Some stats, what I've learned, and what's next....

Total # of hikes Sun 9/5/10 through 8/28/11 (including "bonus hikes"): 58

Approximate # of miles hiked Sun 9/5/10 through Sun 8/28/11: 540 miles

Approximate average elevation gain per hike: 2000 ft.

Total number of places I went hiking twice: 7

1. Hurricane Hill
2. MTTA - High Hut (only one blog entry, the second never happened because I got home violently ill and never blogged about it)
3. Paradise 
4. Cape Alava
5. Packwood Lake
6. Green Lake
7. Flapjack Lake

Days spent "in the backcountry" Sun. 9/5/10 through Sun 8/28/11: 94 days

Nights spent "in the backcountry" Sun. 9/5/10 through Sun 8/28/11: 38 nights

Number of States I hiked in: 6 (Washington, Oklahoma, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and Oregon)

I just reread my first blog entry, and I cannot believe how much difference a year can make.  I started this commitment to show I had some integrity, to show I could do what I say, to show my word means something.  I would say that I did show those things, but I learned so much more than that.

First, there are some non-hike related things that I have learned.  I learned that I like blogging.  I am going to keep this online hiking journal going.  I learned that my Subaru is an awesome machine.  I learned that Google maps will get you where you need to go 99% of the time.  I learned there are great hikes all over the world, sometimes you just have to look and drive 2 hours.  I learned a lot of people like to go hiking but don't like planning it or going in "bad" weather.  I learned there is no point in complaining about the weather.

I also learned a ton about hiking and camping.  I learned how to buy food for wilderness trips (Luna Bars, Cliff Mojo, Sour Patch kids, and Gatorade are necessities).  I learned that the 10 essentials are just that, ESSENTIAL!  I learned how to backcountry cook and bake.  I learned how to walk on snow without snowshoes.  I learned a lot about hazard evaluation, usually by getting into hazardous situations.  I learned that even though I love the woods, it is better when it is shared with people.

I love going out in the woods.  I also know that many people don't enjoy going out there.  As I have reflected on why I love it so much, I have a few main ideas as to why it is this way for me.  First, the beauty of the natural world is stunning.   And really everything is beautiful.  Look closely at something natural and you will be blown away by its beauty.  I learned that the real world is the wilderness, and that all the buildings, cars, and everything else is a made up construct to make life easy.  I am not complaining about this.  I benefit from not having to farm, from having a roof over my head, from driving my car where ever I want to go, but I do not think any of it is the real world.  The real world is wild.  I have also discovered that every time I go out there is usually some challenge to deal with or an "onion."  The wilderness is a great teacher.  She can be harsh, the wilderness is full of stories of people who paid the price of a steep learning curve with their lives.  Each time I go out, I face a new challenge.  Sometimes I pick the challenge, most of the time the challenge is given to me by mother nature.  The wilderness has taught me patience.  I read a quote from Lao Tzu saying, "Nature never hurries, yet everything is accomplished."  Being inpatient in so many areas of life, this has been a great lesson to learn.  I also have discovered a happiness that was missing from my life for a long time.  There are moments of pure bliss, or "Orchids," on every hike.  These moments inform my life in the front country and sustain me until I get to go back out again.  I can also say that if I died tomorrow, I would die a happy man.  I have had so many great experiences in wild places with friends and family over this last year that how could I possibly complain.

I am going to go for another year of hiking.  It has been too much fun to stop now, and it would feel weird if I did.  I am also training.  I am training for the hiking triple crown and the seven summits.  I want to hike the 3 major long distance hiking trails in the United States.  They are the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail.  The seven summits are the seven highest points on all seven continents.

I keep hearing that famous quote from Thoreau in my head, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

Orchid: Week 26, Week 50, or Week 52

Onion: Week 09

Picture:

 

This is me on the morning I summited Mt. Adams (behind me) - Week 50.

Google Map

Week 52 Aug. 27 & 28 - Timberline Trail

Total Distance: Approximately 41 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 8400 ft.
Time: Saturday 8:00 am - Sunday 8:30 pm
Weather: Sunny, warm on Saturday; mostly sunny, warm Sunday. Perfect weekend in the PNW, again!

You might be surprised, but I did not have a "special" week 52 hike picked out.  I knew I wanted to camp, but other than that I was open for anything. Many friends had expressed an interest in going on number 52 over the last year as well.  About 2 weeks ago, one of my best friend from high school (who was on the first hike 52 weeks ago) and I tentatively planned a weekend together.  The plan was to meet me in Portland, find a good over-nighter within an hour or two drive so he could be back at the airport Monday morning.  He called on Monday this week and had to cancel.

