2022.5.25. Mailbox old trail

Late Monday, R. from last Cutthroat trip messaged me and Mi about a day hike on Wednesday, because the upcoming weekend looked wet. I took the offer. Two of them were still debating which trail.

5/25, afternoon. Sunny. After a quick lunch, I took bus to Issaquah TC to meet R. Didn't read the trip report, so took micro-spikes and ice-axe just in case. Mailbox old trail is completely out of snow all the way to the top. Thankfully some small snow patches still lingered next to the trail on the top rocky section (above 4000', probably will be gone in a week or so), that allowed me to refill my water bottle. It was much warmer than I thought. I had brought only 1L of water. Met an Indian gentleman in all white long flowing robe and a thick wooden stick. He said he was in his 70s, and hikes almost every day. Just 1500-2000' each time, and then he turns around.

My lunch was inadequate. Less than an hour later, I had to sit down and refuel seriously. R. agreed to meet me at the summit. I felt better with more carbonhydrate and water. I almost caught up with R. later. Arrived at the summit at 4:25, 2.5 hours from the car, not too bad for 4000' gain. R. drank his non-alcoholic beer. I ate my shepherd's purse casserole. One chubby guy on the summit was taking selfies. He carried a large backpack for training. He said he was climbin Rainier in June. He also wore weights around his upper torso. Yes, I need to carry some weight. Saw a sleek white plane circling the summit. R. also found a bottle of beer. I was tempted. He put it back behind the rocks.

On the way down, I was faster. At some point, I realized that R's poles were still in his daypack, so encouraged him to use poles to ease the impact. I was dropped off at Issaquah TC ~7:10. I was hoping to attend a talk at 7pm, now it's too late, but certainly early enough to get home and clean up.

2022.5.21-22 Snow camp on Cutthroat Pass

5/21, Saturday, forecast 70% rain/snow in the afternoon. I had to leave before 6am to catch my train and then bus. 6 of us met at Everett's Ash Way P&R at 7am. Still partly sunny. Met with S in Arlington.

Parked along Hwy-20. Climbed up the snow bank (higher than me). Put on snowshoes right away. This is the parking lot, buried in deep snow. ~11am.
The first couple of miles are mostly flat, in the woods. No trail of course. Followed the GPS map, and faint ski tracks. Sometimes traversing steep slope, like it here (to cross a stream right after). An hour later, after crossing Porcupine Creek, we started to gain a bit elevation. Still mostly flat, but started to have some nice views of the Porcupine Creek drainage. At some point, the snow started, and it whirled around. I took out my umbrella, to the utter bemusement of my companions. The snow was short lived. We were able to have lunch in peace.

Going up to Cutthroat Pass looked very steep from afar, but when you are right there, it wasn't that steep (I was only able to glissade down only a small section here the next day). When we reached the pass, the snow was back, and we couldn't see a thing. Here are the 5 of the group. Ma is slower, way behind.
Continued south on the ridge. Mi. decided to set up camp on the 2nd knoll. It was a bit too narrow for a group of size 7 in my opinion, so I continued a bit more to the east, where I saw a flatter area with some larches. Ma. and D followed. 3 of us pitched our tents amoung the small trees, with more spaces around each tent. Thankfully, the snow stopped. It takes longer to prop the campsite in the snow. I also found some more trees down the slope for bathroom purpose.

At ~5pm, I carried my foam pad, stove and food to the other 4 tents on the ridge. Their tents were pitched one next to each other within arm's reach. 3 of them dug nice sitting holes where they sat half under the snow on their pads. Right at the end of my meal, snow came in again, and I went to hide in my tent with my library book. An hour later, I came out for sunset. Too cloudy to the west. Still very good view.

The night was chilly. Ice formed on my tent. My socks were frozen solid. My water bottle didn't freeze. Didn't come out to see stars. The half moon was bright.

5/22, Sunday. Up ~4:30, already bright. Nice sunrise. I walked further south along the ridge in micro-spikes towards Molar Tooth. It's beyond my ability to climb though. A nice short walk. Saw some pawprints. After the sun rose, I went back in my sleeping bag and read, waiting for the sun to dry my tent. When I realized that everyone was packed up, it was already 8:30am. Mi planned to hike out at 9am. Oops. Thankfully, it's so pretty here, and no one was in a hurry. I quickly packed up my wet tent, and by then, the 4 who campped on the 2nd knoll walked by our site, and walked further south like I did at dawn. Here is a photo of me and Ma waiting for them to return.

I wore spikes down so I could glissade, however not many opportunities. Put on snowshoes when the going got flat. We met a party of 2 skiers, and a partie of 2 snowshoers.

The group went to Mandu for dinner, except S (she needs to be back for her daughter). I waited for them in the backyard reading my book. R dropped me off near downtown REI, so it's just a short walk home. Thus concludes a very beautiful and easy weekend. The only small downside is there's not much to do once you reach the campsite. I was thinking of going up some slope on the north side, but Mi wasn't interested.

