September 2023-b

For the last 35-40 years of my life I have seen a framed 8x10 photo hanging in my parent's home. It was one of my Dad's hiking photos and it was probably one of my top 3 favorite ones of his. The photo showed a green meadow surrounding a perfectly heart-shaped lake. I had always wondered about such a unique lake, but had never been there. Since my Dad passed away last month, I thought it about time I found his Heart Lake and see if I could take photos in the same location and spend the night on the shores of this special place. It was easy to find this hike listed in one of his old hiking books.

The drive to the trailhead was long, especially because I insisted on taking forest service roads as much as possible and not freeways or highways when I could help it. I have now learned that you can actually drive from Trout Lake all the way to Packwood on just forest service roads. Bumpy and washboarded, yes. Better than busy freeways with semi trucks and crazy people, absolutely! The final approach to this trailhead though had a huge washed out section of road. No wonder everything I read stated you better have a high clearance vehicle to make this one! My jaw dropped open as I dropped my truck down into the deep ravine made by the washout and I wondered if it could make it up the other side. But I let my truck do what he does best, all while praying no one would be coming the other way, since the road was so steep you couldn't see the top until you crested it. "I can't believe my Dad drove this terrible road" was all I could think as I mastered the roller coaster ride of forest service roads and arrived to the trail sign hidden along the side of the road.

As usual, we filled out the wilderness permit at the trailhead, all while bees were working hard to investigate us and especially the dog treat pouch hanging at my waist. Apparently they could smell the freeze dried liver treats in there today! The trail started gently in a beautiful forest full of firs, hemlocks and ferns. There were plenty of blueberry bushes, but not a berry to find today. "Just as well" I thought to myself. I needed to wean myself from that addiction anyway! As we climbed further up a ridge-line, we watched the ferns turn over to Beargrass and before long, to mountain Heather. The plants were surely screaming that it is Fall with their beautiful colors.

We had gotten a bit of a late start today since I had several things to take care of before we could leave our home and then the long drive delayed us further. But I enjoy hiking later in the day as that is when most people are getting off trail and I can enjoy sunset hiking alone. I never like to start a trail at the same time as others. In fact, if I do have terrible timing and find myself at the trailhead at the same time as someone else, I will delay significantly to give them a head start or if they seem to be slow movers, I hit the trail fast before they can move. I knew we had plenty of time to make it to the lake to set up camp before dark today. We would be only doing 11 miles on our first day in, so we had all the time in the world! This allowed me to enjoy the trail and think about how my Dad's boots had been right here on this very path that we now walked on. I can only imagine that he was having the same thoughts and feelings of awe and splendor that I now held as the views started to really jump out at us.

We were starting to cross more boulder fields as we gained the ridge-line. I knew there would be a huge scree mountain path to navigate ahead and I was nervous if we would run into any other hikers heading toward us on that narrow and treacherous path. I prayed that when we hit that section, all other hikers would already be setting up their camps and having dinner! As the trail turned around a bend under a rocky outcropping, I couldn't help but notice an unusual rock formation. "What is with all the strange and large stones on trail this year??" I asked the girls. Ever since I found those stones I named Craigh Na Dun up on Mt. Hood, I have been finding strange rocks on every hike!

After another couple of miles of open ridge hiking through alpine forests and meadows which were completely breathtaking, we got our first views of the giant scree mountain that we would be cutting across. I was pleased to see that there was more greenery along it than I had expected. I knew that would make it easier. The openness also allowed for vast distance sighting, so I knew we could see if anyone was heading our way long before we ran into them and one of us had to back up. This is not the sort of trail you can easily pass someone on! If you look closely, you can spot the trail!

Now as we crossed the scree field, Pika's started to squeak and squeal from all around us. They sound exactly like a doggie squeak toy to be honest and the more alarmed they are, the louder this is. I started to get into a conversation with God about why on earth he made these ground living creatures have a cry that attracts any canine creature. Of course that sound will draw in any coyote or wolf around! Wouldn't it have made more sense to give Pikas and Marmots a voice like an owl, and then the owl who lives safely in the tree could have the squeaky voice?? My dogs were quite infatuated with the squeaking and wanted to find its source! If only Miles was still hiking with us so we could ask him these questions I thought! Nova thought the whole idea was funny as we started to discuss changing the voices on many creatures.

