July 1 - 10 - Le Dolimiti & Cortina d'Ampezzo

More to come soon...

Google Map

June 25 - Beckler Peak

Total Distance: Approximately 7.5 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 2200 ft.
Time: Saturday 11:30ish am - Sunday 3:30ish pm
Weather: Partly cloudy, occasional sun breaks, warm in the sun.

So much to say about my life since a regular blog entry but that would take way too long. For reference, I am back in the PNW, living with my girlfriend and our dog (Charlie, she's amazing), working at my third school, and not hiking nearly enough. But it is summer...

My girlfriend, dog, and I met new friends at the trailhead around 11:15 am. They had picked the hike, and all I knew was what wta.org said about the hike. We cruised up to the top. I started the GPS watch a few minutes in, but we got to the top quickly. There were one or two blowdowns on the trail, but these are easily passable for man and dog. We did a 25 minute mile pace over 3.8ish miles while gaining 2100 ft. (Skykomish Hiking - up & Skykomish Hiking - down).  This hike was great, and on clear day, the views would be amazing. As it turns out, we had a pretty cloudy day. By the time we reached the summit, the clouds were lifting a bit but not completely. We had a wonderful time up there, hanging for about an hour. 

Totally random interaction too. I met a guy at the trailhead who was wearing a bunch of Oklahoma State gear. Since I am an alum, I said hello and mentioned I went there. When he got to the top, I asked him some more questions. We not only went to the same school, we were in the same fraternity. He was there several years after me, but still, small world.

Orchid: Blogging again

Onion: Not much to write.

Picture:

Google Map

Sept. 1 - Mt. Tecumseh

Total Distance: Approximately 5 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 1500 ft.
Time: 11:40 am - 2:05 pm
Weather: Warm and humid with mostly sunny skies.

More to come tonight, but I wanted to get this going...

Sept. 22-26 - Sophomore Outdoor Ed.

With the exception of one weekend that I was very sick, I have hiked the 4 out of the last 5 weeks.  This last weekend was the start of my 8th outdoor education trip at my school.  This is the program that introduced me to the world of backpacking.  At the age of 24, I took off into the woods on my first backpacking trip. From that moment on, I was hooked.  Although I did not do it enough, I was in it. As many of you readers might know, the weekly streak began right after my first marriage fell apart.  It lasted a little over 2 and a half years. But now, here I am fresh out of the PNW woods after a spectacularly rainy and wet 5 day trip in Mt. Rainier National Park.

More soon...

Sept. 7 & 8 - St. Andrew's Lake

A couple quick updates:

• I have been hiking, but not as much as I like.
• I did a 47 mile loop over Labor Day weekend. It kicked my butt. I did 18 miles in 12 hours (that is 1.5 mph, pitiful).
• I hiked this weekend, that makes two weeks in-a-row, I am thinking of starting a streak back up... at least one of training.

So I am two weeks away from the Sophomore Outdoor Ed trip, and the route I am doing is completely new to me. This weekend I needed to get a look at it, so I took off on an overnighter.  I was lucky enough to bring three friends from work with me too.

We took off from the end of the Westside Road at 9:15am Saturday.  We hiked 3.8 miles up the road, then took off towards the South Puyallup River camp on the Wonderland trail some 2.2 miles away.  From there, we took a right and went to St. Andrew's Lake 3.2 miles away. We hiked in cloud cover almost the whole time.  It was kind of nice since it was a decent climb, and I had worked up a good sweat.  We were at the lake around 1:30 pm, then we wandered up to the cross country zone to set up our camp.

This is where the trip became something I wanted to write down.  Since I am trying to see my 27 mile route, and I had only done 9.2 miles of it. I took off up the trail in my running shoes and with a small day pack.  My goal was to get to Golden Lakes (8.8 miles from our camp, plus the trail has a good amount of up and down).  