2022.5.13. Horse Lake Preserve in Wenatchee

5/13, Friday. Took a day off work, as the weather this weekend is very wet everywhere. Picked up a car at 9am. Filled gas first (it was only 1/4 full). It's ~3 hour drive to the Horse Lake TH. After the road turns gravel, I decided to turn back and park at the pull out with other ~5 cars, because the slope here was already blooming nicely (especially yarrow, phlox and lomatium). So I chose to walk instead of driving slowly.

My goal was the red dot marked on the first photo. There, you have a great view of the Enchantments and Glacier Peak. Today, the weather was not as good as last time, also balsamroot and lupine were either dead or just in bud. A disappoinment comparing with last May. Had lunch here with the view of the Cascades. There was only one other person here. He was on bike.

On the way back, I headed down north, all along, I could see the mountains (shaded blue on the map below). Another reason is that trip reports mentioned flowers were excellent along Homestead Trail. Indeed, it was very nice (shaded orange on the map below). More basalmroot and lupine here. Phlox is more pink here. Saw a few more hikers here.

The connection to my original trail passes through some dense phlox bloom (mostly white, see light pink shade on the map below). The trail crosses an interesting looking canyon. After the junction (Gut Saddle), I took a longer Jackhammer Trail back, instead of going on the ridge, just for the variety. However, the ridge trail has better flowers. Overall, more flowers on the north facing slopes.

Total about 10 miles. 25k steps. Even though colors are not as good as last year, it's still nice to walk among the flowers. It's a weekday, so less people.

No traffic on my way back. Stopped at Issaquah Trader Joe's before they close for some groceries. Drove to Hertz downtown's 6th floor parking. Couldn't find the key-drop. They had it when I rented a car last November. I saw a guy drove here to park, so I asked him. He said they removed the key-drop, because there were thefts breaking those boxes and stealing cars. He would come back and return the key the next morning. What a world! I drove home.

2022.5.8. Sweat at ACT

5/8, Sunday at 7pm. Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat takes us to a steel town in America, where the only factory in town is about to layoff workers to cut cost. First round is bringing in non-union workers, 2nd round is just moving overseas. Added into the drammer is one of them got "promoted" to the office from the factory floor. It's a good story well told. However, I didn't get away with better understanding or any more knowledge.

Nice stage set (a bar in town where a group of friends congregate), good acting.

2022.5.7-8 Central WA for sunnier and wider sky

5/7, Saturday. Left Seattle ~10am. No need to hurry. Was drizzling when I left home. Stopped at Cle Elum for gas, and filled a gallon of water to take to camp.

Backpacking to Ancient Lakes. First, ate lunch before starting the hike. Set up the tent at Dusty Lake, maybe ~1 mile from TH. Quite windy. Adding rock to all the anchors. I was planning to do the loop we did last May, but in reverse order. Saw a faint track up to the basalt columns, and decided to check it out. A little steep and loose. Once at the ridge, there is a proper trail going down the north side.

Walked to the waterfall east of the Ancient Lakes. Up above H Lake, just shortly before the parking lot at the official "Ancient Lake TH". This parking lot is day use only. Otherwise, it would be a good choice to start our hike. The lakes are always pretty. A lot less people than last time. We skirted the east end of Ancient Lake (no proper trail) last before. This time, I took a high route, and came to the waterfall's top. However, on top of rock scrambling (there's a faint track), there's a little bit of bushwacking in prickly low bushes. Even though the bushwacking part is short, my hands were in pain for a few days with unseen broken needles embedded in my skin.
Ancient Lakes basin is pretty, maybe 5 lakes, more people here. Found a trail up to the basal ridge that separates Dusty and Ancient Lakes basin. But going down there looks questionable. Excellent view of all the lakes from here.

We walked back to where we crossed earlier. Back to our tent. Wind had died down. Didn't cook dinner. Not very hungry. Read. The night sky was not very dark, lights from the northwest (Wenatchee?).

5/8, Sunday. Up early to blue sky, cooked breakfast. The water here is only good for washing, not fit for drinking. Agriculture runoff. We didn't use up the gallon of water. Hiked out.

Drove ~40 miles to PSU's Wild Horse Wind Facility. 3 miles up from the gate is its visitor center. I signed up the 10am turbine tour (same tours are offered in the afternoon too). Definitely windy here. Signed the waiver. Everyone was asked to wear hard hat and safty glasses. At least a dozen people joined the same tour. I liked it, even though we couldn't see any working turbine. There's a dead one outside to look at. The blade (modeled on airplane wings) is huge. The more modern stations use larger blade and the old models, so less revolution but catch more wind. Then the guide turn off a working station, so we could walk in and peek up. A long stairs up. She also showed us a wind map of US. Even though here is the most windy in WA state, compared to midwest, the winds here are tiny. Another surprising fact, this visitor center is powered by solar panel.

