So hiking in the last week of August should mean skinny dipping in high elevation lakes. The three of us were mentally prepared for that. So when Nova found out that we were going to be getting wet a whole different way, she was not thrilled. This hike found us wet and dirty and very, very sick to our stomachs. I take total responsibility.
Normally, I tend to be pretty vague about what trails I am hiking on and where I am in my stories. I see this as doing my part to not encourage my favorite places to be overrun with humans. But in order to tell you about where I was, I am going to have to share my location with you. In full disclosure, we spent the day in the Indian Heaven Wilderness. This is an area I have been to many times before and there is always so much to explore. The PCT runs through the heart of the wilderness, but there are abundant trails criss-crossing everywhere through here. The Indian Heaven Wilderness is about 20,000 acres of meadows, forests, plateaus and ancient volcanic peaks and fields. I have read that there are about 150 small lakes and ponds scattered throughout the wilderness here. That is precisely why I never come here in spring or really most of the summer. Some people have dubbed this Mosquito Heaven Wilderness, and they would not be wrong. But by Fall, it is a wonderful place to explore.
One of the things I find fascinating here is that this was extremely important land to Native Americans. Half a dozen different tribes would all come and congregate in these meadows to gather berries, hunt, fish and trade with one another. They also had fun....horse racing was a big event. In fact in the southern end of the wilderness there is actually a place called the Indian Racetrack where you can still see the rutted race tracks to this day. The ground throughout Indian Heaven just feels sacred to me. I am not sure if it is my own Native American blood, but the land here feels different under my boots. I can almost hear those ancient voices on the wind and feel their love for the land as I move through the meadows and forests. It is enchanting. I like to imagine old women making baskets, young boys finding trouble, men racing their horses, and young lovers finding one another between tribes. I am sure the tribes looked forward to their months spent in Indian Heaven all year long. I swear there are times when I close my eyes here that I can feel the rough buffalo hide of a teepee, smell smoke from cooking fires and hear the whinny of a horse. If only I could go back in time right now, I thought. Where is my Craigh na Dun rock now I wondered.
Before today, I had mostly stuck to the southern end of the wilderness. But this time, we were going to explore the northern terminus and climb the highest point in the Indian Heaven area. Most of Indian Heaven is around 4500 feet in elevation. Lemei Rock, which is considered a shield volcano, rises to almost 6000 feet. What is extra special about this volcano though is that there is a small crater just below the high cinder cones that hold a lake. How could I not want to hike to a lake held in the bosom of a volcano? Besides the name Lemei in Chinook means old woman. So I was headed to the lake at the Old Woman's bosom! If that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.
As we started to climb steeply through the moss draped forests, we were already finding blueberries to eat. I ate my first one while still in sight of my truck. That should have been my first omen of things to come!
Before long, we were breaking out to our first viewpoint. We couldn't see much through the cloud cover, but I knew Mt. Adams was right behind where Nova stood. Indian Heaven lies at the feet of Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens. Now it had rained all night long and soaked everything thoroughly, which we desperately needed after a very long, dry and hot summer. The nice thing is that the rain really settled the trail dust and cleaned all the plants off for us. It was almost shocking how green that suddenly made everything appear! It hurt our eyes and made us all just stare at the newly refreshed plants! Jesus tells me He will wash me white as snow someday, but clearly today the rain had washed the wilderness as green as can be imagined!
The air was fresh and full of scents of pine needles, moist earth and berries. Everywhere we looked there were blueberries. It was almost obscene. Sadly, I didn't really have any appropriate berry holding vessel with me today other than my stomach. So not one to waste a good berry, I started to fill my vessel. The girls both were doing their best to follow my lead. There were no red Huckleberries anywhere, but there were two very distinct and different Blueberries here. The normal dark blue, almost black, berry that grows on tall leafy plants was most prolific. These are great and taste like you expect a wild blueberry to taste. But, I was thrilled to find my very favorite blueberry variety here as well. These are ones that I normally only find on certain places of Mt. Adams. They come from low growing bushes with pale green leaves and the pale blue berries taste like nothing you can imagine. It is flavor explosion in your mouth. With each berry I ate, I tried to figure out the best way to describe the taste. Of course, I had the whole day to practice my taste testing. I finally decided that these beloved berries taste like a blueberry mixed with a pineapple, with a slight aftertaste of rose. Divine is all I can say. Now, I swore to myself I was not going to show you another picture of berries as I don't want to make anyone feel jealous.....but come on, look at these little beauties!!!!
I ate them by the handful like a mad woman. I ate them one by one, mashing each to the roof of my mouth so the juice could run down my throat and then I would let the skin slip on down to my stomach. I chewed them, I swallowed them, I juiced them. My hands (and surely my mouth) turned blue. I knew I would be defecating blue like a bear for a week after today, but I didn't care. I was in Blueberry Heaven and I couldn't have stopped myself if I wanted to. At least one hike each year, I will eat my weight in berries because I can't stop myself and I don't want to see them go to waste. This was clearly that hike. But pretty soon the acidity and great volume was more than my stomach could bear, and I was so sick, I could barely move. But hike we must as we had a peak to climb today! So we continued up the trail being swallowed by the clouds and mist until we arrived at the first lake of the day.
As we continued along the trail, we started to see Fall colors popping out here and there among the plants and the meadows. It was hard to believe that this would be our last hike of August. "I am not ready for summer to be over!" I wanted to scream through the meadows. But the colder temps today with the rain soaked ground and plants and thick cloud cover, made it feel like Fall for sure. Before long we came to our second lake of the day. Josie and Nova were dreaming in the meadows right along with me.
