So I accepted the fact that I was going to be climbing an angry mountain, I just didn't know that I was going to be summiting in a storm in the middle of August. But beauty often requires misery and sacrifice first. So we were going to be miserable and accept it!
I had decided that I wanted to get into some spectacular country in the Goat Rock Wilderness area. Since this would be my first hike since my Dad's death, and I knew how much he had loved this area as well, it was where I wanted to be. In fact my Mom had given me some of my Dad's old hiking books and he had this area marked in one of them. What better way to feel close to my Dad than to hike a place he loved. I had been up in that area before near Goat Lake, the Knife's Edge, Snowgrass Flats and Lily Basin. It is truly a place like no other. In fact the PCT runs through here and many thru hikers completing over 2600 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail say that this particular section is the most beautiful of the entire trail system! The problem with this is that it has, of course, made the area very, very popular. The parking lots are jammed, the trails have people everywhere and campsites are tough to find. When I was here before, it was just Nova and I. Now that the Wolf was in our hiking group, I knew it would be misery to subject ourselves to over crowded trails.....especially if other hikers had dogs with them. I don't know exactly when or why Josie decided it was her job to protect Nova and I from all other dogs on the trail, but I don't enjoy encountering other canine friends trail-side.
So this time I did what I always do. I searched for a backdoor way to get up into this gorgeous country. It didn't take me long to find one. I read about a mountain, ironically called, Angry Mountain. Everything I read said I would most likely not encounter a single human on the trail as it was such a grueling climb gaining over 3500 feet in 44 switchbacks. I don't know who counted those switchbacks, but it honestly felt like a lot more than 44! I am not going to lie, this trail was a real ball-buster. Not only was it steep with no real water sources, but there were a fair number of downed trees blocking the path. Many were huge and difficult to climb over. They were often too close to the ground to go under and they didn't have any branches on them to climb up over the beasts. So I was consistently battling throwing ourselves up and over them, gripping their giant diameter with my thighs and arms in a giant hug while trying to sling myself upwards and over them. I knew I was getting slivers in my upper thighs that might last years since I was wearing only nylon runners shorts. Another time, 2 trees fell across the trail on a steep incline, one on top of the another. There was only about a foot and a half from the bottom log to the ground, another foot and a half between the two and the top one was way too tall to get over. The only way to do it was to take my pack off and pass it between the logs, then lay sideways between them squeezing through the shoot. The same had to be done with the girls who were tied to me. These sorts of obstacles start to take a lot out of you on what should be a simple hike. Of course gravity and a heavy overnight pack worked against us when doing an ascent over these logs. I knew the way back down would be easier at least. The girls were still all smiles on the way up though! Little did we know what was coming.
We climbed and climbed and climbed some more. It just seemed to never end. The trail however was at least deserted and we enjoyed the serenity of the day as we were sweating out our exertion. We started to find ripe blueberries and were eating them by the handful. Now, the Wolf has learned to gently pick these herself from the bushes, but Nova always waits for me to pick them for her. They both love berries as much as their Mama does!! As we gained in elevation, we started to notice that we were climbing up into a cloud. It was really socking in all around us.
The problem with being inside a cloud was that it started to just weep on us. What started as a gentle mist that I didn't mind at all on my hot and sweat soaked skin, quickly turned into a soaking like you could not imagine. The mist permeated every pore and every fiber of our being. Our packs became soaked, our clothes were plastered to our skin. Even my underwear were soaking wet before long. I could feel and hear the squishing water inside my two pair of socks in my boots. Since all the plants became coated in water, they saturated us even more as we brushed through the overgrown trail. The face of misery was soon upon us all as it then felt like the temperatures had plummeting 40 degrees!
