2017.6.24 - 25 Zigzag Mt Overnight

Wanted to get away from the forecasted 100° weekend. I signed up for a hike to Horseshoe Ridge and East Zigzag Lookout on Sunday. Instead of coming back with the group along Cast Creek Trail, I camped near the lookout and hiked out on Sunday via Zigzag Mountain Trail, chosen for its proximity to Highway 26 where I could catch a bus.

6/24, Saturday. 97°F. Eight of us met at Gateway Transit Center at 8 am. Drove to Riley horse camp on East Lolo Pass Road after a stop at the ranger station. A challenge was await only a few minutes from TH. The bridge is out. The log to the right (downstream?) is more substantial. I scooped over. 2 of us were able to walk over on that log. The rest of the trail is on soft dirt, easy walking. Saw this remains about 1.5 hours from TH (last winter's kill?). Most of the trail is in the woods, until we reach Horseshoe Ridge, where you can see Mt Hood through trees. We had lunch at the top of the ridge, a butte of 4877' on my map, after turning left onto Zigzag Mt Trail. My umbrella was very useful here. Open. Great view: St Helen, Rainier, Adams to the north, and Jefferson to the south.

Walking down along a saddle to north of Zigzag Mt (on the topo map I bought), we encountered plenty of snow patches, and puddle on trail. Mosquitos appeared, especially when you stop to put some snow into your water bottle, or on your head. There were quite some avalanche lily blooming and about to bloom. Some snow patch obscured the trail, so you had to look around before continuing. I checked on my GPS map, and saw that we were going farther from Zigzag Mt. I mistook this as where the East Zigzag Lookout is, and bailed out of the group. I bushwhacked uphill (quite steep, but short). Once I got on the top (very overgrown) it dawned on me this is the wrong top (I was there exactly a year ago, so I still remember). Bushwhacked down along a more gentle slope to the east. Until I hit Burnt Lake Trail. Then I backtracked to Zigzag Trail (this part is not on the printed map, nor on US Topo Traditional DRG map I downloaded on my phone). The rest is straight forward. At the junction to Cast Lake is very meadowy, somewhat swampy now, with running creek and more mosquitos. Then the junction of Cast Creek Trail (left, where my group would go down to their cars) and East Zigzag Trail (right, to the lookout).

By the time I arrived at East Zigzag Lookout, my group was long gone. I was worried when I saw only a couple of small patches of snow on the slope about to disappear, because I don't want to camp by Cast Lake for fear of being eaten alive by mosquitos. It was 3pm, and I was utterly alone. In the woods by the lookout, to my relief, I found enough snow to make a comfortable camp. Someone had built a cooking station and seat. All under direct sun, until about 8:30pm. Hard to find a place with shade to sit and read. As the sun went down, the colors got more intense, so were more mosquitos. Even at 8:30pm (when this photo was taken), it was too warm to wait for sunset in the flowering slope, as it was facing west without any shade. I eventually had to hide in my tent from mosquitos. I spent quite some time looking at the map, and weighing my two exit options (continue on Zigzag Trail and turn south on Timberline Trail to the lodge for about 8 miles, or backtrack on Zigzag Trail and hike down West Zigzag trail to Hwy 26 for about 11 miles). Not surprisingly, I had cell service here. Couldn't find out how Zigzag Canyon crossing is (USFS website said the trail is good from the log to the canyon). Eventually I settled on FSTopo Forest Map on the phone, and West Zigzag trail down. I could see Mt St Helen from my tent. Didn't bother to use rain fly. The stars were nice at night, and I could see very well on my mattress. The night wasn't very dark. Light of Portland shows in the distant west horizon. A still and warm night.

About 9-10 miles today, maybe 3000' gain.

6/25, Sunday. 101°F. Set my alarm at 4:45am, half an hour before sunrise, hoping to pack out before mosquitos woke up. No luck, some of them came as soon as I got out of my tent. The color is not as vivid as sunset. Hiked out shortly after 5:30am, hoping to catch the 10:45 Mt Hood Express. Just I walked down the flower slope, I heard some thumping noise to the south. Never saw what that was.