I also signed up for the 11am flower tour. So we just stayed on. After a presentation of the restoration effort during the site construction and what would we find in this time of the year, we went out. Chilly. Dark clouds brewing all around. Amoung other common spring flowers, we saw the endemic Umtanum lomatium, Hedgehog cactus (in bloom), Rock lupine (hairy leaflets), Hooker's balsamroot, Sagebrush violet. Succulent leaves of bitterroot.

After lunch, we did a short hike up a ridge over Yakima River. Last year's buckwheat garden had little in bloom today. Phlox was in peak along the slopes. Saw a few last blooms of Daggerpod. Didn't even see any Phacilia. It hailed a little bit. Strange weather.

Bad traffic on I-90 west of the pass for ~20 miles. At least 30 minute delay. Back in town early enough for my evening play.

2022.5.1. Ruby Mountain winter route

5/1, Sunday. 5 of us piled into one car, and drove north into the clouds. I managed to talk everyone into Ruby instead of the original destination, Eightmile Mountain, because it has 7 miles of road walk, which I was not looking forward to, and apparently no one else is keen on either. I had wanted to do Ruby since last year. Winter route is the way to go, 9-10 miles. Summer route is 17 miles RT, but doesn't make the grade any less steep. The downside today, and it's a serious one, is that the weather around Ruby is more cloudy. We made a gas stop and then a bathroom stop at Diablo Lake lookout. The mountains were all shrouded in clouds.

We parked in front of the road closure ~MM134 on Hwy20. ~2100'. About a dozen cars. Saw a biker on the road (and again on our way out). We started walking at 9am. First on the road to Happy Creek Nature trail. Nice boardwalk, and then trail. We met a big group of Boy Scout hiking out with huge backpacks.

Trail disapears after ~1 mile. Snow starts, hard and crunchy, punching through sometimes. Footprints going all directions. Confusing. Generally, keep to the left of Happy Creek, going up. About 1.5 hours in, we reached our first steep hill. ~3200'-3800'. Below is a flat area large enough to accommodate a large Scout group. What greeted us were many shoes hanging here and there. The skiers swapped into their gears here. I was told this is a very popular ski destination in winter. Certainly quite many today. We put on snowshoes. I don't like snowshoes on steep hill. This is steep. Thankfully, the snow is slushy. After this is traversing a section of trees, without much snow, steep. I swapped into spikes. Then snow again, and all the way up. I didn't put on snowshoes until here, while waiting for S and L to catch up. Ate a banana and some nuts. A fine view of Ross Lake, ~4200'. Still so many clouds.

The sun shone through the clouds from time to time. It was so warm in the sun. I could feel my legs sweat! Couldn't find my sunglasses. As we treaded higher, the clouds shifted and lifted more and more. At around 5800', traversed to the left for a gentler approach to Ruby. Ross Lake is always in the view whenever you look back. A good excuse to take breaks often.

The last hill is steep. Thanks to the soft snow, it was safe. The top ridge is almost flat. As I was marching to the summit, the clouds moved in again, blocking the fabulous view to the south and west. Finally, ~3pm (after 6 hours), I made to the summit. There are rocks poking out of the snow to sit on. A small hut with a tall antenna and solar panel. I was famished. Eat both sandwiches I made last night. What a view, whenever the clouds lifted, we were busy snapping photos. Don't even know which direction to sit. It's a bit chilly here. We stayed for almost an hour, and headed down shortly before 4pm.

Coming down, we tried to pick steep hills in order to glissade. The snow was too soft so need very steep grade to pick up speed. We all packed away snowshoes, but they are bulky and created extra drag. Postholing a lot when we couldn't slide. At one point, I got one foot stuck in the snow. Took many minutes to extract it (used ice axe to dig my foot loose). L managed to fall head down once with his legs up in the sky. We all waited for each other to ensure that no one disappears into a tree well. All in all, thanks to the soft snow, we were all fine. Snow eventually got into my boots. Again a bit confusing in the trees. Once back on the trail, it was smooth sailing. I washed my spikes and gaiters in Happy Creek. We cut the trail short and came out to the highway at MM135. Walked the last mile out on the road. We reached the car ~7:35pm. A long hike!

Driving out on Hwy-20, we saw 1 deer, and then another. Then a black bear ran across the road. We were in awe. 5 minutes later, saw another black bear sitting by the road eating something. When we drove by, saw him looking at us. Amazing.

Stopped in Arlington at a Mexican restaurant called La Hacienda. Very good service. Food is a bit too salty. They open late. We arrived after 9:30pm. I ordered to-go and ate outside. It wasn't cold outside. I was dropped off with 2 others near Capitol Hill, and I had to walk 30 minutes home. Didn't get home until after mid-night.

More photos from others in my team.