2021.4.11. Camp Muir

4/11, Sunday. Better weather today (in fact the following 10 days were sunny and warm, warmer, hot).

I have never made it to Camp Muir. So wanted to try it. It's a good workout. A lot of folks had the same idea. A line of people were marching to Camp Muir on this sunny day. More than half of these are skiers. View up to Rainier and down to Tatoosh Range (with Mt. Adams behind) is excellent. Only from higher up, we saw St. Helens. The temperature significantly dropped around 9000'.

At 2:45pm, I opted to have a lunch break instead of pushing to Camp Muir, which needs another 15 minter or so. Reason: the gate at Longmire closes at 5pm. Still winter season. Coming back was fast and easy, a little bit of post-holing. Made to the gate at 5:01. On the way out, saw a Cascade Red Fox sitting by the tree above the road watching the cars leave.

Condition is perfect. Nothing icy. Soft snow. I used micro-spikes all the way. Did use ice axe briefly for a short glissade. The slope is not steep enough. Without sunscreen, we got very burnt.

The gate at Longmire will stay open starting the next day.

2021.4.3. Mailbox Peak

4.3, Saturday, partly sunny. Headed up Mailbox Peak via the old trail and came down via the new trail. The 2 parking lots were full. Since no trail bus running now, we parked by the bus stop.

Ran into V, as he came down the old trail. Inquire about his Hood climb last Wednesday with Y. Compact snow starting ~3500, below the junction. Deep snow once out of the woods. Most had micro-spikes, a few wearing crampons, which is unnecesory. Saw 2-3 hikers sliding down, one head first, another belly down, totally lost control. I tossed the belly guy's jacket to him, and a hiking pole, which turned out not his.

The Mailbox was completely buried under the snow. Someone kindly dug the snow out around it, so you can see it. We walked east to sit and have lunch, so stay away from the crowd next to the Mailbox. The view is quite good, despite of the clouds. Saw one guy coming back from Dirtybox.

On the way down, I tried to glissade, using my tekking pole to control the speed. In order not to bread the pole, I was holding it low, at the basket, which got my right hand scratched on the snow. Got a little bloody. Ended walking down. Next time, bring ice-axe for glissade!

2020.3.31. Cherry Blossom at UW Quad

3/31, Wednesday. I went to UW via lightrail. Walked along Rainier Vista. Could see Rainier, but a bit hazy. The Quad is always beautiful. But this year so many people, more than pre-Covid. Way too crowded. I like last spring much better. Quieter. Maybe I'll try to come here early morning when students are still asleep.

2021.3.27. Climb Mt. St. Helens

3/26, Friday, I ate a very early meal, and headed out ~5:15pm. Met V at a lightrail station an hour later. Drove to Marble Mount Sno-park. Traffic at Tacoma and JBMC. Couldn't even reach the trailhead parking. Cars were already parked along the road, when we arrived ~10pm. 40°F. Warm. Cars were still driving in and out, and people walking in headlights. We tried to settle down for some rest. But it was very busy. Some talking loudly when they walked by. I really don't understand why they were walking around. A few tents popped up on the road, but most slept in their cars. I took the front seat, V folded down backseat, and slept in the trunk bed. I don't think I got much sleep, noise and light throughout the night. I had to put on earbud and played podcasts to block some noise. Eventually I did pass out, until 1:10am, when V got up to pee. Well, we might as well get up, even though our alarm was set to 1:40am.

3/27, Saturday, V cooked water for breakfast and more for his thermos. I ate cereal in cold almond milk (I didn't bring a stove, was taking only a day pack). While waiting for V, I ate a bar. ==> This, it turned out, was not enough, because I didn't eat since 5pm yesterday. V's pack was heavy, so we went through it and dumped a couple of items.

Walked 0.3 miles to TH, filled out climbing permit, signed the registry. Put on microspikes, and off we went at 2:20am. The forest was dark, but the trail is straightforward. No wind in the forest, not cold. I had to make stops to take off layers, twice. I was down to just my thick base layer. V had to remove his gaiters to cool off. His glasses were fogged up so badly, that he had to pack it away. We were, in fact, walking in clouds. When we finally left the forest, a little bit of wind, so put on a shell. Soon, we broke out of the clouds. It was beautiful: the near-full moon was shining brightly. I felt like walking in Ansel Adams' black-white photo. This photo is from V's new iPhone. We could see everything clearly, I even switched off my headlamp.

As soon as the elevation picked up, I was feeling lethargic. After 2nd re-fuel, I was back to normal, and we were making good time. However, I lost my water bottle at some point. I had a thermos inside the pack, but only ~0.5L. V gave me some water, and I also ate snow (very hard).
The horizon started to light up slowly after 6am. Sun rose beside Mt. Adams. Wind kicked in, from time to time. Forecast was 25mph, more or less accurate. The slope wasn't icy, just hard snow. The spikes worked well. Saw a couple of people on snowshoes, many on crampons. I made to the rim ~7:02, maybe 5 minutes after sunrise. The view of Helens' crater and to the north is always amazing. Right now, the rising sun made everything glow, even more beautiful.