Luckily we did not find the scree passage too difficult at all. In fact what looked challenging from a distance, was quite pleasant up close. I even let the Wolf lead the whole way and she did great.....except for a couple attempts to dive off the cliff toward those darn Pikas! The girls even wanted to pose along the way as we were watching the mountain ranges around us turn blue and purple in the closing dusk hours.

After some additional climbing, which brought us to our highest point of the day, just above 6000 feet, we found the connector trail that we would be turning onto. This one was about to drop hard and fast, losing almost 500 feet in a half mile. When we do anything this steep, I always put Nova in front so I can control the Beast better and not have a descent that gets out of control. But she kept bumping me from behind anxious to move faster as Nova and I tried to keep from sliding on our shaking legs. This section of trail seemed to be longer than I expected and I stared to grow concerned that we had missed a junction. I was also concerned that there was no way there could be a secret meadow holding a lake in anything I saw before me. We were again hugging tight to a ridge line trail with a deep canyon beneath us. It didn't make sense to me that a lake could be nearby from what I saw of the lay of the land and I actually stopped to check my map. I could not find where we did anything wrong, so we kept moving forward. Suddenly, I saw an unmarked side trail. That was it! I knew that was the trail to take me to the secret meadow and finally get to see the heart shaped lake. Because I apparently like to have something to worry about, I wondered if the especially dry weather we had been having this year would cause us to find a dried up lake. It might be so small that I won't even be able to appreciate that it is heart shaped any more I realized! The thought caused my heart to constrict in disappointment. I increased our pace to get there faster as if that would make a difference. As we moved through the trees, I saw a secret meadow in a giant basin and I saw water!

There were not many campsites around the lake, but the one we chose was about dead center from the middle of the heart lobes of the lake up into the basin just a bit and tucked up to a large stone of course. It allowed us to set up our sleeping bag in what felt like the center of our own universe. We had craggy high walls all around us in the giant bowl with the lake at our feet. It was an amphitheater made my God. What a stupendous place I thought as I spun in circles trying to take it all in at once. It was more than I could bear really. The reflections off the still waters of Heart Lake was icing on our cake!

Even the Wolf was dumbfounded and could no longer function from the beauty surrounding us. I quickly set up our gear for camp and got dinner ready for the girls. I knew they were tired and ready to get their packs off. My heart was filled with such peace having finally found this location I had seen my whole life on a wall. That simple photo on the wall had now turned into my reality and I was going to savor every moment of it.

When I got my own dinner out I had two thoughts. I am a complete weirdo was the first one. When I was packing up my kit this morning the only thing that sounded good for dinner was a giant homemade scone the size of my hand. Yeah, I know, carb-loading at its best. But it was about the only thing I would eat all day, so I figured anything goes on hiking day!! The second thought was that my scone was oddly shaped almost exactly like the large stone we were going to be camping with tonight and where the girl's packs were currently hanging from. It had the same indent! It must be a sign I thought.

No, I could not eat the whole thing myself! I shared my bread with the girls who enjoyed it with their dry and canned food feasts. We then looked around a bit more as our full tummies worked to digest the sudden stuffing. I recognized the back of the peak to our south as the backside of Hawkeye Peak. I knew that on the other side of that would be Goat Lake, which we had visited a few years back. That was a beautiful section of trail, but much more crowded as the trailhead is far easier to get to and the trails themselves easier, shorter and safer traveling. I knew the high walls around us were going to create wonderful dark silhouettes against the night sky as they were full of interesting crags and outcroppings. The spiky alpine trees would also thrust their silhouettes into the sky. But nothing prepared me for the night sky I can tell you that!

