This week's hike comes with a story of falling off a cliff, being cased all night by a pack of tough and territorial coyotes and having elk sing us a good morning serenade. I say you can't get much better than that! But I could have done without the mosquitos.....and maybe falling off the cliff. But let me start at the beginning, as any good story should.
So I have spent a lot of time on all the local volcanoes in SW Washington and NW Oregon, that is except for one. Mt. Rainier is one that I rarely can spend time with. Unfortunately it is shut down like Fort Knox when it comes to hiking with dogs. The entire park surrounding the mountain does not allow canine companions and they are serious. They even have little toll booths that will turn you away if you try to bring a dog. My girls are not exactly easy to hide, so that means most of these trails are off limits to us. I won't go without my hiking partners! But I had read about a peak at a tic under 7000 feet of elevation on the East side of Rainier that did allow dogs. It used to have a fire lookout tower on it, which told me it would have 360 degree views! I had read that people rate the views here as a 10 out of 10 and that despite this, they rate the number of other hikers as a 2 out of 10. Sounds like perfection I thought! So I decided it would be worth the 3.5 hours of driving each way to get there.
The climb is steep to get to almost 7000 feet of course with lots of lazy switchbacks. But it wasn't long before we could see the mountain peaking out at us. Since this area had experienced a forest fire several years ago, it was full of wildflowers and meadows and the views were outstanding! The ghost trees left standing were sentinels keeping watch over the area. As we crested one particular ridge-line, Josie immediately spotted a heart shaped snow field that was actually below the Pacific Crest Trail on the other side of the bowl we were looking into. She desperately wanted to climb down to it, but that was not our plan, so I had to break her heart and tell her not today.
As we were tackling a long slow switchback climb up another ridge, Josie kept acting like she was hearing something above us. She would stop and stare, giving me signals that something was there. It felt like bear country and I kept thinking that must be what she was sensing. But before long, we heard 2 male voices along with a lot of noise on the dusty and steep trail. It was then that I caught a glimpse of what was headed our way and looked around in desperation for a way to get as far off the trail as I possibly could. The 2 men were on horseback with a 3rd heavily loaded pack animal in their train. They were moving fast downhill toward us. This would be Josie's very first time to ever encounter a horse. Since she wants to chase elk, bear, cougars, alpine cows, chipmunks, essentially any animal she finds, I knew I needed to get her away from the equines so she wouldn't scare them. If there is one thing I have learned about hiking with a wolf, it is that every other animal on the trail instinctively knows what she is and they are immediately fearful of her. So we backed off the end of one switchback as far as we could along the edge of the cliff. We were probably 30 feet away, which I thought was pretty amazing for a trail system that doesn't give a lot of room trail-side due to all the cliffs, ridges and peaks in the area.
But then something completely unexpected happened. Josie did not want to chase the horses at all. In fact, she had a complete and utter panic attack as soon as she was really able to take in what she was seeing. It was a panic attack like she has never had. She flipped and jumped and dumped her backpack. (Her pack is connected to her harness underneath with carabiner, so then she was dragging her pack, causing further panic). At this point she decided to flee and the only direction she could go to get away from the equines of terror was straight off the cliff's edge. Of course she was still attached to me in front and Nova was attached behind me. So we all went off the cliff. I immediately knew that if I went head over feet, I would probably break my neck and several other bones in the process. So I threw my weight backwards to try to slide on my backpack. This worked well, until the back of my right thigh hit boulders as we slid faster and faster. But I was barely aware of any pain at all going down as in that moment I was 100% sure I was going to lose my wolf and never see her again. I fought hard to catch up to her so I could grab onto her and stop her flight. It felt like forever, but was probably a minute before I had my arms around her. I heard commotion now up the trail where we had been and I looked up in time to see the middle pack horse rearing up, the first horse with rider turned backwards and the third horse with rider either kicking or dancing a gig, all while on the sharp corner of the cliff-side switchback. "Great", I thought, "I am about to watch all these horses fall and probably kill their riders and break their own legs." Apparently seeing a wolf, woman and dog in a tutu dive off a cliff in front of them was enough to cause a panic attack in the horses. So we were all having a good time!