After a long break in our puffies, we continued towards the real summit. There was a traverse on a ~45° slope. No one had ventured over in recent days. I was afraid of avalanche. V was convinced that the snow was stable. He's determined to get to the true summit, as he climbed Helens this Jan already, but didn't go to the summit that time. We stopped to put on crampons, helmet, ice-axe. He went ahead first. Here, you can see our footprints.

Before the true summit, this small section has delicate snow patterns. After that, old footprints looked like sculptures, raised from the snow surface, instead of depression in the snow. Very odd.

We had the summit to ourselves. The red arrow shows where most hikers ended at. Took another break here, wind was on and off. On our way down, we met one hiker coming our way. Saw a couple of others contemplating the true summit. We went down directly to join the main trail. There, I packed away crampons, helmet, put back on microspikes. So many people on the slope, it looks like ant hill. On the lower slopes, we were able to glissade a little bit. In the afternoon, the butt tracks would be more established and smoother. Right now, the bumpy ride made my butt hurt. Sun was shining, getting warmer, postholed a bit to let uphill traffic go. At some point, we realized that V lost one trekking pole. Also a conincident that I saw Avinash on the trail going up, among a thousand others.

Still chilly in the forest. I had to put my fleece back on. Back at the parking lot ~12:20. Repacked, and drove back to the TH, hoping to see if anyone found V's trekking pole. We saw a pair of shoes: how is it possible to lose your shoes? I didn't count how many cars today, but the last car was 1.8 miles out! Thankfully, no one was ticketed.

Some traffic again on I-5 in the same places. Got to my train station ~4pm, very sleepy. After cleaned up and eaten, I slept for 10 hour straight.

2021.3.20. Central WA - Yakima area

3/20, Saturday. Rainy, west of the Cascades. We headed to sunshine again, with our camping gear, this weekend to Yakima area.
Took the scenic Canyon Road (WA-821) along Yakima River to Big Pines Campground. It's also the TH to Baldy Mountain (marked as TP Jim trail on Google Map. Many cars parked along the road. Many anglers on the river.

Quite a few people on the trail. Some small white lomatium all along the lower half, violet after the first butte, yellow lichen on sage brush. Some balsomroot buds. Should have more bloom in a month. Dry trail, a bit slippery at times due to loose surface. Open vista after the first butte. A bit cloudy today, otherwise, can see the Cascade Range. Today, just the wind turbines.

The summit has fenced cell towers, and gravel road beyond. It's rather flat, so couldn't see the river. Few minute below the summit offers much better view. Breezy at times, so didn't stay long.

Going down the same way. Slipped and got a bloody knuckle and elbow. Clouds moved in, and it hailed for at least half an hour. Hikers were still going up, despite of the dark clouds and hail. Found my lost glove by the lower trail.

Next, we went to Cleman Mountain - Waterworks Canyon loop, hoping to see big horn sheep. In cold winters, there is a feeding station nearby. This is part of Oak Creek Wildlife area, so Discovery Pass needed. A small parking lot, about 4 other cars (~3:30pm).
Open the gate, we headed up right along a steep ridge. Made slippery by the dry loose surface. Flowers are much better here. Daggerpods in lower elevation, purple lomatium Columbiana higher elevation, lots of yellow lomatium (Greyi?). Met two ladies coming down at the first butte. I don't want to go down here: too slippery. So, we are in for the loop. But later, we saw a group of 4 coming down here. As we went higher, more balsalt rocks, better view of the Naches River. The grade eased a bit. The trail is faint. Need to keep to the ridge. At some point, compared with my GPS map, I realized that we were on some elk trail. Had to scramble up fairly steep slope to regain the ridge. View gets better and better.

Point 3582 has a summit registry. A bit windy here, so we didn't stop. Then the trail goes down to a saddle. You can continue up to Clement Mountain. We took the left fork going down to Waterworks Canyon. This trail is quite obvious. At the junction at the bottom, we took a snack break.

Hiking out along the canyon is easy. Quite scenic. There was water at times (not on trail), no wonder sheep and elks frequent here. Saw this dead elk. A lot of elk/sheep droppings. About 10-15 minute before TH, we saw a herd of sheep on top of one hill west of the canyon. We hurried down to the car to fetch binocular.

At the parking lot, saw my books on the ground, a guy on the phone. Took us a couple of minutes to register that our window was smashed, all our stuff was stolen (even a half-used wet-wipe box). A heavy loss. The guy (Edwin) was on the 911 call. Their Jeep suffered the same fate. His girl, Candy, asked to use our cell phone. Signal wasn't good. She only got txt through. Her wallet was taken, so she asked her mom to cancel everything. We were told to call 911 separately. Deputy Sheriff Nicholas Ward came quite shortly afterwards. He logged two cases. Ours is 21C04416. We were told to call the office with details, because he has a police dog which he has to deliver to another place. He was courteous. The buglar, Gene, lost his phone in the jeep. They handed it to Deputy Ward. When waiting for the deputy, Candy lend us her binocular, so we saw the sheep better. They were moving down the hill.

We drove home despondantly. Had to stop fairly early on to put on all our clothes, it was cold with a window gone. Then, rain. At least not heavy rain.

I tried to call on Sunday. The Yakima County Sheriff office is only open 10-5 M-F. Called a couple of times on Monday, finally talked to detective Casey. He gave me Deputy Ward's email address, so I emailed him a list of lost items, photo of the broken window. Spent most of time shopping for replacement.