Adventures

Ho Rain Forest Part 2

P7270198We woke up this morning to a bright blue sky and the sounds of buzzing insects and swift water. My neck is stiff from waking every half hour last night to stick my head out of the tent to see the stars. They were spectacular! Silver
Lining remarked that at one point she got up and saw two shooting stars, one right after the other.  She said, “You know it is a clear, beautiful night when there are so many stars that you cannot pick out the milky Way!”.

This is yet another pay-off for hiking far enough away from civilization that there is no man-made light whatsoever. I wish that I had had the energy to just lay out and look at
the sky all night long.
As we got up and started fixing breakfast, filtering water and packing up stuff, the humor turned somewhat scatalogical.  I don’t know what it is about backpacking, but it tends to turn all three of us into 10 year old boys,
laughing hysterically at every burp and tee-hee-ing at references to privy humor. It really is funny! HBB says we are like 10 year old boys with jobs and credit cards.  How scary is that?   As we giggled our way through the final
packing up, it got hotter and hotter.  We finished wrapping up my feet and SL’s ankles in duct tape, (we are both having boot issues), and hit the trail.  HBB kindly let me lead the way, and I took off.  At one point, the others stopped to
filter some water, but in Silver Linings words, I had found my groove.
I felt like I was sailing down the trail, pack and all, and I keep thinking about the Trail Dames. This trail is so perfect for them! Those women are experts at recognizing beauty and they would absolutely love this.
It is so interesting how a trail can look the same from one evening to the next morning, yet feel so different. Of course, all of the usual cliches apply….everything is clean, fresh and new. You would hope that I could come up with some better references than that, but there it is.  But at the risk of
sounding like a junior high English essay, the trail feels hopeful. Between the
sun beams, fresh dew on the ferns and smell of moss, I feel like I can accomplish anything. I can walk for miles, jump over rocks, grow more, live better and love better.

Have you ever felt so much promise that you could barely contain it?  As my vacation is drawing to a close, I want to bottle this feeling, and hold it close so that when the stresses of rental season and bow rehairs come a-calling, I will have a secret talisman. I will recall this moment and let it glow brightly, coloring my attitude as needed.

The end of our hike finds us passing more and more day hikers, each smelling like fabric softner and perfume.  As we walked through the parking lot, with it’s clean tourists holding giant cameras and scolding their children, I ask HBB if it is wrong to feel just a bit superior. 🙂 I am really smelly, quite sweaty and sporting a magnificant “tan” line made of dirt, where my socks meet my legs.
I feel like I have truly experienced the Hoh Rain Forest.
Tomorrow it looks like we are going to spend the day sailing on the Puget Sound with HBB’s friend, Barney. If something remarkable happens, I will let you know, otherwise, it looks like our hiking/backpacking is done for now.  I did learn a few lessons during this vacation……I learned that flexibility is a trait I need to keep working on   I am still bummed at the disintegration
of my Wonderland Trail Adventure, but am managing to get over myself.  It is
like Greg Mortenson says in “Three Cups of Tea”, ‘my spirit did not fail, my body did’.  I think I can live with that.   I also learned that losing a little bit of weight can really mess your feet
up! My beloved boots are chewing up my feet like crazy and I feel like they are
old friends that have greatly let me down. So, would someone please let Winton
know that the next time I am at Mountain Crossings, I need to request a little
bit of his time for a boot fitting. I guess I had better get that done before
his status as a famous author spreads far and wide!   I have to go sailing
now, but hope you all have a wonderful dayand thank you for sharing my Washinton adventures!!
Anna
www.traildames.com

Washington Adventures Continued….The Hoh Rain Forest

 

P7270186Well, if you can’t do the Wonderland Trail, you might as well do the Hoh Rain Forest!

