Termination Point Big Loop

[mrsquishy]

I hiked out the old ATV trail, then cut easterly at the top of the hill before the trail heads down to the cove. I followed a route through the woods I figured out a year or so ago to connect to the coastal trail at Pelenga Bay and hiked to the TP forest trail and back to the trailhead. Microspikes were necessary for the entire hike; I saw bear tracks several different places along the ATV trail, but nowhere else. On the coastal trail I found at least two deer that had been poached - it was clear that they had been butchered, especially the carcass that still had discarded paper towels around it. The poachers weren't smart enough to at least drag the carcasses away from the trail into the woods so that no one would find them. Also, someone had packed in a chainsaw and cleared some fallen trees from the coastal trail in the Pelenga Bay area.
I also saw several sets of footprints on the big beaver pond that is just off the coastal trail which surprised me; they had hiked in from the coastal trail. It's the first time I've ever seen any evidence of other hikers on this route.

The connector trail is under two miles and fairly direct. Before you start down the hill to the cove, look for a short trail to the right which leads down a steep bank to a stream, the continues up a steep hill on a well-traveled trail on the other side. The first 0.4 miles from the stream follows a well-defined game trail then turns left at a T intersection marked by one of those sports team flyswatters hanging on a tree. Continue a short distance to a group of blowdowns and turn right down hill and cross the stream, then bear left. At that point you pretty much need the GPS track to stay on route. I'm happy to email the gpx file to anyone who wants it - routefinding in the woods is pretty challenging as opposed to being up high. Due to blowdowns since I figured out the route, I had to do a little bit of bushwhacking through salmonberry patches in a couple places.
The loop I hiked today was 8.5 miles with 1.5K total elevation gain.
One could hike a Monashka "Super Loop" by hiking the Monashka Loop clockwise from the parking lot and diverting to this connector on the ATV trail and over to either of the TP trails.

[Philip]

I had a slightly hard time following your description of your route, but here are a few of my recent tracks in the Termination Point area. Maybe you saw my tracks?

It's a nice time to hike out there with the wind protection from the trees, and with all the beaver ponds frozen the hiking is pretty cool across the snowy open areas.

[mrsquishy]

Your route from the ATV trail to the coastal trail looks pretty similar to mine. Did you start out from the ATV trail by dropping down to cross a creek, then up a steep hill on a well-used trail? And, I know it's bad form, but in past years when I was trying to determine the easiest route without use of a GPS, I did flag a few key spots with orange tape, so if you saw a flag, it was mine. My goal was to string together game trails into one route.

There were multiple sets of human tracks on the big beaver pond - I didn't follow them to check, but I wonder if they might be setting snare/traps.

Had the chainsaw brushing occurred when you last hiked the coast around Pelenga Bay? And did you see the deer carcasses at Pelenga Bay?

And, as you say, it's a great time to be hiking that area - firm snow and you are rarely exposed to the wind; just be sure to wear your Kahtoola microspikes.

[Philip]

Re: tracks. I think some official-type people might be doing their compass/orienteering course out there. I did see an old deer carcass that was cleaned up by animals, but nothing that looked suspicious. It was pretty much down to the skeleton. A number of small deer have died. And I don't specifically remember new cutting, but I wasn't paying close attention.

When I hiked from the ATV trail to Pelenga Bay I walked in the old beaver pond outlet stream and followed that watercourse a good distance. After that I mostly followed deer trails and went cross country. The red route that goes from Pelenga out to Long Beach/3-Bear Cove/Split Rock Beach was on a very nice and wide deer trail for parts of it. I need to explore this a bit more since it is a much dryer alternative to the swamps on the ATV trail north of Monashka Mtn. I will probably spend some time out there this weekend since it's still supposed to be blowy, and the snow has probably gotten nuked up high.

[mrsquishy]

I know that watercourse - it was part of my early route attempts which started from the far side of Pelenga Bay. One day I decided to follow the coastal trail from TP as far as I could go before brush/down trees stopped me. The stopping point turned out to be the drainage from the big beaver pond. I went up the north side of the beaver pond and followed game trails (mostly) in a westerly direction until I linked to trails I had hiked from the other direction.
If you start from the ATV trail, you'll see flagging right off the trail where I started down the hill to cross the stream and follow the well defined trail straight up the hill. Please feel free to remove the flagging. I'll email you my gpx track.