Mt Stuart...4th of July 2009

This past 4th of July weekend had superb weather and was filled with all sorts of good times. We intended on running the PCT from Stevens pass to Snoqualmie pass...Glenn sent me this note on Thursday...

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Talked to the snoqualmie ranger station. still snow in some avalanche shoots. They went up to kendal catwalk and didn't go beyond because they didn't have their ice axes. the skykomish ranger said snow above 4k and there will be intermiten snow the whole way. If we do this we would need to bring ice axes and maybe katoolals and maybe my 6mm line that RVg has. Last weekend I met a guy up on stevens who had hiked down from canada and was continuing on south so there will have been at least one who has tried it.
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We opted out and chose to head East to Mt. Stuart on Friday and see if we could get up the mountain. Tell of the trail was 10 hours round trip from the car with 1.5 hours on the top. We traveled with crampons, Ice Axe, 30 meters of 6mm rope, helmets and the 10 essentials (lightweight version).

2009 July - Mt Stuart

Good times, Saturday I did a recover ride as my legs were hammered and Sunday JVG, Aaron and I rode Tiger and added on some bonus climbs as well as a new trail that punished me. My front brake went out while dropping into a very steep descent. I slid of the trail into the forest where I hit a downed tree and taco'ed my front wheel. After 20 minutes of Aaron and I jumping on my wheel to make it rideable we hiked back to the road and descended to the parking lot, with a mere flesh wound :-) We also paddled around Lake Samamish to round out the weekend and enjoy the sun. AWESOME weekend.

Training on the I-90 corridor

Top of Mt Washington...in between the clouds

Oh Brothers...

Last weekend I scooted up the Brother Mountains (South Peak) on the Olympic Peninsula with Glenn and Mac . It could have been the hottest day in the Pacific Northwest in 2008 as far as I am concerned, wow it was a scorcher. We started the day off early in Seattle and headed down to Tacoma to pick up Glenn. Down to Olympia and up 101 just past Hoodsport to FS 25 where we drove to the Lena Lake trail head.

The First three miles to Lena Lake flew by as we carried a pretty brisk pace, running the flats and fast hiking the climbs...lots of climbing the entire time. We were surrounded by old growth forest and different shades of green coming off of everything. When you adventure out in the Olympic Peninsula you enter the forest, and you know it. This place is truly amazing.

After Lena Lake we kept moving along on the Brothers Trail until the first split in the creek that it follows on and off. We passed many campers and we got a kick out of Glenn making sure that all the hungover campers were woken up with his rowdy stories and occasional clapping. Once we headed West the trail dissipates and starts to really work its way up. We entered an area that had been burnt out from a fire last year and the trail ends and route finding begins. Not very difficult, we jumped in a dry creek bed and followed that up until the top becomes visible.

Somebody turned the heat up on us and I started to sweat profusely. Just in time to run into some snow melt and an underground spring that filled our waterhole on the way up and the way down. After that it was heads down one foot in front of the next on our way up. We reached the peak at around 3pm and soaked in the views for a while. There was a bit of haze in the air but I was still able to make out Rainier and Downtown Seattle from the top. As well we started filling our to do list with more peaks...Constance, Ellanor, Jupiter, Washington, Bretherton (sp?)

The slog back to the car was pretty uneventful, except for the refreshing swim in Lena Lake and a small break for our legs. We spent most of our time talking about what we were going to eat on our way home...we settled for the double T in Hoodsport at some bar with a human size picture of a cheeseburger on the outside...it was scrumptious!

Successful trip, looking forward to many more in the area.

Northern Cascades - Teebone Ridge

We set out on Saturday morning from Jeannie and Jamie's in Rockport for the Teebone Ridge Traverse. We shuttled a car the night before to Newhalem and intended to hike/climb the Teebone ridge from the Lookout Mountain trailhead and then bushwhack down into Newhalem for some great off trail travel and rugged terrain.

On our way up to Lookout Mountain...4000ft+ from the car. The mountain in the background is the ridge that accesses the Teebone ridge. We bushwhacked up the left hand side of the low vegetation after we Climbed Lookout.

Bushwhacking (Easy travel, but steep) up towards the ridge. You can see Lookout Mountain and its fire tower in the background. That is where we came from.

Aaron testing his arm from high on the ridge...Mt Baker in the background.

Climbing Little Devil...fund peak and the bottom of the "T" in the Teebone traverse.

Little Devil in the background...clouds moving in.

After a big cell moved in and unleashed during the night, we woke up to clouds and we were in them. We decided it was a bit safer to travel back the way we came instead of out accross the ridge we intended to traverse. We'll be back to complete the Teebone traverse when we can link a couple of sunny days together :-)