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
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