The views started to come and go as the wind whipped up moving the clouds all around us. It was spectacular to watch, but I honestly felt like my eyeballs had frozen at this point and couldn't truly appreciate what I was seeing. I strongly considered turning around and making a run for our truck. We could do this 25 mile hike as a day hike if we had to. It seemed like a better idea than to hold up all night in a rain storm while already soaked to the skin. But I knew the descent would be steep and now that it was so wet, it would be more dangerous. I couldn't bring myself to want to climb over all those trees again with a flashlight as it was well after 6pm now. I told myself that surely the rain would stop soon! Besides I am not the sort of person who will fold the hand that I've been dealt. My hand might currently be nothing but clubs and spades, but I was going to see it through. Maybe tomorrow I would get hearts and diamonds!
After convincing myself to not quit and run for the truck, I spent another mile of trail just trying to search out possible places to spend the night that would give shelter. How I longed for a lookout tower or hidden hiker's shelter or cave at this point! I started to look at tree wells or between boulders where we might be able to cover ourselves with branches and build our own shelter. But we were high enough now that we had crested the summit and were doing a ridge walk among alpine trees, that options were very limited. There were not even many branches that we could use for a shelter. It was very discouraging, but I felt that we should just continue on until the right place called to us. Uncomfortable does not describe hiking while soaked to the skin with night descending on us. We needed to get our wet, cold clothes off soon. Nova was visibly shivering anytime we stopped moving. I felt the same, but tried to ignore it. I started to fantasize about finding other hikers who had a fire going despite strong burn bans during fire season. But a fire was the only way I could dry our gear out. That being said, I would rather freeze to death than start a fire myself and risk a forest fire. So that was not an option. But fantasize I did!! "Girls," I said out-loud, "we are really going to be roughing it tonight."
Once we finished the Angry Mountain trail, we turned north on the Lily Basin trail praying to find a great campsite. But the trail was skinny cutting across a steep ravine, giving no hope for a place to lay down unless directly on the slender boot path itself. Suddenly, with no warning, a beautiful campsite just presented itself on our left as we moved along, like a gift thrown out of the window of a passing car. There were no good places to camp, and then suddenly there it was. I was so surprised and thankful all at the same time! I didn't even question it, but knew this was the end of the road for us. The rain stopped, giving us time to set up camp without getting soaked.
Since it is the Washington Trails Association fundraiser month, we didn't forget to bring their Mascot, Miles the Marmot with us. We did tell him he could pick the next hike from the book we brought with us. We hoped that since Marmots don't like to be wet either, he would do a good job!
Luckily I had brought a good sized ground cloth with us that we could use as a shelter if the rain came back overnight and we needed it. I snugged up to a log that would give a bit of shelter along our side with a ragged tree above us. We started to strip off all our wet clothes and piled clothes, packs, harnesses and such on boulders to try to drip dry in the mist. Our things instantly soaked the boulders anew. I squeezed out my socks watching the water pouring to the ground as I did. Nova and I hopped nakey inside our sleeping bag and bivvy sack praying to warm up quickly if we could just keep the down bag from getting soaked. Josie curled up on her sleeping bag next to us.
We did eat a quick meal, but sadly didn't have anything warm with us tonight. Oh, how a thermos of hot cocoa would have been perfect right then! It became dark quickly and we slept fitfully as the rain occasionally pounded us and then alternated to fierce winds whipping at us. At times I thought we would all blow off the cliff we were camped on and that surely our bivvy bag was going to tear apart at its seams. I thankfully had brought two of my rechargeable warmers with me and had one at my bare feet and tucked the other between Nova's body and mine. A few times in the deep of the night I awoke and peeled back the wet layers above my face to see the sky. I found holes in the clouds just above us showing off the most amazing night sky! It seemed as if there were more stars than ever before in those gaps as the clouds moved in and around us. I will surely never forget the shooting stars on this night with their super long tails and undeniable timing in answering my questions and prayers. It was unreal.
The gamble I made was that if I could suffer through the wet and cold, if I could survive the night, then I would most likely be rewarded with great views in the morning. Our misery of the night would surely bring joy in the morning. So I imagine you are wondering if that gamble paid off and if I was right. Well, here was the very first thing I saw when I opened my eyes in the wee hours of dawn.
