Week 90 May 20 - Whiskey Dick Mountain

Total Distance: Approximately 8 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 400 ft.
Time: 10:45 am - 3:15 pm
Weather: Mostly cloudy, light rain turning to overcast.

A streak of ridiculously nice weather ended this Sunday.  I had two hikes in mind one out on the Olympic Peninsula and one out east.  Since the forecast turned to a high percentage chance of rain in western Washington, and only a 10% chance out east, I chose a hike in the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area.  The area is almost to the Columbia River and is now in land that is mostly owned by Puget Sound Energy.  Doing a quick google search got me to all the information I needed.  There is a bunch of wind turbines and solar panels out here, but the PSE still allows people to hike and hunt in the area provided they read and sign a waiver and watch a little 5 minute video.  We were at the visitor's center by 10:15 am.  I took two friends from work, Gil, who I have hiked with many times, and Tami, who came out on a hike earlier this year.  We were signed up with our permits and geared up by 10:45.

We decided to start with the 2.4 mile hike out to the summit of the Whiskey Dick Mountain.  Here there is a large array of solar panels.  We walked along in the light rain and a brisk wind.  On our way to the solar panels, we saw some elk in the distance.  Soon, a herd was running across our path ahead.  It was great.  We were walking on rocky terrain, and for the second time in three weeks I was walking in the Washington desert and loving it.  While it was overcast, the visibility out into the valleys was still beautiful.

We got to the top of Whiskey Dick and saw another little peak off to the west.  We went along the ridge and circled to the west face, where we climbed up to the top.  It had been about two hours and we took a 15~25 minute break.  We continued back to the first saddle we passed west of the summit, and contoured along the north-facing side of Whiskey Dick Mountain.  We dropped down to an old dirt road we saw, and followed it up to Beacon Ridge Road.  We then walked over into an area called the pines.  We ambled along the ponderosa pines, and enjoyed the smells of the meadows.  We walked north of a line of about 5 turbines then turned and passed them to the east.  We hit a drop off, and on our way down we saw more elk.  We had a nice little climb on our way back out of the ravine.  We hit another drop-off, but this time we elected to go back to the road.  We hopped on the road and followed it back to the visitor's center.

Orchid: Wildlife and good friends.

Onion: Rainy weather.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 89 May 13 - Oyster Dome

Total Distance: Approximately 6.5 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 2900 ft.
Time: 11 am - 3 pm
Weather: Beautiful sunny day.

I was up in Bellingham to see the baseball team from my school on Saturday, and I used the opportunity to hike up north.  I stayed with a friend who goes to Western, and he suggested a hike up to the top of the "Oyster Dome."  I got to the trailhead around 10:50 am.  I realized that I had no food but plenty of water.  I took off any way.

For the second straight week, the weather was ridiculously nice.  It was warm.  I was hiking in shorts and a cotton t-shirt.  The hike was a nice, steady climb.  It was busy, but not in a bad way.  Families were out together.  It was nice to see mothers with their sons and daughters.  I passed a lovely couple with a 10 month old baby.  I kept a steady pace, and only took one 15 minute break on the way up.

At the top, the view of the San Juan islands and the Olympics was stunning.  The Puget Sound is beautiful.  The couple I passed was only a few minutes behind, and they joined me on the rock I had sat on.  We chatted and enjoyed each other's company.  They gave me a bag of dried dates.  I thanked them before heading down around 1:30.  I was at the car before 3 pm.  The decent went fast.

Orchid: Lovely hike.

Onion: No food.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 88 May 6 - Robinson Canyon

Total Distance: Approximately 7 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 500 ft.
Time: 9 am - 2 pm
Weather: Beautiful sunny day.

Went out to eastern Washington and hiked along the rim of a canyon.  I took a former student with me.  He and I had a lot of catching up to do.  He was my advisee for 4 years, and we have not really kept up with one another.

We had a great hike together.  The sun was warm, and it felt like summer.  It was nice to be in a different landscape.  The Washington desert had smaller, thinner trees and in small patches.  The shrubs were knee high.  The tall grasses were littered with deer and elk scat.  The central cascades were shining bright to the north and in the distance.

I wish I would have written this blog sooner.  The details have faded away.

Orchid: New landscape with an old friend.

Onion: Can't remember it.

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Google Map

Week 87 Apr. 25 - 28 - 8th Grade Beach Hike

Total Distance: Approximately 20 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 300 ft.
Time: Wednesday 1:30 pm - Saturday 11:20 am
Weather: The whole spectrum: full on downpour to sunny and warm, and overcast, cool, and a light rain.

Another year as come and gone (well almost, this school year the 8th grade beach hike was earlier than it has been in the past 4 years).  I have led this hike every year since 2008.  It is a wonderful hike along the coast of Washington.  It stretches from Rialto beach just north of La Push to Lake Ozette 3 miles inland from Sand Point.  Depending on tides, the trip can go north to south or vise versa.  This year was from the North to the South. I took a journal, but did not have a lot of free time to spend writing.  Here are my recollections after being home for nearly 24 hours.