Down and up. At around 7am, I was back to the junction of Zigzag and Horseshoe Ridge. Here, I turned left, continuing on 775 (Zigzag Mt trail). Trail was a bit overgrown, narrowed by beargrass and rhododendron, non flowering. More of less flat.
A little later, saw some rhodies blooming, and again near West Zigzag. Too late or too early? Saw a little snake skittered away. The next junction, I turned right, still on 775. Here, on my printed map says 4.8 miles, while on the sign it says 5.3 miles. The trail is well trodden here again. The trail goes to the west of the ridge for a bit. There around 8am is a nice dry camp (no snow left) and an outcrop with many penstemon. This may be the West Zigzag Lookout (4468'). The trail continues below another butte labeled on my GPS map as Zigzag 4504. No obvious route up. After maybe another hour, the trail starts to go down. Lots of long zigzags. Glad to see this Mt Hood Lily. Only one. I reached the trailhead at 10:18. Walked the gravel road (in decent shape) west (doesn't appear on Google Map). Maybe 1/4 mile. Met a couple of people walking their dogs. It was in the shade, so not too hot. Continued onto paved East Mountain Dr. It hits Lolo Pass Rd, where I turned left (W), cross Zigzag River, to Hwy 26. Walk north, cross Hwy 26, turn left on the next road (E. Salmon River Rd). There's my bus stop. 10:45am. Very sunny, not much shade.

Maybe 11 miles today.

The shuttle arrived around 11:20am. Me and another guy with bike boarded bus. Thank god there's AC. Maybe half a dozen on board. A couple of stops later, I disembarked at Sandy TC ~10:50. Waited on the wooden bench for the 12:30 express SAM (Sandy Area Metro). The driver let me on earlier, to profit the AC in the bus. I got off at Gresham TC, and on to MAX. Glad to have found a public transportation option between Portland and Mt Hood. These buses run daily.

2017.6.17-18 Mt Adams - unsuccessful south climb

6/17, 6am. 6 women (age from 24 to 65) + 2 dogs gathered at Gateway. Drove to Mt Adams ranger station (shown on Google Map as Mt Adams Ranger District), after a coffee and bathroom break. Arrived ~7:50. Problem with a big group: always multiple slow stops. Put $15 cash (or check) in a self registered envelope (in fact the envelope slot was empty). Just as we were chatting and looking all over the front door for envelops, a ranger opened the door and handed us 6 envelopes. The office opened at 8am sharp, where you can change money, and get your "blue bag" if desired.

The logging road FR8040 up to the South Climbing trailhead (elevation 5555') is in a bad shape, narrow and rutted. High clearance is desired. This is burned forest (2012 Cascade Creek Fire, lots of charred logs, and one stretch has many timber-for-sale signs. At 9am, this place was filled already. Cars were spilling out down the road. A few tents here. We unloaded our gear close to the TH, and parked the 2 cars way down. Had fun watching Jeeps and Range Rovers trying to go over some slushy snow: all had to turn back. It was slow getting started.

Our goal today is setting up camp at Lunch Counter (~9300'). Will hike up the last 3000' tomorrow morning to summit. We started out in considerable cloudiness, but it cleared up in less than 2 hours. We could see Mt Adams and Lunch Counter ahead, Hood behind us, and St Helen to the left (west). Here's a view looking down to the reddish butte, and the two trajectories. Most people took the left (shorter) one, and I did on the way up, which requires walking over rocks. Since I didn't want to remove crampons, I chose the right route down. It was actually faster. Around here, I marked two tent sites with some trees for protection. Saw a group camping here on our way down. Seems to be a better choice than Lunch Counter today.

As we were approaching Lunch Counter, the weather turned foul. Wind picked up in earnest. It was not easy to find a site on this crowded Saturday (with the promise of a sunny weekend). The 6 of us each brought our own tent, but we ended up setting up only 4. I was lucky. I randomly asked two guys heading down where they camped. They just packed up their tent about 50 yard up. I found it. Didn't need to shovel the ground. More rocks on the side. The left tent in the photo is mine. This was taken Sunday morning just past 6am, before I took it down. To the right is Jessica's tent. In the middle is a tent of 2 guys we don't know. They were there before us. While I was taking time to pitch my tent, saw a helicopter flying over us and out. After I pitched my tent in the wind, we went down to look for the last 2 ladies of our group with their dogs. By then, it was white out, visibility less than 10m. The wind was strong enough that it was difficult to stand straight, and the ice kicked up by the wind hit my face like little rocks. My left leg was cramping up when I pulled on my boots. I also punched a hole in my tent with my crampon, and broke my hiking pole. All within 5 minutes of each other. A bad sign. Duct taped the hole. Got out of the tent twice to fasten the stakes and the fly with rocks and ice axes. Stayed put in the tent for the rest of the night: from 6:30pm till 6am. Around 6pm, Tomoko walked to my tent and informed me that people on both sides of her tent decided to uproot and go down, and asked if I were okay to stay the evening. I said yes.