At 2:22 pm, I was running down to the lake and then to Klapache Park.  Then jogged down the switchbacks to North Puyallup River.  This was brutal down hill.  I made decent time, it was about 3:30 pm when I began the 5 mile climb back up to Golden Lakes.  No running here, but I was maintaining a fast-ish pace, telling myself to go quicker anytime I felt myself settling into my natural gait.  At 4:30, I stopped for water at a stream.  I told myself I had to be moving by 4:35, which I was.  Shortly after, I was breaking out of the forrest and I was up on a ridge (but still in the clouds).  I was soon losing elevation again, and then all of the sudden, the ranger patrol cabin and the Golden Lakes sign was right in front of me. It was 5:10.  I chatted with the ranger (a beautiful woman) for a few minutes and took off back for camp.  I walked back to the top of the ridge, then took off running. I maintained a good running gear for about 45 minutes.  I walked into North Puyallup at 6:30. This was a huge highlight, that marked 10 miles in three hours.  That has been a thought of mine over the years as a theoretical pace for thru-hiking the PCT. I was so excited that I was able to do that, but I also realized to maintain that over weeks, or even a whole day, my training needs to step up. I took another break at 6:30 but this time took an extra 10 minutes, making my charge up to camp at 6:45 pm.  I decided the best thing to do was to move consistently and as steady as possible.  By 7:55 pm, I was 2.8 miles up from the North Puyallup river.  I met two wonderful people and spent a good 10 minutes chatting with them.  As obsessed as I had been with time, I was so thankfully to give that away as I met these amazing people.  The husband walked up for about a half mile with me.  I was in camp at 8:22 pm, exactly 6 hours after leaving for a 17.6 mile round trip. 

My friends, being amazing as they are, had seen my headlamp approaching and had a hot dinner ready.  I slept well and hard.  Today was amazing too, in a different way. We woke up had scones (freshly baked in my oven), played cards, and relaxed all morning. We were walking by noon. We saw a bear :). We were at the car at 4 pm.

July 24 -30 & August 1 - 9 - The Wind Rivers

I spent 16 days and 14 nights in the Wind Rivers this summer.  I went with Creighton as I did last year, but we also brought some other friends.  We did a 7-day/6-night trip from the Green River Lakes and were joined by Gil and Diane.  Gil and Diane had to leave on the 30th of July. Creighton and I came out with them and spent 2 nights and 1 full day in the Wyoming towns of Jackson and Dubois.  We did laundry, resupplied, bought some gear, and rested.  We then went in for a 9-day/8-night trip from the same trailhead (Trail Lake Trailhead) that we went in from last year.  I did not journal this year as much, but I took some notes to remember some amazing moments.  I thought a good way to sum up last summer and this summer in this magical place would be the simple phrase, "last year I survived; this year I thrived."

I did write two poems (very unlike me) while I was deep in a reflective state one morning.  Creighton had decided to run up Gannett (yes he ran, well he summitted damn fast).  I stayed in camp.  Here they are:

1)

With time in the woods comes comfort in hard things.
      Today, I napped on a rock softer than a feather bed.

2)

I wish I were a poet or writer,
one who had the gift to capture feelings with words.
I wonder what I would capture in this moment,
sitting alone by this high alpine lake.
The feeling of contentment?
The feeling of aloneness?
Maybe just the sense that life is pretty good when spent outside.

I scan my surroundings,
hoping to see a sheep or elk,
instead just the ground squirrel is within my sight.
He darts around camp in quick, acute movements.
If I sit still, it's as if he does not notice me.
When I move, he runs off in the same sharp movements.

Minutes later, the squirrel returns.
This time not frightened by my movements.
As if me sitting here, he (and the rest of this place) has gotten used to me.

He stops and looks at me.
We share a moment.
This squirrel knows me,
or at least I want him to.

July 15 & 19 - Summit Mt. Adams

Inspired by Creighton's facebook photos while I was in the Midwest, I wanted to climb Mt. Adams, again.  I sent out the email and text invites to my regular hiking friends and got three yeses.  The problem: not everyone could go at the same time this last week. I thought of a pretty simple solution: I would climb the mountain twice.

The first trip was a Sunday/Monday thing with two of my colleagues.  We drove to the Cold Springs campground Sunday afternoon, camped, and climbed the mountain on Monday.  We started at 5 am after a pretty sleepless night.  We were one of the last groups to leave that day. There were very few people on the mountain, which was nice.  I remember when I first climbed Adams in August of 2011 (Week 50), it was a parade of hundreds of climbers.  The climb was long, but the day was amazing. We made it to the summit in a little less than 9 hours.  We were the last group to summit that day.  We then had a great, fast glissade down.  We were back at the car three hours later.