My attention was brought back to Josie and I had to work to calm the beast. Eventually she let me get her backpack back on her and we were able to ascend the cliff back to the trail clawing our way up in the dirt and rocks. When we got back to the trail, the horses were long gone. Apparently the riders got control and left quickly before anything else could go wrong. I wondered if I should yell down the trail to ask if they were okay, but figured that might spook the horses more, so left it alone. I checked Nova and she was fine. I have no idea if she fell down the cliff behind me or stayed on her feet for the ride, but I was thankful I couldn't find any injuries on her. Josie was also injury free, but still breathing hard and looking all around us as if we were under attack. I was breathing hard and becoming aware of the pain on the back of my right thigh. I couldn't really see what was happening back there, so used my camera to take a quick selfie to diagnose my situation.
"Tis but a flesh wound" I told the girls. But it was bruising fast and starting to bleed down my leg. As we continued our climb my salty sweat pouring down my thigh over the fresh cuts and mixing with the blood did not exactly feel great. For the next half mile or so until I could grow accustomed to the stinging rawness of my leg, I tried out a great variety of rhyming curse words to distract myself. It worked quite well and was very entertaining. I knew I should stop to clean the wounds. After all, I always carry a very robust first aid kit. But this entire climb was a dry one.....meaning no water at all. We had carried in everything we would need for the three of us on a 2-day trip in 95 degree exposed temperatures. I was not about to waste any of that precious water on cleaning my leg. So I decided to ignore it. At least I knew I had pants with me so I wouldn't get blood inside my down sleeping bag. As we continued our climb however, my mind kept replaying what had happened. I realized that Josie must have thought these men had turned into giant beasts like the Greek mythical Centaurs who were half man and half horse. She is already very afraid of humans (especially men), but humans like that she could not comprehend, and it literally blew her mind. I couldn't stop my mind from thinking about all the other ways that could have gone wrong and I knew our fall was lucky. I think I can speak for all three of us when I say we never want to see another horse on trail again as long as we live! By the time the adrenaline wore off, I felt like a wilted flower on the trail. But onward and upward we pushed. Luckily the trail was so beautiful that it distracted our minds from what could have been. It literally felt like the hills were alive with the sound of music as we crested the final peak to the old lookout tower location.
The views were absolutely a 10 out of 10! We could see Rainier right in front of us of course, but there was also Mt. Adams and the Goat Rocks to our south. Then to our north, we could see the Olympics. Everywhere we looked there were peaks and valleys, basins and ridges. Shadows played off the hard edges creating a vision that looked like it couldn't possibly be real. It was as if we had stepped into someone's imagination. Someone had taken the time to move rocks in a circle on the summit to create a windbreak and the perfect bivouac site. We couldn't wait to set up camp!
Before we even had camp set up however, the mosquitos found is in giant droves! It was odd to have bugs at almost 7000 feet of elevation. Usually you get the bugs below treeline and then they are gone at summits. But not today, and once again they were ginormous! I don't think I have ever seen such large mosquitos. I quickly got my head net out and put on all my clothes to cover every inch of skin. It was still too hot to really do this comfortably, but I did not need any more bites! Nova hates them too and she wanted her extra layers on as well. Josie the wolf is rarely bothered by mosquitos, but this time even she was pawing at her face and biting in the air at her assailants. You can even see some of them swarming her head in this photo where she is looking less than pleased!
We ate and drank quickly and then laid out on our beds to read or nap until sunset. Every little bit though, I had to put the book down to just enjoy the views all around us. I could not decide which direction was more beautiful. But as the sun started to set in the sky, I was mesmerized by the west. As the giant orb ever so slowly descended toward the horizon, I was overtaken with feelings of the end. The end of the day, the end of the hike, the end of the challenges we would face this day. I love how when each day ends, we can let go of everything that is on our minds and just let it all fade into oblivion with the setting sun.
Unfortunately, our challenges this day did not end when the sun set. As it became dark, Josie became very anxious. She kept jumping up and giving me signals that something was with us. I knew it wasn't human because it is only then that she growls and does a low woof. This was clearly an animal that she was sensing. I told her that it was probably mountain goats walking around our summit and to go to bed. But she would not. So I tried to tell her it was just all the tiny chipmunks eyeing the food bowls with left over dog food, but she would not lie down. Clearly the ghost trees were not the only things acting as sentinels tonight! Sadly, this led to a sleepless night for all of us. At times even Nova would insist on getting out of the bag and sitting up next to me on high alert. I sat up a few times myself when they were extra insistent, but never could hear or see anything. There were times in the middle of the night when I had finally fallen asleep only to have Josie pounce on me to wake me up pawing at the sleeping bag in her insistence that there was danger. I had not seen her like this since we slept through that forest fire on Tatoosh peak and she was sure we were going to burn to death. But unlike that night, I could not figure out what her problem was, at least not until morning. As the sky began to lighten in the east, she was still on guard at the end of my sleeping bag.