Today we backpacked into the Hoh Rain Forest and it was simply magical! We
are West of Seattle, in the Olympic National Park, and have found the absolute
most Tolkein-ish forest anywhere! After a beautiful drive, in which we exhausted
all possible tasteless jokes regarding the “ho” hike, we found the trailhead and
took off.  We are all four together again, as HBB decided that she could finish the WT another day and that she would rather hike with us.  That is a good friend for you……
These woods are dark and mysterious, with huge ferns that reach above my head. The trees are huge…some of them easily large enough to drive a car through.  I keep wondering if they have Redwoods in this part of the country.
The trail is fantastic and different from anything I have ever hiked.  Mostly it is smooth….which in itself makes it unlike most of what I have hiked. Every now and then, huge roots curve up through the ground like giant worms.  I pick my way up and around them, wondering if they are going to come to
life and grab me! You may laugh, but this forest is truly that fantas-tical.
For several miles, the trail curves up and down like a gentle roller coaster, and the sun shines through the thick trees in broken beams. It really is quite wonderful.
The only thing keeping this from being truly heavenly is the fact that it is 95
degrees.  Seriously.  This area of the country is under a heat warning and they are
predicting temps between 95 and 100 all week long!  The heat is oppressive and
the bugs are absolutely loving it.  However, thanks to my good friend Deet and a
mid-hike stop to cool down in a glacial river, the hike was still really
fabulous.
The best thing that happened to me, though, was completely egotistical.
We came upon a group of middle school girl scouts, with two women leading them, just as
we decided to stop and chill out in the river. They were very sweet, and after a
little conversation, they took off down the trail.  After 15-20 minutes, we took
off as well, with bandanas dripping cool water down our necks.  What happened
next was truly amazing.    No… it was astounding! I actually caught up to them!!
Me!! The slowest hiker around!  Well, I was also with Silver Lining and Little
Bit, but we all caught up to them. As they stepped aside to let us pass, I told
them, “You might not want to do that with me…I am pretty slow!”.  One of the
leaders turned and said, “But you caught up to us!”.  I realized that in all my
years of hiking, I had never caught up with other hikers, much less passed them.
Yes…. the girls were over-loaded with big packs, and they were tired….but I
couldn’t help but feeling like all my hard work in the gym was paying off a little.
Ok, ego trip done…. 🙂
P7270207 We finally reached camp and set up on the banks of a beautiful, lilting river. After eating a delicious dinner of tuna and beef jerky, (me) and Ramen, (everyone else), we stowed away our bear canisters, and are relaxing for the
evening.  We are laying back watching the sky go from light blue to a soft gray
as the sun sets behind the mountains.  A partial moon is rising right across
from us and it won’t be long before the stars start appearing.  I am typing to
the sounds of soft laughter as the other women joke lightly. You know, I always
say that to see this exact view, you have to actually be the one that walks to
it.  Tonight I would add that if you are lucky, sometimes that very same walk
can bring you to this peace and friendship as well.  And that is worth all the blisters and sore muscles in the world.
Good night……….P7270216

 

Wonderland Trail Adventures- part 2

P7180023 Day 1- continued…

When we finally got to the trail itself, we all got excited, gathered around the sign for pictures and then headed straight up the trail.
The forest here is so different from Georgia! It is really thick and has a million plants that I have never seen before. When you feel the call of nature, ducking off the trail is quite an adventure! Fallen trees, vines, undergrowth
and moss as far as the eye can see! The cool thing is, though, there are really no snakes to worry about.  I guess it is too cold up here for them to be happy. It
makes stepping over all of those half-rotten logs a little easier when you don’t
have to worry about a slithery friend lounging under it.     We crossed about a zillion creeks today on log bridges, some of which the amazing trail volunteers have nailed hand rails of sorts to. I really appreciate it cause walking across a log makes me very nervous!

P7180030
Later in the day we have our first ford. The river we are crossing has four different sections, the first of which has no bridge. As we prepare to cross, HBB give us a lecture on fording safely and the other three take off their boots. I prefer the stability of keeping mine on, however. I don’t mind wet
boots as long as I can feel secure crossing a river.
The water here is fascinating! This is glacial run-off, so the water is full of rock flour. It makes the streams and rivers look like weak chocolate milk, which is cool to look at, but a bit nerve racking in that you have no idea if the water is 2 inches deep, or twenty feet.   Since the rocks surrounding the water are the exact same color, sometime you have to concentrate to actually see where the water starts and stops.
The crossing goes off without a hitch and only comes up mid-thigh deep.  It is still a bit disconcerting since you can’t see anything below the surface at all!  It is very cold, and quite fast, but the bottom is smooth and sandy, and I only squealed once when I almost lost my balance.
We scramble across piles of rocks and cross three more sections, all of which have bridges. The last one was wild because the water was so fast and turbulent that when you looked down it made you very dizzy Not a good feeling when you are on a log balanced over a torrent of chocolate milk!!
Where is Willy Wonka when you need him?

The rest of the hike was beautiful and peaceful with the only excitement coming at the very end. There is a famous suspension bridge here that is 207 feet long. It is narrow and very, very swingy and bouncy. They advise only one person on it at a time and I totally understand why. Unlike other suspension bridges I have been on, this one is not fun. By the time you get to the middle,
it not only bounces and sways, but pivots side to side, making it feel like you
are going to be pitched into the roiling, mad water below. Before I go on the bridge, there was a man there waiting for me to cross before him.  As I reached the center, the movement got really intense and I thought to myself, “How RUDE!! That man did NOT wait til I was across!!  The sign says ONE PERSON at a time and he decided to come anyway…..REALLY!!!!”  As I stepped off, I turned around to give him a piece of my mind and realized that he was still patiently waiting at the other end.  That is just exactly how wobbly that bridge was.  Well, I was a bit ashamed of my thoughtless assumption, but in all honesty, I was  so happy to be across that I didn’t give it a whole lot more thought.  🙂