The wind got worse in the night. The zipper of my rainfly's opening was constantly un-zipped by the wind. That side of the tent was too close to rocks, that I couldn't stake it down (the other side was secured by a big rock, which was scratched and ripped with a couple of holes by the rock). Drizzled at night. The water and ice knocked out of the rock wall fell on my tent, smaller snow/ice blown in through the mesh. Everything in the tent is quite wet. I took my boots inside, after I found my fly door completely open. My socks that were hung in the tent were completely wet. I wrung water off my socks and took into my sleeping bag. Fortunately the night wasn't too cold, maybe around 40°F. My sleeping bag was dry down, so I was dry inside the bag. My 3-season tent held out. A few lessons here:

I should pile snow on the rock to seal the holes between the rocks.
I should make ice walls on other sides that had no rocks.
I should bring snow stakes instead of regular tent stakes.
Snow-bag may work better than rocks in securing tent stakes (one of mine got pulled out by the wind under a rock).
I should bring guy lines to tighten up the rain fly.
I should probably bring another pad to block the mesh of my tent on the windward side.

All through the night, I was worried that my tent would break. I was planning on moving into Tomoko's 4-season 2p tent if mine collapsed. Unbeknownst to me, her tent behaved worse: a puddle formed in the middle of her tent as early as 6pm.

6/18, Sunday. Wind was a bit less strong. At 6am, I heard women's voice. Still plenty wind that I couldn't hear what they were saying. Later, Becky came by my tent, and informed me that Tomoko had to go down, as she was drenched, may even suffer from hypothermia, because of her tent. So, Jess, Becky (in the same tent) and I packed up, and were ready to go down. None of us had heart to wait out for the promised sunny weather. The two guys who camped between our tents wanted to walk out with us because they'd never seen whiteout before. So we waited for them to pack up. The visibility wasn't as bad, maybe 20m now. We went down to find Susan and Yutki. They were packed up. So our group hiked down together in the mist. There were still some tents left, most were gone.

On the way down, I, again, randomly asked two women who were also going down, if they camped lower, and whether it was less windy, because they were carrying day packs. They said they camped at the trailhead, and started hiking at 3am. They turned back at Lunch Counter, because of the wind. Around 9am, we were out of whiteout. Around 9:30am, we could see blue sky ahead of us, but Lunch Counter was still hiding in the clouds. We were off track, according to Susan's GPS map. Saw quite few dropping piles like this (as a comparison, that's my foot). Any idea what kind of animal? I glissaded a couple of short sections without taking off my crampons (a big No-No). Around 10am, it was almost clear. By then, I got separated from my group, following a ski track. When I saw these lava piles, I realized that I was lost. I didn't download the GPS map. Luckily, I have offline Google map for WA , and it has this Mt Adams climbing trail. I was about 1 mile from the road, and 1/4 mile from the trail at the 90° angle. So I decided to walk straight to the road. The good thing about a burnt forest is few undergrowth, easy to hike cross country. I walked on the road to the TH, and waited there, setting my boots and socks out on the logs to dry. Saw Tomoko first when she was heading up the trail to look for us. she was relieved to see me. 15 minutes later, the other 4 hiked out.

All is well that ends well. Got home early, did laundry and promptly went to sleep.

Here is a trip report of someone who were on the slope the same Saturday. They gave up setting up their tents at Lunch Counter and skied out the same day.

2017.6.13. Neal Stephenson at Powell's

6/13, 7pm. Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland promoted their new collaboration The Rise of Fall of D.O.D.O at Powell's Cedar Hill Crossing branch. A bit disappointing. Maybe Stephenson has lost his edge. All his books were so verbose, but he wasn't very talkative today.

2017.6.12. Gillette Lake and Greenleaf Overlook

6/12. Sunday. Overcast to partly sunny. Hiked with Friends of the Gorge from Bonneville TH, on PCT north to Greenleaf Overlook and back. Total 15 people, including the lead and sweep. Eli Boschetto, hiking guide and author of Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail: Oregon.

The trail is filled with little rocks, hard on ankles. The later part is better trail. The view is so so, quite a bit of clear cut and powerline. Saw two lakes. There're surprising amount of poison oak. The trail also crossed road twice. This photo was taken on a road. You can see Table Mountain behind in the clouds. The trail next to this lake has many campsites, because there's a creek (Greenleaf Creek?) between the trail and the lake. One lake shore spot was full of garbage: a dog collar, a sleeping bag, multiple empty coke cans and such.

