…beyond nice.

Oi! My laziness knows no bounds! What is the point of my going to these magical backpacking destination and taking hundreds of pictures if I can’t be bothered to share them with others!?
Enchantments is often considered one of the most beautiful backpacking destination in Washington and if you’ve ever been there you’d probably agree. It’s so beautiful that it got too packed at some point and now there is a permit system in place to save this place from being over-used. Permit season ends October 15th so my friends and I have decided we’ll go there once a year when it’s open to everyone.
When we were there last year, we had clear blue skies every day and there was hardly a breeze in the air. It was the best weather one could hope for. In order to get to Lower Enchantment, we had to scramble up a steep section with large granite slabs, this section also known as “the wall”. While we scrambled up and down the “the wall” we talked about how suicidal it would be to attempt that same wall with snow on it. There was even a small spot where metal bars were attached to the granite slabs to reduce risk of injury.

This year, we knew we were in for some shitty weather. We expected some snow and knew that we might have to turn back at the wall (when we called the ranger station to check on conditions, they highly advised against going near the wall). There were four of us planning to go, Daniel, Fraser, Jason and me. Our fifth, Sto, dropped out because he didn’t have enough vacation days to cover this trip. The trip spans Friday October 19th to Monday the 22nd.
On Friday morning, we met at Fraser’s house at 8 and were down one Daniel because he caught the company flu. The three of us got to the trailhead by 11 and made our way toward our first destination 7 miles in, Snow Lakes.

The day started out nice and dry just like the trail, and then about 4 miles in, it started snowing HARD. By the time we got to our first camp, there was a good layer of snow everywhere. We set up camp, had some dinner and drinks and wandered around for a bit before bedding down for the night.

It was such good sleep to listen to snow softly fall on my tent.
The next day, we packed up and made our way to “the wall”. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit scared that my buddies would drag us into stuff that was way over our heads. I had horrific images of us being rescued from boulder ledges which made for sugary entertainment for the head while we slogged through the flat part of the hike. When we got to the wall, we found much of it covered in a good foot of snow which made finding the trial a bit more difficult, but at the same time, because the snow was so deep, it kept us in place just fine so we didn’t have to worry about sliding to our doom down various boulder fields.

We could tell we were the only foolhardy idiots to attempt this trip because we had to stamp down our trail through fresh snow. The hike up was grueling and mentally draining but god damned was it ever worth it.
Howling wind pushed us around once we got to the top, but we managed to drag ourselves over to Leprechaun Lake. We wandered around to ensure we had the best camp spot for view and wind shelter. Since we were the only ones there, we had all of Enchantments to choose from. We found a nice spot, set up camp and proceeded to eat and get drunk off our asses warm ourselves up. Because we had the place to ourselves, we shameless did our loud drunk talk until well past 1 in the morning.
The next morning we woke up and set off to check out all the lakes in Lower Enchantment. It snowed on and off all day.
To be continued…

Slide of hike here.

No Comments »

It’s rough making a trip to climb a mountain and to return without ever seeing the mountain. The weather this past weekend was just unforgivably bad. There were short moments where the sun broke through the fog and we could see ten feet beyond where we stood, but we never caught a glimpse of Glacier Peak and only got as far as White Chuck Glacier.
On Friday, we got off a slightly late start because Fraser and Daniel had to work, but they did leave early enough that we were on the road by 4. Traffic was already building by then but the sun was shining and we were damned happy. Then after an hour and a half, the clouds started rolling in, and by the time we stopped for food before heading to the trailhead, the sky was dumping rain.
We got to the trailhead around 7:30 and groaned because the rain was not letting up. Just getting out of the car, to grab our packs and put on our boots, got us good and soaked.The chilly night air wasn’t exactly bringing joy to our lives either.

It was completely dark out by the time we got on the trail. We knew our destination, Mackinaw Shelter, was 5.3 miles away with a mere 1000ft elevation gain, so we estimated it would take us 2.5 hours to get there. It took us exactly 2.5 hours. It was a little after 10 p.m. and everyone else was in their tents fast asleep so we tried to be somewhat quiet in the drunk bastard sneaking in the house sort of way, which is to say we stumbled around in the dark, tripped over some shit and cursed loudly. There were pots and pan strewn all around the shelter and inside the shelter hung what looks like a hundred food bags. I told my buddies that there had to be an Ewok village camping in the area.
We tried to find a spot furthest from all the tents to set up camp and ended up in the middle ground. Fraser dropped his pack and found some rum to help warm us up. We drank a bit and started pitching our tents. Fraser rummaged through his stuff, gasped in surprise and said something to Daniel who started laughing his ass off. Daniel came over and told me Fraser forgot his tent so there’s a possibility that the two of them might have to share Daniel’s tiny 2 man tent. I commented that if they wanted to have gay sex, they should just go right ahead and not make up shoddy excuses for that.  Luckily Fraser brought his rainfly which could be pitched as a freestanding shelter, which didn’t help as much in blocking out the cold and would be worthless if rain started collecting underneath him, but it held.
Fraser is our most veteran backpacker, but in his recent effort to go extremely lightweight backpacking, he keeps leaving important things out, one time it was gas for cooking…another time it was water, now he forgets his tent altogether.
The rain slowed to a drizzle and I slept like a rock. I slept so well I didn’t want to get out of bed the next morning.

