Gold Creek Pond Snowshoe 12/21/2011

Lauren and I set out on a last minute adventure to the Snoqualmie Pass area for a couple hour intro to snowshoeing hike for Lauren. We swung through Sports Authority to rent Lauren a $10 pair of snowshoes, then REI for a snowpark pass and off we went.

So the directions were basically wander up the road a few hundred yards, and get off the road and meander through the valley. Well the snow base was really low with a crusty layer. We meandered up the road, through the trees and took a left at a road crossing and found the loop trail around Gold Creek Pond. The snow was so shallow that we could still see the summer trail signs. We meandered around from the actual snowshoe and skin path to wandering through the brush and trees all the way around the pond. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and a ton of fun!

Noble Knob 7/22/2010

Thursday I headed out for some mountain views in the Central Cascades. I'm mixing up the trip report and this time I tried putting it in a video. That way Gary can catch up on his blog reading by watching it :p

Let me know the preferred format, video or written. If the video is no bueno, I won't go through the extra effort to put one together again. Comments, complaints or suggestion toward either the way the video is compiled or whether written or video is preferred can be posted here, or on the Facebook page, and is greatly encouraged.

Noble Knob, 7 miles round trip, and minimal elevation gain. If the clouds would have dissipated the views would have been awesome.

1st note about the video, at the start it says the wrong Forest Service RD number... I typed it in wrong and it's supposed to be RD 7174. That's what I get for editing video at midnight and not saving the raw data...

2nd note, if you click on it and open it from youtube, you'll get the whole viewing area... The embedding in the blog you lose part of the right side of the video...



Rainier trying to poke it's way through the clouds.
along the way
Mutton Mountain


Top of Noble Knob, 6011'.
Top of Noble Knob
On the way down.
Mutton Mountain.

Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass via the PCT Day 1of 5

It started off as an early Sunday morning drive north to meet up with Dicentra. I got a late start out the door to head north to meet up with Dicentra, but made it to her house on time, yet we still got a late start to the trail head. Dicentra's husband dropped us off at the trail head at Snoqualmie Pass so that we could start our journey. The plan was to hike an average of 15 miles a day to cover the 75 mile journey to Stevens Pass. I was really hoping to get a lot more fishing in on the trip, but in retrospect I wish I would of left the fishing gear at home... I would of saved nearly a pound of weight and the cost of the 5 sacrificial flies I lost to the bush gods...

We got on the trail around 9 am and started moseying up the climb to Kendall's Catwalk.

Dicentra and I at the trail head.

A pretty cool looking peak surrounded in the fog on the way up.

Entering the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.

We ran into this kind fellow Mr. Zip along the way up. He's hiked the whole Appalachian Trail and is segmenting the PCT 900 miles at a time, so that he isn't away from his wife near as long as he would be on a full thru hike. He had some awesome stories of his travels that were really motivating and after he passed us at Kendall's Catwalk, we'd be a couple miles behind him the whole way. Sadly we did not catch back up to him.

Dicentra in an opening on the way to the catwalk.

Some of the trail in the trees on the way up to the catwalk.
Me trekking along towards the catwalk.
One of the clear sections, with a lot of great views.



Where's Jared? Can you find me?

Just before the catwalk.
Red Mountain from the catwalk area.
Dicentra and I at the catwalk. Here we took a good long lunch and b.s.'d with the local day hikers. Talked to a couple people and a few previous Wonderland hikers. This was also the area that Mr. Zip passed us for the last time. From the catwalk we could see 90% of our route for the day, including the pass we had to cross to get to Parks Lake. As cool as it was to see the route as an all open traverse, it really made everything seem right there, but in reality it was so far away...

Heading towards Gravel and Ridge lakes.
Dicentra coming down into the Ridge Lake basin area.
Ridge Lake

Looking out and down the valley towards Cle-Elum above Joe Lake. The far right edge of this photo is the pass that we had to make it to in order to access the Parks Lake Basin. Just under the cliff bands is the traverse to the pass. An hour or so before we got to this spot we saw a Search and Rescue helocopter circling for a long time trying to get someone out of the area.
Taking a break for Salami and Cheese, and realizing that with the late start and the slower pace we'd be pushing into Parks Lake in the dark with our headlamps on...


Yeah... So we came around the corner and the trail shot straight up and turned into boulders. I won't even repeat what Dicentra said at this point...An interesting rock formation near Needle Gap area.
I was either taking pictures of something or trying to send a message out to say we are alive and well.
Shortly after this the sun was setting as we hit Chikiman Ridge above Parks Lake Basin. About halfway down we caught a stream and gathered some water. We rolled into camp under the cover of darkness with our headlamps blaring, while trying to find a suitable campsite. By this point Dicentra got sick, and was having a not so pleasant night. After we found camp I cooked dinner, setup the bivy and tied off the Ursacks to a tree and than I passed out. To be continued on day 2's page.

Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass via the PCT Day 2of 5

Day 2 started off with a great dry morning. No real dew to report and my muscles were a little sore from the wake up call after 15 miles on the up hill. Dicentra seemed to be feeling a little better in the morning, but was still not in tip top stomach shape. So we packed up camp and I ate a PB Crunch Wrap and we were on the road.


Is it really morning already...
Part of the awesome view I had all night! The pass we crossed the night before is just to the left and out of the picture. Did I ever mention how I love sleeping in a bivy?
Makeshift campsite above Parks Lakes.
PB Crunch Wrap
I ran up to the little stream that we got water from last night in hope of some water since I was down to just under a liter and the next "running" water was about 3.4 miles away at Delate Creek. With no avail. when I arrived at the little stream... It was running well the previous night cause the sun had been beating down on the snow pack above and overnight it became a trickle. So we headed off above Park Lakes and past some ponds that were iffy and started to climb before the bone jarring 2200' endless switchbacks all the way down to the Lemah Creek Valley. Along these switchbacks we got several great views over Spectacle Lake.

Spectacle Lake
Right before Delate Creek we ran into a girl with her not so friendly dog off of a leash. Albeit she was cute and alone she should of had better voice control over the dog, per regulations. The dog raised it's hair, came at me in a defensive and scared manner and kind nipped in my direction. Luckily after a bunch of calls from the owner the dog finally backed off before I had to introduce it to the carbide tips on my trekking poles. Up and to this point we had only ran into non-defensive and friendly dogs. All dogs per NFS regs must be under complete voice control or on a leash, friendly dogs are another story. So at Delate Creek we topped off our water, snacked on some food and headed back down the trail.

On the Delate Creek Bridge.
Getting ready to take off from Delate Creek.
We ran into what appeared to be a small boyscout troop doing a 50 miler. I really felt sorry for the last guy in the pack who was falling back and gasping for air trying to ask me how far until the lake... They were all carrying 5+ lb tents and a ton of duplicate gear, the kid's pack looked like it weighed about as much as him... After that we ran into some more hikers and slowly wound down into the Lemah Creek area. We approached the trail junction that had the "difficult" crossing reroute signs for the upper Lemah Creek bridge. We opted to not take the bypass and ford the "difficult" crossing. We did not want to add the mileage or the extra elevation loss and gain since we still had a 5 mile climb to reach the top of Escondido Ridge. On the way to the Lemah Creek crossing we stumbled across a natural burning forest fire. It was slowly burning the underbrush along the trail. Shortly after passing the fire we reached Lemah Creek. There was this huge bridge that was washed out. We got down to the creek and laughed... It was such a difficult crossing with the planks from the old bridge lain across some rocks... We didn't even get our feet wet. If the planks wouldn't have been there it was still only mid calve deep. We stopped for some more snacks/lunch and were back on the way towards Escondido Ridge.

Wildfire and Bridge out warnings...
Fire a burning alongside the trail.
Dicentra crossing the "Dangerous" Crossing at Lemah Creek.

After crossing the North Fork of the Lemah creek the trail started to climb... 5 miles of really long, barely climbing switch backs with more and more exposure as we went up, at mid day it was near torture... It was warm, the sun was beating down and we were climbing for 3 to 4 hours...





We finally crested and got on top of the ridge! What a view, craggy peaks all around and a barren terrain covered in Heather, dead trees from the Waptus Burn and Huckleberries bushes. Somewhere near the first set of tarns we ran into a couple kids that asked some odd and disheartening questions. They started out from Stevens Pass, were in all cotton, stuff was hanging precariously off of both of their packs, and the question that really shocked us... "Do you guys no where the next lake is? cause that is where we would like to camp." Uh... don't you have a map... Ah it's about 6 to 7 miles down the trail and 2200' down, mind you the sun was starting to set... You won't make it, there is some camps just over there or there is a very small camp precariously set along side the trail that will maybe fit one tent... Can we say search and rescue case in the making... After that encounter we pressed on for a ways, until we found a fairly large error in "Erik the Black"'s PCT Atlas for campsites... So we had to make a stealth camp since it was getting dark and Dicentra was not feeling well again. We set up camp, I made dinner and went to bed. Little did I know there was one rock that fell into the hole that was made when I pulled out a large rock from under my bivy... I shifted the pad to get comfortable and heard a psssssssssssss, like the valve was open on the air mattress... I yelled over to Dicentra to ask for Duct Tape and sealed the inch long gash in my $110 Neoair mattress... It held air for the most part of the rest of the trip with the same piece of Duct Tape. It deflated a little overnight, but no more than requiring a couple added breaths around 3am every night.