All Paths Lead To The PCT 5-20-2011

Front of the Bonneville Hot Springs Hotel

 Well...maybe not all paths, but a lot of my hikes seem to often link up with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT.)

Ben and I needed to find a lower-level backpack trip.  The snow is still deep up on the higher elevation trails, so we decided to hook up with the PCT on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge.

We started out at the Bonneville Hot Springs Resort parking lot.  Leaving the truck here was no problem.  The hotel allows hikers to park in their lot on the east side of the hotel.

To catch the spur trail that hooks up with the PCT you first have to walk through the resort's miniature golf course.  Ben took a couple of swings!

 Then it was over a small bridge and we were off the hotel grounds and on our way.  Bella says "Let's go guys!!"

As you can see by this sign we are on trails not maintained by the US Forest Service.  These trails are mostly on private land, and all are unmarked.

 This is a picture of the Bonneville Dam in the distance below us.

 We entered the forest here and met up with several day hikers and their dogs.

We are always grateful for bridges.

                                          This part of the path seems to beckon us forward.

 Low bridge.  Which doesn't seem like a big deal until you have 28 pounds on your back.

We reached the PCT.  One of the great things about hooking up with the PCT is that trail bikes are not allowed on it.   Some trails you have to worry about getting run over by bikers who are going really fast.

                                                      On. Deeper into the forest we walked.

We spent the night up above Gillette Lake by a clear, cold, rushing stream that fed into the green lake.

 I am happy to report that my new MSR Hubba Hubba tent was water tight that night!

 This is a log bridge that lead out of where we camped for the night.  Sure glad we didn't have to wade through that cold snow melt.

Table Mountain in the distance above us.  This peak looked over our left shoulder most of the trip.

Entering a half mile clear cut.

This is where we met up with day hikers Kevin and Jamie out with their dog for the day (I think if you click on this picture it will get larger).

 Bella leads the way through the brush that is starting to take hold where the trees were cut down.

Wild flowers are starting to bloom in the clear cuts where they can get at the sun.

If I kept walking I would be in Canada in just 506.1 miles

This is where the Pacific Crest Trail starts on the Washington side of the Columbia gorge going north.  We came out here onto Highway 14.

 This is a bridge that connects Oregon and Washington.  It is part of the PCT and hikers are allowed to walk over it.  Bridge Of The Gods

In the car a very happy Rosebud was waiting to welcome me and Bella back.

 In a gravel parking lot by the bridge Jim was waiting to take us back to the Bonneville Hotel parking lot to pick up Ben's truck. We had left it at the beginning of our hike.  I love our support crew

My new  hat says it all about backpacking in the Pacific Northwest:  LIFE IS GOOD!

Be sure to stay tuned in for more of this season's backpacking trips.

Now go outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Jenny

WHEN YOUR DOG IS SMARTER THAN YOU...YOU BETTER THINK ABOUT IT

                                                                    04-17-2011 siouxon creek.

 Because there was a break in all the rain Joleen and I got the great idea to try and do a lower elevation over night backpack trip.

 I was anxious to try out the new equipment that I had bought over the winter, so I was down for an overnighter.

When we got to the trail head it was full of cars.  All weekend warriors out there on a Sunday afternoon.  Lot's of trail bike riders and dogs greeted us.

Because it is early in the season several times we found the trail to be actually a small stream, as you can see by the picture below.  Yep, that is the actual trail.

 Again...another section on the trail that is actually a stream bed at this time of year.  This is snow melt off from Mt. St. Helen's.  Did I mention that it is extremely COLD water?

 For me personally, one of the first rules of backpacking is:  Be flexible!  ( This of course comes after don't get lost and die from Hypothermia).  Being flexible in the back country is extremely important because you never know what you will run into.  You make plans, you have an idea of where you want to spend the night, but there are unknowns.

Someone might be already camped where you planned to camp.  Or you run out of day light to go as far as you thought you would.
Or like what happened to Joleen and me yesterday afternoon.....THERE MIGHT BE A RIVER OF ICE WATER BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR CAMPING SPOT!

Above is a picture of a redwood tree that we had to slide under to get to our stream crossing.

 This is what greeted us when we arrived at where we planned to camp for the night.  Lots of rushing very cold water running right across the trail.

 Here was a piece of wood that we walked across to get to the other side...problem was once we were on the other side it was straight up the side of a crumbling wet mountain.

 At this point in our trip we ran into a darling couple named Coleen and Greg.   Greg offered to carry our packs across the small log.  I took mine off and while he carried it to the other side I asked Coleen over the sound of the rushing water if they were married.  She told me that they had only known each other for three weeks.  I told her in all seriousness that she should marry this Greg.

