Estes Park is magical. Wishing you a speedy recovery.Originally Posted by kitzbuel
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Estes Park is magical. Wishing you a speedy recovery.
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right
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Ah, bummer kitz. Best wishes for a quick recovery.
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When I have been on the section you are talking about which is only a couple of times I haven't seen too many people. It sure is pretty up there.
When I climbed Olancha Peak in California last fall much of the trail was on the PCT. We didn't see another human and it was about a 22 mile round trip hike. I think no one was up there because there is supposed to be no water up there in the late fall when we went and through hikers would have passed that area months ago.
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Damn, that sucks. I had that when I was playing basketball a lot. I went to the doctor and the doctor was like your getting old and this is part of getting old. I asked what I could do about it. He just shrugged and told me to buy orthotics from the grocery store. That has surprisingly helped me a lot. I rarely have issues with it anymore (though I don't think mine was as severe as yours).
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Tangential, but we've been jumping around all over the place. Another place to avoid Bart if you want solitude is Mt. Everest. Anyone seen this insane picture of the lineup of climbers stuck at a bottle neck near the top? Into Thin Air and some other books chronicled the 1996 disaster when 8 people died on the mountain during a storm. If the wrong conditions hit with the crowds up there now, we could easily see 20 or more people die up there. That pic looks like more than 50 people and allegedly they can get stuck up there for several hours at a time because there just isn't room for people to be moving around.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...4XMPOoK4jEu-cc
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Visited my parents near Portland. Got in a few hikes. On the Oregon side of The Gorge I started at Herman Creek trailhead and took a short connector trail to the PCT. Followed the PCT south as it switchbacked up onto Benson Plateau. I'd hit the plateau from other trails but hadn't been on that section of the PCT before. This area is immediately east of Eagle Creek, ground zero of that big fire a couple summers ago. I was amazed that there was very little fire damage up there. A few charred trees but no areas that were totally scorched. Flowers blooming like crazy. Trailhead was about full but I hardly saw anybody, most of them must've taken the main Herman Creek trail or another spur to Gorton Creek. Of the people I did see, most of them were from the Midwest (a couple from Illinois and a couple from Minnesota).
On the Washington side did the short but spectacular hike to Falls Creek Falls with my mom. We hadn't hiked together for quite a while, that was nice. This trail was quite busy but not obnoxious.
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Not really hiking since we took a tour, but my wife and I just came back from a trip to Germany/Czech. This is Neuschwanstein Castle, built by King Ludwig II. Disneyland was modeled after it.
A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths.
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I was in Minnesota last week for a 5 day trip canoeing the boundary waters with my dad and a couple of his friends. We got there a day early so we could hike the Minnesota high point. It is a 2,300 foot hill called Eagle Mountain. It’s up in the northeast part of the state. It was a nice hike. We crossed a few creeks and hiked along a lake until heading up. When we got to the top there was a guy up there wearing a Gonzaga hat. He is a high point guy like my dad and his friend. I am always amazed the random places I run into people with a connection to the university. The views near the top were cool. The drive there was cool too. We drove through Duluth and along Lake Superior much of the way. That lake is like looking at an ocean. You don’t see the other side.
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I ran into a high pointer years ago in Montana and we summited Granite Peak together. He was fairly young but was most of the way thru the 50. He was saving the hardest for last. He hadn't done Denali yet, I don't think he'd done Rainier or Hood either.
Montana is still my only high point. I have a lot of work to do if that is a goal. One unsuccessful attempt on both Hood and Rainier. Idaho's intrigues me but I haven't made it to that part of the state yet.
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My dad didn’t quite make it to the top of granite peak. I think he would like to attempt it again. Sounds like a tough mountain. My dad and his buddy said that chicken out ridge in Idaho lives up to its name. I would like to do that when I visit my wife’s sister in Boise.
I have Whitney and Eagle Peak so I have a long way to go also. I did Wheeler Peak in Nevada which used to be the high point until they realized boundary peak is in Nevada and not california.
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Whoops.
Okay, I had to look that up. It only has 253 feet of prominence and might actually be a sub-peak of Montgomery Peak in California. So it's a philosophical debate. It may be the highest point above sea level in Nevada but not really a summit. That's a conundrum.
When I climbed Granite I was doing a lot of solo scrambling including some low 5th class. It was fairly standard for me at the time but I don't do much real climbing anymore and I've noticed my risk tolerance is much lower.
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I attempted Shriner Peak. I picked it because it was 3,400 feet of elevation gain over 4 miles. I thought it would be a good training hike for Shasta. I had read previous trip reports and saw that there was snow still on the trail near the top. It was a tough hike, seemed like the uphill was relentless with no flat spots. I hit snow on the trail at around 4,800 feet. The snow was deep and there were no apparent tracks to follow, some very faint ones at times. I followed my GPS as best I could and got to around 5,300 feet (summit is at 5700 feet) and I was in a thick forest. The snow was 3-4 feet deep except around the trees. This made hiking through this area crappy. It was choose 6 inch snow bridge between trees or hike down to the ground next to the tree and then hike back up to the snow. I decided I would try for the summit another day and turned around. I had gone back a half mile or so still in the snow and came across two forest rangers. The female ranger was asking me questions about whether I had made it to the top or the lookout and I told her I got frustrated in the forest ahead. She said they were just going to go straight up, gain the ridge and head for the lookout. I was thinking that's a great idea, much better than trying to follow a trail with gps. I noted that it seemed like no one had been up there in a while with the lack of tracks. She said that it had snowed heavily recently and that's why there were no tracks. That blew me away. It wasn't that high and it was still snowing up there. I'm glad to hear that as I have heard our snowpack is lacking this year. I next came across these two people with thick European accents. The lady was asking me if I had heard a sound, a deep ooooh, ooooh, ooooh. I said yeah, and said I thought maybe it was a bird or maybe an elk (I had no idea, never heard that sound before, but I saw lots of elk tracks and scat and lots of birds on the trail). She said she thought it might be a bear and that she had seen bear scat. I had been pretty focused on looking at the trail and noting the different scat and flowers that were starting to bloom, but I didn't see any bear scat. All in all, it was a good hike that I will revisit later in the summer so I can get to the summit. It is supposed to have great views of Rainier and Adams.