Our campsite for the night was nice, and had a privy of sorts and a bear pole near by.  ( which
incidentally would not have kept the bears out or food, cause it was too short!!)  The privy was a simple seat with two walls forming a sort of ‘V’ around it.  It faced out into the rich, green woods and while it didn’t offer much for privacy, it was by far the best view you could get while answering the call of mother nature.
After a dinner of instant mashed potatos and mini snicker bars, we all went to sleep listening to the water of the tributary and the wind in the trees. It was one of the best nights
sleep I have had in a long, long time.
Anna aka Mud Butt

The Wonderland Trail Adventures-part 1

HBB 158

Recently I was lucky to get the chance to hike part of the Wonderland Trail in Washington State.  The trail encircles Mt. Ranier and is 93 miles long.  My initial plan was to do the entire thing in a 12 day trip, but isn’t there a saying about ‘best laid plans’ and all that?  🙂  The following journal entries are a record of my adventures in this gorgeous place…..   I hope you enjoy them.

 

After months of planning, scheduling, dreaming and scheming, I am finally on the
Wonderland Trail!!  I am laying in my tent listening to a glacial stream crash down the mountain, smelling fresh resin from fallen trees and feeling like the luckiest girl in the world.  Oh, my feet are aching, my left ankle is throbing,
my calves are laughing at me, knowing that they will keep me awake much of the
night with cramps, and frankly, I smell bad!  But I still feel very, very lucky!
This all started in Peru last year when my friends Deb (Silver Lining)
Julia (Hiker Biker Babe), and I promised to stop letting so much time go by
without seeing each other. There is a very special magic between the three of
us, and we do have grand times!   So we agreed to do yearly summits where we
would meet for an adventure of sorts. After throwing several ideas around, we
came up with the Wonderland Trail in Washington State for our 2009 Summit.
The Wonderland is 93 miles long and encircles Mount Ranier.  It has 23,000
feet of elevation gain and loss, and we are taking 12 days to hike it.  As the
Spring drew to a close, Silver Lining learned that her neice would be spending
the summer with her, so three became 4. Liz is a sharp, cool 16 year old and is
lots of fun to be with. She is a great addition to the group and I really love
being around her. 🙂  We are all excited that she is joining us and as she has never hiked or backpacked before,  they decided to take it easy.  (Well, as easy as hiking on the WT can be!) Liz and Silver Lining will hike some and jump on and off the trail, meeting us different places
with our food caches while The Babe and I will keep trekking on.
P7180013

It is with these plans that we loaded up the car this morning and headed
towards  Mt. Ranier.  This mountain is beautiful beyond description.  You see
her from lots of different places around Seattle and she towers above all the
surrounding mountains. I get chills and butterflies everytime I catch a glimpse of her and I cannot imagine living here and getting to see her every single day.
We arrived at the Carbon River Ranger Station this morning and picked up our
permit from a fantastic ranger whose name tag read ‘Flash’. He answered all of
our questions and said that the snow and ice weren’t going to be a problem for the next few days, so it was with a sigh of relief that I left the Ice Axe in the car for now. My friend, Alpine, has loaned me this axe and I have been talking about it for months.  Just looking at it makes me feel all cool!!  But the truth is, with all of it’s jagged, sharp edges, it scares me to death!  And I have no idea what to actually do with it!  So it is probably a good thing that I won’t seem to be needing it……at least on this leg of the trip.

The actual WT starts 5 miles away, at the end of a forest service road that
is closed due to storm damage.  As we walked up this beautiful meandering lane
we wondered if there was really any damage.  However, before long, we came to a
section of rocks, downed trees and ankle deep gray rock flour.  Yep, this road
is closed. The rest of the 5 miles was alternating of smooth forest service
road and areas that look like all hell broke loose. It is kind of mind boggling
what this river can and did do!!HBB 169
So as it turns out, glaciers pulverize rocks.  As a result, you get rocks as huge
as cars interspersed with medium sized rocks, small rocks and completely ground
up rocks, which look like greyish-brown flour. Hence the name ‘rock flour’, or
glacial flour. It is very cool to look at, but tough to walk through. Imagine
ankle deep, sugar-fine sand!
However, it is all part of the experience! I am still fresh and excited enough about this hike that I could probably find quick sand to be acceptable!!   The non-flood part of our hike so
far looks exactly like the movie “Twilight”.  The trees are GIANT! And the woods
are thick and everything is covered with thick green moss.  It looks like a
fairy tale, and I am pretty sure that Aragon is going to come sweeping out of it at any moment and wisk me away…….  to be continued….
Anna aka Mud Butt