« Posts tagged alpine zone

My first time in the Enchantments

July 25, 2011 / posted in Overnight Backpacking / 4 Comments

July 23-25 2011

On the weekend that I was supposed to hike the Chinook Pass to White Pass portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, I instead took advantage of space on a fellow Peninsula Wilderness Club member’s Enchantments permit. This year the snow has been excruciatingly slow to melt off and I figured it would be a safer bet to go to the Enchantments than to try and route find my way through 30 miles of snowy terrain. Joining me on the trip as my hiking partner was Craig Mecklenburg. The permit holder was Megan Thompson (no relation) and her father Russ Childers. The Enchantments are a set of high alpine lakes located in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness just SW of Leavenworth Washington. They are often called the most beautiful of Washington’s high mountain lakes. Obtaining permits for the Enchantments involves a lottery system and they can be hard to get. The best permits are for the core Enchantments, but anything is better than nothing. The permits we had were for the Snow Lakes zone.

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Dayhiking the High Divide

July 31, 2010 / posted in Day Hiking / No Comments

I did this loop last year as a day hike in the fall. I was eager to see this trail again and under different circumstances as it shed its winter coat. Being given notice that I would be able to hike on this Saturday at the last minute, my invites went out kind of late so I didn’t expect many responses, if any. I was surprised that my new friend Paul Cooney who I met a few weeks prior on the West Cady Ridge loop with Kevin Koski was interested in going. I was also surprised when my other friend Robin Vasquez who I have done several hikes with called and said she was also interested in going. Arrangements were made and after meeting at my house we drove my car and arrived at the trail by 8:30.

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West Cady Ridge Backpack July 17-18 2010

July 18, 2010 / posted in Overnight Backpacking / No Comments

Last weekend I went on my first Kevin and Maria sponsored backpack with the Peninsula Wilderness Club. We headed up the West Cady Ridge trail in the Central Cascades off of Hwy 2 near Skykomish. I had a lot of fun on this trip and got to meet some new friends. The group consisted of 8 people, Kevin, Maria, Julie, Julie’s friend Jenna, Kevin’s friends Luke, Sherilyn, Paul and myself. We hiked up the ridge and Kevin found us a great camping spot just below the summit of Benchmark Mountain. I also got to meet some people doing their own hike that I know of through trip reports I read on the NWHikers forum. I met trailpair, JimK and kathyb/oldgrrrl and a couple of her friends (I go by the trail name Tagman on nwhikers). trailpair and JimK stayed on the summit while kathyb and friends were doing a dayhike. A report of their trip can be read here.

In the morning we had breakfast and headed out. The day was to be longer in distance but downhill the whole way. The plan was to do a big loop consisting of part of the PCT and the Pass Creek Trail. We had a few miles of snow to hike through and Kevin did an outstanding job keeping us on the correct path. The Pass Creek trail was badly overgrown and there were a few down trees. As with the Cady Ridge Trail, Kevin did a good job of clearing the trail of the smaller trees with his WTA saw when he could, but some of the trees were just too big and will require a full crew to clear. The Pass Creek trail also had a couple of Bridges that were washed out necessitating a couple fords. Luckily we were able to take advantage of a couple trees that we used as a bridge to cross Pass Creek itself, but unfortunately we had to get our feet wet crossing the NF Skykomish (this all just added to the fun and adventure of the trip ). Once we got back to the cars, it was a mad dash to get our packs off and stashed so we could escape the wrath of the trailhead mosquitoes which were pretty ferocious. This was an excellent trip and I am looking forward to hiking with Kevin and Maria again soon.

Trip Stats: 19 miles (or thereabouts) and 4000′ elevation gain (with all the ups and downs)
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High Divide – Seven Lakes Basin Loop Dayhike

September 26, 2009 / posted in Day Hiking / 1 Comment

The Back-Story
I had tried unsuccessfully 3 times to hike the High Divide loop this year. The first time I just got lazy and decided that a weekend at home sounded nice. The second time, my job at the last minute required me to be at home for some on-line training over the weekend. The third time I was due for an overnight hike and thought I would drive out to the campground at Sol Duc on a Saturday, camp and get a really early start the next morning and do the whole loop in a day. As I was packing to leave on Saturday the 19th, I got a phone call and learned that my brother had passed away. Needless to say my plans for the weekend had changed. I won’t get into all the details but I will say that his passing was unexpected and the cause at this point is unknown. Needing time to reflect on his life, needing some time to myself to reflect on the things that are important to me and my family and really needing to finally get this trail on my ‘been there done that’ list, I decided to head out on Saturday the 26th of Sept 2009 to hike it.
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