As I lay in bed in the early morning hours on hiking day and listened to the rain and wind pound my window and could see the tall treetops violently swaying, I knew it was going to be an interesting day. They were calling it an "Atmospheric River" event in the Pacific Northwest. What better day to go hiking, I thought wryly to myself. No one in their right mind will be on the trails today. As expected, the forest service roads leading to the mountain were barren. Just in case though, I put our hunting season orange scarves on both girls. The last couple of hikes I had already been running into hunters and had forgotten these signals. After being directly in the sights of hunter's rifles last year, I was nervous about my girls getting shot....especially the wolf. I don't wear any color on myself, but I make sure my girls are flagged! We arrived at the trailhead and had it all to ourselves. I backed my truck into the best parking spot, a slot between trees really. We took our time to put on all the rain gear. I had my rain fly on my pack, gun tucked into a dry bag at my waist, full waterproof pants over my leggings, goretex rain jacket, hat plus two hoods, gloves, goretex boots, you name it.....we were ready to be wet!
Being a small human, thermoregulation is always an issue for me during fall and winter hiking especially. I know that if I get wet, I get cold real fast. If you add wind to the mix, it goes south fast. I have pushed myself farther than I should into hypothermia and frost bite too many times. I know that painful sensation that feels like your skin is burning all too well. I also know well that feeling that you will vomit and pass out if you don't get your clothes off because you are convinced you are burning up. This sensation is overpowering and you cannot resist it, even though you know you can't be hot. So I have learned to not mess around. I had a thermos of hot broth in my pack for when I would need to warm myself on trail and a thermos of hot cocoa in the truck for our return. I had a pocket warmer in my pack for an emergency and an extra pair of dry gloves buried deep. My extremities always suffer first when I get cold. I can usually keep my core warm for far longer than my hands, feet, arms and legs. I will trail run when I need to warm up if conditions allow for it. The challenge is that while you can warm yourself on a good climb, if the entire way out is all descent, you have no way to warm up other than running. But if the trail is wet or icy, running becomes dangerous, especially on a steep decline. I also know if you climb too hard and fast, you sweat in your base layer and then if you stop at all, that layer can freeze. All of these thoughts weighed heavy on my mind as we hit the trail in the rain with huge puddles already filling the path at our feet.
Today we were going to be climbing up to just over 6000 feet of elevation on Mt. Adams and turning north on the Pacific Crest Trail to explore a section of trail we had not yet done. I was excited to see what the new trail had to offer. I had read about fabulous meadows, wicked views of the peak and of course knew it would allow me to revisit a section of lava fields and an intense river. As we hit the trail, I couldn't help but notice how the trees were draped in moss. It felt as if they had been especially decorated just for us. I was mesmerized looking up into the bows around us as we climbed. I was even more transfixed by trees that we found which had been overtaken by a river. Such beauty in harshness! The tree roots felt like I was seeing his very arteries and it left me utterly speechless.
It didn't take us long to arrive at the first meadow. I recognized it instantly from popular pictures of this trail. This is where you get your first great views of the peak of Adams. Not today. The peak was hidden from us in the thick clouds. Even Josie seemed to sense something was missing. But the alpine trees and fall colors in the clouds were beautiful nonetheless.
We continued our climb heading toward the PCT while meandering between meadows and trees. All around us the reds, oranges and yellows of Fall were waving at us in the wind and rain. As we turned a corner on the trail and climbed a steep incline, I noticed something white between the blades of grass that caught my eye. "Is that hail on the ground?" I asked out-loud to the girls. Before long, I realized that it was snow. We were somewhere between 5500-5700 feet and there was snow on the ground in September. "Oh this is a real bad omen for this season." I said to the girls. In my heart I instantly felt like this would be our last winter. We are surely going to die this season if we are already hitting snow in September. But Josie didn't feel this way at all. She was busy making snow-cones while I was glaring at the trail and how sloppy it had become.
It was raining pretty hard now and all I could hear was the swishing of my waterproof pants, the pinging of raindrops off my hood and the slopping of the water at my feet. I was no longer even bothering to try to avoid puddles. Everything was sopping wet. If you didn't walk on the water logged trail, you were in deep wet grasses. There was no escape from the atmospheric river today. I focused on the serenity and beauty surrounding us instead of on my growing discomfort. Before long, I saw a trail sign up ahead that warmed my heart! It was the PCT marker and it was covered in snow!
I was surprised to find no other prints on this popular trail, even though it was terrible weather today. Surely there were PCT hikers out and about still I thought. We turned to our left and headed north. This would immediately put us on a section of lava flows coming off the mountain. I love the rugged beauty of this place. The snow covering the rocks and boulders here made things a bit slippery, but not enough so for me to pull out the micro-spikes I had wisely stowed in my pack this morning. We were making tracks in the virgin snow as we picked our way across, staying on trail by watching for cairns and the lay of the ground.