Wednesday: We started in a heavy rain at the Ozette trailhead.  It wasn't too bad, just rain.  The boardwalk was slippery, but I managed to keep my footing.  Not all the 8 eighth graders could say the same.  We reached the beach around 3:05 pm.  We took a snack break, reaching the north side of Sand Point.  We were camping south of Sand Point and we continued walking around 3:10 pm.  As we came around the headland, the wind and rain was intense and in our face.  There were huge breaks in the waves, and it was cold.  We crossed a stream south of the a trailhead marker, and I saw a site that had room for our tents.  My co-leader and I got the kids to set up tents immediately and got them inside out of the elements.  We fixed dinner that night to keep them warmer longer.

Thursday: Woke up early to beat the tides to no rain, and the promise of better weather looking out west.  Sure enough the weather was amazing, sunshine and partly cloudy skies.  We were hiking by 8 am.  Early on in the day, a student found a basketball sized Japanese glass float, a beautiful treasure brought across the pacific and protected from damage by shear luck.  I started hiking with it in my arms.  I found a way to pack it in my bag, but only if my co-leader carried my food.  We took a long time (nearly 8 hours) to get 8 miles down the coast to our camp.  While the weather was still good, it did start lightly raining on and off again as we got camp set up.  The rest of the night the weather kept going back and forth.

Friday: The weather was overcast, but mostly dry.  While it rained some, it was nothing camping in Washington hasn't prepared me for.  The kind of rain that just hiking keeps you dry or the kind putting on rain gear will only make it stop.  Early in the day we were crossing a tough stretch and I was the first through it.  I was setting my pack down when the pack sung around into a nearby rock.  The glass float was destroyed inside my pack.  While I was broken hearted, I didn't have time to do anything but deal with it in a few minutes.  It was a tough loss. I will have to look for one again in the future. Again a long day of hiking, we took 7 and a half hours to hike a little over 7 miles.  After dinner, we stood around and told jokes and laughed.  It was a lot of fun.

Saturday: A light constant drizzle, while we ate pancakes after sleeping in.  We only had a mile to go today.  We shared our orchids and onions for the trip.  There are always two groups traveling the coast a few miles apart.  While our day was so easy, the trailing group had to hike a tough 4  plus miles.  They came walking by springing us into action.  We were out in 20 minutes and reached the bus at 11:20 am.

Orchid: Finding my first Japanese glass float.

Onion: Breaking my first Japanese glass float.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 86 Apr. 22 - Mt. St. Helens Summit

Total Distance: Approximately 12 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 5500 ft.
Time: 8:30 am - 5:45 pm
Weather: Mostly sunny and warm, really warm, warmer than last week.

Last week's hike was like a shot in the arm.  All week I felt great and excited about hiking.  This weekend was the Washington coast clean-up which I did last year with four students on Easter weekend, week 34. I was planning on doing this again, and I had two students ready to go on Monday.  By the end of the week, the two students couldn't go, and instead of doing an overnighter, I was going to clean the beach all day Saturday with Gil and his son.  Friday night we planned to meet at 5:30 am on Saturday.  When the alarm went off at 4:30 am, I was too tired, I called Gil, and I bailed on him.

When I finally got out of bed Saturday (around 1 pm), I was feeling a bit guilty, and I started planning my hike for Sunday.  I did what I usually do, go to wta.org and look on the hike finder map.  I was searching for an 8~12 mile hike, and I wanted something new.  I started looking at the Google Map of all my hikes compared to the hike finder.  There was an option in the South Cascades.  When I clicked the link in hike finder, it popped up as Mount Saint Helens.  I have seen this mountain a lot but have never hiked near it.  I read about the summit hike, and I figured if I got an early start it would be doable.  I texted Ryan and Creighton, and they both couldn't go.  I texted a buddy in Seattle, and he too was busy.  I had a tentative plan, but I was still uncommitted.  I woke up at 4:30 am on Sunday and decided to go for it.

I was at the Lone Fir Cafe and Resort to register my climb around 8 am.  I was at the trailhead by 8:20.

Wish I had more time to write this blog because there was a lot that went on inside my head.  No time, though. I am leaving for a 4 day 3 night trip in a matter of hours and still haven't purchased my food.

It took 7 hours to reach the summit.  At times the hike was peaceful and I was completely alone.  Other times it was painful and was almost crowded.  The people were awesome.  Met lots of great people climbing that day.  I glissaded down most of the way.  The decent took 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Orchid: Going through my head and reaching the summit.

Onion: Weirdness on the way down, physically.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 85 Apr. 15 - Camp Muir

Total Distance: Approximately 9 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 4500 ft.
Time: 8:45 am - 2:30 pm
Weather: Mostly sunny and warm, really warm.

