevin Bae: So do I jump over there and do I make it if not,
I'm going into some pretty deep water
Unknown: or I go this way. This is a conundrum.
Kevin Bae: Let's go this way back over towards the lug.
Because then the water is shallower here. Okay, go
Godfrey. Godfrey, go
Unknown: go go Godfrey.
Kevin Bae: And I can for sure step right there. And Macross
Unknown: so today's hike
Kevin Bae: is supposed to be about a little over six miles,
maybe 6.7 or something like that. To an out and back it ends
an area I guess where you're looking at three forks in a
stream. That's why it's called the Three Forks trail I think
filled with these tons of huge rhododendrons that have not been
they're not blooming yet. Probably too cold here and I'm
also trying something new we've got a new wireless microphone
set so this episode will probably be shorter because I
will record as I take video and obviously as I take video that
eats battery I do bring an extra battery with me but I would like
to not use it if I don't have to so this is the beginning of the
trail
Unknown: and looks very good day it's about nine o'clock in the
morning roughly about 50 degrees outside right now.
Kevin Bae: I think today's only supposed to be as high as 60
Unknown: so should be pretty comfortable they
go so far this
Kevin Bae: trail looks like it's also an ATV trail. Obviously
people are riding like four wheels, four wheelers and stuff
through here so it's kind of a wide easy to walk trail at least
here in the beginning it rained was it yesterday or day before
him remember already
so it's a little wet. A little bit messy out here. Some puddles
hopefully won't be too bad. There's my dog drinking really
nasty water
got a bit of an overcast sky
Unknown: but otherwise It's
Kevin Bae: really a beautiful day little breezy but not too
not too windy
Unknown: let's go Godfrey let's go
Kevin Bae: so it wasn't too much longer after I last spoke where
the trail did narrow to a walking trail so I'm sure people
could still do like mountain biking here but be very
difficult there's some downed trees across the the trail it's
a little narrower here and now it's like more of a traditional
hiking trail
you know, I did a hike on something called the
rhododendron trail and I didn't see any well I guess there were
not like this. There were smaller. I saw I didn't really
consider them rhododendrons, I thought there was something
else. These are obviously gigantic. rhododendrons the
leaves are huge over and under and back to my dog. Let's go
just scaling from logs
sort of stream crossing there's like this little earthen bridge
Unknown: over bits of a stream.
Kevin Bae: I think they've Yeah, they purposely built a a pastor
so this doesn't get washed out. There's like a big sewer tube
down there. We might better be able to walk through the stream
though. I think. Now it seems we've hit an elevation where
we've left the rhododendrons behind and now it's just pure
pine
Unknown: follow these little baby pine trees here underneath
the canopy of giant pines it goes on all through the valley
they're very cool
you're cheating
Kevin Bae: you should go over the top Godfrey I can acrobatic
dog you're getting old
more than enough of our fair share of logs to cross
but that makes the trill interest more interesting
especially when you trip over a route and try to kill yourself
yeah yeah. I was always glad to catch those things while
recording both audio and video now
Unknown: All right now we're starting a little bit of a climb
up. We were going down
Kevin Bae: still not too bad. We just try to keep the same pace
even if they're smaller steps
just keeps my rhythm going.
Unknown: Let's kind of quiet out here today. After my hike
Kevin Bae: during the last week of winter at the at Fort Jago
state park you hear a few birds but not that many. I thought
with spring underway and the fact that it's been kind of
warm. There at least a little early. I'm still getting used to
the weather here.
Unknown: I thought there would be more sounds of the season but
not to be
Kevin Bae: all you hear is me. breathing heavy
finally starting to hear some birds and see if I shut up for a
couple of seconds.
So a few we are heading downhill now. So this is the incline that
I'm going to have to walk back up after we get to the end of
this out and back trail so we're going to be huffing and puffing
for a little while on the way back
got some neat little rolling hills on the trail is pretty
steep going down so it's gonna be a treat going up
but it's not that it's not a super long section of the trail
so it shouldn't be that bad. I'll complain anyway, I'm sure
Unknown: but yes,
Kevin Bae: I enjoy that. So here's a contradiction I enjoy
the trails when there's inclines, even though you know,
they're hard to do sometimes. But you know, when I'm on a
trail is just totally flat, it just seems so boring. So I
complain about what I like I know makes no sense. There's a
nice drop in temperature about five degrees suddenly we
continue to head downhill and then I always liked that feeling
because you know you're a little bit warm from the hike and then
you get to a certain Valley or whatever, and it gets in the
temperature just drops in so it's really nice. You can really
hear the water now from the streams or creeks or whatever
you call them
be interesting to see I don't know if we actually go all the
way down to them or if we have a view above them
so I made a wrong turn. I thought the trail was a little
bit unworn. Because there are no real markings here but there
looked like there was a side trail. I thought it was just a
side trail but I guess it's the trail right right around this
campfire. This is where we go down should have turned right
instead of going straight to this last bit getting down to
the end is pretty steep. So this this is definitely a moderate
section of the trail. While it's not you're not scrambling over
rocks, it is a really steep steep incline and kind of
slippery because of the leaves right now early springs
Unknown: but we're almost down to the bottom
Kevin Bae: so we reached the bottom Godfrey no they here
Unknown: and you could see the rivers flowing pretty hard
Godfrey Godfrey this way
Kevin Bae: Mr personality always has to bark at the water market
waterfalls, rivers streams but he can't go swimming here
because he will get swept away in this and then good luck to me
to find them. We'll take a break and then head back up
so when you get down to
Unknown: the bottom you got a cut to the left and kind of walk
through some of the brush the gnarly trees and then you come
to this view which there will be pictures will be a YouTube
video. This is where
Kevin Bae: three streams come together.