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I have a nice little before breakfast one mile hike I take most early cool summer mornings in Hampton Canyon....elevation gain is about 750'... just enough to get the blood moving with a comfortable cool down on the mile back.... next to a creek my dog revels in....
I just read that GPS in making us stupid.....I have a Spot for emergencies but still use maps and compasses and altimeters for off trail exploring.... wildflowers still glorious.
Was up the Icicle last week to day hike into 8 mile or Stuart/Colchuck….might as well as gone to Green Lake....
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Hey gu03 I bet that sound was a grouse. Either that or a sasquatch. I tried Shriner once, it was foggy and I bailed on it rather quickly. Was my 3rd or 4th day in a row hiking around Rainier, decided I was good for the moment and just headed home. Should try again but haven't made it back yet.
Never mind Green Lake bart, you should head for Mt. Si to really enjoy the ambiance of hiking with a couple hundred of your new best friends.
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I get that, but it has come in handy on occasion. On my trip to Minnesota we used it two times where it really helped us. We missed a trail on our hike the high point and ended up on another trail. It didn't feel right so I looked at my GPS and saw that we had taken the wrong trail. We backtracked and found where the right trail turns off to Eagle Mountain. I think we would have turned around at some point anyway and found the trail, but it definitely made us do it faster. We navigated by compass and map in the Boundary Waters, but at one point we were in a very large lake with lots of islands in the middle. We were supposed to turn West at one of the islands, but we had kind of lost track of where we were at. It was very windy and we were concentrating on keeping the canoe from flipping. We pulled off into an island while we tried to figure out where we were on the map based on the landmarks around us. We thought we knew where we were at, but I was able to confirm it with my gps. It was nice to have a little more certainty so we wouldn't have to backtrack across the windy lake.
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yes, I just looked it up. That was it, thanks!
In Boundary Waters I really enjoyed the Loon call in the evening. I thought it was a coyote at first.
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Loons are so cool! One of the best sounds ever. I can't say I've ever heard it in person. But movies and tv shows sure love using it.
One of my favorite bird calls that I do hear regularly is the hermit thrush. The similar Swainson's thrush is really nice as well. On really good days I hear the Triple Crown of thrushes--hermit, Swainson's and varied. I don't really count robins because they are so common, but another thrush with a nice repertoire of songs.
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Worth repeating....if you hear a loon call or a wolf howl you are in a wild place....if you are not thrilled, you are in the wrong place... We have loons in Washington State......I grew up with them on Twin Lakes on Colville Indian Reservation.....haunting sound....
I have always wanted to go to Boundary Waters.....but something about the motion is so painful that I cannot paddle a canoe ….. oddly enough I can paddle a kayak …..so that is so fun......
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Upper Sardine Lake. This was a fun hike. Very few people out and about today.
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My Doctor(s) tell me that the best thing you can do for your body, your soul and your mind is to hike on uneven ground in a natural place ? Requires you to use all your muscles , your concentration/memory...problem solving and navigation skills.....it is all good..
They speculate that it will not only slow but even " repair" some age related memory loss in as little as a month... a Forest Bath is chicken soup for the soul.....assuming you don't fall down on your sorry ass and break something or get bitten by a snake, a tick or a animal...
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Bart, I think your doctor has it right. I'm not an experienced backpacker/hiker, but I do enjoy getting out and about and the hikes do seem to help my peace of mind.
One of my "to do's" now that I'm retired is to learn more about the trails closer to my own backyard, e.g., Mount Rose, Tahoe, Donner Lake, Truckee River. All are within 45 minutes of my place.
Last edited by RenoZag; 06-14-2019 at 05:12 PM.
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That looks amazing Reno. The Sierras, good stuff! I haven't explored around Tahoe area much, passed thru several times heading further south. Desolation Wilderness is supposed to be nice.
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Reno, I have cars built in Sparks on occasion so when I am there I hike at the ski areas in Tahoe/Reno and up at the Crest.....golf is also good for the body and the mind....not so much for the soul !
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Got a late start, headed up Perry Creek to Forgotten Meadows w/ a buddy yesterday. Nice day. Surprisingly melted out, some snow around the meadows but otherwise pretty much bare. Went about 100 feet above the meadows to a bump on the ridge for a bit better view of surrounding peaks. Parking lot was completely full. We saw a fair number of people coming down the trail as we were heading up, but I'm assuming the majority of the hikers went up the adjacent trail to Mt. Dickerman. Had it entirely to ourselves once we reached the meadows and on the way down.
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