Like the song, she was like a girl on fire! Josie stood among the Fall colors that were so bright and vivid as if to appear on fire. I stood with such painful frost bite in my fingers, they felt on fire. We were the perfect match on the mountain today. Fire without and fire within.
We truly were privileged and blessed to be on the mountain for his very first snows of the season! In fact, as I was gearing up at the trailhead, the very first flakes started to fall. It felt bitter cold after stepping outside my warm truck, but as I layered up, I grew accustomed to it. I also knew we would be moving fast and climbing in and out of ravines, so that would keep us warm....except for the river fords of course.....but I could worry about those later.
There were humans around the Lodge at the trailhead, but then absolutely no one braving the trail. It couldn't have been more perfect. This is a trail I try to do once a year, but I think this is the latest I have ever done it and would be my last chance before deeper snows hit. The snow started out gentle, just barely starting to stick to the cold ground. But then within a mile or two, it was really hammering down, creating our own private winter wonderland of beauty!
Fog and clouds were moving in and out among us all day long. The Fall colors were still popping despite the snows. Before long, there was enough snow on the ground in some places to elicit a very satisfying crunch under my boots. Sadly I realized that I was mentally not switched on to winter hiking yet. I had not brought my gaiters with me for my legs, or my face balaclava, or my boot spikes, or my pocket warmers. I don't know what I was thinking. But I did have TWO pairs of waterproof gloves because I have been so tired of the frostbite in my fingers on almost every hike lately. The problem is that despite saying they are waterproof, or snow proof or whatever, I have yet to find gloves that don't get soaked down to my skin after a few miles when in really wet weather. It is frustrated beyond belief. I was determined to have warm fingers if nothing else today.
When we arrived to one of my favorite viewpoints looking down into the deep ravine we would be climbing down into and then out of on the other side, I was disappointed that we couldn't stay long to enjoy it. The wind, which is always harsh right here, was whipping ice balls into my face so badly that I felt as if my eyeballs were lacerating. It was terribly uncomfortable and sent us running down into the ravine sooner than expected. This is normally the first real spot to view the peak of the mountain. But we could not see each other. I wondered if his eyeballs felt lacerated too.
Once we got down to the river in the bottom of this great ravine, I found something that made me smile from ear to ear. Most likely it was a PCT thru hiker who had camped here who did it. I wondered how long it would last before collapsing. This was a rock cairn that fell into the category of my top 5 favorite of all rock cairns! It was taller than I am by far! Too cool. Thru hikers are good people who understand my heart well. I wish I could shake the hand of the creator of this tower.
We crossed the river with a little secret hidden inside my boots. I knew that the river would need to be forded, but it has never been too deep. It usually runs from mid calf to knee depth depending on the place you choose to cross. But it is just wide enough to get your feet wet. I could not get my feet wet at only two miles in on a 16.5 mile hike in snow/hail/sleet. So my outer layer of socks was a special waterproof pair given to me by a friend (thanks Calvin!) and this was going to be a real test for them. As we pushed across the water, I could feel it rush into my boots. I was aware of the drop of temperature all around my feet and toes, but the water did not get through the socks at all! It was incredible and I felt invincible....as if this was my new secret power. If only I could find gloves made out of that fabric I thought, already feeling the wetness falling from the sky soaking through to my hands in my first pair of gloves.
As we climbed back up out of the ravine with the river running through it, we switch-backed up some favorite sections of trail of mine. Every time I have ever hiked here, it just feels incredibly peaceful and I almost always see, hear or feel animals all around. In fact almost every single time I have come up here, I have found bear tracks or scat practically right on the trail. So we started keeping an eye out for any fun bear friends. A few weeks ago, I had this very realistic dream that I found an abandoned baby bear cub on the trail and brought him home to raise. I started wondering if today would be the day I would find him and told Josie we needed to really be switched on to find him.
Because I am probably spending too much time alone, I spent a great deal of time on the trail today planning on how I could raise a bear cub and train him to hike with the Wolf and I. Of course we would need to find a big enough harness for him. I pondered bear cub potty training, how to find a backpack to fit a bear, what to feed him, and whether he would play nicely with my dogs. It was a very enjoyable rabbit hole for my brain to slide down and passed the time as we enjoyed the beauty surrounding our every move.