I stayed in until I heard Fraser and Daniel chatting with the leaders of the Ewok village. It turns out they were part of a wilderness school (NOLS), with 2 people leading a pack of 9 boys. There were a couple other smaller parties at this small camping area which lead to the ending of Star Wars feel.
We ate some breakfast and packed up. The rain had slowed down considerably, which made packing much less painful but a wet tent does add weight to my already stupid heavy pack. I had around 39lbs at the start of the trip, with the extra rain weight; I probably carried 40lbs for most of the trip, which was back breaking. From that camp we started climbing toward White Chuck Pass, and what a climb it was. The weather started like it could be sunny, but as we climbed, it turned to rain then around 5000ft, the rain turned to frozen pellets. Depending on the moment, sometimes we could see a bit across the valley other times we could barely see ten feet in front of us.

As we got closer to the pass, the wind started picking up and it hurled ice pellets at our face while trying to topple us over constantly. We got to the top of the saddle where we had to drop down into to get to the basin (our next camping destination) before White Chuck Glacier. We stood at the top of the saddle for a moment wondering if we read the map wrong because the path down was ridiculously steep and we couldn’t exactly see that far ahead of us with the thick fog. We eventually figured that we were on the correct path and we simply had to drop down the steep path made up of loose scree (I think we all thought about what hell it would be to try to go back up this scree, but didn’t want to give it too much thought).
After we got in the basin, we wandered around to look for a good camp spot. Everything that was damp from the rain the night before was now frozen solid. I was feeling extremely cold and instead of properly fighting it off by cooking some warm food, I set up tent, had some drinks and cookies and went to bed. Snow was sticking due to the coldness.

Warm bed…nice. Fraser was a bit annoyed that both Daniel and I decided to bunk down early instead of staying up to eat and chat…we were hoping to get some rest and if the weather was decent the next day, we could make an attempt for summit.
The weather was far from decent the next day. It was soooo cold I did not want to crawl out of my warm cocoon.

It snowed on us on and off throughout the night and that stayed with us late into the next morning. Randomly the sun would peek out for a minute like it would make a break for it, then the fog would roll back in for a good ten minutes. It continued like that for the remainder of the day. None of us knew the route or mountain well enough to make a summit attempt with that kind of weather. We sighed a lot, made some breakfast and discussed our options.

In the end, we decided to do a little day hiking up to White Chuck Glacier to at least check out the path for our future trip out, then pack and leave.
The day hike was a nice stretching of feet without a pack. Visibility remained an on/off issue during our short hike which made us happy with our choice to not make a summit attempt.

I was still a bit miffed at the weather backhanding us like that, but what can ya do?The area around the glacier felt like we could have been on the moon…there were just ice, foggy lakes, gushing rivers and rocks.

After wandering around for a couple miles, we went back to our camp and tried to motivate our frozen asses to pack.
Then we had to climb back up that wall of hell that we fell down from.

Ugh, did that wall ever suck.

Still, after that wall, it was only 11 miles or so of running back out. We took a short sugar break back at the shelter, I checked my watch, it was 5:57p.m. I figured it would take us 2 hours to get out. The last mile out was so hard, I was slowly going crazy with only my watch to keep me in check. We got to the trailhead at exactly 2 hours.
God that was a good trip, but I definitely need to work on getting my pack weight down. Ideally a person should carry 1/4 their weight…maybe 1/3 at most…I weigh 108-110, so I should try to keep it 36 lbs or below. The idea is that your leg is used to carrying your weight, so you shouldn’t go too much more than a certain fraction of it. Trust me, every single pound beyond 36 lbs was felt.

It’s too bad it’s already fall and the weather has not been improving, else I would probably call in sick just to make another attempt at this…alas, this probably will not happen until next summer. Still, if you like a good dose of pain, I highly recommend this place.

Slide of hike here.

No Comments »

I’ve heard such great things about Spider Meadow and Spider Gap that I tried to solo backpack to it last year. Unfortunately the weather had other plans for me, so I was quite thrilled to be offered another go at it this year.

The drive to this trailhead is quite possibly the worst bumpy ride I’ve come across in all my treks. Still, because I got some one and a half hour of sleep (going to a birthday party, getting sloshed, then going home to pack while drunk is a bad idea) before getting up to meet up with my friends, I managed to sleep through most of that storm.

The first 6 or so miles of the trail was very nice and flat which was great for my cranky still slightly buzzed ass. Having Spider Meadow come into view after slogging through endless forest does wonders for one’s poor disposition.