Lately, as avid readers might have noticed, the hiking commitment has been a little stale.  I am still loving the hiking, especially when I am on the hike, but the logistics of planning, gearing up, and driving are not the best parts of my hikes.  Occasionally, a hike will just fall into my lap.  That was the case with this week.  Creighton walked into my office on Thursday to invite me to go along with a student and him up to Camp Muir on Mount Rainier.  For those of you not from the PNW or familiar with Mount Rainier, Camp Muir is named after John Muir and is the most used base camp for climbers attempting the summit.  John Muir is a personal hero of mine.  In the Visitor's Center at Paradise I saw the following quote of his, "Of all the fire mountains which like beacons, once blazed along the Pacific Coast, Mount Rainier is the noblest.”  I jumped at the chance to head up Camp Muir, since I have never been there.

The student and Creighton were going to backcountry ski down from Muir, and the student had somewhere to be at 6 pm in Tacoma.  We decided on a 6:30 am meet up with a plan to be walking by 9 am.  We would turn around to be back at the car by 3 pm.  We were in the parking lot at 8:30 am.  We were geared up and walking up by 8:45 am.  The snow, like last week, was frozen and solid.  I had my snowshoes strapped to my back and did not end up using them at all on the entire hike.  As we began walking, we were so excited by the prospect of the weather we would have.  The skies were blue to the south, and a lenticular cloud was concealing the summit of Rainier.  The tatoosh range to the south was just as hypnotic today as it is every time I am in the park.  Within 15 minutes, we were stopping to shed layers.  The weather was so nice, I felt like I was on a summer hike.

Creighton, the student, and I all stayed pretty close together as we climbed to Panorama Point.  We were there by 10 am.  Then began the long slog up the Muir snowfield to Camp Muir.  the conditions were great, and the student and I fell into a great rhythm of talking and climbing.  Around 11:15 am, I was famished.  This is the second time I was climbing up on a mountain and found myself starving.  I guess it is better than the opposite, but I was shaking a bit before we all sat down to eat.  While tearing through my wrap, the student shared some amazing, home-made chocolate chip cookies (you got to love hiking with students).  We got back up and began moving again around 11:35.

As we climbed, I was keeping an eye on my watch, knowing that I was going to take a lot longer to get down.  Around 1 pm, I stopped and told the student I would see him back at the car.  I was within 500 vertical feet of Camp Muir and just low enough that I could not see the shelter.  I had a great walk/glissade down.  I was back relatively quickly.  I only took one break to drink a bunch of water and cool down from the sun.  I was in the parking lot around 2:25 pm.  The student and Creighton showed up less than 15 minutes later.  It was a great day with two of my favorite hiking companions.

Orchid: Highest I have ever been on Rainier.

Onion: Turning around just a tad too early and not seeing Camp Muir, or not having backcountry skis.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 84 Apr. 7 - Gold Creek Basin

Total Distance: Approximately 8 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 500 ft.
Time: 10:30 am - 4:30 pm
Weather: Mostly sunny and warm.

This last weekend I had dreams of a big snowshoe outing.  i got a later start than I had hoped for, but I was at the trailhead, geared up, and walking by 10:30.  The plan was to follow Gold Creek up to the basin, then shoot up the slope to Alaska Lake.  The weather was amazing.  It was so sunny, and snow covered the entire ground.  Several times on this hike, it was so bright, even with sunglasses on, that my eyes hurt.  I am not complaining, since here in the PNW getting sunshine like this in April is always a gift.

The snow was frozen so solid early in the morning that I was walking on the surface and not sinking in at all.  I didn't put my snowshoes on for the first hour.  After about an hour and a half, the tracks I was following up the valley stopped, and I started making my own way.  Within an hour, I came to a huge open area.  It was so sunny and warm, and beautiful that I just had to stop.  I took out my lunch and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the wilderness around me.  I laid down and took a nap for about 30 minutes.  I woke up and followed my tracks back to the trailhead.  I will save Alaska Lake for another day.

Orchid: Lunch and my power nap.

Onion: A bridge crossing to get up the valley that was a little sketchy.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 83 Apr. 1 - Point Defiance

Total Distance: Approximately 8 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 300 ft.
Time: 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Weather: Mostly sunny, with a bit of light rain.

So in September of 2010, when I decided to hike every weekend, I told myself I could use Point Defiance park only once.  Well, week 83 was the week that I finally cashed it in.  I was tired, and my car has been needing some maintenance.  So I drove the twenty minutes from my driveway to the city park that overlooks the Puget Sound.  I walked the inner loop trail, and found myself, at times, lost in an old and second growth forrest that as somehow been preserved.  I got back to the car, and decided to reverse direction and hike the outer loop.  I have walked these trails before, but only now did I truly see how lucky I am to live in a city with a park like this.

Orchid: The lovely weather.

Onion: The constant city noise.

Picture:

Google Map