Mount Adams

It had been years since I had been up Mt. Adams. I climbed it when I was 12 years old, so 1993. Then in college, Larson and I tried it on October 1st and ran into whiteout conditions, then lost he lost his keys and we had to call for a ride back to Seattle. I was hoping that this trip would go a little smoother. It was a big group going. My dad had planned this trip with Mario who was a kid of one of his good friends that was now a teenager about 16. He also planned to bring along his cousin Roxanne and her two kids Andy and Hayes.
Roxanne had climbed it with me and my dad in 1993. This time her plan was to just hang out with Andy while we went up with Hayes who was also a teenager about Mario's age. I drove up from Oregon and they were driving down from Washington. It was about equidistant for us. I picked a route that took me through the Cascades of Oregon right by the base of Mt. Hood. Years ago driving through Mt. Hood, I thought it was a creepy forest then and doing it once more I agreed. It was an interesting route because the GPS took me on some dirt roads for about 12 miles too.
It wasn't too bad, though and I arrived across the bridge from Hood River about ten minutes before them. I took Hayes in my car and then we went up the road. We drove to Trout Lake, where we had to get a permit. They were doing some road construction which made it hard to find the office. We finally retraced our steps and found it. The permit process was not quick, but it was fairly easy. Then we went up the road getting lost again before turning around and finding the right road.
 From there, it was a dirt road up some steep mountain roads. The road was not horrible, but it wasn't great either. Eventually we made it to the trailhead which was just packed with cars. We loaded up quickly and my dad was gone before everyone was even ready. The goal was to camp somewhere below the snow line. There were lots of people coming off the dry dusty trail as we hauled our heavy bags and switchbacked up.
I was wearing my heavy duty mountaineering boots and they were pretty hot on this dry trail. We all kind of hiked at different speeds for a while with the youngest ones really taking the lead. When we were nearing our camp area we all got back together again. We decided to camp right below the snow line. We found a nice spot and it was surprising that no one else had taken it. There was a place for a few tents. We threw them down, had some dinner, and hung out for the evening making preparations for the morning.
We were going to have an early morning as we planned to wake up at 4:30 am. I argued for later, but since my dad was 66, he won out on this one. He wanted to make sure that he was going to make it up and that the snow conditions stayed good. If it started to melt too much, then it would be much more challenging. We all retired pretty early, but I had a tough time sleeping do to some snoring. I decided instead to grab my pad and sleeping bag and go away to sleep. I had to get quite a ways from camp before the snoring stopped.
I was quickly able to fall asleep once I was away. I found a way to still wake up early. We ate some food, then hit the trail. We immediately made a bad choice in our route due to the dark and found ourselves climbing a really steep snowfield to get back on route. Once we were, we hung together for a time before we turned into two groups. Hayes and I were out in front and Mario and Dad stayed back. The going was relatively easy because we all had crampons except Hayes who wore some yaktraks. They worked well as the snow was hard packed. I forgot just how steep places are. First you go past the lunch counter where most people sleep, then you hit the steep slopes to climb up to Piker's Peak.
I was enjoying the view as Mount St. Helens was right there the whole time seeming so small compared to the heights that we were climbing. The last little bit of snow before Piker's Peak is by far the steepest. Hayes and I popped out there and it was not even 9:00 AM yet. All that was left was to cross the snowfield and up the last chute. We were able to do this without any difficulty. At 9:30AM, we made the summit. Hayes was pretty proud and I was excited to be there. There was a lookout built into the snow that provided some shelter. I enjoyed the view with Mt. Rainier sticking out as the next volcano over and we could see Hood, Jefferson, and I could even make out the Three Sisters. We hung out here for a while before Mario and Dad showed up. We went down a little before them, but kind of took our time.
The first chute was hopefully going to be good for glissading but it was sort of fast and steep at the same time. We didn't do a very good job of it. We headed over to Piker's Peak where there were people with carpets and plastic bags getting ready for the descent. We waited here because the snow just still seemed too hard for me. We had some food and water and soon Mario and Dad caught up. I was a little nervous about the snow, so I went down the rocks for a way. They tried it out and soon they were flying by me.
 I traversed over and the descent commenced. This was a lot of fun. It was a rather controlled descent, but quick. We covered what took hours to climb up in the morning in only minutes. Dad gave us the lecture about being cool while glissading on your feet, so I made sure to point out how uncool he was very time he slid down on his butt. Lots of fun, but eventually, we ran out of steep enough snow and it was trudging into camp. Roxanne and Andy met us and we packed up our stuff. We were debating about whether to stay another night or find another place to camp. We decided to pack up and go. Just as we were leaving camp, Dad slipped and got a pretty decent cut that we had to stop to let him clean up. Roxanne, who is an ER nurse said that he had to go in and get that cleaned up. I think he eventually did.
The rest of the way it was hiking out. I was tired. I was also having issues with my boots as they were a little small and each step was getting kind of painful. We made it to the cars, back down the steep road, and drove out to Hood River. We were able to get some dinner there at Pita Pit and we spent the evening camping by the Columbia River. I was exhausted and happy just to have a place to sleep. That night I retired early and got as much rest as I could. The next day I bid the group adieu but a few days later, Jacqueline and I did get the chance to stay at Roxanne's house after a Jackson Browne concert. Great trip. Everyone did awesome including the old man and the teenagers. Quite a lot of fun.