Then after our legs are nice and tired from dragging our packs across 6 miles of terrain, we had to climb 1000ft in .5 miles to get to a campsite that Daniel promised to be heaven on earth. Because we got to the trailhead decently early and we were pretty fast as a group, we managed to snag the Daniel’s dream spot which is a huge camp space sitting on top of a knob with breathtaking views from every angle.

I found a nice flat spot next to a ledge and started setting up shop.

The view from my tent was insane.

The weather was gorgeous and we were in damned fine mood. We had a quick lunch, then set off to explore Spider Gap. The rock scramble up to Spider Gap was a bit rough, but minus the pack it was very easy. Despite the great weather, it got pretty chilly up at Spider Gap, we kept moving to stay warm.

Soon as we crossed over the gap, Lyman Lake came into view and it looked like a mini-paradise down by the lake. We wandered around until Lyman Glacier came into view, and goofed around a bit more until we got cold, then set off for “home”.

When we got back to camp, we bundled on more clothing and started cooking dinner. After dinner we made hot alcoholic beverages and waited for dark to watch the stars. This is the first weekend we were out without a moon, so the sky was lit only by stars and it felt like we could see every star in the universe. I don’t think I’ve ever clearly seen the band of Milky Way like I did that night…nor have I ever understood more that we were indeed part of this galaxy.

While we were watching the stars, someone pointed out, “Can you imagine that for all those stars that we’re seeing, we’re just another tiny star to them?” It’s strange to come face to face with that. I felt simultaneously insignificant and significant at the same time. I felt small compared to the universe, but important in knowing that I am me and that I exist.

Our buddy, Sto had a cellphone with speakers, he played us music from his memory card and we drank and chatted while staring at the sky. At one point, someone with a headlamp came up to our camp. We asked the person who he/she was and the person never said anything which creeped us out. Then the person came into our light range and it was an Asian lady. She told us she was lost and didn’t know how to find her camp. Sto walked her out to show her the trail back to the general direction that she said she was from. We expected him to be gone for a while, but he returned shortly, “I think I scared her because I was so drunk…but I did show her the main trail and she seems happy enough.”

That night, despite a day of great weather and no wind, a random windstorm struck us. It wasn’t exactly like your standard windstorm with continuous wind, but more of 15 minutes of calm followed by 5 minutes of squall. During one particularly bad squall, I had a terrible image of my tent being blown over the ledge with me in it, so I got up, added extra anchors to my lines, went back in my tent and put on my earplugs.

Next morning we all woke up covered in a layer of fine dust. The gear whore in me is seriously thinking I need to buy a nice single-wall 4 season tent. I don’t even want to think about how much sand I’ve ingested through the night. The wind stopped when the sun came out and the new day was just as glorious as the day before.

We took our time in making breakfast and sitting back to take in the view for a long time before slowly packing.

The place was so beautiful none of us wanted to leave.

I highly recommend a trip to Spider Meadow if you’re looking for a sweet backpacking spot. I’ve heard the bugs can be horrendous there when in season, but since we were there in late summer there were hardly any bugs.

Slide of hike here.

No Comments »

This trip almost didn’t happen. First off, we went from 8 people going to 4, to 3 to 2. It came down to just me and my buddy Daniel. Then on Friday about 2 hours before we were supposed to leave, Daniel checked out the weather report and freaked out because it looked like there was supposed to be a windstorm with 30-40 mph wind in the lower areas, so god knows what it would be like up at 12,276ft. He asked if I still wanted to go, I told him, “Hell yeah, I’ve been waiting too long for this trip to pass it up.” In the end, I convinced him it would be worth giving the climb a shot. I called the Mt. Adams ranger station and asked about the weather, they said it should be a bit foggy on Saturday, and clear skies on Sunday (the day we planned to summit). I asked about the windstorm and they said they can’t really predict that but people have been driven off the mountain a couple weekends ago by 80mph wind…I decided to not tell Daniel about that part of the conversation.

After work, we drove off toward the mountain. It’s a good five hours away from Seattle without traffic but since it was Friday before a three day weekend, it took us more than 6 hours to get there. To stay awake for these long drives, Daniel would often play really pumped up hard house or psy-trance music. Daniel, like myself, was a big candy raver back in the days…so as we listened to one of his house mix CD by Steve Lawless, we both started talking about how we missed dancing. He mentioned he might be meeting his sister at Re-bar on Sunday night if we got back in time. As we talked about climbing plans, we got it in our heads that the climb would be quick on Sunday and we would be able to make it back for some dancing without any trouble…obviously we thought only in miles traveled as opposed to altitude gained. Our agenda was to do the first 3 miles with 3800ft elevation gain with our full packs on Saturday, then camp at Lunch Counter at 9400ft, spend the night to get acclimatize to the altitude, then on Sunday climb the last 3 miles with 2876ft elevation on the second day, head back down, pack our tents and leave. Then drive 5 hours home and dance.