Doesn't everyone want to wake up to a hungry and thirsty Wolf staring down at them? I pushed her away with a laugh and told her to wait a little longer, when I then saw what was revealed behind her. The breath caught in my throat.
I had no idea while hiking in inside a cloud and sleeping where we did that Mt. Rainier was so close to us. The clouds had all dropped down into an inversion layer and the wind whipped at it, making the layer move like in a dance to its own music. It was gorgeous and I just lay in my sleeping bag immobilized while watching it. Part of that was of course me procrastinating the idea of putting on soaking wet socks and boots, but part so I could continue to watch the show. At times the clouds reached upwards as if it had tentacles reaching for someone or something. I was mesmerized! Please don't come toward me I thought!
This log and I had become close during the night. Maybe too close. Not only did it keep us from rolling off a steep cliff into oblivion, but it sheltered my body from some of the wind. I snuggled and spooned between the log and Nova all night with Josie just behind. I found myself feeling rather sentimental about this log now that we had spent the night together. So of course I invited him to watch sunrise with the girls and I.
I finally drug myself out of my sleeping bag and started to get dressed and pack up. The girls had a quick breakfast as I gobbled down everything I could find in my food kit. I was strangely famished!! Normally I won't have an appetite for hours or even over a dozen miles of hiking out, but the wet and the cold must have really changed that! I would have eaten about anything just then!
I had my entire kit packed up and ready to go, but still had not put on my socks or boots. I was dreading it like a line to the gallows. In fact you can see the wet socks laying on my log behind Josie, boldly staring at me with the challenge I did not want to accept. "Blast you socks!!" I told them.
Yes, I was standing on the cold wet sand barefoot for as long as I could. After the rains of last night, I wrung the socks out again, still getting water from them. My boots were beyond hope they were so saturated. The chill in the morning made both the socks and boots almost feel frozen, just like my bare feet were becoming. When I could put it off no further, I quickly put them all on my feet. The pain was overwhelming. I have never had such cold feet in my life! Even on all my snow hiking trips, they had stayed warmer than this! It was unbearable and I found the pain instantly made me overcome with waves of nausea. I had to sit on my log with my hands clenched into fists, my eyes squeezed closed and my mouth tightly clamped to not vomit the breakfast I had just eaten. The misery took my breath away and I longed to get to my truck so I could take the socks off and turn my heater on full blast! But we had a solid 12.5 miles to hike out in those wet socks and boots. Then it dawned on me that we not only had all those miles to hike on a steep descent, but that we had to do the ridge walk first. This ridge trail was barely one boot-width wide with vertigo inducing drop offs on both sides. It was challenging to come across last night, but now with frozen feet that I could no longer feel, it would be down right dangerous. I tried to jump up and down to get some blood pumping. Eventually, we could delay no longer and started to head south on the trail. Thankfully it wasn't long until we had moved beyond the tall cliffs that had been blocking the rising sun from us. Even the early morning rays touching our skin helped us to feel warmer. Looking southeast, we could see Mt. Adams peaking at us to say Good Morning!
Once that sun was caressing us, we couldn't move another step. We stayed to enjoy the views and soak it all in, while trying to warm our tired and cold bones. I forgot all about my painful feet, or they were so frozen I could no longer feel the pain. I am unsure which
and don't quite care as the vistas on all sides of us were awe inspiring! Josie was clearly feeling better herself as she showed me how she could swallow both Mt. Rainier and her Sissy at the same time.
The final thing we had to figure out before we fully descended that brutal trail with its 44+ switchbacks was who would get the privilege of carrying Miles the Marmot to the truck. We drew straws and of course the beautiful Princess Nova won! Way to go Nova and Miles!! Look how proud she is!! I made sure to pick extra blueberries on the way down for the rodent.
If you are wondering if this 25 mile hike was worth the misery we went through, the answer is absolutely! The prayers that were answered by those shooting stars and the views in the morning surely made it all worthwhile! Proving once again that sometimes we have to be willing to suffer for the outcome we want. The best things in life are rarely easy.
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