9-30-08

Another span of days off where I'm not out hiking. Upon our return from my Spider Gap trip I caught my friend's cold and that has taken me out for the last week and a half.
Yesterday I started doing some work at my sister's condo. My mission now is to relocate a ceiling fixture in my niece's bedroom. Farily simple work, just takes a little bit of time and patience, that's all. I did get the wiring completed and patched the ceiling. Today I need to complete the spackle work and spray on the new texture, hopefully I'll get it to blend with the existing "popcorn"
Tonight I have a date, this will be my first in a long time. I met her at the library and I think she's a really nice person and I'm looking forward to getting to know her. I'm thinking of dinner and a walk around Green Lake, we'll see how things go :)

Spider Gap/Lyman Lakes Overnighter

Last week I got an extra day off from work and took advantage of it by going on a two night trip to the mountains. My friend Greg joined me as we drove over Stevens Pass towards our destination. A complete report can be found here: http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7970372&highlight=spider

What follows is a condensed version:

We left the trailhead at 12:30pm and hiked the first 5.5 miles in the woods along Phelps Creek with minimal elevation gain. At 5.5 miles we entered Spider Meadow and the views opened up. At the opposite end of the meadow we marched up the last bit of trail for the day with 1000' of elevation gain. We reached Larch Knob by 4:30pm where we would set up our camp for the next two nights. That evening the moon was full and illuminated our camp.

The next day we got a late start and headed up to the top of the Spider Glacier and down the other side over the gap and headed into Lyman Lakes Basin. The Lyman Glacier supplies the water in the basin as it stands 75' high at it's terminus. We hiked through the basin and down towards the lowest lake, Lyman Lake. Our original goal was to head up to two summits above the lake, but with health concerns and time constraints we opted to turn around. We made our way back up the trail and were able to take our time and take a bunch of photos. We made it back up to Spider Gap and got a nice little glissade down the Spider Glacier. Back at camp the moon returned again with all of it's brightness.

Our last day we woke earlier and took our camp apart and started the trip back to the trailhead. We made very good time despite being tired and having heavy packs. It was a great trip that showed me the beauty that the area has to offer.

Full set of pictures are here: http://flickr.com/photos/bkraai/sets/72157607350990346/

Tank Lakes overnighter

I wanted to get out on another overnight trip so I headed to the Necklace Valley trail. The original plan was to hike up to La Bohn Lakes. When I got to the top of Necklace Valley I was not sure of the route to La Bohn Lakes, so I went to Tank Lakes instead. Ok, let me back up a bit. The first 5 miles of trail was very easy as it only gained 400' along the East Fork of the Foss River. As I crossed the river the grade increased rapidly gaining 2250' in 2 miles. A half mile after the greade leveled out I got to the first of many lakes, Jade Lake. After that was Emerald then Opal Lakes. From there I headed west towards Tank Lakes, another 1000' up.

There were a lot of slab rocks in the area that were smoothed over by glaciers from years ago. After dinner and a gazillion mosquitos, I headed to sleep in my bivy sack and enjoyed a fitfull night's sleep.

I awoke early and headed down the mountain. My trip up had taken 7 hours, my return trip lasted just over 5 hours, thank goodness for gravity to help me on my return trip.

A full set of pictures can be found here. http://flickr.com/photos/bkraai/sets/72157607206267832/

Short hike at Cougar Mt

The weather today turned out to be better than weathermen predicted. So with the better day I decided to go for a short hike. I drove the short 15 miles from home to Cougar Mt.in Issaquah and started out from the Anti-Aircraft Trailhead. During WWII this mountain was the site of a Nike Missle launch site which was a surface to air missle.

Nowadays this land is a regional county park with miles and miles of trails. Throughout the park are reminders of days gone by. Evidence of logging and coal mining can be found quite frequently as one hikes the winding trails.

Hiking attempt - White Chuck Mt

Every holiday I get together with Alexie, Curt and Greg for a hike and this time we had our sights set on White Chuck Mt. Located near Darrington, we were joined by 2 others, Adam and Raymond. The sky was filled with fog as we set out onto the trail near 10:00am. The first half of the route was simple with minimal elevation gain which we passed with no problems. The second half on the other hand would be steep and unforgiving. Today because of recent snow and rain the route up to rock slabs turned out to be very slippery. I was in the middle of the group and made some progress up the slope before stopping. Hiking up reminded me of a cat with no whiskers getting itself stuck in a tight spot since it had no alert system (whiskers) to tell it to stop before getting in a jam. Hiking up a steep slope isn't too bad, but the descent would prove to be very difficult. I had gained about 50 feet before I stopped to see how the progress was further ahead. Two of the three above were making decent progress, but the other including the remaining three of us were having second thoughts. We were thinking about how tough the decent would be and the risk included.

As a group we decided to stop and head back down. For me, I was in a tough spot and felt like the cat, how would I get out of this jam I had gotten myself into. I thought I would ascend a bit then traverse and try a descent in another spot. I slipped about 6 inches and that sent sheer panic through my body. A fall in my posotion could be fatal, and today was not a good day to die. Once I settled my nerves I regrouped and tried a different route. The others above me had caught up and passed me as I slowly downclimbed. I was very uncomfortable and made sure to let the others know how I felt. Finally after what seemed like forever (maybe 10 minutes actually) I was off the slabs and on my way back down.

I'm told that when dry, this route is rather safe and enjoyable, well today was not that day!!