We got to Morrison Camp at 1a.m., car camped and woke up around 9 the next morning to grab our climbing permit from the ranger station. Along with the climbing permit, we got the snazzy poop kit. While we waited for our coffee, I tore through the poop kit…

It contains:
- two paper bags, one of the bag has kitty litter in it,
- a paper towel
- paper with instructions how to use it, the back of this sheet has a target on it with bulls-eye and big X in the center
- a ziplock bag to hold it all together
The idea is, you’re supposed to lay down the target paper, and try to poo on the target…and if you miss, there’s the paper towel to help move stuff. Then you put all the business in the bag containing the kitty litter. Then bag that again with the second paper bag. Then all of that fanciness goes in the ziplock bag.

Daniel looks at all this all wide-eyed and said, “There’s only one kit?” I laughed and said, “How many times are you planning to take a dump on this mountain in ONE night?” He thought about it for a sec and said, “Oh yeah, I’m not sure I’ll even need this.” We didn’t, but we figured it was a good idea to carry it for dignity sake, because nothing shows dignity like carrying around kitty litter for your own human waste.

We got some breakfast in town then headed in. As we drove back toward Mount Adams’ South Climb trailhead we could see the mountain and we hooted happily at the good weather and view.

After we strapped on our gear we started our hike in around 1:20. The weather was clear with some patchy clouds. The early parts of the hike was nicely paved and easy starting at 5600ft,

then for the last 1000ft or so of climbing up to Lunch Counter, the trail was rocky or snow covered.

Breathing got increasing hard towards the end especially with my little frame trying to manage 35+lbs of gear (extra clothing + ice axe and crampons add up). We met these two guys from Boston along the way and hiked in with them for some good trail chitchat.
Soon as we hit Lunch Counter and I was able to drop my pack, I experienced a giddy euphoria that should be bottled and marketed to make me a billion bucks. I tore off my shirt and ran across the rock field laughing (I’m not sure how I didn’t break an ankle; I noticed it was ridiculously rough and uneven the next day).

People were looking at me like I was nuts, one guy did try to take off his shirt because he thought maybe I had the right idea and quickly put it back on because it was cold. Of course I didn’t care and went about setting up my tent while humming a tune. Wind was blowing through the area pretty fiercely but it remain a good consistent 30-40 mph instead of 80, so we anchored our tents down with rocks and all was well.
The view from our camp was phenomenal…we could clearly see Mount St. Helens and Mt. Hood along with parts of the Three Sisters behind Hood. The sunset behind Helens was so incredibly gorgeous.

Then at night, the moon was a little more than half full which lit up Mount Adams majestically in the night. As with most mountain climbs, at a few thousand feet from the peak, the top looks so deceptively close - like you could reach out and touch it.
The wind howling all night long was not a good thing. I now know that it’s always a good idea to bring some earplugs with you on mountain backpacking trips. At some point, because I knew I wasn’t getting any sleep anyhow, I got up, piled on my down jacket and snowboarding pants and walked outside to lie inside a rock wall circle to watch the stars.
The following morning after having barely slept a wink, Daniel and I were still giddy with excitement to climb the mountain. The weather was gorgeous and the mountain looked inviting.

We ate a quick breakfast and threw in extra layers in our packs with some snacks and water and headed off to the snow field. When we reach the edge of the snow field, we put on our crampons and started our slow climb up.

I was very surprised by how nice the crampons feel on the icy snow field. I had expected some kind of awkwardness from having teeth on my boots, but they felt great and made the hike up the snow field extremely easy. The last snow field right before hitting the false summit (Pikers Peak 11,600 feet elevation). was pretty scary steep and I was extremely grateful to see my crampons and ice axe coming to good use and there were moments when we were definitely “climbing” and not “hiking” up the mountain. The air got thinner and traveling became more difficult as we made our way up to Pikers Peak.

The thing I’ve found to be most difficult about slogging up a mountain past 9,000 ft is the constant internal battle. There is an internal battle going on that I come closer and closer to losing with each step. I feel faint. My head hurts. My legs are tired. This sucks. Why am I even here? What the hell am I trying to prove? This is so stupid and pointless, I should really turn back. I miss oxygen. It’s going to really suck if I pass out here. Oh god…is my vision blurry?
I know this isn’t something that happens to only me because I can hear other climbers reciting the mantra of “Mind over matter.” While Daniel and I were breaking for a quick snack at the false summit, there were a few other groups doing the same thing. There was a group of five guys chatting, one of them decided he was done but one of them was a little undecided. His 3 friends were trying to convince him to push for summit, he replied, “The wind is blowing too hard, it’s getting too cold. And it looks like a fog is rolling in, so we won’t see anything when we hit summit anyhow.” It was like that guy was inside my head, but unlike him, I was quite rejuvenated by snack break. I smiled at him and said, “Would it help your cause if I called you a pussy?” He replied, “Oh hell no you didn’t just say that…” and got up and picked up his pack.
We all continued onward together.  The first bit of trail from Pikers Peak heading towards the true summit was pretty flat and helped in boosting moral:

Then there was a particular nasty loose rock/sand field that we had to climb up where for every two steps that we took, we slid down one, sometimes more. It was excruciating, horrible and demoralizing. Every time I slip toward losing my internal battle I see the guy I just indirectly called a pussy right behind me and I turned back and pushed on. Haha, who’s a pussy now!? *weeps on the inside* On the final snow field to the summit, everyone was taking a couple steps, stopping for breathe, rinse, repeat. Then summit.