I don't think words could ever express what the night sky did to us. It seemed to get dark very quickly, as if someone just turned off a light switch. I had barely climbed into my sleeping bag in time. Instantly the entire sky above our amphitheater lite up with thousands of twinkling stars. The Milky Way stretched from end to end of the bowl directly above where we lay and then slowly moved across us all night. I could see two super bright planets during the night. I never saw the moon which I think allowed the stars to really shine and sparkle and have more depth to them than normal. There were shooting stars during the night, but none of the slow moving ones. Each one was like lightening flashing across the sky making you question if you had just blinked. It was mesmerizing and I could hardly take my eyes off her! Except for one thing. It became instantly bitter cold. I mean razor blade cold. Any exposed skin felt like it was being cut to shreds. There wasn't much wind to speak of. It was simply as if someone dropped the temperature 60 degrees when they turned out the lights! I had put my stocking cap and gloves on along with a hoody and a puffer coat. I got my long pants over my shorts and a super warm pair of dry socks I had brought as a splurge. I turned on both rechargeable sleeping bag warmers and tucked them around us. Nothing seemed to help. Nova and I were taking turns shivering and Josie was curled in a super tight ball by our sides. I had to pull the sleeping bag and bivvy bag over our faces to protect us from the misery, which adversely affected our star gazing abilities and made us feel like we were suffocating!

You know how most nights, when you are so tired and fall into bed ready for a sound sleep, morning seems to come within moments! The night is over far before you want it to be. Well sleeping outside is not like that. I have learned that when I backpack, those nights are the longest of my life. I think this is because when I live in the "world" I have lights and never go to bed before midnight as I can always find something to do. But on the trail, you are in bed by 9pm unless you want to run a flashlight. Since my body seems to only need a few hours sleep, that means I am wide awake by 1 or 2am at the latest. Do you know how long those hours are from 1am to sunrise waiting to arise??? I can tell you, a lifetime, that is how long! Then while you lay there waiting, you start to feel all the aches in your body from sleeping on the ground. You generally get very, very thirsty about this time too. I know I have told you how much I love backpacking, but there are a few drawbacks I must admit. However, what was amazing on this night was that God helped me out. I think my Dad might have had something to do with it since I was seeking his heart on this trip.

You see right about 1am when I was wide awake, frozen and suffocating inside my sack, I suddenly heard a loud roar rush down upon us. I dropped my bag down and felt the warmest wind of my life pass over us and fill the basin we were laying in. Even Nova climbed out of the sleeping bag and Josie stood up. It was truly surreal. This wind was downright hot and felt like the very breath of God. As it crossed over us, it moved over into the alpine trees to our feet and seemed to stay there as it worked to pass back and forth over us again and again over the next few hours. It was like this breath was ping ponging between the ravine walls and the trees caught down inside the bowl with us. I pushed both my bivvy bag and sleeping bag down and unzipped my coats. I linked my hands behind my head and just stared up to enjoy the sky above, happy to have my face out in fresh air once again.

It was while my face was exposed that I realized we were not alone. Not alone at all! Bats were swooping all around us. I started to count and in a mere 60 seconds, counted 10-12 fly overs! These guys were swooping right down just inches above us. I thought about reaching a hand out to snatch one from the sky, but decided better of it. They did seem to pause at times when going over us as if trying to figure out what we were. Even Nova was looking up at them trying to decide if they were friend or foe. What I found most unusual was their size. The wing-span was immense. I guessed them to be 18 inches. But one guy was even larger than that and had me questioning if some of my new friends were actually owls. It didn't really matter as we enjoyed the flight show for the rest of the night, along with the stars.

The sun rising up over the ridge-line behind us took its time the next morning. It was a high wall to climb after all. We enjoyed taking some more photos and making funny faces as we attempted to duplicate the exact 8x10 framed print in my Mom's house. It has been written that this lake might be the most perfect subalpine lake in the state of Washington. I think that is surely correct!

When it was finally time to leave, we quickly packed up to hit the trail. I took one more long look back at our campsite by the stone. You can see our little circle in the center of this photo and a little to the right. What a marvelous place to spend the night. I knew I would be back here again.

We climbed hard and fast knowing that it is always easiest to rip the band-aid off quickly. Plus it had gotten cold once again, so I needed to climb hard to warm up! I wondered what happened to our warm wind. As we climbed higher and higher out of the secret basin, I started to see Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier all smiling at us. As we climbed higher, the sun finally seemed to catch up to us as we crested the high ridge-line.

The wonderful thing about hiking super early in the morning is not only sunrise hiking of course, but most other hikers are still lying in their tents at this hour. In fact, we crept by one tent along the ridge trying to be completely stealth. But Josie was nervous about the bright yellow nylon teepee and I had to coax her along in quiet whispers. This caused the human inside to roll in their sleeping bag and almost made Josie jump out of her skin as we passed by. We made it back across the scree fields without having to share the trail with anyone. In the early morning hours the trails on the ridge looked particularly enchanting.

