The lesson from this week's hike was all about not judging a book by its cover...with books and with people. But in any good story, we need to start at the beginning. This hike was birthed last week as I sat and watched sunset by Mt. Hood. I had started to think about where the next hike should be. I did not need to think long as the idea instantly came into my mind. I had to go back to one of my favorite places, but this time, I needed to spend the night at the natural amphitheater. This is a gorgeous place that seems to be born from your imagination and surely can't be real. But it is real and I virtually have never found a human there. That is because all the popular trails in this area circumvent the amphitheater. I don't think many people even realize you can get over into it and how magical it is. Of course, the way I do this is a full day worth of hiking through and connecting about 5 trail different systems. It always runs me from 16-20 miles depending on the routes I choose. One of the things I particularly love is that even though I have been here countless times, I am still discovering new trails!
The hike started through a beautiful forest full of fir trees, ferns, wildflowers and the most perfect path you can imagine. The only sounds were the birds singing and the breeze moving through the trees. The scent of pine and fir needles filled my nose along with the most incredible combination of wildflower scents that was like a sweet perfume. I couldn't pick out which flower was so intoxicating, but some combination in those first few miles was particularly alluring. Pretty soon we came to our first and one of only a few watering holes. I regretted having taught Josie the Wolf about climbing up waterfalls. Now she thinks we should always do that and almost pulled me in the water with her.
There is a section on this hike where we have to cross some logging sites. What I do appreciate here however is the evidence that loggers can be creative and fun individuals when left alone in the woods. My own Father in his younger days use to be a logger with his Dad and they also both drove logging trucks. So they knew that world well. But here is what our local loggers do in the forest when bored.....they carve giant mushrooms.
Before long we were back into deep forests again. With connecting multiple trail systems, we get to have a lot of variety on the hike which I love! There is a deep section of forest here where I use to literally feel the cougars watching me. After some of the nearby logging, I don't feel them here as much anymore, but know they moved up a bit in elevation as I still find them on the higher trails. One of my closest, and honestly most dangerous, Cougar incidents ever occurred near here and I was only saved by my Guardian Angel. But that will have to be a story for a day when I am ready to tell you about the angels and dead guys who like to follow me on the trails. I am not sure either of us are ready to talk about them yet!
Once we dropped steeply in elevation, we arrived at my favorite secret waterfall. This is once again a place where I have never found another human. Not ever. I do not understand if it is because people don't know about this waterfall or if it is because it takes 10-12 miles round trip to see it, with some elevation gain and loss. Either way, I don't mind having it to myself every time! The girls of course were happy to pose for you here!
Not far from the secret waterfall, we found a kill site with just some rib bones left. You know Josie the Bone Collector was in her element with a good mouthful of ribs! I will spare you the photos this time! I am surely going to start getting hate mail soon for all the bones she carries in her mouth.
As we started to climb some more we got views of Mt. St. Helens in the distance. She kind of just hits you in the face as you come up through the valleys and onto the ridges beneath her. What a beauty she is! How I wish I had known her more before she blew her top. But I was only 6 years old when she did that and only remember collecting her ash off my Dad's cars in the driveway at our home in the Puget Sound.
The temps today were to be close to 90 degrees and we were starting to feel it for sure. As we left the last waterfall, I knew that would be the end of the water sources for us and the trail would be dry from here on. Since we were planning on spending the night, I had packed 5 liters of water today between Josie and I. We were thankful for the trees shading us from the sun, but soon I knew we were going to break out onto the alpine ridges and our hike would no longer have shade. Josie the Arctic Wolf hates this kind of hiking! I had to remind her several times of the sacrifices Nova and I made for her with all of our snow and winter hiking. I reminded her of all the ways I tried to help her experience her iditarod roots and almost killed myself in the process. So she was going to have to pull up her boot straps and deal with the heat. This was perfect dream hiking for Nova and I!
Once we got onto the exposed ridges, Josie started to go slower and slower. I was feeling like we were never going to get to the amphitheater where I felt called to camp for the night. But then, I have to admit, I was starting to feel tired myself and was wishing we could just throw out the sleeping bag anywhere and call it a day. But I knew that would forever burden me with feelings of failure to not make my goal, so we all kept putting one foot in the front of the other. Just about the time I was reaching true desperation to be done as it was almost 7pm and we were still climbing, I was calculating how much farther we had to go. I figured we needed to drop down about a mile in elevation to another connector trail and then climb again for a mile. I gave myself a pep talk that it was only 2 more miles. But since it was after 7pm and the last time I had eaten was the 2 spoonfuls of peanut butter before leaving the house this morning, I was growing famished and weary. I started to bargain with God. Did He really want me to spend the night in the amphitheater He filled my head with all week? Couldn't we camp here? Almost as soon as I said that to Him, I saw something in the bushes I had never ever seen before despite all the times I have walked right on this very path in all seasons! It was a faint trail that caught my eye. I stared at it thinking it couldn't really be a trail. This could not be this easy I thought. But somehow I knew this was my path. It was made for me in this moment and I took it somehow just knowing deep inside that it would take me right to my goal. In less than a half mile I was standing on the top of the amphitheater! Oh such blessings!