The wind was biting cold, but the sky was clear and oh what a glorious day it was. We could see Rainier, St. Helens, and Hood clearly. Everyone was smiling and congratulating each other.

Daniel and I hung out at the summit for a bit for still more snacks and some Advils to chase the growing altitude headache. Then we headed back down. Downward travel was nice and easy, without any fight for breathe. When we hit the big snow field, I changed into my snowboarding pants for some delicious glissading action. The thing I’ve noticed about glissading is that it only looks scary, but it’s actually kind of hard to pick up any real speed. In fact, my new recommendation for anyone that is sliding uncontrollably down a snowy mountain to try to sit up and go, “Wheeeee!” You’ll stop dead on track the moment you do that.

We got back to camp, packed up and headed back out. My headache was killing me despite our descent from high altitude, I think it was partly caused by severe dehydration because I avoid drinking water so I wouldn’t have to pee so much…because it’s impossible to find a hidden spot to pee on a big open mountain. I took a quick ten minutes nap while Daniel went to get coffee for the drive back which seemed to help the headache. We looked at the time and realized we wouldn’t make it back on time for dancing (not to mention we were both more like two dry ragged corpses)…so we settled for some nice food before driving back.
As we drove back, Daniel put on still more pumping techno music and we slowly eased out of our altitude recovery and thought…yeah, maybe we could make it back for clubbing. We chatted happily and thanked each other for pushing for a wonderful epic trip. As we approached Seattle, Daniel started fading…I talked to him about climbing other mountains to try to maintain his energy level. He said he was probably going to bail on his sister.
I got dropped off around 11:30, took a quick shower and got to the club a little before 12:30. Daniel showed up right about the same time…apparently his sister left him a message, so he felt obligated to show…but he found out after we got there that his sister bailed thinking he wasn’t showing. I thought he was going to take off too, but the music was too damned good and so we had a couple Red Bull Vodkas and danced right until the place closed.
Dancing was my favorite thing in the world up until I discovered hiking (I think it was Daniel’s favorite thing too), so I can’t tell you how wonderful it was for both of us to hit Adams summit and dance to some fucking awesome house in the same day. Now that’s a day that I would label as “beyond nice”.

Slide of the hike here.

No Comments »

This entry would have been titled “Lake Edna” had we actually made it to our original destination of choice.
From what little I’ve read about the hike out to Lake Edna, it didn’t seem like the hike in would be all that hard, but I was very wrong.

We all met up at Daniel’s place on Saturday morning and drove out to Chatter Creek trailhead.

The trail did not waste any time and started climbing steadily from the start. The sky was clear and the sun was beating down on us mercilessly. Daniel’s buddy Dan is very much out of hiking shape so about a quarter mile into the hike, we took a snack break. Then David ran out of water because he underestimated the toughness of the hike and didn’t carry enough water, so we took another long break for water.

We ran into a group of older gentlemen coming out from their backpacking trip and I asked them if the water at Lake Edna is warmish. They laughed and said, “Well, it’s coldish but you won’t die from it instantly. Still it’s worth a quick soak when you get up there.” Hmmm…I figured I’ll pass on the flash freezing of self. We asked them about the camping conditions and they warned us that it’s not a good idea to camp next to Lake Edna and to camp at the basin before we hit the lake instead because the windstorms at night has been horrendous. They camped at 3 different spots in 3 nights and they were pretty bad wind-factor-wise with Edna being the worst. We decided that would probably be a good idea to camp at the basin and do a quick day-hike to Edna and hopefully Grindstone Mountain.
The climb up continued and there was no mercy shown. After climbing 4.5 miles, the last half mile up the mountain ridge backhanded all of us with steep switchbacks. Right when we got near the top of the ridgeline, the clouds started rolling in. The temperature went from blazing hot to freezing instantly. After reaching the top of the ridge, the trail drops some 400ft into a basin with a good few choice camp spots. David, Casey and I made camp while Daniel trailed behind with Dan. In the end, Daniel carried Dan’s pack up the last bit of climb.

While we set up camp, Daniel went off to look for water. There were snow that we could melt, but Daniel wasn’t sure he brought enough gas to melt snow for drinking not to mention most of the snow was red from algae. We managed to find a nice little creek.

Casey, being Daniel’s very sweet girlfriend brought all sorts of food to share to celebrate his upcoming 40th birthday on Wednesday. She brought brie, grapes and crackers which was such a delight compared to freeze-dried meals.

David forgot to bring hard alcohol for the gathering, so he bought a bottle of red wine for sharing at Leavenworth. We set up camp and sat down to eat. The rain started pouring so we divvied up the food and ran into our own tents to eat. We were all pretty tired so we figured we could get some rest early in hopes of waking up early for a quick hike before we leave.