I was a little sad only because I love him so much, and I would have loved to have him with me.  His cancellation did, however, begin a fun search for both a route and some company.  Add to this, I will be leading a 5 day/4 night backpacking trip with sophomores in 3 weeks, and I didn't know where I was going to take them.  Thankfully, teachers were back on campus this last week, and I had plenty of friends to ask both for a route and if they wanted to go scout it this weekend with me.  A friend suggested the Timberline trail, a 41 mile loop around Mt. Hood.  For various reasons, this cannot be a trip with kids.  The route with kids I will scout next weekend, but I really wanted to do this walk around Mt. Hood.  I asked a lot of people, all who couldn't go.  Then, I asked my good friend, Creighton, and, of course, he wanted to go. Remember last weekend he walked 93 miles in 3 days around Rainier.  My plan to walk 41 miles in 2 days would be easy, for him. No matter how I broke up the 41 miles over the 2 days, one of the days would be the longest hike I've ever done on a single day. And if I did it right, both days would be my longest hikes in a single day.

We took off Friday night.  Got to the parking lot of the Timberline Lodge around 11 pm.  Creighton slept outside; I slept in the car.  The plan was to set out at 7 am.  Slept in until 7, but we were up and packed quickly.  Went into the lodge, used the restroom, and looked if we had to check-in with rangers or something like that.  We were told the trail is open, have fun, and be safe.  We walked up from the lodge about a quarter of mile where we found the trail.  We turned left, wanted to hike the loop in the clock-wise direction.

The trial starts simple enough, cutting across the melted ski fields above the lodge.  We hiked under a chairlift, then we were off on a good mountain walk.  The Timberline trail shares the path with the Pacific Crest Trail, like when two highways are the same for a small stretch.  This was really cool for me, since I have never hiked any of the PCT and hope to hike the whole thing someday.  The PCT is a 2,650-mile national scenic trail that runs from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington.

The morning was nice.  We skirted along ridges, switch-backed down through forest, hiked narrow paths on rock scree, all the while being blown away by views of Mt. Hood.  The trails were busy too.  Many people out enjoying the lovely weather and the lovely scenery.  We took a good break around noon near the Sandy River, then took off again.  We reached a place called Ramona Falls around 1 pm.  A beautiful waterfall, and I knew from my internet research it was the lowest elevation on the Timberline trail.  We looked at the falls, then began walking up the south side Yocum Ridge.

This was one of my favorite stretches of the whole first day.  The climb was not crazy hard, but it had my legs working.  We were a little over 10 miles in, and the trail at this point was empty.  Around 2:30, we came out of the forest and had to cross another drainage.  This was the only river where both Creighton and I took our shoes off and crossed the stream.  The water was about knee high.  We got our shoes and socks back on and began climbing up another ridge, heading to Bald mountain.  Another great stretch of hiking, saw more people, and the open areas of the ridge (the "bald" areas) had beautiful wildflowers and views of Hood if you looked behind you.  Around 4, we were at a major trail junction.  This was the first junction with wilderness permits, so I started filling one out.  We had turned off the PCT before Ramona Falls, but it meets back here.  And while filling out the permit, a woman walked up from the PCT.  When I asked her where she was heading she said, "Canada."  Sniper (her trail name, and thats the only name she gave us) started on April 20th hiking north from Mexico on the Pacific Crest Trail.  I was so enthralled and inspired by her feat.  She has been walking for 130 days (I looked up on a website).

We took off after a couple of minutes, and I started struggling.  The next two hours were uphill and my feet were hurting.  We passed throngs of people heading down to there cars.  One I remember was a cute woman, who passed me with a beautiful smile.  I had slowed my pace a bit, and when I hit a trail junction up near a mountain meadow I turned left when I should have gone right.  Soon enough I was bushwhacking a hardly recognizable path.  I turned around, and saw Creighton heading my way.  We hiked another 30~45 minutes and came to Cairn Basin.  I was pretty tired since we had hiked about 19 miles in 10 hours.  I was not walking any more that day.  We set up camp, had a great dinner, hung our food, watched the sun fade into the west, and toasted to 52 weeks.  I was so glad to have Creighton with me.  He was there almost 6 years ago on my first backpacking trip, when as his co-leader I knew less than our kids and was less prepared than they were.  He was very generous in his praise, and if darkness hadn't descended, he would have seen me welling up after his kind words.  We were in our tents by 10 pm.  I was asleep almost immediately.