Rebel Rock

School was finally out and it had been a pretty good year. The relief of the responsibility of teaching being off me and having time to myself over the summer was very rewarding. I started the summer with a project or two. Jacqueline's dad Tom flew out and we were able to rebuild the decks. It was a lot of labor but well worth it as it was great to have brand new rebuilt decks. We were also planning to take out the old brown carpet and put in new wood floors, so there was a pile of wood flooring sitting in our house. Still, I needed to get out. All these days spent in the classroom or entering grades at home, it was time to go.

My choice on this day was the Rebel Rock loop. I had done part of this loop a year earlier and had really appreciated the lushness and the views. This previous time, though, I ran into too much snow and was forced to turn around. Given that it was the end of June, I did not think that was going to happen on this day. I got going in the morning and was to the trailhead before 9AM. It was great to have the trail to myself as many days hiking in the McKenzie area, it was odd to see anyone else. When I thought the area was lush last time, though, boy was I right because this time it seemed to be overgrown with greenery.

When I got to the places that there was previously snow, I would just see an overgrown jungle of low lying shrubs. The trail led me up and up before I was finally at the highlight of the trail which is the Rebel Rock lookout. Given that this was one of the only remaining lookouts in the Sisters Wilderness, this was a pretty remarkable sight. I was able to snap the iconic picture of it, but unfortunately I missed the trail that led out to it. I was glad I got to see the Rebel Rock lookout, but by the time I realized that I had missed the trail to it, I was too far gone to turn around. The hike continued and now I was up high.

The climbing had virtually stopped and I was now getting the payoff as the views were spectacular. In Oregon, you get to see a lot of the same thing which is rocks and distant views to mountain peaks. Luckily, all of it is so awesome that you never really get tired of it. On this perfect sunny day, the Sisters were out and it is a spectacular view of them from the Rebel Rock loop. I enjoyed all the views and eventually the trail started heading back down through the lush greenery and back toward the car. The nice part was that I did not have to hike the same part of the trail twice because it was a loop trail. All of this had been completed in just a few hours and I had really enjoyed this hike. I estimated it was about 10 or so miles round trip with quite a bit of elevation gain and loss.

Mt. Gladys

Jacqueline gave my dad and I one night to go backpacking. It wasn't much, but we would have to take it as she did not want me gone for very long. I let Dad do the trip planning as we were going to be doing the trip around Olympic National Park near where he lived in Port Angeles. He chose a trip out to the Flapjack Lakes in the Staircase Area. This involved a drive down the 101 to the trailhead right near the Ranger Station. There was really only one choice of trails to head up from there. It went right up the Skokomish River. There was another on the other side of the river, but that is not where we were headed as we took the junction right near Spike Camp. From there the trail continued uphill gaining quite a bit of elevation quickly. There were quite a few people out on the trail below Spike Camp, but once we were on the trail heading up toward the Flapjack Lakes, we only ran into a few other people. Dad began to feel as if he was slowing me down, so he encouraged me to continue on up to the lakes where he would meet me up there. I was happy to do that and I immediately put some distance between him and me.

As I was rolling along, I came around a corner nearly face to face with a black bear cub. The cub looked way more scared of me than I was of him. He immediately took off and within seconds had scrambled quite a distance up a nearby tree. My first thought was where is mom. I moved quickly to get out of the situation while also looking for the mother. I found her further on in the woods with a second cub. They seemed a safe distance away, so I snapped a picture of the cub in the tree before getting out of the area. By the time Dad made it there, the bears were gone and he never even saw them.

It was not long before I made it to the lakes. Dad followed getting there not too much long after I got there. We chose a campsite and set up the tent. I did not stay long though and instead I took the opportunity to head up to the Gladys Divide. It was a trail, but an unmaintained one that went up to the pass in between Mt. Gladys and Mt. Cruiser. This was where the mountains were as most of the trip so far had been in the forest. The trail climbed pretty rapidly, but there were great views over to Mt. Cruiser and Mt. Lincoln. I enjoyed just being up here as this was a short trip, so I did not expect too much from the two days.

The fairly good trail led me all the way to the Gladys Divide that gave me a chance to peer down below into the basin that became the Hamma Hamma River. I thought about how it would be a lot of fun to hike on through here down into that drainage and come out the other side. Instead, I followed a faint trail that continued to lead me to the summit of Mt. Gladys. This took a bit of negotiating through some rocky sections and tree covered slopes, but the way was not too difficult. It was a class 2 scramble at most, but it still felt good to be standing on the summit of a peak. I wished that Dad could be here and I knew that I would encourage him to give it a shot in the morning.

I enjoyed the views from the summit which gave me a chance to see many other rugged peaks of the Olympics. For such a small mountain range, the Olympics sure had many challenging summits. There was nowhere left to go at this point than to continue back down the mountain, to the trail, and back to spend the night at the Flapjack Lakes. We played some cribbage and read our books. In the morning, Dad did get up early and hiked up to the divide. I was glad that he made the trip up there. The hike back down the trail to the trailhead was uneventful. Nothing quite as cool as the view from Mt. Gladys. Defintely worth the time and energy it took to get to the top of that fairly easy summit trip.