Daniel seemed to have gotten to the comfort zone with Casey already because he kept farting all night and every time he did, she would crack up and say, “Oh, honey.”

That night the wind howled and raged at us. I could hear the wind build and gather up over the ridge then it would gallop through our camp with so much force I thought it would pick my tent up by the rain fly and I would wake up in a new country the next morning. It was so loud, we started screaming conversations during the quieter build-ups knowing that there was no way in hell anyone was still asleep at this point. We didn’t even try to pre-face the conversation with, “Hey, are you awake?” Because fuck yeah you’re awake.
The next morning, we had more rain. Then it snowed. Yes, it actually snowed on us in August. We decided to pack up and leave instead of trying to do any side-trips.

All in all, the place was gorgeous and definitely worth checking out but make sure you’re in good shape for this.

We stopped by our favorite after-camp restaurant, Gustav in Leavenworth. As we wait for our meals, another group of four, two pairs of handsome couples in their early 50s, sat at the table next to us. The ladies look well primped and sat facing me. While they looked over the menu, the “gentleman” sitting closest to me let out a gattling-gun fart - you know the kind where it’s obviously not an accidental squeek. Casey said, “Oh, honey.” Daniel, who was sitting closest to the guy, quickly said, “It’s not me!” I’m laughing my ass off. The wife of the man was clearly embarrassed and said something to him. The man got extremely indignant and replied, “No one noticed!” I looked over at her. She said to her husband, “That girl is staring at you all owl-eyed.” I often sass people with my expressions, it’s sometimes beyond my control. The man turned around to glare at me. I smiled sweetly and told him, “Thank you, sir for sharing your gas. We didn’t bring nearly enough of our own this trip.” His ass was quiet for the remainder of our meal, cheap bastard.

Slide of hike here. 

No Comments »

This is a write-up long over-due.

The Friday before last on July 27th, my backpacking buddies and a few of my coworkers decided to backpack through Necklace Valley.

I started early on Friday with my coworkers, Mark and Bill and Bill’s girlfriend Katy. My buddies Fraser, Daniel and Daniel’s girlfriend Casey were heading in after work. We planned to meet up in the third lake in Necklace Valley, then hike up to Tank Lakes with maybe a side-trip to climb Mount Hinman the following morning.

The first five miles of Necklace Valley was ridiculously easy, it was so easy it didn’t feel like five miles. There were some suspicious log crossings that had Mark freaked out and holy sheesh the mosquitoes were insane, but aside from that, the early parts of the hike were pretty uneventful.

Then after five miles, the trail went from ridiculously easy to living hell. We all knew about the climb of 2500ft in 2 miles, but I think we all felt that the 2 miles felt like 200miles. At one point, Mark told me, “I think I’ve died and gone to hell but I just don’t know it yet, my punishment is this climb that never ends.”

I’ve hiked Mailbox Peak quite a few times this year, so I’m used to elevation gain of 4000ft in 3.75 miles, but doing that kind of elevation gain with 35lbs on my short little frame took quite a bit out of me too. Bill with his long legs and energetic youth was the only one not struggling visibly. He even helped push his girlfriends pack uphill when Katy struggled.
We had all day to get to our first camp spot so we took our sweet sweet time for snacks and pictures of the valley as we climbed. It was hard, but we eventually made it in about 8 hours – still beating out a couple parties to get our sweet campsite on a ledge overlooking the second lake. Unfortunately the mosquito situation was absolutely dreadful next to these lakes that created swampy puddles for their mating haven. We cooked dinner then all crawled into our own tents to avoid being eaten alive. Luckily, we were all so nicely exhausted that we were more than happy to get some sleep.

Next morning, I woke up to the sound of Fraser saying we should get packing so we can hike up to Tank Lakes. We ate some breakfast, packed our stuff and headed up for another 2 miles or so of climbing.

Unfortunately, the trail to Tank Lakes was not really a trail but a choice between climbing loose gravel field or snow field. There were cairns left behind by various hikers to mark the “correct” path all over the place, which pretty much shows that there’s not real trail. At some point, Katy decided she didn’t want to climb anymore because additional climb would mean that much more distance to climb back down with a full pack, so Bill, Mark and Katy decided to camp back near our first camp spot.

I really didn’t want to turn back because I had boundless energy that second day and really after climbing 2500ft in 2 miles, climbing 1000ft in 2 miles was cakewalk. I was scrambling and leaping from rock to rock like my pack weighed nothing.

Fraser led Daniel and Casey around on the snow field which is a bit longer but much easier route. It’s a good thing he did that because Casey did not like loose rock field that I was bouncing around on. Still, Casey is a very strong hiker, and on a ground that is more stable, she was able to keep up and we all managed to get to the top.

When we saw the largest of Tank Lakes, we hooted and hollered because it looked even more beautiful than pictures we have seen of it.