The next morning we were up at 6 and walking by 7:15 am.  The morning was great, until we hit a trail closed sign.  The sign read, "8/27/2011 The trail is closed due to wildfires."  I had an English teacher with me and we both felt that the sign meant the trail was closed on 8/27.  Therefore, on 8/28, the trail was open.  We kept moving.  We did not pass any wildfires, but we could smell them.  A little later in the morning, we could see the plumes of smoke back where we had come from.  It was encouraging that we saw more people on the trail.  Most were still in their camps, but they were there, so I did not feel like we had done anything wrong.

By 10 am, we had hit the Elliot Glacier drainage.  Here a bridge was washed out in 2006, and the route now takes you up a ridge and over the glacier and back down the Cooper Spur.  Creighton and I did not realize this was the glacier crossing and instead hiked down the ridge and climbed up the other.  It sounds easy, but it was brutal.  I tore a huge hole in my shorts as I was rock glissading.  I also have some good torn up knuckles as those got to work as my brakes.  We got so dusty, but we got down.  The river crossing was easy enough, and the climb up was easy, but only by comparison to what we just did.  We got back on the trail and soon found a fresh water spring.  We were ready for a break.

We had snacks, drank lots of cold amazingly good water, and chatted with day hikers coming up the trail.  One of which was that same cute girl with the smile I saw the day before.  She remembered us, and we had a nice chat.  She was impressed by our Elliot crossing story and laughed at our torn skin and shorts.  We started walking at 1 pm, and we began climbing to the high point of the whole trail.  This was another fantastic section.  Creighton and I were alone on the trail (the day hikers were taking a trail up to the Cooper Spur).  There were some snow field crosses that were easy in the warmer part of the day, and Mt. Hood appeared to be so close.

The rest of the day was good.  We came around Gnarly ridge, and dropped down into another river crossing.  At this point, my feet were killing me.  So we stayed at the Newton Creek for a break, I took off my boots and socks and soaked my feet in the creek.  I had a fresh pair of socks that I was going to put on when we got going again.  We took off after a decent break and were walking by 4:15 pm.  At 6:15 pm, my feet were hurting again, but the river soak had bought me some time.  Around 7 pm, we were at the White River, the last crossing before a 2 mile walk back to the lodge.  As I began the cross, I stepped on a rock that rolled away under my weight.  I was able to use my poles to catch myself, but I had soaking wet boots.  Taking a brief break on the other side, I also discovered that I broke one of my trekking poles.

It was a fitting state of affairs.  I was 2 miles from finishing the loop.  I was 2 miles from the end of a year long goal.  My feet were in so much pain, they were soaked, one of my poles had broken, and I was left with a two mile climb to my car.  For the first half mile, the trail was lined with black huckleberry bushes.  I told myself, don't try to hike up just walk to the next berry bush.  The timberline trail hits the PCT on the ridge above White River.  The next mile was a steady climb, but the trail was sandy.  The sand was fine and loose, so I was sliding back a little with each step.   The last half mile was fairly gradual in its grade, as it loops around to the lodge.  It was getting dark, but I did not need a headlamp.  I completed the loop at 8:30 pm. I hiked for over 13 hours.

Orchid: Lots of them on this hike. Here are a few, the walk around Yocum, the sunset on Saturday, the PCT thru-hiker, the hike on the east side.

Onion: The three waves of bug attacks which lasted a total of about 3 hours on Saturday evening: first black flies, then biting gnats, and lastly mosquitoes.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 51 Aug. 21 - Summerland

Total Distance: Approximately 11 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 2000 ft.
Time: Saturday 11:15 am - Sunday 4:45 pm
Weather: Sunny, warm on Saturday, partly cloudy, warm Sunday. Perfect weekend in the PNW.

This was an interesting over-nighter.  I had no idea where I was going to go this weekend until Monday.  I hiked up to the Carbon Glacier with my good friend and wilderness mentor, Creighton.  I got permission to use his first name in the blog.  Has he said, it will be good for my readers to meet some other characters in my life as the blog starts to grow and take shape.  He is a character indeed.

Creighton is a strong man.  He is in his late fifties and hikes circles around me and just about every spry, young, cocky high school boy who thinks they are stronger than this skinny, "old," former professional runner.  When I interviewed for my job, I visited his class.  I remember thinking, if I get this job I hope this guy will be my friend.  He took me on my first backpacking trip.  He has taught me a ton about being and living in the wilderness.  There aren't many situations that he hasn't encountered on the trail.  The stories he has are epic to say the least.  I have heard a lot of his stories, and many I have heard multiple times.  A by-product of hiking a lot with him but having different groups of kids on those hikes.  Although, I never find the stories dull or boring, quite the contrary.  I enjoy hearing them, especially since the narrative only changes slightly and the details remain the same.  I could talk a lot about him (and probably will in future blog posts), but I will end it here by only adding two more things.  First, he has a capacity to bring love into each and every interaction he has with anyone, even the people you wouldn't think it would be possible to love.  Second, he is one of my greatest friends, and my life is better because of him.  This week marked our 15th weekend in the last year hiking together (more than anyone else).