I love how the snow highlights the trail and makes it extra beautiful. By this point in time, I could no longer feel my face, but had stopped caring as it was just too beautiful to worry about such things. We were close to breaking out on some upper reaches on the flanks of the mountain. We had a rocky section to traverse and another couple of creeks to cross. Once again, I could feel the water go through my boots and surround my socks, but no wetness penetrated into my inner sock layer! It was so surreal.
The clouds really started to sock in around us. I knew we would not be seeing the face of the mountain at all today. But that was okay, because I knew he was there. I knew that even though he could not see me either, that he could feel me there. I like to think that as I walk up on the spines and shoulders of the mountains that they feel a slight tickle as I move along them. I smiled as I walked imagining what he was feeling. Occasionally I would leap or jump just to make sure I had his full attention. "Hello my friend." I whispered to him.
Most every time I have ever hiked in this area there have always been other humans. In fact one time when I was backpacking here, you could hardly find an empty camp site! But today, it was just the Wolf and I. No one was braving the elements. The temperatures had definitely dropped and now the winds were kicking up as we were more exposed above treeline. But I had a date with a large egg. Yup, I have told you about this egg before. It is a huge rock that split in half and looks like a fractured boiled egg. You can just walk through the fracture. Our plan today was to eat our supper from inside the egg. Seriously, how many times in your life can you eat supper inside of an egg with a Wolf in a snowstorm. Total bucket list moment here guys!
The egg thankfully gave us some shelter from the wind and the snow, but my first pair of gloves were so full of water that I could literally wring them out. I gave up and took them off to eat. Today's thermos was full of great joy for me. I had the Morning Star fake Ribbs in BBQ sauce and I am telling you it is to die for! They were still hot and so amazing while eaten inside my favorite egg!!!
Once again proving that I am spending too much time in seclusion, I decided to play a new mind challenge. The question I posed to myself was what would my last meal be if I was on death row. Have you played that game?? It is only fun if you are not on death row, I am sure. But I could not decide what to do. I got my choices narrowed down to three.....a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Morning star fake ribs in sauce, or vegetarian tacos. How can one decide!! I finally had to concede that if I was on death row, I would be so nice and well behaved to the guards that they would surely bring me a little bit of all three of these final meals. But then I realized that if I was really about to be put to death, I probably wouldn't have any appetite so the whole thing was ruined.
While eating and contemplating the best meals of life, I dribbled BBQ sauce down my coat because I was having such trouble feeling my fingers and kept almost dropping my spork. I giggled thinking that I had just become every bear's dream come true. Their dinner was now covered in BBQ sauce! Surely we would find my bear cub now I thought!!! Just as I thought that, Josie ran to the side of the egg to look out, giving me signs that something was there. I peeked out with her, but couldn't see anything through the thick fog. I knew something was there, probably smelling my sauce, but my bigger issue was the raging burning pain taking over my hands.
My thumbs were by far the most painful and the burning sensation was growing. I know it is weird because you know your hands are cold, but they feel on fire. If you wait long enough, the pain goes away and you don't feel anything anymore. But I try to keep that from happening as it means things are getting worse. The base of my thumb was turning blue and my palm was going sickly yellow/white with no refill time. I knew I was still about 9 miles out from my truck and was so thankful that I had that other pair of skiers gloves in my pack. My hands hurt so bad I had trouble getting the gloves on, and it took a few miles for the pain to start to subside. But that was about the same time those gloves then became soaked through too. Oh the misery of my hands on the trail!! There had to be another way to keep them warm and dry....besides dipping them in my thermos or trying to suck on them.