That and we were ready for a short rest. Sadly the area still had quite a bit of snow and the lake itself was very slushy with snow, so dipping our sweaty, nasty self in it was out of question. We dropped our packs and scattered around to scout a good camp site. We found this gorgeous spot with many flat areas to accommodate our tents next to a couple small water pools for easy water access.

While we were setting up, Fraser said, “These pools are more shallow and doesn’t have any snow…I wonder if they’re warm enough under this sun.” He walks into the water, “YOU GUYS IT’S WARM!” This is Fraser, he’s half crazy so obviously, I’m not going to take his word for it. Still, I could use a good washing so I dipped my toes in the water and sure enough, it was deliciously warm. I screamed with delight and quickly unpacked so I could find my bikini.

Fraser and I jumped in first just screaming with glee.

We could not believe our luck in finding a warm pool at 6000ft altitude. Then Fraser asked to be passed his rum while I hurried the others to join us, but Daniel and Casey were still busy setting up camp, so I ran out to grab his flask and my “water bottle”.

We toasted and drank. After more toasting and wading around the water, Fraser asked if I wanted a swap drinks with him. I asked him, “Wait…I thought you didn’t like Grey Goose straight?” He replied, “You mean you’ve been drinking vodka all this time?” I swapped bottles with him, “Fuck yeah! Did you just meet me? You think I would be so lame as to bring water to the pool party? You ought to be ashamed of yourself for thinking that of me!” He took a few swigs and apologized, “Oh man, I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I thought that.” After that, any thought on climbing Hinman was completely dashed.

It’s just so rare to find such an unbelievable setting to relax in a warm pool with your friends and ALL the booze that we brought. We were all so stupid happy…and drunk.

Out of nowhere, we heard Mark’s voice. He was on some ridge looking down at us. We beckoned him over. Mark would later describe this as, “I thought perhaps I had died, but gone to heaven, because I walked up to this ridge, and there were these lakes with a beautiful backdrop with girls in bikinis bouncing up to me, offering me hard alcohol.”
Apparently, my original crew decided to day-hike up that last climb and when they saw Tank Lakes, the boys decided they were going to split Katy’s pack carrying duty so they could camp up top. Bill carried his and her pack up that last stretch…that’s about 70-80 lbs. The guy is a fucking monster…did I mention he just did the STP bike ride…without any training…200+ miles in one day…on a mountain bike. Nuts.

They had set up camp already on the other side of ridge and both parties were happy with their spot, so we figured we would just stay split up. Not to mention, half of us are completely toasted while the other-half exhausted. After we finished all our alcohol, we went for our traditional drunken walkie. We explored and found the other camp, then wandered around various ridges. The place was just so gorgeous with the sound of distant waterfalls.

We cooked some food a little before sunset then sat down to watch the sun go down. I can’t remember the last time I felt so content – when everything felt right.

Then we had a gorgeous full moon out.

It rained the next morning which made some of the gear a bit heavier to carry out, but provided a much welcomed shade for our hike out.

This trip was so good we were delirious for a week after it.

I highly recommend Necklace Valley as a backpacking spot but remember to bring DEET, don’t mess around with 30% stuff, and go for the Jungle Juice - or wait till the bug season is over. And really push the extra miles for Tank Lakes, it’s really worth it.

Slide of the trip here.

4 Comments »

No, I am not bloated, pasty and floating in some ice cold water somewhere. I have officially survived snow camp #2. We did camp next to a lake, but the lake was so thoroughly frozen over that it would take a lot more than some fruit train storm to thaw it out. To be fair, we got buckets and buckets of rain dumped on us…but our tents and tarps held up.

The hike in and out was ridiculously flat and it wasn’t all that scenic, but the heavy weight we were carrying plus snowshoes still made for good exercise. We got lucky with the timing of rain, because it started pouring after we made our way to camp and had our tarps set up. Then the rain stopped in the morning right around the time we got up to cook breakfast and pack.

Since the overall hike was pretty easy, we each packed in one dura-log each. At night we had a huge fire going while each person took turns making hot beverage spiked with whatever alcohol they brought. I brought chai with vodka again, which was still one of the biggest crowd pleaser and we had decaf coffee with Kahlua, some spiced fruit drink with rum, and my favorite was hot chocolate with Rumplemintz (it tastes like Thin Mints Girl Scouts cookies). Yes, the trip was a cheap excuse to go out in the woods and get shit-faced, which was mostly why I didn’t want to go, but it was definitely a good way to send a buddy off to the land of sleepless nights and diaper rashes.

Randomly, Fraser would forget that he’s about to be a father and he would start planning trips that we should think about doing soon.  Then we all joked about how his kid is going to turn out black because we all knew he spent more nights out in the woods than with his wife last year.  I think he’s hoping his kid will turn out black.

On our way out, we felt the Pineapple Express randomly blowing warm breeze across the path which was extremely pleasant.

