any other hikers here?

[gu03alum]

my brother was in town from Reno. I asked him if he wanted to do a hike and he said yeah, but nothing too difficult. I have had my eye on Tolmie for a while, but have been reluctant with how popular it is. WTA said 1100 feet elevation gain over 7.5 mile round trip. I figured that would not be too difficult. It wasn't too bad of a hike. My dad, sister, and cousin came too. They stopped at the lookout. I dropped my bag, grabbed my beer and finished the climb to tolmie. That part after the lookout was probably my favorite part. It goes along a ridge that gets a little narrow in places. There were a lot of people at the lookout but I had the peak to myself for a few minutes. Some other people joined me and I asked them to take my picture. This is me on top with Rainier behind.



Eunice Lake below the ridge to Tolmie



lookout from the ridge

[Zagceo]

Great Pics 03....what a day!

Rainier looks as bare as I've ever seen

What camera did you use?

[seacatfan]

Whoa, I've seen countless TRs on WTA for Tolmie and never realized the LO isn't on the actual summit. Learn something new every day.

Beautiful pics as usual!

[seacatfan]

Rainier looks as bare as I've ever seen

Sadly that's the case all over the NW. Adams and Hood are basically naked. They don't have as much glaciation as Rainier and there's just an unbelievable amount of rock exposed that usually isn't.

[seacatfan]

Hey is that a sliver of Mowich Lake showing in the first pic? I didn't notice that at first.

[gu03alum]

Great Pics 03....what a day!

Rainier looks as bare as I've ever seen

What camera did you use?

I use my iPhone 12

Hey is that a sliver of Mowich Lake showing in the first pic? I didn't notice that at first.

Yes, that is Mowich Lake. I kind of wish I had brought swim trunks to go swimming in one of the lakes.

[gu03alum]

I hiked up to Lake Ingalls with the masses on Friday. It was very cloudy and started snowing on us on our way up to the pass. The trail was very slick in places as it was muddy and frozen at the same time. I did not think I was going to be able to see Stuart. When we got to the top of the pass we could in fact see Stuart! I was so excited. The larches were yellow. All of the ground was covered in snow. It was very beautiful. It was slick though and I put on my microspikes. Many people had gone the wrong way even though it was easy to see which way the trail went. When we got to the lake there was a bunch of people right by the edge of the lake and we noticed no one had gone up the rocks. We went up the rocks and were all alone up there. Other than some woo girls at the lake it was awesome.





Yesterday we went to navaho pass. We only saw 4 hikers and about 8 hunters on the trail. We also came across 4 cows about 2.5 miles into the hike. It was a beautiful day, very clear and sunny. When we got to the pass we had views of the enchantment peaks. We climbed a few hundred feet higher and had a view of the top of Stuart too.

[gozagswoohoo]

Holy smokes....incredible.

[seacatfan]

Love the Teanaway!

[gu03alum]

Love the Teanaway!

There's lots of camping up there too. Every time I'm driving home from a hike up there I'm like why didn't I bring my camping gear and stay here a few days.

[seacatfan]

There's lots of camping up there too. Every time I'm driving home from a hike up there I'm like why didn't I bring my camping gear and stay here a few days.

That used to be an annual rite of spring for me. Head over there and car camp for a night or two, and do a series of day hikes. Most of that area melts out fairly early in the year (other than Ingalls Lake, that trail holds snow much longer for some reason, even the southern facing portions).

[gu03alum]

I went for a short hike with my dad last week in the Dishman Hills conservation on a trail called the Flying L. Description made it seem pretty easy, but dad and I were huffing and puffing up the hill. I'm going to blame it on Thanksgiving even though we went two days later.

Today, I went on a hike I found in a book I recently purchased for hiking with dogs in western Washington. A lot of the hikes in the book are either far away from me or places I don't want to go this time of year with the dog. So, I found a hike on the peninsula that was dog friendly called Dry Creek at the end of Lake Cushman. As I hoped there were no other cars at the trailhead. We went down a road surrounded by private property before getting to an actual trail. There were still houses after the road ended. One was maybe 1/3 of a mile beyond and they were running a generator. That's a long way to haul gas. After that last house, I let the dog off leash. Pure joy. She was running up the trail and then coming back to me over and over. As we got further up the trail I noticed more and more elk droppings. Just as I started thinking I really hope we don't come across any elk there was a herd of elk about 100 yards away. We spooked them a little and they moved up above the trail. I thought about continuing, but I could see them just above us and I really didn't want to tempt fate. We were about 3 miles in so it was a good hike and we turned around. Live to hike another day.

[seacatfan]

Those are some muddy paws! Good times.


Man I've gotten so damn lazy. I didn't do a Black Friday hike for the first time in forever. Let myself down.

[seacatfan]

I hadn't hiked in forever, way over due. My one time semi regular and now barely ever hiking partner me dragged me out and got me on the trail today. I can't believe I'd never done it, but we hiked up Sauer's Mtn. outside of Leavenworth. It's nice. Lots of flowers out, more heavily forested than I was expecting, lots of birds chirping and singing. My lack of conditioning was painfully apparent, I wasn't even quite sure if I was going to make it to the top. I did eventually. About 2000' of gain in 3 miles, so it's definitely got some steepness to it. So cool that private land owners allow the public access to the trail.

[gu03alum]

I haven't been able to do much hiking lately. Too much stuff going on at home and too much traveling. I was supposed to do Adams earlier this year, but was saved by the road not being accessible due to all the snow. I say saved because I have never been so fat in my life. I hurt my ankle and back last summer and since then have put on about 20 pounds. I have been active, but it's been tough to get rid of that weight. Next step is to change my diet .

Anyway, I wanted to see where I was at as far as fitness level so I decided to climb Granite Mountain yesterday. Granite is 3800 feet of elevation gain in about 4.5 miles. It was struggle. Once you leave the Pratt Lake trail and start heading up to Granite, it is steep, steep, steep. I was slow, having to rest a lot along the way. After making it through the trees, there was bear grass everywhere. It was really pretty. When you get to about 1,000 feet from the summit, you can decide to take the main route which drops around the back of the mountain and then goes straight up to the top on a trail or you can do a scramble up and over some big boulders. Everyone was going for the boulders so I decided to go the main route. This is where I first encountered snow. It was snow the rest of the way. The last 750 feet or so was very steep and the snow was pretty soft. A few times it gave out under one of my feet. Luckily I didn't go down with it. Exposure wasn't bad until close to the very top. I would have slid a long ways and had to restart my climb if I did, so that would have sucked. At the top, there was a lot of snow still on the summit part of the mountain with large cornice in places. I think people were surprised to see me come from that direction. The snow was gone at the lookout. I enjoyed a snack and the view. Unfortunately, Rainier was covered by clouds. I decided to head back down the boulders. The boulders were like a walk in the park. According to my tracking app, I was about 30 minutes slower than when I did it last year so I definitely have a lot of work to do.