(I will have you know that after I got home and did some further googling, I found a heated hand contraption that hunters use. I can even put extra warmers into it and I cannot wait to try it out next week. The only problem is it says you aren't suppose to use it if it gets wet......do they know me at all?? Come on Fall and Winter hiking in the PNW is all about wet! But I will keep you posted how this goes because I have had to come to the sad realization that I have some permanent sensitivity loss in the ends of most of my fingers. I use to think the numbness was only lasting a couple of days after hiking with frostbite, but I have to admit it seems permanent now. I need to retain what feeling I have left I suppose. I love to bake bread and kneading dough without feeling in your fingers is just not the same.)
As we moved up the trail, it felt at times as if it literally just disappeared in the fog and clouds. It really brought our whole little world down to just what we could see immediately around us. Both Josie and I were loving it.
We climbed in and out of several more ravines with more creeks and rivers to cross. We were moving fast and enjoying ourselves. Pikas were shrieking at us in surprise in this ravine. I don't think they were expecting a human or a Wolf on the cold, wet day.
After the bright red colors up above us, as we dropped lower in elevation on this loop hike, we came to orange sections and then yellow sections. It was interesting to me how the colors on the mountain were segregating themselves. I so wanted to find them all together!
On our way out, I ended up hearing a waterfall off the trail. I decided that today was the day to go do some exploring to find this falls, despite how cold I was feeling. I knew what was within my ability and how long it would take to get back to the truck in the dark. I was going to push that envelope a bit farther today. Boy was that worth it, I can tell you that! The secret waterfall was an amazing gift just for us on this day and it took my breath away.
Once we could tear ourselves away from the falls, it was a fast drop down to the big river crossing in the bottom of the ravine and then a run back to the trailhead. It got completely dark before we could fully climb out of that ravine and the snows started to fall hard once more. All day, we had been experiencing snow, sleet or hail, but this was a big beautiful peaceful snowfall. As we neared the end of our day's journey, I realized there was now a good two inches of snow on the ground and it was becoming a bit slippery. The final mile out I had to take my second pair of gloves off because I was also able to wring the water out of them. My skin on my hands almost instantly froze as we moved as fast as we could toward the promise of warmth.
I was practically growling audibly from the frostbite pain when I neared my truck covered in snow and ice. When I tried to open the door with my frozen fingers, I found the doors all frozen shut. "NO!" I yelled out-loud and feared I was in deep trouble. Luckily with some strong jerking, I was able to get a door open. When I reached down to take off Josie's backpack, I found all her fur standing up crispy and frozen solid. "Oh no Josie," I laughed, "your outside is frozen too!" I was impressed that she had not complained, although she had wanted to take a few more breaks than normal on the way out.
When I finally got in the truck, turning the heat on and gulping hot cocoa from a thermos kept there, I was so thankful for the little things. That is one of the great things to me about hiking. If forces you to be outside yourself and enjoy the tiniest moments. From a butterfly landing on your hand, to the first snowstorm, to the sunshine warming your skin, to a warm meal on the trail, to being able to cross a river and keep your feet dry, to sitting in a warming truck in the dark. It does not matter what it is, I don't let the little things slip past unnoticed out here. I thank God for every single one of these moments as I know they are gifts from Him. You have to have the pain to have the joy. You cannot have one without the other or you become spoiled....weak. I embrace the pain, but hopefully with my new hand warming device coming, I will no longer embrace hand pain. Wish me luck on that goal!!
I have to share one final goal on the trail on this day. So I had read a blog from a total hiking guru that I respect. He writes some of my favorite hiking books and he wrote about doing this loop back in 2018. He did it in the summertime with wildflowers all around. His loop was 13.5 miles and he said it took him 8 hours and that by the time he was done, all of his energy. I knew I could do better than that and now I wanted to do it in the snow and hail to increase the challenge. While I did decide it was worth taking the time to eat inside the egg, I still blew my goal out of the water! With my side trips, I logged 16.5 miles and did it in exactly 6 hours. Take that my hiking friend!! Although, I will admit, when I returned to my truck, as a human ice ball, I was at the end of my energy too! Can we just stay that competition is not a healthy thing for me. But I am pretty sure I can do the 16.5 mile loop, with all the elevation gain and loss and break time, in no more than 5 hours.....I can feel the plans already brewing for a rematch.
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