Now we just had to decide where to set up camp. There were so many choices that it seemed overwhelming! We could go down into the amphitheater and be sheltered from the wind, but when we started to do that the bugs completely molested us. I realized that I had forgotten my summer bug head net. When you sleep without a tent during June and July you will be eaten alive by mosquitos, gnats and black flies if you don't cover your exposed skin with netting. So I knew we needed to be up higher on the upper walls of the ridge-line here so we could take advantage of the wind to blow the bugs off us. Then I needed to decide which direction I wanted to lay my bag out to see both sunset and sunrise as well as all the mountains surrounding us. Oh the burden of so many choices I laughed! I finally decided on an exposed flat area with my feet aiming toward Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens a tad to my left and Mt. Hood slightly behind me. Normally from here you can also see Mt. Rainier, but she was hiding in some clouds. The girls laid down as soon as I unrolled my bag.
I was breaking in some new gear today that I was very excited about. Nothing gets me going like new gear on the trail! So I had traded out my normal ground cloth for a bivvy bag. This is essentially a waterproof bag made out of ground cloth material that encompasses your sleeping bag. You can also put your sleeping pad right inside it with your sleeping bag. It is genius! It weighs about the same as my ground cloth, but by being an enclosed bag, it keeps my sleeping bag and sleeping pad together so I am not always sliding off the pad! It also really protects my down sleeping bag from the normal overnight condensation. Finally, I found that it kept me so much warmer! I don't know how I ever lived without a bivvy bag before!! It might be my greatest find of the year! No more ground cloth for me! The girls were exhausted and after eating their dinners were ready for bed!
In the time I had before the sun was to set, I was also excited to be starting a new book. This one was all about Harry Truman who was the man who loved and died on Mt. St. Helens. I had always thought of him as this old angry, stubborn curmudgeon that he was remembered as. So I didn't know what to expect when I read this book written by his own Niece. What I discovered was how wrong I had been about the man! He was a wonderful guy who loved the outdoors and animals more than humans. He was a salt of the earth man who had signed up to serve in WWI surviving the ship he was on being sunk by a torpedo. He believed in breaking rules he saw as stupid, like prohibition and poaching when his family was hungry. He did things his way and I learned through the pages of that book that I would have gotten along very well with the man. He had a terrific sense of humor and he loved his dog, Boy, who went everywhere with him. He fought with a huge bear at the lodge in hand to hand combat finally having to run in his boxer shorts all over in the dark of night while the beast chased him. He owned and adored up to 16 cats at one time and spent a lot of time talking to them. When his beloved wife, Eddie passed away before him, it almost killed him. I think this is a big part of why he chose to not leave the land and lodge he loved so much on that fateful day in May. I have a whole new respect for Truman and this was my first lesson in never judging a book by its cover. I was sorely misinformed about this wonderful man! It was surreal and so special to read this book about his life while staring at the very mountain he loved in front of me. I will never forget that!
Pretty soon sunset was upon us. The sky to my west became my newest obsession and I could not take my eyes off her! The sun seemed to slowly be sucked down below the horizon and it made me think of the song, Slip, Sliding Away by Paul Simon. The clouds all started to turn shades of pink and the ridges, peaks and mountains around me were turning shades of purples and blues. There is just something about watching the sun set that moves my very soul. It doesn't matter how many times I watch it, it stirs me like nothing else. What a gift from God sunsets are. Please enjoy this one with me.
The night was wonderful. With the new bivvy bag I was probably warmer than I had ever been overnight on the trail. The winds did keep the bugs away until the early morning hours when the right side of my face and scalp became a great playground for the mosquitos. I didn't know what was happening however, until it was too late and I woke up looking like half a smallpox victim. There were a few times in the middle of the night when the wolf jumped to her feet clearly hearing or seeing something. But Nova and I stayed hunkered down in our bag and didn't worry since we knew Josie was on guard. She does take her job of protecting us very seriously.