Here's where we had lunch, our turn-around spot. Today's sweep, Linda. She and I went 5 minutes further to look for another baldy outcrop. We didn't find what she was looking for, as we had promised to return in 10 minutes, but saw some paintbrush. I like Linda. She likes to ID flowers, and uses the same app as I do. She happens to have hiked Milford Track with her husband this past winter (in Feb). She did in a pampered way: guided. Hot shower every day, all meals and snacks, beer and wine after dinner! I still prefer mine. Her 3rd day was rainy, so she missed the best view of the hike. Lots of twin flowers, miner's letters, candy flower, a bit paintbrush further from the lookout, and lots of daisy in the cut/disturbed area. Some nice tiger lily, columbine, orange honeysuckle, prunella vulgaris, blue gilia capitata. Another interesting participant is a geologist who did his doctoral dissertation on the mud flow of the area. He also showed a few of us his Chief Joseph Lodgepole Pine: the needles turn golden in winter, and return to green in June.

In the afternoon, I went to downtown waterfront, hoping to see the floats used in yesterday's grand parade. I guess I was too late, didn't see any. There was a long line in front of the USS navy ships (fenced in for security). I was too late for that too, but I got on to HMCS Brandon from Victoria, BC. There were about 4-5 officers in spiffy all white uniforms showing people around. After that, I went to the trailer that housed some VR computer gaming stations promoting US Navy. Pretty primitive.

TOUR TIMES

US NAVY
Friday – Bunker Hill: 9:30 a.m. to noon
Jackson: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Saturday – Both ships: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Sunday – Both ships: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

US COAST GUARD
Thursday – All ships 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Friday – All Ships 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Saturday – Alert: CLOSED (Special Event)
All Other Ships: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Sunday – Underway

USCG T/V Ironwood: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

CANADIAN
Thursday – All Ships: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Friday – All Ships: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Saturday – All Ships: CLOSED (Special Event)
Sunday – All Ships: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

2017.6.10. Xamarin Dev Day

6/10, Saturday. Thunderstorm briefly. I was almost late, even though I budget 20 minutes extra. Police had blocked a street where my bus line is. The Grand Flora Parade was expected, and people were already lining up their lawn chairs.

Xamarin Dev Day is hosted by Viewpoint Construction Software. Lunch is sponsored by Microsoft (pretty lousy: subway sandwich). Speakers are from Viewpoint. I left before the reception, with my raffle prize of a mini drone.

The event is to entice developer to use Xamarin and Microsoft Visio Studio (both free, for community version). The goal is most likely so you'd be using Azure for the Cloud service. Every big players are competing in the Cloud space. There're $100 coupons for Azure you can take.

I'm impressed with how easy is to use Xamarin in Visio Studio (one of the extensions - all free). Before Microsoft acquired Xamarin, this is one expensive piece of software, which allows you to write one app and with minimal modification, deploy to 3 platforms (iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone). The test cloud is also very handy and easy to use. I attended the first half of the hands-on lab, cutting and pasting code following the instruction (well written, with one bug). Got the app to run on my Android phone. Still need to go home and understand how they relate to each other, especially that I've never programmed in C# before. Overall a well run class. Certainly got the message across.

After the event, I went to check out FINDpdx, benefiting Bradley Angle, a local nonprofit supporting survivors of domestic violence. Looks like a rummage sale, but with brand new items. You find price online, and then pay 50%. Clothing and electronic gadgets, some insect repellent (I bought a bottle). I had 20 minutes before they closed. Spent ~$30. This will continue on Sunday.

Went to International Rose Test Garden afterwards. Roses are blooming nicely. Lots of people. Construction is still going on.

2017.6.9. Paula Pondstone promotes her book at Powell's

6/9, Friday, 7pm. I went to Powell's Cedar Hills store for an author reading event. As I was walking in the store (10 minutes late), I heard this familiar voice, loud and clear. I searched my mind of who that might be. I didn't write down on my calendar who the author was, only went because of the funny title "Totally Unscientific Study of Happiness". Once I saw Paula Poundstone's name on the book cover, it dawned on me, that I heard her at Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.

Paula is very funny and candid. Tireless, a bit verbose, she kept talking, more than the store manager liked. She also read a section of her book about watching movie together with her 3 children for a day. I don't know why would anyone buy the book. It's fun to hear her reading it while making comment. More of a rant.

2017.6.7. Home Made Soda

Saundra Kamman of HerbN Tea led a class in the central library to learn two different methods for creating your own personal sodas. First is syrup (infused flowers like Lavender or fruits like cucumber) + soda water. The 2nd is more interesting. Everyone got hands on chopping and pouring for the latter, and each of us brought a bottle home. Here's a basic ginger ale recipe:

Chop organic ginger to small (mm) size - no peeling needed.
Cook in filtered or distilled water for some time.
Cool to room temperature.
Add organic or wild honey (unfiltered). Mix well.