 I am a great judge of character, and when a fella as handsome as Greg offers to carry an old lady's pack across a rushing cold stream, who he doesn't know from Eve, he is great marrying material!
Did I mention that Greg had an adorable thick Irish accent on top of being kind and handsome?

***Hey Coleen and  Greg, if you read this and you get married....invite me to the wedding OK?***

 Once we got to the other side we told Greg and Coleen good bye and they took off back to the trail head because they were only day hiking.  We on the other hand now had a mountain side to climb that was straight up.

We tried...we really did, but with heavy packs it was too dangerous.

  We walked back over the log that Greg had so kindly carried our packs over and went back down the way we had come. We figured it was 4:00 in the afternoon and we should just go back down the trail to a different campsite that we had seen on the way in.  Yet as we were going  back down to the trail Joleen said, "I think we can just wade across here...." 

 She took off her shoes and rolled up her pants to test the strength of the water.  She walked across in her bare feet and from the other side shouted back, "It isn't too strong!  You can do this!"  So I took off my boots and put on my water shoes.  I inched my way across the current and got to the other side.

This left Bella standing on the opposite bank from us.
I yelled, "COME ON BELLA...COME ON!"  She made a half hearted attempt to follow us but then backed up and sat down.

 SHE.WAS.NOT.COMING.

Joleen put on my water shoes and went back in to get her.  She wadded back over to attach the leash to Bella's collar...then dragged her through the water to the other side where I stood.  One miss step would have sent them both  over the edge and dropped down into the river 20 feet below.

Above is a picture of Bella safely in our tent with her "snuggy" on for the night.

There was no dry wood in the camp, and after several attempts to get a fire going we gave up and went to bed.  Once the sun went down it got really cold.....really cold.  This is when you are glad that you spent a lot of money on a quality down sleeping bag.

 We squished Bella between us and she was toasty.  I fell asleep immediately (which is what I do when I am backpacking) and according to Joleen snored loudly.  She finally stuffed toilet paper in her ears and drifted off to sleep.  She had a nightmare about crossing the stream in the morning.
 When I laid down I realized that if anything bad happened in the camp that night we were screwed.  There would be no getting back over that stream until morning, but I guess this didn't stop me from snoring the night away.

The next morning we were both dreading the ice cold crossing that was waiting for us, and fear raised it's ugly head for us both.  But fear is something that has to be kept in its place or we would never venture out into the woods.

We both laced up our boots, threw on our packs, and walked down to once again face the crossing.  I went over first and then swung my water shoes back over the water to where Joleen and Bella waited.  I waited at the water edge with my bare feet in the water until they were safely beside me.

By that time  I  put my wool hiking socks on my toes were completely numb.  I couldn't feel them!
After about a mile down the trail my toes finally woke up.

 Did I tell you the water was cold????????!

It was Monday morning. We met no one on the trail.  No bikes, no people, no dogs.  Just us.

 When we reached the truck we had left at the trail head there were no other cars.

So...the 2011 backpacking season has begun with frozen toes, a bit of danger, and kind trail people!


IT ROCKS TO BE ME!!!!!!

Count Down To The 2011 Backpacking Season Has Began!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a fat trail dog sitting by my feet as I type this.  Bella and I have both ate on a few pounds  this past winter....but we are excited to get our boots/paws back out on the trail for the 2011 season.

Speaking of boots~  I took back my old Vasque's....sniff.  It was a sad day when I stepped up to the REI return counter and told them that they were not keeping my feet dry.  But then I slammed a different model of brand new Vasque's on the counter  (I will report back at the end of this season if this pair kept my feet any dryer).

I have been wearing this new pair of boots around town this winter trying to break them in before my first real trip out in the woods.  I have been clomping around the grocery store in them setting a new standard for sexy.  I am trying to get some miles in them before they actually hit the trail.

A new MSR Rocket Pocket Stove is also a new item I have added to my gear, along with.....drum roll please:

THIS !    I took my one person Marmot EOS 1P Tent back.  It was a nice tent, but I realized last season  it was only for sleeping in.  When  Ben and I were being sucked dry from mosquitoes at Dead Man lake  we had to spend more time in our tents than usual.  I dawned on me then that for not much more weight I could get a two person Hubba Hubba.  I would have a lot more space to wait out situations like rain or bugs.  When last years model of the Hubba Hubba went on sale I was again at the REI counter with money in my sweaty little hand to throw down for another piece of new gear.

I hope that you are ready to go out with me this year.  This is a personal invitation to buckle on your pack, lace up your boots, and get ready for adventure!

You never know what might happen, or who you will meet out there in the back country with me.

LET'S GO BACKPACKING!!!!!

Encore In Paradise

 "UNBELIEVABLE!! SIMPLY UNBELIEVABLE!": This is what Ben and I kept saying to each other throughout this entire early-fall backpacking trip.