The other yes was from a former student who is an excellent hiking buddy. He and I have hiked a few times together, including this last February in Havasu.  He sat shotgun the entire trip in my van, and we became pretty good traveling buddies.  He and I took off from Tacoma around 9 pm and reached the trailhead around 2 am.  We took a solid 3 hour nap. Woke up at 5:25 am, and we were off hiking by 5:50 am. We were last group leaving the trailhead on Friday. We were a little slower than my Monday climb, but I think that was due to the heat.  It was so hot. On Monday, I hiked in pants, long sleeve, hat with bandana, and a light jacket. If we stopped I would get chilled. On Friday, I was in shorts and a short sleeve shirt and didn't need layers when we stopped.  The hat made my face feel hot, but I knew I needed the sun protection.  The snow was a slushy mess too.  It was great was to see this kid reach his first big summit. He was definitely proud and excited.  We hung out on the summit for an hour. We were the last to summit on Friday too.  We left the summit at 4:15 pm and were back down 3 hours later. 

July 13, 2013 - Flapjack Lakes and Black and White Lakes

I went on a pretty great hike today.  I went to Flapjack Lakes to start.  I have been here before but only once.  I tried to get there twice, I think, before I made it there finally in July of 2011.  A couple weeks ago I did a hike with Gil up the North Fork of the Skykomish, and we talked of a potential Flapjack Lake hike.  These lakes are beautiful. The photo from the week 47 hike is one of my favorites (Link to post).  The weather today was amazing, and I did not want to waste a day that I could be hiking.  I have been out of the PNW for two weeks.  I was back in the midwest visiting friends and family, and while that was awesome, I have been pining the forests and high country of this amazing place I call home.

I took off from the Staircase trailhead at 11:30 am and made it to the Flapjack turn off in 55 minutes.  That is pretty standard.  The park says its 4 miles, but I am 99% confident it is between 3.4 and 3.8 miles.  It cannot be more than 3.6... Whatever the distance, I took a 4 minute break to snack and hydrate.  I was walking again by 12:30 pm.

I made it to the lakes 1 hour and 44 minutes later.  This stretch is 4 miles and climbs about 3000 feet.  I kept a steady pace and passed many backpackers in the first 30 minutes.  After about 30 minutes, I was alone the entire walk to the lakes.  I found a blue huckleberry bush that was ready for the picking.  I ate a handful of my first berries this summer.  They were incredible. I went to the same area between the lakes I stopped at last time I was there. I ate a small lunch then got ready to go for a swim.  The lake to the east was the one I choose, and it was so cold.  I went in to my knees and stood there for about 25 minutes before I had the courage to make the plunge.  I heard some fisherman on the west lake, but it felt lake I had the lakes to myself.  After I finally jumped in, I hopped out and changed into dry clothes.  I then laid down for a few minutes while my clothes were drying.

I took off back down the trail after a 90 minute break. I passed a few of the backpackers in the first half mile, then I reached the junction with the Black and White lakes trail.  To the left was the way I came up, to the right some place new.  I took off to the right.  For the next 2 hours and 16 minutes I was on trails I had never hiked, and judging by the condition of the trails, not many others have hiked either.  For an hour or so I climbed to the Black and White Lakes.  I got above the tree line too.  I had a beautiful panoramic view to the west.  I don't know why I haven't been up here before. It was so great.  When I began the hike down to make a loop, I realized that the trail directly to the Black and White Lakes is brutal.  I lost some 3200 feet in two miles.  It took me an hour and at the end my legs were quivering.  I kept walking after a short break chatting with some people heading up the North Fork of the Skokomish.  I made it to the Flapjack Lake junction three hours after I left the lake.  I took a 10 minute break then took off for the "uneventful" hike back.

It was a beautiful evening.  The sunlight was shinning in from my back, giving the forest an amazing green color.  The weather was perfect all day, but it was kind of cool at this point.  I was cold when I was resting but was warming up on the hike down.  The trail was empty, so I started singing some songs to keep any big animals away.  I passed all the familiar landmarks, when suddenly I was staring an adult male goat in the face about 10 feet away.  The goat was on the trail into Slide Camp, and I walked right past him.  He took off up the trail followed by a smaller medium sized goat and a baby that I had not noticed at first.  The three goats were gone so fast (and the light so bad) that I could only get blurry photos.  The rest of the hike was uneventful with the exception of louder singing. I was back the car at 7:45 pm.