On our way up to the glacier Monday, he was telling me about his plan to hike the Wonderland Trail in Mt. Rainier National Park in 3 days.  This trail is 93 miles, and the cumulative elevation gain is almost 30,000 ft.  His plan was to hike thirty plus miles for three days.  He was also taking 2 students and an older brother of one of the kids.  Half inspired, half shocked I was eager to help.  I really wanted to go too, but my Friday was already booked.  And to be honest, I am not in good enough shape to do this yet.  Their second night was going to be at Summerland, a meadow below the east side of Rainier at about 6000 ft.  To conserve weight, the 4 were not taking stoves and were going to eat no cook meals.  I knew there was a trailhead a couple miles north of Summerland, and I volunteered to meet them Saturday night and cook them a gourmet meal.  He was excited, and once I heard about dietary restrictions of the hikers (one is a pescatarian), the plan was set.

I got everything ready Friday night and Saturday morning.  I left for the trailhead at about 9 am.  I got into the park at around 10:30 and then hit a huge line of traffic on the White River Road up to the Sunrise Visitor's Center in Mt. Rainier National Park.  The weather was amazing, and the late snow melt this year has hampered hiking in this high elevation area.  Saturday everyone and their grandparents were out.  I got to the trailhead and couldn't find any parking.  I kept going up the road about a mile and found a spot.  I starting hiding valuables and gearing up.  As I was putting on my gaiters a nice couple from Gig Harbor came up right behind me and parked next to me.  We chatted briefly, and they pointed out there was access to the Wonderland trail just a bit up the road.  I was planning on hiking down the road, so they saved me a mile of road hiking.  I took off at 11:15 am for the Summerland meadow 5.1 miles away with a 50lbs pack.

The hike up was great.  I stopped once because I was sweating profusely and had to layer down.  I got into the campground at about 1:45 pm.  I was proud of the 2 mph pace with a 50 lbs pack.  I set up camp, chatted with a cute ranger lady, dried my sweaty cloths in the sun, and took a look at my watch.  It was about 2:30 pm.  I wasn't expecting the 4 boys until around 6 or 7.  I hung the food, took my camp chair and book, and set off for a spot in the meadow to read and relax.

There were lots of day hikers, and there were talks of marmots, goats, and bear.  Now, I have seen a bear or two in my travels, but I had never seen one in Rainier.  I still haven't.  I have never seen goats in the wild.  And I still haven't.  And I have seen one or two marmots, but only in the Olympics (which are a different species of marmot than in the Cascades).  I wanted to see marmots.  I did not see any as I walked to a huge rock to set up a spot to read.  I read for about an hour before I heard this whistling sound.  I turned, and there on the rocks about 20 feet away was a fat marmot.  I was excited and watched as he laid on the rock, up in the breeze cooling down in the late afternoon.  I watched him for about 30 minutes.  He walked along the rocks down into the meadow, ate some grass, drank from the stream, and then disappeared into a burrow.  I was pretty happy and took a nap.  I know I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

I slept for about 30 minutes before I was woken by the bite of a horsefly.  Trying to battle the culprit, forced me up and away from my spot.  As the fly continued to follow, I figured best to get back to camp.  I gathered my things and took off.  On the way back to camp, I walked through the Summerland marmot convention.  There were easily 7 marmots out and about, including two smallish marmots that I think were pups. Not to be too sappy, but they were so cute.  I got the food down and was in camp at about 4:30 pm.

I started piddling about camp, getting all the stuff ready to prepare a 3 course meal.  The appetizer was Ritz crackers, cream cheese, and strawberry jam.  I figured a no cook appetizer would be good while dinner might be cooking.  Dinner was a Salmon Alfredo Penne Pasta with corn and basil.  The dessert was going to be chocolate brownies.  My campsite/kitchen had a view to the south of the boot path in the snow leading down from Panhandle Gap.  This is where the group would be coming from.