I kept looking up to my right hoping to see Adams pop out to say hello, but he was staying well hidden today. The blankets of grey clouds were swirling around the peak and moving quickly in the winds all around us. We felt as though we had become one with the cloud and were riding inside it as it moved along. Now that we were above treeline, the wind was fierce and taking no prisoners as it came shrieking across the lava fields. The rain turned to freezing rain, then sleet, then snow and back and forth between all three. I reminded myself that we were going to stay alive, because we were going to hike within our abilities today. We were not going to do anything stupid so we could live to hike another day. Sometimes I just need a reminder pep talk to keep myself in check. It is only a mountain I told myself as I had to keep my head down to protect my face from the icy pellets violently sandblasting my skin. Josie was smiling from ear to ear, while Nova was looking about as miserable as I was feeling. We both were missing summer hiking already. I was trying hard to embrace the moment and force myself to transition into winter hiking mentality. Winter hiking can be such a beautiful and peaceful time. But I was dragging myself kicking and screaming along the way. Each transition between seasons is hard for me, but this year it felt the hardest of all. As we reached the river, I was shocked to see it running the lowest I had ever seen it. It could easily be crossed without even getting wet. As we listened to the mini waterfall here, we decided it was time to get some food into us. The cold always makes you extra hungry!
The sky grew even darker as we ate and I knew we were going to need to head out soon. I felt the cold creeping into my fingers. My gloves were soaking wet, so after eating, I changed into my dry reserve pair. My wet boots were starting to freeze in the snow, but there was nothing I could do about that right now. Nova was shivering now just from stopping long enough to eat, even with warm broth added to her bowl. I had to keep her moving. We took a few more quick photos before packing back up and heading out. We were only going to be hiking about 10 miles today. This felt ridiculous since we have spent most of the summer doing 20 mile hikes. It seemed like we were only just getting started. But when I felt the burning sensation in my left thumb spreading, I knew it was the right decision.
Upon turning to leave, Josie suddenly threw herself on the ground and was rolling on something. Usually she only does this in something she considers dead and very smelly. I realized there was something foreign underneath her writhing body. I pulled her up and found a pair of men's camp shoes partially buried under the fresh snow. I had missed seeing them, but she knew they didn't belong. "Did that belong to a smelly human?" I asked her laughing. Some poor thru-hiker must really be kicking themselves to lose their river crossing and camp shoes I thought. "Well, we will pack them out and find a new home for them I guess." I said to Josie while slipping them into her saddle bags. They would be worthless if left to lay on the mountain all winter.
We dropped down below snow line as quickly as possible to get out of the winds and colder temps. The temperature difference could instantly be felt as we were below treeline once more, but my hands were so painful I was already biting my lip and holding my breath. I debated digging out my pocket warmer, but decided it would take too long and I could grin and bear the discomfort. The rain however seemed even more intent on dousing us as we dropped in elevation. I took a moment to poll my audience. At first I told the girls that I thought it was time to leave the mountain and head for the truck and asked how my hiking partners felt about this. Josie was mourning the loss of the snow and on the verge of true despair at this idea, while Nova smirked at the Wolf in her desire to get to a warm, dry truck.
When I saw such a strong reaction from both girls, I paused and then asked if they thought we should go back up for a few more minutes of play time in the white stuff. Their faces instantly switched!
Oh, how they made me laugh! What goofy girls I have. They could not be more opposite if they tried! "Sorry Josie, I am the tie breaker here and I want to head to the truck with Nova!" So off the mountain we went. The wolf was literally dragging her feet and finding any excuse to procrastinate leaving. She took time to get long drinks from puddles along the trail and would lay down among the bushes to stall for time. She even tried to get Nova to play with her along the trail instead of hiking. She tried all her tricks to delay the inevitable.
Eventually though, even the wolf was looking a bit like a drowned rat. I could only imagine what I was looking like! My second pair of gloves (yes they are "waterproof") were so soaked through from the rain that I gave up and just took them off and worked to blow on my hands to warm them.
As we made it back to the truck, I peeled off all the girl's gear and let them get in first. Their wet bodies and panting faces instantly started to steam up the windows. I took my time peeling off all my wet layers. With each layer that came off, the warmer I felt. It had stopped raining and seemed downright balmy now that we were out of the snow and at a lower elevation. I opened up my thermos of steaming cocoa and started to sip from the cup as I walked around my truck in my birthday suit letting my skin dry out before putting on the dry clothes I always keep in my truck footlocker. This would be a terrible time for hunters to show up I thought. It would be real hard to explain why I was standing outside a steamed up truck naked in my driving shoes while sipping cocoa. I strongly questioned myself if I was hypothermic or just drying out. Since I could not find my thermometer, I had to just make my best guess. I am pretty sure I was just drying out, but who really knows. What I do know is that I might be spending too much time alone in the woods with the girls. We found a bunch of mushrooms and started to name them all. So here is your ode to mushrooms:
We called this one the "Surprise Emoji".
This beast was named the "Last Supper".
Here is "Rumpelstiltskin".
Are you ready for "Pawprint"?
Then comes our friend "The Brain".
Finally, we have "Super Mario".
I told you....far too much time alone! At least I wasn't naked while naming the mushrooms and taking their photos. So maybe I haven't crossed too far over into the land of crazy yet. Give me time.
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