In each 1-litre plastic bottle -- has to be plastic for elasticity, add 1/4 teaspoon of wine yeast.
Pour above liquid till 1/4 of bottle.
Fill with still water.
Wait ~1 day, depending on temperature, until the pressure of fermentation making the bottle very hard.

After a day, I drank some, added the juice of one grapefruit to feed the bacteria, and put in fridge. The bottle re-pressurized quickly. I drank some (diluted with water) every day for a week.

2017.6.4. Mount Pilchuck and Heather Lake

6/4, Sunday. Cloudy. Lured by a mostly sunny forecast, headed to Mount Pilchuck in thick clouds, hoping for an amazing 360° view later in the afternoon. Last time I came here, it was 8 years ago.

First half of the trail is rock and some mud. Then it's soft snow and occasionally big boulders. I used micro-spikes, but probably not necessary. Trekking poles are definitely useful. Half of the people on the slope today didn't use any traction device. A few skiers. The door to the Lookout is open, but shutters are down, so you cannot see any view from the inside. Walk around the deck, and then go in to consult the name of the peaks. For us, it's too cloudy to see much. Little wind today. Pleasant temperature. Walked east to a ledge, where skiers were going down the gully. One dog refused to go down the steep slope. His owner had to backtrack up and then walk down with her dog, who also has problem on boulders. On the way down, she and a few of us went down a bit too much (me on my butt glisading), and lost the track. Had to consult my GPS map to climb backup to the trail. Despite the overhanging dark clouds, the hike was fun, certainly more interesting than the dust of summer.

The access road to Mt Pilchuck is mostly gravel (~7 miles with potholes). However, after the sign of "Damaged Road", it is paved, just old pavement. This is the same access road (~1.4 miles) to Heather Lake. So when we drove by on the way in, the parking lot was overflowing. On the way out, there were only about 5 cars. It was close to 6pm. Only 2 miles to the lake. Dry trail soon turned into water and mud. Lots of rocks, and dead trees. Snow appeared as you come down towards the lake basin. The lake is beautiful as ever. Just not many places you could stand close to the shore, either swamping or bushy. The boardwalk was mostly under snow. A duck couple.

Sun set on the way back to I-5. Now the sky is clear of clouds. A bit too late!

2017.6.3. Ed Viesturs at Gear Junkie Tour

6/3, Saturday. Ed Viesturs joined Gear Junkie's Live Your Adventure Tour for their last tour stop in Seattle.

4:30-6:30 at The Mountaineers's south climbing plaza. Ed showed total beginners like me how to make two basic knots: Figure 8 and Butterfly. He's very easy going and patient. Gear Junkie provides ropes and harnesses. I was able to climb a wall (wait in queue) while one of the Gear Junkie employee holding the rope on the other end. Afterwards, everyone was given a buff and two raffle tickets, and I and many others asked Ed to sign it.

7pm, event moved to Eddie Bauer store in University Village. I didn't want to be at the store too early, so went to check out the very first Amazon Books nearby. It's been a year and half, since Amazon opened this brick-and-mortar premise. Very busy this Saturday evening. Quite a few sales person walking around and asking if I needed help. Everything (except for maybe magazines) lists user ratings on Amazon. Only the highest rated items are stocked in store. Most are books, but also gadgets like Kindle, Fire TV, Echo, Bose headsets, USB cables, batteries. There're also a few sections arranged as "if you like this" - the left most book on the shelf, "you'll like these" - the rest of the shelf. Around the walls and windows are steps to sit, with Kindle Fire on the side for you to use if needed. Comfortable space to while away time, while browsing the books and magazines.

This Eddie Bauer store is quite small for an event. Not many people showed up, maybe two dozens. Gear Junkie gave everyone in the Eddie Bauer store another raffle ticket, and showed a few events and outdoor groups in Seattle on screen. Ed spoke of First Accent line of clothing since he's an Eddie Bauer Athlete. He then hung around for a bit chatting with whoever wants to talk to him, and later with the owner of GearJunkie. He left during the raffle. Here’re the gears that were raffling away!

- Maximus Duffel - 45L
- Alchemist 40 Backpack
- Stargazer 2-Person Tent
- Flying Squirrel 40° Sleeping Bag
- Cenote Bladder - 3L

And some Eddie Bauer gift cards and GearJunkie T-shirts. I got a $25 gift card.