Around this time, two really cool guys from the next site came over.  We chatted and had a really good time.  They were nice company as I started cooking dinner.  They went off to have their own meal, and I got down to it.  I had everything ready and it was 6:30 pm.  I thought this was perfect.  I added the sauce to the pasta, but was going to wait on the salmon until I saw the boys coming.  I sat and watched the snow patch.  Six thirty became 7, and 7 became 8.  Then 8 became 9, and the sun was well behind the mountain and light was disappearing.  I started to think I was in the wrong site, or worse something terrible had happened.  Still worried, but not really able to do anything, I packed dinner into a clean ziplock bag, put camp away, and crawled into bed.  I couldn't do anything in the dark, and I was going to hike towards them tomorrow morning.  With an alarm set for 5 am, I fell asleep about 11 pm.

I awoke to voices, headlamps, and two eager young men.  The two students found my campsite at 1 am.  I jumped out of my bag and tent.  We exchanged hugs, and they told me the story.  Apparently the older brother injured his ankle and was walking slow.  Creighton was walking with him and had sent the boys ahead to meet me.  The idea was they could hopefully get to me before dark, but some trail issues and sore feet pushed their pace back too.  I got the food down, and started reheating dinner.  The two boys ate like they hadn't had a meal in weeks.  They loved the appetizer and the dinner.  I was not going to make the brownies, but I kept shoveling the group food I had hiked up.  By 2 am, their bellies were full and sleep was setting in.  I cleaned up, rehung the food, and we were all in bed by 2:15 am.  The plan was to wait in the morning.

The next morning, we were up at 8 am.  I kept feeding the boys like the evil witch in fairy tales.  I kept heating water and fixing them oatmeal, hot chocolate, and anything else I had.  It was around 10, when I decided to go up to Panhandle Gap and wait for the other two.  Hiking up to the snowfield was easy enough.  As I started walking on the snow, I had no idea how those boys did this at 1 in the morning.  As I got up higher, I spotted Creighton.  I shouted, and he called back.  A quick hug and chat confirmed all were okay, if somewhat tired and sore.  Creighton was carrying both his pack and the injured older brother's.  I was pack free and took the second pack.  We made it into camp at 11 am.

The next hour consisted of a lot of feeding.  The pasta was being passed around like an antipasti, I made the brownies, I was boiling water for hot drinks, and the three healthy boys were loading up for the final push, a 30+ mile hike back to their car.  I suggested they give me gear they wouldn't need or to take the side trail and leave gear at my car five miles up the trail.  They did both.  I carried their trash and some other things, and when I got back to my car there was a ton of gear stashed under my car.  The three boys took off at 12:15 pm.  Aiming to be done around 1 or 2 in the morning. Crazy, inspiring, awesome stuff, huh?

I took the next 2 hours to clean up and pack camp away.  I had the older brother laying down with a ziplock bag of snow on his ankle.  I was ready by 2.  I taped his ankle before we took off, and I took a bit of his gear and stuffed it in my pack.  We left at 2:30 pm.  We hiked out at a nice pace.  He felt pretty good, all things considered.  We were down 4.1 miles to the first trailhead by 4:30 pm.  He stayed here, as I hiked up the last mile to my car.  I hiked the last mile in 15 minutes.

Orchid: Marmot convention 2011.

Onion: The frightening feeling of thinking something bad happened to my friend and our students.

Picture:

Google map

Week 50.6 Aug. 18 - Marmot Pass

Total Distance: Approximately 10.6 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 3500 ft.
Time: 11:45 am - 5:15 pm
Weather: Mostly cloudy, turning overcast, then a light drizzle.

It's summer.  I start school in 13 days. I need to be hiking for the next 13 days, but I only have a few days that aren't already scheduled with back to school work.  Today was one of those few days that wasn't booked with schoolwork.

A friend of mine and I took off for the trailhead at 9:30 am.  We were in the parking lot by 11:40.  I got ready, and we were walking by 11:45.  I brought only a day-pack for two reasons. First, we started later, and my pace is slowed with a 35~40 lbs pack.  Second, I am going on an over-nighter this Saturday, so I think that can be my training hike.  Today was bonus hiking, the best kind of hiking.

The trail is a climb. I tried using my cell phone's GPS tracking to get all the information from my hike, but weird readings and a low battery left a pretty poor assessment of our distance and location. We kept a consistent pace, breaking only to shed a layer or snap a quick photo for the first hour.

By this time we had been climbing through consistent forest but had reached Shelter Rock Camp.  We kept moving up and starting hitting open areas on the trail.  They were not very large at first but did contain beautiful wildflowers.  Walking up, we started hitting more and more meadows. They also were growing in size and spectrum of colors.  It was here that we really started to loose time as I took lots of up close photos of the flowers.