I’d like to take a petty moment to express how nice it is to backpack with a group that isn’t made up entirely of people with legs twice as long and that are in much better shape, because I was starting to thinking I must be the world’s slowest backpacker.  Well, actually everyone else’s legs were still twice as long, even Jason’s wife Shawna is much taller than I, but I’m just happy to not always be the person waaaay in the back.

Slide of the trip here.

2 Comments »

As I sit down to write this, I can feel a slight chill in my room and my brain is trying to shut down so that it can start whining about the cold. Shut the fuck up, brain! I suppose I will write with my lymph nodes today, because they’ve been very good and haven’t complained one bit despite constantly have to battle every damned virus known to man that somehow makes its way to my office. Apparently game programmers and artists are dirty monkeys and they just keep getting sick.

Now back to a little recap. Saturday morning started nicely, we gathered and carpooled to the trailhead in my car. The beginning part was like any other trip, we got on the trail without snowshoes since the beginning parts were well stamped down and hustled along to look for a decent campsite. When we got to the first decent camp, we decided to move onto the next spot because the hike out had been wimpy at best. Most of our packs were 40lbs+ but because the hike was pretty flat, we felt a little robbed of good work-out.

When we got to the second site, we declared it awesome, dropped our packs and started setting up shop. Before we started, Fraser took off his shirt and told us how nice the sun feels. I was thinking he’s nuts, normally I would give him a run for his money on being the first to go shirtless because backpacking is some sweaty nastiness, but it was too cold for that. Then Jason took his shirt off and said the same thing…next thing Daniel, who never takes his shirt off, took his shirt off and declared the sun equally wonderful. At this point, I was thinking my buddies were lying their asses off, I figured soon as I took my shirt off, they’ll all put on their shirts and tell me I’m nuts just to fuck with me (hey, they are my friends, I wouldn’t put it past them to be an asshole like me)…but the sun did look warm and inviting. And god damned it was nice. We all worked on setting up without our shirts except for Sto, whose arm was tucked in a splint with a shirt underneath. The sun was so damned nice that while we were standing around chatting, we didn’t even face each other, instead we were spaced out and turned like rows of solar panels facing the sun while making our own heavenly chorus sound effects to go with our goofiness.

After camp was set, we set off to explore the area in snowshoes. We wandered around for a while, but didn’t manage to find any safe spots for some elevation gain so we basically followed the creek and crossed this bridge created by an avalanche because that’s obviously the safest path.

When we got back, we piled on all the clothing we had to hang out. I lucked out in picking up a nice down jacket right before the trip with my buddy Jason, who when I was torn between two jackets, one that’s super light and will compress to nothingness or a slightly heavier jacket with a nice big hood, told me to always go for the hood because that thing will keep you warm. Since I was still obsessing over getting my pack as light as possible, I was a bit dubious about the choice. That was the best advice anyone could give for a newbie snow camper because when I randomly decided to push my hood back for reasons known only to someone that completely lacks any common sense, my warm swaddled snuggly world turned straight to dry humping witch’s teats.

While we made dinner, some of the boys decided to build an igloo, without a top because that apparently required more skills than a bunch of clowns stacking uneven snow bricks, who would have guessed.

Still it was great, we had a nice wall and enough seating for all of us. We had food and of course booze (only for the purpose to keep warm and not to get shit-faced, because we’re a bunch of little angels) in there.

As we got more shit-faced, the guys started singing at the top of their lungs. Then after we got even more plastered, we decided to run up the mountain and do some glissading (for those that don’t snow hike, that’s just a fancy term for sliding on your ass down a snow covered mountain). The guys started sliding heads first face down, then moved onto sliding heads first on their backs. Lying on your back and sliding down heads first sounds suicidal, but it’s not (it’s only slightly idiotic). It’s actually one of the more peaceful feeling things you can do. Just sit back and watch the moon and stars as you drift back…unless your down jacket happened to be slick and you catch air and hear all your buddies go “Ooomph!” as you land. We worked off a good amount of drunken energy running up the mountain and sliding back down.

After we simmered down, we had more food and bunked down for the night. I boiled some hot water, pour it in my water bottle, tucked that in my sleeping bag with me and had a warm cozy night’s sleep. The next morning was a whole different game. I woke up and as I peeked out of my mummy bag, I noticed there was a layer of frost on my sleeping bag where I was breathing on at night.

Everything was cooooold. We tried to make breakfast, but our gas canisters got so cold the gas in there wasn’t expanding enough to want to escape. I had my canister in my tent so it wasn’t completely frozen over, and I managed to boil some water which became quite the bragging rights in camp. Look, I boiled wah-ter! I rule! In the end, everyone had to tuck their canisters in their jackets until it warmed up enough. We tried to pack up, but the cold made moving very very slow, so we decided to just wait till the sun hits to really work. Sto checked his thermometer at some point and said it was 18 degrees, so we guesstimated that it had to be below 15 during the night. The moment the sun beamed across our camp, there was instant warmth and joy to be had.

We quickly packed up and left to get some real food at the Snoqualmie Pancake House.

Photo set here (same as slide from previous entry).

2 Comments »