We watched sunrise for a bit as I fed the girl's breakfast and started to pack up camp. I laughed when I found their dog bowls had been cleaned out of any left over food, but each bowl had two tiny little chipmunk turds in them in trade. "See Josie" I tried to tell her, "you had a sleepless night over some tiny rodents!" But I could tell that was not what was bothering her.
We were packed up and hitting the trail in the 5:00 o'clock hour of dawn. I love hiking early! The light changes every few moments at this hour! But as we left our home for the night and circled around the edge of the peak we had been on, something darted right in front of us. He had been watching us from a very, very close distance. In fact he had been watching us from the tiny stand of alpine trees we used as our latrine last night and this morning. He was a good sized coyote and he was not afraid of us in any way. In fact, unlike every other coyote I have ever run into on the trail, he only moved a short distance from us and then stood his ground. He gave us a long hard stare and then started to scratch his back legs angrily in front of us. Then he added in scratching his front legs against the ground tearing up grass as he did so with great showmanship. This was clearly dominant behavior. We were in his territory and he had no problem telling us! But what he did next, put goosebumps on all my flesh. Our new friend threw his head back and started to convulse it back and forth. I thought he was going to start howling, but after a moment of silence he instead started to bark a high pitched and angry sound. The moment he did that, another coyote's head popped up right behind him out of the long grass...and then a third. We all could clearly sense there were more, but they did not show themselves to us. It was such a surreal moment and I realized that these coyotes are not use to humans and don't know to be afraid of us. I had a moment where I wondered if we would be in trouble, but knew I had my gun with me if it really turned south on us. "Bloody Hell Josie" I said, "this is what you were protecting us from all night long. They were watching us weren't they?" She gave me her knowing smile and kept her eyes right on them. "Thanks Josie" I whispered.
Despite the surprise of the coyote pack, we were reluctant to leave. The trail and views were so astounding in the early morning dawn that I wondered how one can really tear themselves away from such beauty. I was really going to have to work at putting one boot in front of the other to drag myself off this peak. We hadn't moved a half mile before we started to hear a strange sound though. We all stopped to listen closer. At first I thought it was the coyotes howling, but realized that was not right. Then I thought it sounded like a small child screaming, which certainly could not be right in the middle of nowhere on a steep and rocky mountain trail. The sound repeated over and over again. I remembered when hiking near here the evening before, it had strongly smelled of elk. I found that funny because I realized that I have spent so much time outdoors that I can smell animals and know what they are without even seeing them. The sound we were hearing was a herd of elk bugling at each other. They were clearly talking to one another and answering each call. It reminded me of the sound of whales communicating to one another and I found it ever so lovely in the early morning hours to be serenaded like this. We stopped and watched closely at the cliff beneath us until we could catch sight of a couple of the beauties. Look closely here to see if you can spot them!
As we left we came to a viewpoint where we could look back on the peak we had spent the night on. We stopped to enjoy the view and say our final goodbyes when I realized I was seeing a bunch of quick movement around the peak. The entire pack of coyotes was now circling our bivouac site and taking back their mountain. "Hopefully they will find the left over dog food I left out for the chipmunks" I thought. Perhaps they would see that as a peace offering!
There was one section of trail I was not looking forward to re-hiking on our way out. It was an incredibly narrow section on the edge of the cliff side walk where at times the path was literally only wide enough for one boot width (and I have small feet!) We had to keep moving to maintain balance and all go together. (I could not take pictures in these skinny sections as I needed my hands free in case we took a fall, but here were some near there). Both times we crossed the terrible section, it made me gasp out loud. Nothing like an adrenaline rush at 5am I say! Nova was trying to figure out why I was making her go first!
"I trust you more than the wolf Nova." I told her. "I need you to lead us because you are perfect!" But then that is how I feel about Jesus too. Luckily He is always leading me in this life and it has made all the difference! He also always stands as my sentinel throughout the long, dark days and nights of this life, protecting me from any enemy, perceived or not.
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