In fact it wasn't long before all three of us were saying our prayers to thank God for such a wonderful couple of days. There is nothing better than praying in the early morning hours just as the day is being birthed.

As we got to within a couple miles of the trail head, we ran into our first human of the day. He was a hunter standing in the middle of the trail with his pack at his feet and the largest of his weapons in his hands. We were walking quietly as usual, but I was sure he would hear us or sense us soon. We got up to about 8-10 feet from him on the trail when the Wolf would not take another step toward him. Since she was in the lead, we all stopped. I could feel that she was on the verge of a panic attack. It was then that the hunter slowly looked up in our direction and quite visibly startled. My first thought was that he must not be a very good hunter if a Wolf, a Woman and a Dog in a Tutu could sneak up on him! He silently just stared at the three of us slowly blinking twice. It was as if he thought we were a mirage. I knew I was going to have to break the silence.

Now is when I guess I should tell you about the voices in my head. You see I have a variety of voices in there that like to tell me what to do. (Please tell me you know what I am talking about here!!) My favorite are the male drill sergeants who scream at me to pull up my boot straps and put on my big girl panties and the like. They always push me to be my best and I love and hate them at the same time. They often curse at me when yelling which I think is funny. But I do have some female voices in there as I guess makes sense since I am a woman. But they are the naughty ones I generally try not to listen to. In this moment the first one sternly told me not to even think about being nice to this man. She reminded me that his sole purpose to be out here in paradise is to murder innocent animals. She didn't even want me to smile at him or say good morning or be civil in any way. "But he is wearing head to toe camo and covered in weapons" I silently told her. Let's be honest, that surely moves something inside a woman! At this point, the other voice pops up and while giggling, tells me to ask him what year it is. I told her to shut it real fast before she got me laughing. "You slept at Craigh Na Dun last night" she blurted out before I could fully get her silenced.

Finally I broke the silence by just simply saying to the chiseled bearded face staring at me, "Sir, you holding that giant weapon in your arms is scaring the crap out of my Wolf." I am not sure if it was hearing my voice or hearing the word Wolf, but the man jumped into action and clambered up the steep embankment above us to give me plenty of space. "Is this enough room?" he yelled back down at me. Surprised that he was being such a gentleman and clearly cared about my animal's feelings, I smiled at him against my will and laughed and told him thank you. But then I crossed the line. I heard myself say "have a good day" to him!! Can you believe that?? Wishing a hunter a good day is wishing for animals to die. What a horrible thing to say! I really should have just asked him what year it was after all.

But I didn't get to dwell on my poor verbiage long as I saw another hiker coming up the trail toward us. This one had a dog with them. Instantly though, this hiker grabbed their dog and rushed off the side of the trail in a panic. I almost looked behind me. My first thought was that we were too far away for her to see Josie's pack signs that say to give her space. My next thought was that maybe her dog was vicious. As we got closer to her and the small cattle dog though, I heard her loudly and breathlessly exclaim, "Oh, thank God!!" Then there was lots of heavy breathing before she could say "I thought we were about to be attacked by a wolf or a coyote!!" Clearly she had only seen Josie and not her saddle bags, myself or Nova in her pink tutu. I laughed and told her she was half right as Josie is a wolf, but she is always tied to me. As the woman continued on her way up the trail I could still hear her breathing hard and exclaiming her relief to be alive. I smiled but really hoped this hiker took some time to assess her emergency action plan. If she really thought a wolf was coming for her, why did she run?? Sudden movements like that only make wolves chase! They like to play with their prey. Also, did she think that wolves only walk on trails and wouldn't follow her into the bushes? It made no sense at all. I shook my head in disbelief at the poor instincts shown. I mean hike with a weapon and be ready to use it I thought! But I suppose it was a good thing she did not, she surely would have shot at us first and ask questions second.

But I think what entertained me most was that while I don't enjoy being around humans, they are wildly entertaining to me! It was the perfect way to end the perfect backpacking trip!! I found the infamous Heart Lake and had a great laugh at the humans I found along the way. Even Josie was in a great mood, despite the humans, and had to photo bomb Nova on the hike out! Wolves are just plain goofy!