Taking time to enjoy the meadows had us up to the pass by 2:15 pm. Not a very fast pace, but not too terrible either considering we enjoyed the meadows, some small windows of blue sky, and the fellowship of passing hikers.  My buddy found a great spot to enjoy the views of some peaks to the west of the pass.  We ate and shared snacks. I offered some sour patch kids to passing hikers, who were fellow teachers on Bainbridge Island.  I enjoyed meeting these nice people, and it turned out the history teacher knows a colleague of mine.  There was a brief view of the Straight of Juan De Fuca to the north between the clouds and the mountains. 

A few more minutes passed, and we started getting cold.  We turned around, and visibility had dropped considerably as the clouds were coming in from the east.  We hiked down with only one or two breaks, and these for for layers, hikers, or photos.  My friend and I had great conversations.  We even enjoyed a lot of super-tart, way-too-early-season huckleberries and blueberries.

Orchid: The wildflowers.

Onion: I don't have one.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 50.1 Aug. 15 - Carbon Glacier

Total Distance: Approximately 17 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 1640 ft.
Time: 11:00 am - 5:30 pm
Weather: Sunny, warm in direct sunlight, cool in shade. Perfect for a hike.

My friend and colleague, who has hiked with me more than anyone this last year (or ever I bet), returned home to Tacoma from his summer travels on Sunday.  He was itching to get back out and hike, and I have a hard time saying no to a hike.  So the day after I summitted Mt. Adams, I went on a 17 mile hike up to the Carbon Glacier in Mt. Rainier National Park.

We got to the Carbon River entrance at 10:45 am, geared up, used the restroom, and hit the trail by 11 am.  The plan was to try and get up to the glacier and back by 5 pm.  We had six hours to go 17 miles.

The first 4.9 miles of the hike are along the old road to Ipsut Creek Campground.  Apparently the road has been washed out and repaired so many times that the park service has decided to quit repairing the road and instead maintain the trail as a multi-use trail, allowing bikes and hikers both to use the trail.  While hiking a road is not always the "best hiking," it was great to walk side-by-side with one of my greatest friends and catch up.

I did not see how long it took us to get to the Ipsut Campground, but we did not take a break.  We kept walking, now on the Wonderland trail.  We crossed the Carbon River at the lower crossing (the trail to the upper crossing was closed).  We had a few switchbacks on the north side of the river.  After a bit of a climb, we hit a trail marker indicating we had a mile and a half; it was 1:31 pm.  The next mile was steep but not terrible.  We hit the drawbridge of the upper crossing when we had only 0.4 miles left to go.

Here the trail became very steep.  While I did not stop, my pace slowed.  My friend got a bit ahead, but I enjoyed the last push, and I was staring at the Carbon Glacier at 1:54 pm.  We took a thirty minute break for snacks and water.  It was the first break of the day.  The glacier was impressive.  It looked gray, was covered in debris, and it sits beautifully between two peaks and right below Mt. Rainier.

We gathered up our stuff and set off for the car at 2:30 pm.  The walk out was a little painful at first.  My knees, ankles, and legs were all sore, but my feet were aching.  My pace out felt slower, and it created a bit of separation between my friend and I.  I always enjoy walking in the woods, even today as my feet were in more pain with each step.

We walked the road out together, but my feet did not help us pick up the pace.  We were back at the car by 5:30 pm.  We took too long of a break, but we didn't mind.

Orchid: Hiking with my good friend.

Onion: My sore feet.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 50 Aug.14 - Mt. Adams

Total Distance: Approximately 14 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 6700 ft.
Time: 5:00 am - 6:00 pm
Weather: Mostly sunny, warm at low elevation, windy and cold, at times, above 9000 ft.

A good Seattle friend and I have been talking about climbing mountains forever.  Well, not forever, but for the last 28 weeks at least.  He was my friend on the Week 22 hike to Snow Lake off I-90.  He has climbed a few peaks, and he and I are creating some big commitments to climb some big mountains, but before any of that can happen we need to see if I can climb.  He sent me a Facebook message a couple weeks ago about climbing Mt. Adams this weekend, and I said yes immediately.  Mt. Adams is 12,281 feet above sea-level, and the most popular assent route (South Spur) is not technical and is described most frequently as a walk up.

We left on Saturday and took our time to get to the Cold Springs Campground at 5600 feet.  We were into camp at around 8:30 pm.  The plan was to get up at 4 am and hit the trail by 5.  I was in my tent and sleeping by 10:30 am.  I slept through the night, which was quite a feat considering there was a rescue team that showed up around midnight.  The other 3 people in my party all heard the commotion, but I didn't hear a thing.  I googled "adams climber rescue," and it sounds like the injured person will be okay.  You can read more here: Seattle Times article.