We had been so sure our season was over with autumn fast approaching our part of the world; the leaves changing colors all around us.  The wind has a "Holloweenie" sort of feel to it, so for us to get a few days of clear warm weather in the middle of October to go out on one more hiking trip was....well...."SIMPLY UNBELIEVABLE!"

We started out this trip at the world famous Timberline Lodge parking lot.  The Timberline Lodge is a WPA project, and well worth a trip up to Mt. Hood to tour it.  Four years ago I did this exact hike with several of my family members.  I was the trail boss of that trip out, and I am sad to say I almost killed everyone...including myself on that trip.  I was too inexperienced to take out that many untried backpackers for that many miles.

I have been curious to do the exact same hike now that I have some experience under my boots to see if I would do any better than I did on it four years previous.  Ben and I saw the weather report and saw that this would be our window of opportunity to close out our 2010 backpacking season with this hike.  So buckle on your packs!  Here we go!!

For a lot of years I had some vague idea of what the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail (PCT) was.  This trail runs through the mountains in California where I grew up.  So I had always known that there existed a backpacking trail that connected Mexico with Canada.  It was not until about sixteen years ago that I was on a backpacking trip in Oregon, as a chaperon to a church youth group, that I actually set my boots on the actual trail itself.

It was at that moment all those years ago that I fell in love with the PCT.  The idea that  people walk from Mexico to Canada all on one long, mostly remote trail lit a fire in my silly little heart.

This was w-a-y before I actually took up backpacking as a serious hobby.  The PCT represented something romantic and wild to me.

Always in the back of my mind I planned to hike some of it.  That is why four years ago I wanted so badly to share some of this very trail with members of my family--not knowing that I would be grinding us all down to sore puddles of goo.  So anyway...this was my chance to retrace that ill fated trip and see if, this time, I could do it better.

Ben, Bella and I jumped on the PCT just above the Timberline Lodge.  This is the official PCT marker (below) that you see all the way from boarder to boarder.  We were headed to Paradise Park, which would be our first campsite.

After walking under a Timberline Lodge ski lift, the trail climbs away from civilization and in and out of several steep canyons north on its way to Canada.

                                         There's me (middle-bottom) heading north!..

                                                We were in and out of patches of trees .

 These canyons are beautiful.  They give you great views of the Zig Zag and Sandy Glaciers that cling to the sides of the south face of the great mountain above.

 We made several small stream crossings at the bottom of these canyons.  Bella always stops for a cold glacial drink at these opportunities. Can you see the stream below?

 Below is a picture near the spot that my daughter Joleen, just one week earlier, had came upon a female black bear and her two cubs!!!

 There are few very dangerous river crossings on the Timberline trail/Pacific Crest Trail in this area.  Below is a sign that is posted at several different locations on these trails by the family of Sarah Bishop.  Ben and I always stop and reread these signs, and it reminds us that these water crossings are to be taken very seriously.

 Here I am contemplating my plan of action to make this crossing at the Zig Zag river.  This is extremely cold run-off from the Zig Zag glacier.  I really hate to stop and take off my boots...it's such a hassle, but hiking in wet boots is not a good idea if it can be avoided.

 OK...here I have picked out the best place to cross after looking up and down the bank for some distance.  I have put on my water shoes.  Unhooked my backpack hip belt and chest belt.  This way if I lose my footing on the rocks under the water I won't be drug down-stream by the weight of my pack.

                                                  In I go!  It is cold....but very refreshing!

                                                   Below I am putting my boots back on.

                                    Back on the trail, and another safe water crossing behind me...whew!

 Back into the forest where the afternoon sun dapples the trees with an enchanting light.  The smell of the pines swirl inside my head and carry me forward toward the nights camp.

         Up and out of another canyon before starting a stiff climb up into the immense meadows of Paradise
         Park.

In the summer the meadows here are filled with wildflowers and humming birds zip everywhere....but now it is almost the middle of October.  The fall colors are emerging all around us.

                        Up closer to the South side of Mt. Hood we climb through beautiful meadows.

 In the picture below is a shot of our camp for that night.  This shot is taken from across the stream bed.  There are other camps on the other side of the stream that are right in Paradise Park, but we liked this small camp set off by itself.  We could see that there were two older guys camping over across the stream in one of the other campsites.  Joleen had stayed in the same camp we were just a week earlier.  She had recommended that we stay here because it is more private.  Joleen had also seen a big, fat, black bear here in Paradise Park when she had been there....we were not so lucky...or unlucky, perhaps.  All we saw was two old guys and lots and lots of stars!  There was no moon, and a clear sky--perfect for star gazing.  We slept right below the Milky-Way while the Big Dipper pointed our way to the North while we slept...or tried to sleep...more on that below.

