Laurabelle’s Blog

Back in August (yeah, yeah, I know, I'm behind) my college friend Maggie and her other half, Louis, came to California for a hiking trip with Jeff and me. The destination was the Rae Lakes Loop in Kings Canyon National Park. Our permit reservation was for entrance on the Thursday before Labor Day, and we planned to take five days (exiting on Labor Day itself). We were doing the clockwise circuit, up Paradise Valley, around to the John Muir trail, past the namesake Rae Lakes on day three, over a 12,000-foot pass on the fourth day, and then back down to the trailhead. The entire loop is 46 miles.

We drove to the park on Wednesday and car-camped overnight; the campgrounds were almost deserted. The next morning it took us longer to get going than we wanted (I don't know why it always takes so long!), and we didn't quite make it to the trailhead by 9am, the deadline for picking up our reserved permits. As it turned out, our lateness didn't matter after all; the rangers were detained elsewhere so hikers were directed to self-register.

The first couple of miles were flat but relatively shadeless and over reflective sand; even in the morning we became hot. That phase did pass, and presently we entered shadier environs.

On the last weekend in July, Jeff and I went backpacking in Lassen Volcanic National Park. It was a good trip (much better than our last few), but the adventure started early this time.

I had planned everything carefully in advance; we had our wilderness permit and everything ready to go. But at the last moment, Jeff wasn't sure he could get the time off after all. This was doubly frustrating because the reason he couldn't have the time off was the same reason he needed some time away from work. It was rather poetically ironic, but irony isn't much comfort. He did end up getting a half-day off on Friday and a full day on Monday, which was enough; we didn't have to cancel the trip.

So Thursday evening we packed the car, Friday morning I drove him to the train station, and at about noon he caught a train to meet me at work in the early afternoon. Of course we had forgotten something at home, but that was just a brief stop and then we were on our way.

On I-505 (between I-80 and I-5 west of Sacramento), we saw a minivan stopped on the side of the road, with people standing behind it waving their arms at the oncoming cars. We stopped; it turned out they needed a wrench because their passenger-side front tire had more or less exploded, and they needed to put on the spare tire. They had a wrench, but it was old, and one of its corners was split so that the socket wouldn't quite grasp the nuts. Our wrench was unfortunately too small. After substantial non-progress with the old broken wrench, Jeff hopped the barbed wire and went to knock at some nearby farmhouses to see if anyone there could help. This produced a nice ex-Navy chap named Billy with a lot of tattoos, a truck, and a rugged T-wrench! Jeff and myself now having served our purpose, we got on the road again.

The rest of the drive to Lassen was uneventful. Due to our late start and delay on the road, we ate dinner on the road and arrived at Summit Lake South Campground at about 9pm. (It was not even quite dark yet.) Happily, I had reserved a campsite online, so all we had to do was find our spot and set up the tent. Squatters had their stuff at the site we got there (a big group had overflowed from a nearby campsite after the campground host told them they had too many people for one site), but they left politely when Jeff told them we had the site reserved. Apparently they had entered from the other side and hadn't seen the signpost.

This weekend Jeff and I tried our hike to Sky High Lakes and Summit Lake a second time. I guess the third time will have to be the charm for this one.

We drove up to Yreka on Friday and got to the ranger station in Fort Jones just in time to get our campfire permit for the year. The lady who issued our permit mentioned that there might be snow on the trail, but we weren't sure her information was accurate or relevant to us (she was reporting information given by rangers and didn't seem familiar with the trail herself). We decided to proceed with the hike regardless.

We spent the night in a motel and got on the trail by about 9am on Saturday morning.

The trail was lovely and felt easier than it had last year, both because the temperature was more comfortable and because Jeff had new boots (and therefore complained less). The streams were deeper than last year but still passable; we encountered a few snow patches at medium elevations but nothing to worry about.

I didn’t know it then, but yesterday was Mountain Day. Mountain Day is a traditional holiday at Mount Holyoke College; on some beautiful fall day, students wake up and find out that it’s Mountain Day and classes have been cancelled. Traditionally one climbs Mount Holyoke, but whatever the activity, the holiday is always better for being a surprise. Even alumnae are so attached to the holiday that the Alumnae Association sends out emails every Mountain Day.

I didn’t know yesterday was Mountain Day, but I climbed a mountain anyway. Mount Holyoke hardly deserves that name, actually (it’s only 878 feet tall), but Jeff and I climbed the mountain, Mount Rainier. We neither started at the bottom nor reached the very top, but we climbed more than three times Mount Holyoke’s height.

After my last hike in the north Olympics, my dad wrote me an email.

From: Dad
To: Laura

Laura,

I just did your blog. Spectacular scenery. I wish I had a chance
to take such a hike.  I'm glad that you are safe.