We woke up around 4, did all the things we needed to do, and hit the trail by 5am.  I know I've said every hike will a training hike, but I did not carry a heavy pack.  I took extra clothing, water, and food.  We were all taking only what we needed, and I was concerned enough with getting up to the summit.  I knew the summit was above 12,000 feet, and I have never hiked up that high.  I was also worried about altitude sickness (especially after I got sea sick in a kayak).

We started in the dark, so with head lamps on we hiked on the trail for about an hour before we started to hit well traveled patches of snow.  The moon was almost full Saturday night and was setting in the west as we hiked.  By about 6:30, we were beginning to hit snow fields, and by 7, we were at the crescent glacier.  It was here where we stopped, put crampons on our boots, and busted out some ice axes. It was also sunny enough that I put on my sweet, new climbing sunglasses, complete with the leather black flaps on the side.  I may not have a clue what it takes to climb, but I looked legit.

We traversed a ridge along the edge of the glacier and climbed up to a place called lunch counter.  It was some tough snow walking.  The crampons helped me from slipping a lot, but I was keeping my eyes down looking for previous foot steps or a relatively flat place to kick my toe into the slope and walk up.  As soon as we began climbing up from lunch counter, the climb went from steep, to steeper.  I was falling back a bit from my party, but there were tons of people on the mountain.  I estimate that I saw at least 100 people.  Around 10, we took a break on a little boulder field below Pikers Peak, or the false summit.  I was exhausted, my feet hurt, my fingers were numb, but other than that I felt good.   I was starving and ate some good snacks.  I drank some water and put on gloves.  My feet were going to hurt as long as I had those crampons on, and I knew it.  I don't have mountaineering boots, so my hiking boots had to do.

After a decent break, we began the steepest, longest slog of the climb.  It took forever to get up to the false summit, and we knew were going to have more once we got there.  There was really nothing to do but keep moving up one step at a time.  I was the last to the top of the false summit and was greeted with freezing, strong wind gusts and a bunch of other people all scattered about, resting from the same climb I just finished.  Again, I found myself famished and ate, but I was quickly wearing multiple layers and still shivering.  We got up and our next break was the summit.

This was the best part of the climb for me.  I was still feeling good, in terms of altitude sickness, and the last stretch made this seem a lot easier.  I met two really cool people on my way up and they were heading down.  The guy gave my a part of a Kit-Kat, and we chatted for a few.  I looked up to a busy summit, but a vacant approach.  I climbed the last 15 minutes to the summit alone.  When I got to the summit, the 3 other guys in my party had waited for me.  The four of us walked up together.  It was amazing.  I could see Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, and the Sisters to the south in Oregon.  I could see Mt. St. Helens to the west and Mt. Rainier to the north.  We ended up spending about 15 minutes at the summit when we found ourselves alone with no one climbing up.  Having the summit to ourselves on a busy day was a real nice treat.

I geared up for some glissading.  I had never heard this word until today, but I have been doing this all year long on my hikes.  Apparently to glissadeglissading sounds better.  The first run from the summit was fun, but the snow was hard and icy.  The trick was to be in a groove already made by other people, but even those could hurt or not move very fast.  It took me about an hour to get back to the false summit.  By this time, I had started to feel a bit nauseous.  I think it must have been altitude related, because as we went lower it got better.  And when I got back to the car, it was gone.

Even though my stomach hurt, there was no way I was going to pass up glissading down to the boulder field where the steepest part of the climb began.  I was not the only one who had this idea.  The grove of the glissade track was cut a good 2 or 3 feet deep in places.  It was some of the fastest, craziest sledding I have ever done.  At times it was like a water park ride, remember those tubes where you slide though and get tossed up on the sides.  It was exactly like that, but on a mountain and snow instead of water.

The rest of the hike down consisted of awkward snow walking, glissading, and finally trail walking.  When we got back down to the trail, it was 5 pm.  My ankles, knees, and feet were all aching.  I did, however, enjoy walking on the trail.  Hiking feels good, mounteering can hurt.  Maybe I should do 52 weeks of mountaineering, then it might not hurt either...

We were back at the car by 6 pm.

Orchid: Solo walk to the true summit and having the summit to ourselves for a few minutes.

Onion: Nausea.

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Google Map

Week 49 Aug. 7 - Mt. Lillian Trail No. 1601

Total Distance: Approximately 6 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 1000 ft.
Time: 12:15 pm - 4:00 pm
Weather: Blue skies, sunny, warm, mid-70's.