When it was time to start the climb up to Lemei Rock, we found the trail overgrown with soaking wet brush. The encroaching shrubs and trees were so saturated that as we pushed past them, they almost immediately soaked us to the skin. I was wearing long pants over shorts, but in no time both were soaked, along with my underwear. The water ran down my legs and filled my socks and Gore-tex boots. I could audibly hear the water sloshing between my two thick pairs of hiking socks. "Well, that is comfortable" I said to no one in particular. The only part of me that stayed dry and warm was my upper core because I had made the very wise decision to wear my ThruDark Grunt Gilet. What is a Gilet you ask?? Well to us Americans, that would be a vest. My UK special forces friends have made an incredible down filled vest with reinforced shoulders made for backpacking. The thing is like body armor and without it, I am convinced I would have been quite miserable! Now, it is so thick and puffy, that it makes you look like you just gained 40 pounds, but who cares when it keeps you warm and dry on a day like today I say! We kept climbing despite the water running down my arms and legs and the girls kept shaking to try to dry off. I knew we were climbing into a cloud and would not have any views, but we were going to do it anyway, because that was the goal for the day and I am a stubborn woman if nothing else.
This is the psychological warfare of hiking I say. When you have formed and committed to a goal, it is almost impossible, at least for me, to deviate from that goal, even when reality says I should. Even when safety says I should. I get stubborn and force myself to do what the plan was no matter what. This has at times gotten me in trouble, but at other times it has brought the greatest rewards of all. I won't know which way it will go until I try. So we ignored the shivering setting into our bones and climbed faster. Pretty soon, we could see the ghostly cinder cones peering out at us as we passed them on our way to the summit. Then we were just suddenly there, standing on that sandy volcanic core. Was that a lake peaking out from her bosom?? We all looked hard through the clouds.
I could tell the views from here would normally be spectacular, but I mostly had to use my imagination today. The beauty though was that we had the trail and the peak all to ourselves on this cold and wet day! We decided to set up a little camp and wait to see what the clouds might do. It was the perfect time to break out some hot soup to try to settle our sick, blueberry laden stomachs. I was not hungry at all, but needed something warm in me as the wind picked up off the peak and pulled at my wet clothes. I refused to acknowledge the discomfort and huddled down between some boulders for shelter. I would find something more worthy to dwell on than how cold and clammy the skin on my thighs were.
It wasn't long before I had the perfect distraction. The wind was not just whipping at my wet pants, but also the clouds around us. Suddenly they all lifted with great force, high into the sky, revealing a crystal blue lake in the crater as well as Mt. Adams to our side! It was incredible! I rubbed my eyes as if dreaming.
Time passed us by as we just watched the sky show occurring all around us. Over and over again the lake would be covered by clouds and then they would magically lift up to give us amazing views, before closing back in around us again. Even Nova and Josie could barely take their eyes off the show. This is better than any television show I can assure you of that!
I realized it was now time to break the news to my hiking partners. Since this was our last hike in August, this would be our last hike with Miles the Marmot, our WTA fundraising mascot for the month. He had joined us on every hike this month, and I had to admit, we had grown attached. So we had to take a few moments of silence to mourn the loss of our friend. I knew that he would join us again next year, so found solace in that. Nova could hardly bear the news.
As their final act together....they all looked right at the same time. They even act like true hiking partners I realized with a lump in my throat. Okay, this was killing me dead just a little bit I must admit! Who knew you could love a marmot in a yellow T-shirt so much!
The clouds came back and covered us once more, matching our mood. We packed up and hit the trail, knowing we would need to do some trail running despite the wet, slippery conditions in order to warm up. The great thing about trail running, besides warming you up on what would otherwise be a cold descent, is that you can startle wildlife. Now, all day long, I had been itching to find a bear gorging on blueberries, but on our run, we instead scared a Marten. This was my first time to come face to face with one and I shouted out-loud in excitement! I was trying to get my camera out at the same time as watching the little guy, but he got up a tree before I could get a shot of him. so you will have to take my word for it that he was a gorgeous creature! In case you don't know what a Marten is, they are like a large wild Ferret. This guy seemed huge and his beautiful thick reddish brown fur made me understand why these poor guys have been so mercilessly trapped and hunted for their coats. He had a dark face and quick hands and was holding something large in his mouth. Must be dinner time, I thought. As I saw the final movements of his bushy tail disappear high into the tree top, I turned to ask Josie "Did you see that????!!!" Her face showed me that she had indeed and was wishing she could climb the tree too.
By the time we got to the lake that we had dreamed of skinny dipping in, I looked down and knew that I was so wet already, I could walk fully clothed, with my boots on, across the lake and not get any wetter than I was right in that moment. "I guess we shouldn't go swimming after-all", I told the girls. "But maybe a little wading is okay" we all agreed. How much colder could we get anyway?
As we hiked out with squishing socks inside boots and dripping dirty legs, we enjoyed the fall colors and the views. We found yet another lake and were surprised by how large it was! As much as I hate to admit it, we also ate more blueberries. I clearly have a problem. I don't want to see another blueberry for at least a week though now! The day may not have been perfect and it may not have been what we originally planned, but it was the perfect transitional hike to get us thinking Fall. Backpacking season is almost over. The hot days are almost gone. It seems like we had only just grown use to them and my heart longed for a long Indian summer to continue in the heat before the rainy season commenced. But each thing in its due time and due season. I realized I needed to listen to the "Turn, Turn, Turn" song from the Byrds. "To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven." Such true words.
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