 I had pitched the tent in a hurry not expecting rain....and we didn't get any rain.  But the wind started up right after we crawled into our sleeping bags.  The dirt had been so hard packed that I had not been able to fasten the tent stakes down as tightly as I normally like to...so, yep, the wind came whistling down the mountain at us slamming into the side of our little tent like a Sumo Wrestler most of the night!  Just as I would be dropping off to sleep...BAMB!  I would wake up with a start!  Dropping off to sleep...zzzz....BAMB!  This kept up until daylight.

Then of course the wind stopped and the sun came out.  Another warm clear day...."UNBELIEVABLE!", We said to each other with big autumn jack-o'-lantern grins on our faces.

 Below is what remains of the Paradise Park Shelter.  There are several of these old stone shelters along the Timberline trail.  In some of my other blog entries I have shared the pictures of those shelters.  Unfortunately this shelter is just about all gone these days.  Just a few stones left.

 The next morning we headed west on the PCT where we were able to catch some very up close and personal views of Mt. Hood.  Up here above the timber line it feels like you could just walk on up and touch the top of the Mountain.

                                      Here the Fall colors are taking over the upper meadows.

 Here I am thinking...."Hummm...maybe some day I will go to the top..."

  A few wild flowers are still blooming here.  Such a treat to see them as we pass by, this late in                          
  the season.

 Onward we hike.  Stopping often to just marvel at the views that are spread out above and below us.  We are on the top of the world here....and loving every step we take on this trail.

 Mt. Hood looks purple here.  The words, "....Purple mountains majesty"  from the song "America The Beautiful"  keeps running through my head as I walk on with the peak over my right shoulder.  Perhaps it was this mountain that the author of that song had in mind when he wrote it so many years ago.  North America surely is beautiful in this spot!

 These are my favorite shots from the whole season.  I wish I had a better camera to capture the colors with.  If you click on these pictures they will enlarge for you.

 After leaving Paradise park behind us we steadily descended past a few very dangerous cliffs that had outstanding views...at least that is what Ben told me.  I stayed safely back or just continued on walking by them all.  I do not like high places, and try to avoid them when I can.

I knew that in a few miles were would be coming to the dangerous Sandy River crossing that had taken the life of Sarah Bishop.  I have crossed this river a few times but never this late in the season.  We were not sure what we would find when we got there.  I had been there a few weeks earlier when Jim and I had day hiked up to Ramona Falls.  At that time there had been a makeshift log bridge and I was hoping it would still be there for Ben and I use.

The official PCT guide book says of this crossing: "During flood, the river can be wall-to-wall, up to 100 yard wide, and when it is, it can obliterate the trail.  Generally, however, the river is only a few yards wide, and depending on what a past flood did to the trail, you'll hike down either one side of the river, the other side of it, or perhaps even between two parallel streams."

When we got to the crossing, the logs were gone, but the river was not too crazy wide.  We walked up and down for awhile looking for the safest place to cross.  When we decided what our plan would be I pulled off my boots, put on my water shoes, and off I went.  The current was not nearly as strong as I feared it might be, but just the same, I was glad to be safely on the other side.

Ben wanted me to throw my water shoes back over to him, so he could now use them.   I had a better idea.  I tied them onto Bella's collar and she swam them back over to him!

Just on the other side of the Sandy River crossing here, the PCT winds past several nice campsites.  We had planned to walk on up to Ramona Falls to spend the night, but these sites are more private so we just stayed there instead.

I had always heard that there was a old guard station in this area...but had never found it.  When I went looking for firewood I came upon it.  Below is a picture.

 After a windless, restful, quiet night under the stars we were on our way to Ramona Falls, and our last day of hiking.

 Ramona Falls is always a treat to stand in front of.  The fine mist that sprays off of this beautiful fall of water is always cooling and quite welcome after a full days hiking.

 We took a few quick pictures here before turning our backs and heading down to the Ramona Falls trail head where Jim would be meeting us.

We arrived at just about the same time Jim pulled in to pick us up.  He had yummy turkey sandwiches in the ice chest for us, that we wolfed down while we compared this trip to the trip on the same trail four years earlier.
Back then?...horrible.  This year?...piece of cake!  I think maybe I am now a backpacker.

We left the trail head and drove back up to Timberline Lodge to get Ben's truck where we had left it in the parking lot 2 days before.

While zooming down the highway at 50-miles-an-hour the thick trees that line each side of the road are just a smear of green going by.  All the cars are going so fast!

I am so glad that I get to slow down; to walk among these trees now and then.  There is a mystery in the forest....there is romance, and danger, and wild animals.  There are dangerous river crossings, and beautiful water falls.  There are trails to be hiked, and memories to be made.

 Long live the Pacific Crest Trail!