Summer vacation has been too much fun.  I flew back on Thursday, just in time to get ready for two nights at The Gorge Amphitheater outside George, WA.  I got to see my favorite band of all time, Phish, and got to camp out.  Now this was certainly not backpacking camping.  This was good old car camping, a little more luxurious but a little more crowded.  Since the concert is on the east side of the Columbia River, I decided to look for a hike on the east side of the Cascades.  I searched wta.org a couple weeks ago, and I found Tronsen Ridge.  I bookmarked the site on my phone for later and did not check it again until this morning.  By 10:15 am, I was in my car in Ellensburg with my phone GPS guiding me to the trailhead.

I got to the forest road turn off around 11:15 am, then it took about 40 minutes to travel the 10 miles to trailhead at a really nice meadow.  I stopped about a half mile short of the way point, since a sign on the road said the next stretch was a primitive road, and I was already getting a bit worried about the deteriorating conditions of the road.  I took out a ton of gear, loaded up my backpack, and put on my gaiters and boots.  I weighed my pack when I got home, I was carrying at least 40 pounds on my back.

As I started up the road, I could tell right away I was in a different forest.  Everything about the woods seemed a lot drier than the hiking I do on the west side.  I am sure a lot of this is seasonal, but it was different.  Often where I hike the trees that have fallen near the trail are decaying slowly and acting as nursery logs for new trees on the western side (especially in the rain forests of the Olympic National Park), but the logs here were gray, dead, and dry.  After about 20 minutes, I came to the place that I identified as the place my GPS wanted me to park at.  There was a trail.  All it said was 1601.  It is at this point when I realize I never read the description of the hike.  All I knew was the name and the distance.

I would have gone back to get my cell phone, but the battery was almost dead, and there was no chance of service.  So I looked at my watch, 12:39 pm.  I was going to take trail 1601, and at 3:30 pm I could turn around and retrace my steps as a worst-case scenario.  Within a few minutes, I hit a trail junction and found out that I was on the Mt. Lillian trail. Great!  But I am suddenly remembering my hike in the Capitol Forrest back in week 41.  I was in a new place, making up a hike, and I had no map…

The trail began to climb a bit in elevation, I was walking a bit slower than usual but maintaining a pace.  I thought my slower pace was excused with all the dancing I had been doing the previous two nights.  As I was climbing up, I was looking and listening for dirt bikes.  I had seen a few at the trailhead, there were tracks on the trail, and the faint sound of 2-cycle engines could be heard in the forest.  I began to become a little bit paranoid as I was walking too.  Twice my pack entered my field of vision as I looked around, and I scared my self.  Later in the day my hat did the same.  It was definitely a weird feeling, being scared at 1 in the afternoon on a sunny day, but it was similar to the time I tried to snowshoe to Packwood lake.  When the wilderness is completely quiet, your mind is totally silent, and then a noise or passing glimpse of something pulls out back in the present, and I suddenly realize how I have been wondering both on the trail and in the back of my mind.

Continuing with my walk, I came to an opening where I could see the Columbia  River off to the northeast (I had driven back on the west side for the hike).  I even saw the Cascades off to the west, including Mt. Baker to the north and Rainier to the South.  Both are beautiful, but I love Rainier.  I am so used to the view from the northwest side, so the view on the northeast side was a little different.  I stayed here for 20 minutes.  I enjoyed some water and snacks.

I went walking on and came to a split in the trail.  One, the wider, more traveled path, went north down the east side of the hill I had just climbed up, the other, narrow and more overgrown, went up the hill more and traveled south.  I chose the narrow more overgrown trail.  I was hoping to loop around back to the car.  As I continued up for a ways, I hit a few small mountain meadows.  The wildflowers were out and very pretty.  I feel like if I had been there two weeks earlier, they would have been unbelievable.  I still enjoyed the colors, and I took some time looking closely at many.

The next thirty minutes were tough.  It was hot, I was tired, my feet started aching a bit, I still had not seen a soul since leaving the trailhead, and I was hiking a road.  Add to this how I kept freaking myself out with my pack or hat, and you can see what must have been pretty humorous to the birds and squirrels.  At 3:07 pm, I saw a dirt bike coming down the trail.  I waved him over, and he told me that I was on the right road back to the trailhead at the meadow.  What a relief!  So much so, I took this opportunity to catch a cat nap in the shade.  I woke up around 3:30 and started walking again.  I came back to the trailhead I started at by 3:45 and was back at the car by 4.

Orchid: The views at the first break, or the dirt bike rider confirming I was on the right path.

Onion: Not having a map of where I was.

Picture:


Google Map