Kendall Katwalk & Ridge Lake Backpacking

This was my very first solo backpacking trip.  : )  I have mixed feelings about it, but glad I did it.  I started out with a water filter system I’d never tried out , a cooking system I’d never tried out, and a bear vault.  Unfortunately it’s not a vault to keep bears in, which sounds fun, but a (too heavy) plastic jar that keeps smells in that are interesting to bears, and theoretically makes the bears uninterested in tasting you or parts of your gear since you obviously have no food.  My pack weighed about 40 lbs, but it felt better than the Rainier pack (same weight) because I had normal hiking boots instead of those clunky climbing boots.

I got a bit of a late start, but arrived at the trailhead around 10:30 Tues morning.  There were a ton of cars, but actually didn’t run into very many people.  In the lower woods, berries were ripe so I ate some blue huckleberries and a salmonberry or two.   I had 2 dogs with me.  Adventure Dog of course, and also I was babysitting my ex-dog.  I thought she was very good on the way in except for her proclivity to try and hunt picas.

I felt this tree was very helpful in pointing out the path.  "That way." 

The trail was really well designed here I thought.  I climbed steadily, but nothing too steep.  Coming out of the forest I crossed many rocky slopes, some steeper and more dangerous than the Katwalk in my opinion.  In these rocky refuges are where we saw not only many picas, but a couple marmots as well!!

I loved seeing the diverse colors of stone and how the clouds obscured the distant peaks, letting them only show in pieces.  The views were amazing.

Wildflowers were blooming profusely.  Columbine, orange lilies, daisy type flowers, lupine, and paintbrush were just a few. 

I didn't think that the Kendall's Katwalk portion of the trail was the scariest.  A lot of parts of the trail were quite steep and some narrower than the Katwalk itself. 

Crossing the Katwalk was really cool.  I don’t think the guidebook was accurate when it said it was 5 ft across and that two pack trains of animals could pass.  There is a sign at the beginning that says stockmen should get off and check the trail ahead before proceeding, and I believed the width varied from about 3 ft to maybe 4.  Looking back on it was the coolest view.  The foggier picture is the view of the Katwalk this morning in the cloudy mist.

About 2 miles further I found Ridge and Gravel lakes.  I walked around Ridge Lake,letting Cedar carefully pick our trail through some boulders.  He is getting pretty smart about trails.  There were frog eggs in the edge of the lake, so I hoped I’d hear frogs singing me to sleep, but that was not to be.

As I started to set up my camp, a wind picked up and it got cold fast!  I put on layer after layer, but I just continued getting colder.  After I got the tent up and the dogs fed, I ate a sandwich quickly and then put gloves on and got in my sleeping bag.  The dogs and I dozed for a bit, but I was not getting warmer.  We went out for a walk and that helped, but it was even colder now and not possible to do anything but burrow in for the night.  Now the wind was howling and clouds were flying around everything, causing the trees to drip.  That was pretty much how it was for the night.  Cedar curled into my mummy bag, but Skye didn’t fit, so I had my parka under her and my raincoat over her.  She didn’t seem too cold, but she was scared.  She didn’t like the tent much at all.  The wind just got louder and louder.  It felt like it was going to tear the tent up with us in it and toss us over the ridge.  When it hit the side behind me it kind of rocked me which was nice, but when it tweaked the whole tent all the condensation inside rained on us.  At one point during the night Skye had a nightmare or something and started crying/screaming over and over, and I had to hold her and talk to her until she calmed down.  It was a long long night.  The good thing was I finally warmed up enough to take off my coat and my gloves, leaving me only in full thermals, climbing socks, extra shirt and stocking hat LOL. 

This is what my camp looked like before the storm, and this is what it looked like in the morning. 

The morning being cold and misty, I once again didn’t try out my new cooking system (I had refilled the dogs’ water the night before with filtered though, just to try it out.  I had plenty left).  I stuffed a granola bar in my pocket and made record time breaking camp and heading out.  It wasn’t as pretty of a hike with most of the rugged views obscured, but still pretty in an eerie way. 

Mount Pilchuck 8/28/11

Sunday was a beautiful day for a sunny hike- pretty rare in the Pacific NW.  It was also a first date hike, which made me wonder about the wisdom of going up a dusty trail in the hot sunshine with someone I hoped to make a good impression on.  We gathered our dogs and packs and up we went.
Cedar and Nova did OK together.

The trail was steep, but not too bad.  There were still tiny patches of snow here and there melting off.  The rocks and snow patches in this picture reminded me of a Bev Doolittle painting.

The views were phenomenal.  I am very used to a nice view of clouds and mist.  This was such a treat.

Mount Baker was looking beautiful as well.  Baker is pretty spectacular and always gleaming with snow.  Maybe I will climb it someday.

The fire outlook was pretty neat, but Nova was pretty much done with the trail near the end where there was a patch of snow. She had a lot of problems with dogs on the hike, as she had no training and barked almost continuously.  It was a little nerve-wracking. 
I took Cedar up toward the tower, but the boulder scramble was a bit too much for him.  So none of us made it all the way into the tower.  There's always next time!

Clallam County Fair & Hurricane Ridge

Yesterday was a lovely warm Saturday with not a cloud in the sky and I went to the peninsula to visit my Mom.  We drove out to Port Angeles, where I was born and raised, and went to the Clallam County Fair.  It brought back memories since I had spent a lot of time there when I was a kid in rabbit 4H.
I think we looked at every animal and walked through every building.  Here are some of the animals we saw (including a prairie dog!).

After the fair, we realized that we still had a lot of daylight hours left and it was still a beautiful day, so we decided to drive up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.  It's not a very long drive, and on a clear day it offers some incredible views of the straits as well as the mountains. 
When we pulled into the parking lot and got out though, the deer stole the show.  There were deer EVERYWHERE, but right there by the sidewalk was a doe and her adorable twin fawns.  They quickly gathered a crowd, including a little girl who told her mom that their names were to be Fawn and Freckle.  Get ready to squee, here they are:

After I was finally able to tear myself away from absolute adorableness, Mom and I wandered over to the visitory center and I looked out at the snow covered peaks to the East. A lot more snow than you normally see this time of year.

After that, we went up the trail through the wildflower meadows and I had forgotten that there is a view of the Straits from the other side of the ridge.  I got one of Mom here, and when she sends it I'll post one of me in a hollow tree that I didn't really fit in.  Haha.

There were beautiful wildflowers everywhere.  Predominantly lupine (which is fine with me, since it's a favorite), but also these little white grassy looking flowers, a sprinkling of avalanche lilies and some bear grass-type flowers as well as others.

We were looking at this particularly thick patch of lupine when it sprouted a horned head.  A cute young buck with little prongy velvet antlers was laying in the flowers.  The flies were driving all the deer crazy, so he didn't lay still for long and posed for a picture.

On the way back down, we pulled out at an overlook where I remember we used to look for mountain goats when we drove up when I was a kid.  Another deer awaited us there, and she stuck her tongue out at us.  After looking at her, we looked at the view.... just as amazing as I remembered it.

I wish I had more of these deer running in this clip.  I was frantically trying to catch the big deer running, when my Mom said "here comes another one running like hell!"  It was the baby trying to catch up with the doe and by the time I focused on him he was just finishing some incredible leaps and slowing down to a fast spronging run.  It was still neat to see.