Total Distance: 8.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 2700 ft.
Time: 9:00 am ~ 1:30 pm
Weather: Sunny, clear skies, cold & chilly.
The gaiters maiden voyage! On Tuesday of this week, an early birthday present to myself arrived, a pair of OR M's Crocodiles. I couldn't wait to wear them in the backcountry. In addition to my new gear, this week I was also joined by my best friend from work. He is an avid hiker. As a matter of fact, I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for taking me on my first backpacking trip ever. This was his third week to join me in my quest for 52 hikes. It was cold this morning; there was frost on my car and in my backyard as I left to pick up my friend at 7:25am. It was also super foggy.
When we got to the trail head around 8:45 am, I could tell it was going to be another one of those hikes where we weren't the only ones wanting to take advantage of the beautiful sunny weather. The trailhead had quite a few cars pretty early, and much of the trail was busy with people and dogs. I am starting to look forward to the rain and cold weather, if only to thin out the crowds. I love that so many people are taking advantage of the beautiful places in Washington state, but I enjoy my time being alone (or small groups) in the woods.
In another classic move on my part, I left my fully charged camera on my kitchen counter. For yet another week, the images from this hike were only saved as the electrical impulses that were sent from my optic nerve. There were definitely places to take many pictures.
The first 1.9 miles were full of switchbacks. It was a steady climb, not too bad. We made the turn towards the East Peak. The next 2.4 miles seemed to go pretty quickly. It was almost immediately after the turn that the trail faded into a dark forest. The forest was crazy dark for such a sunny day. I had day dreams of hiking through middle earth on my way to Gondor. The trail crossed over some old logging roads. As we continued the climb, we eventually came to the clearing of the East Peak. The trail and surround vegetation was still crystallized from the colder weather, and the crunch, as we walked, was a pleasurable sound.
We made it to the East Peak in a little over 2 hours and took a break. Our thirty minute snack break was glorious, baking in the sun for maybe the last time in 2010. We wanted to continue on the trail a little further, but both of us have a lot of work to prepare for tomorrow. We hiked out, and made it back to the trailhead 10 minutes faster than it took us to get up to the top. On the way down, we hit the two great ledges to look out into the valley below. We had amazing views of Rattlesnake Lake directly below us and Chester Morse Lake in the distance.
Orchid: My 2.0 mile per hour hiking pace up to the East Peak with only two short breaks to take off layers.
Onion: The busyness of the trail.
Google Map
No comments:
Post a Comment