Unknown: Really very cool.
Kevin Bae: Always start the hard climb back up but it was worth
it that was an awesome meeting of streams
I'm still don't think this this will ever get old for me very
cool no ere we go climb back up now
Unknown: so fed hike back up from the bottom
Kevin Bae: was everything I thought it would be now we go
back up the trail we're still got quite an incline to go but
it's way more gradual
Unknown: and you just pace yourself
there we go even Godfreys tired you tired Godfrey think even for
him coming up from the stream was a little bit hard
Kevin Bae: in his old bones once we get past his ankle I know
he'll be sailing on through again
Unknown: this uphill climb that's what they say.
Kevin Bae: It's cliche
water break time how fast can a dog drink one liter of water
pretty quick. Okay, we are officially over the worst of the
incline. As you can tell by my steady breath. Now it's just the
endurance trip on the way back hour and a half more might stop
and about 30 minutes to give Godfrey a water break
Unknown: and then we'll be done
Kevin Bae: I don't think I could ask for a better hike right now.
Or please. Even with my super tired dog, he must be tired.
It's rare for him to be this slow
so it has gotten really quiet again out here
Unknown: Not a peep
Kevin Bae: just the sound of Godfreys breath, my feet and
some tinnitus. So I stopped a little earlier than I planned
to. But I made I also made better time than I planned. So
we gave Godfrey his water break by the liter of water he just
took in and it should be okay till we get back because there's
that one stream at the end which and all those puddles I'm sure
he's gonna drink out of which leads to sometimes a Montezuma's
Revenge later on. Here's a note when you're hiking and you're
sweating and then you take your pack off to give your dog a
drink when you go to put it back on. It is friggin cold unless
you're in the middle of summer because it's like still probably
about 60 degrees here. So I didn't realize that I go to put
it back on and who is like taking a dip in a cold shower or
cold bath
you can smell the pine in the forest today. I didn't smell it
earlier when we were walking down to three forks maybe it's
the sun hitting the Pines now or something I don't know I really
smell it. Pretty strong
some of these views just looking through the forest are
spectacular.
This part is definitely cool. I've never walked through such
thick forests of rhododendrons. I know I'm repeating myself, but
it's cool. It seems sort of like almost like a movie set. It's so
thick. I think about the only thing I'm concerned about now is
crossing that initial stream when we get back. Because
jumping from rock to rock with fresh legs is one thing. But a
57 year old man jumping from rock to rock, after seven miles
of hiking is another question. I know I'll get across just how
wet will I get
to be continued. So now we've left the walking trail and back
to the area where ATV ATVs
Unknown: apparently roam
Kevin Bae: means we're not too far away, then comes the dreaded
stream crossing.
Unknown: See how it goes
Kevin Bae: back in the thick for the dendron country. So I'm
trying something new here with this new tiny wireless
microphone. The reason I'm doing it is because when I hike, I do
use it, I have this little recorder. And I set it up. And
then I just hit record and I walk and I hike and I talk. But
then when I get back, I have like three hours of audio to go
through to edit and chop out you know majority of the silence
because does anybody really want to hear 60 minutes of leaves
being crushed under my feet? Yeah, bad enough. Nobody wants
to hear me talk. So I got these cool little tiny wireless
microphones that have a little dongle, that hook that connects
to the bottom of your phone USBC if you have an iPhone, an older
iPhone, and you have a lightning port, there's one you can get
with the lightning port or you can get one for have like a
combo pack that has lightning, USB C and A for a camera, hot
shoe and mini plug out. It has like noise cancelling. And
they're just these really tiny circular microphones that are
magnetic, they'll stick to pick up these little tiny magnetic
mounts, and they're almost invisible
so this way, only record the times when I'm taking some
video. It'll make it easier to string things together, I think
and then just make it one solid recording, I won't have to
instead of chopping it up. It's more putting it together. And
it'll be easier to I think
Unknown: match pictures
Kevin Bae: to the audio if you're using a modern podcast
app because the way I have this podcast set up is there are
chapters and chapter images. So when the chapter changes, the
image changes who you know I ideally I would have a picture
like right now you would see a photo of Godfrey walking on the
trail in front of me because that's what's in front of me
right now while I'm talking and that was my original idea but it
was just too cumbersome to try to match up the photos to what I
was talking about. So I'm gonna try it this way. See how that
goes
when you want to take the long way around, stay out of the mud.
The answer to that is no clearly.
Unknown: Go Go, go move it
Kevin Bae: We're getting near the end because I can start to
hear some cars which means the stream crossing is coming I
don't know if I'll record it trying to get across that or not
don't know if I want that kind of comedy
special behavior
so there is the stream the cars above the stream let's see what
kind of racks I can have across
there's clearly nothing there so I have to go this way
get across here
Unknown: Okay, let's go
Kevin Bae: gotta get across here. Pretty. Yeah. You're still
spring in the old man step
that concludes this hike the exciting part of this hike. Head
on over to the casual hike.com hit up the donate button if
you'd like anything you heard or saw. And God great. I will catch
you up next week.