Before we knew it, morning seemed to be upon us. Just like sunsets, I adore sunrise. It is hard to pick which is my favorite. The end of the day brings great satisfaction and contentment, while the start of the day brings great hope and joy. The air was crisp and clean as I started to pack up the gear. Today was a day when I had to get to the office where I work. There was a meeting I had to be at at Noon today and here I was starting my day on a glorious peak. I figured if I left soon, I could run out on another trail system just about 7 miles to get to my truck where I could drive home fast, take a quick shower and be at work like nothing happened. The only problem was this would mean crossing through snow and doing more bouldering than the trail in. I knew this would slow us down, but I also knew it would bring the wolf great joy to see snow again. So that was the plan. I had the backpack loaded up before 5am.
As the phrase goes....the best laid plans. Before I could hit the trail, the sunrise sucked me in with gentle whispers and kisses. I could not leave her yet. So we took some time to enjoy the moment knowing we would need to run faster when we left. Please enjoy these moments with me reliving sunrise.
When it was finally time to sling the back pack onto my shoulders and put the girls packs back on them to head out, I realized that our path headed right off into the sunrise. What could be better than this moment I thought?
I tried not to cry as we left this beautiful place. It seemed as if I might actually have tearducts afterall! But once we started running, our new focus was the challenge ahead. Could we make it in time? Time was surely against us, but we were going to do our best. It was about 6am when we finally left camp. The moment we hit the snow though, I knew we were in trouble. Josie started to pounce, dig, eat and roll in it. There would be no moving her along quickly in the white stuff. Luckily I had packed some micro spikes. I felt silly doing it on a 90 degree day, but found the early morning snow pretty slick and was thankful to have the spikes on my boots. We dropped elevation as quickly as we could while trying not to snap an ankle in the snow or on the boulders. I waved at the wildflowers during the quick descent. Pretty soon, I realized that we were making great time and we were back at the truck before 8am. What a morning this is turning out to be I thought. But then, we were about to learn another lesson.
As I was flying down the single track gravel road with washboarded surface and sheer cliff side drop offs, I saw a large white pick up truck with flashing lights coming toward me. It was an "Oversized Load" pilot truck. Curse words went through my head as I scanned the skinny gravel track for a slightly wider spot to pull over. I found one and got over as far as I dared go without rolling off the cliff to my right. I rolled my driver side window down and as the large bearded man looked down at me from his open window, I asked if this was enough space. He looked at me very gravely and sternly shook his head in the negative. "No way" he finally said to me. Feeling slightly desperate, but trying not to show it, I asked "What do you want me to do?" I was feeling rather stuck. The tough grizzly man then tells me that if I am really fast I can rush toward the oncoming semi with the huge oversized load and try to make it to a wider spot down the road and around a couple corners before he does. I just might make it he told me, but the semi is moving fast.
"I'll give it a go!!" I yelled out my window and I floored my truck's accelerator. Just then I realized I saw total shock and awe in the man's face and I think he was trying to say something else. I realized he didn't expect me to do that and was probably baiting me for some sort of twisted fun or sport. It is funny how time stands still when you have adrenaline hit you. I had a lot of time to think as that time stopped but my truck kept moving. I realized that I was playing chicken with an overloaded semi on a gravel road only wide enough for one. There was a huge cliff on my side and blind corners all the way. I realized that if we hit head on, I was going to be the one to die. I realized that the man in the pilot truck had judged this book by its cover and thought a little woman on a road like this at 8:15am on a Thursday morning would not take the bait. He clearly did not see that my truck was loaded with dogs and backpacks and my face was covered in mosquito bites and that I was trying to make a meeting after almost 20 miles of hiking and climbing. He surely did not know that I have balls bigger than brains and can't ever let a challenge go. All of these thoughts hit me as I was barrelling down and around those corners.
As I rounded one more corner, I saw a wide spot along the cliff's edge and dove into it slamming on my brakes and hoping to not skid right off. I barely got to a stop as the semi came around the same corner in a huge plume of dust. The guy was flying toward me at an ungodly speed and had the biggest load on him I could imagine. We both had our mouths wide open as he barely squeeked past me in the nick of time. I think I saw him salute me.
"Well if that isn't a hell of a way to start the day" I said to the girls in the back seat who had no idea of the close call we just had. So in the last 24 hours, I had learned to not listen to rumors about the man everyone just called Truman without doing my own research, and I hoped the pilot truck driver learned to not make judgements about little women in army green trucks on tough back roads in the morning hours. Apparently I will indeed play chicken with a semi. Just one more thing I have learned about myself while hiking. But, I will tell you, I made it to my meeting in plenty of time!
Here are a few more pics of some beautiful trails, flowers and girls enjoying themselves!
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