Dad

I replied:

From: Laura
To: Dad

We should take you hiking the next time you're up here.  There are some
really spectacular day hikes at Mount Rainier, and there are also some
really pretty hikes that would be good for an overnight.  Jeff and I
have an extra tent (Jeff even has a bivy-sack, lighter than a tent), and
you could rent a backpack, sleeping bag, and pad at REI.

I think you should plan a hiking vacation up here... maybe sooner rather
than later because Jeff and I might move away from Seattle.

Mom is welcome to come, obviously, but I don't know if she would be as
keen on hiking as the rest of us.

lbm.

From: Dad
To: Laura

Mom would be LESS keen!

I am savoring the invite.

Dad

That was at the beginning of June, and I kind of figured Dad wouldn’t make it up here any time soon, but I was wrong! About a month ago he called me up and suggested flying up here for Labor Day weekend, so I said sure. I was tempted to pick an easy hike, like Lower Lena, but I knew it would be crowded on the holiday weekend. I suggested Heather Park, the hike that Dad was so enthusiastic about in the first place, and he said he thought he could do it.

Jeff and I hiked to Upper Lena Lake on August 20-22, sort of on a whim. I say sort of because Jeff had wanted to make this trip for a while. On the other hand, this specific trip was not planned more than about 2 days in advance, and I hadn’t yet found our hiking maps after the move. If I had looked more carefully and not trusted in Jeff’s memory, I might have been more careful about committing myself.

I don’t mean that there were any nasty surprises on the trail; there was just a lot of Up. It was almost more than I could bear. The trail’s about 7.5 miles, fairly gentle for the first half and then progressively steeper. One stretch involves scrambling up rocks, and towards the end there are some evil, steep and treacherous switchbacks up a sloping meadow. By the time we got to that point, I was just about ready to drop. (Ooooh, rocky trail, so comfortable…)

But the scenery at the top was worth it.

Last weekend Jeff and I went to Flapjack Lakes. It's a 16-mile hike, 8 miles in and 8 miles out. It's somewhat like the Heather Park trail in that it's a relentless slope (never a downward step on the way in). Although it takes 8 miles to gain about 3200 feet, almost all that gain is in the last 4 miles, just like Heather Park.

Like our previous hike, the drama started the night before. (I broke the frame of my glasses the evening before we left for Heather Park.) I had a headache most of the evening, and in the middle of the night I got up for some aspirin and then was sick. Still, I was determined not to let it stop me, and in fact I felt better almost as soon as I set foot on the trail.

Remember how good Jeff and I are about misjudging our hikes? (Witness Lena Lake, Mount Rainier, and Annette Lake.) We did it again—but I’ll get to that later.

This weekend’s hike was in Olympic National Park, just south of Port Angeles. There, three connecting trails form a loop that winds up and over mountain ridges for most of its length, affording spectacular views to the north, east, and south. The plan was as follows:

• Saturday: Heart of the Hills to Heather Park (4 miles, steady ascent, ~3500 feet elevation gain)
• Sunday: Heather Park to Lake Angeles along the Klahhane Ridge (~4.5 miles, up and down over the ridge with a net descent to the lake)
• Monday: Lake Angeles back down to Heart of the Hills (~3.5 miles, gently downhill)

Unfortunately I can’t point you at a map, but I had one, and it sure seemed like a good plan. We could have gone around the loop in the other direction, but I figured that it would be better to get the worst over on the first day. That way, the second and third days would be relatively easy.

The catch is that maps don’t tell you everything. Neither do guide books.

This weekend Jeff and I hiked a section of the Wonderland Trail at Mount Rainier. The Wonderland Trail winds a 93-mile circle around Mount Rainier, and some day (maybe soon) I hope to do the whole thing. (But not yet!)

This time we planned to start from Longmire and hike northwest along the trail with Mirror Lakes as our eventual goal. We were to spend the first night at Pyramid Creek, then hike up to Mirror Lakes the second day and come back down to spend the night at Devils Dream. On the third day we would hike back out. We thought it was a pretty good, conservative plan. It’s only about 3.5 miles from Longmire to Pyramid Creek and 2.2 from there to Devils Dream. Mirror Lakes are another couple of miles beyond Devils Dream (but they’re relatively level miles—relatively).

That was the theory, anyway. As we all know, practice is always its own creature.

You can find our proposed route on the Mount Rainier National Park Trails Map (look toward the lower left-hand corner). Also see another hiker’s description of traveling essentially the same section of trail. Finally, the Seattle Times has a nice set of pages about the Wonderland Trail.

I’m feeling a lot better this morning than I was last night. I woke up in the middle of the night, needing to use the bathroom, legs screaming—but Jeff woke up when I whimpered in pain, and he brought me a glass of water for my aspirin. The aspirin made me feel much better, and this morning I’m almost back to normal (though most emphatically not ready to get up and do it again!).