What a Trip

So I and my party have returned safe and sound from our little weekend adventure and what a time we had. From the traffic which made our drive longer both ways to hiking in the dark and then the rain it was truely memorable...but I am getting ahead of myself a little.

So it all sounded inocent enough, drive down, hike in, camp, hike and watch the stars! I kept checking the weather and it was iffy but then what's new with the NW weather and the people I was taking, Nicki and another teenager friend, Jacob and then another geocacher who I was picking up in the Tacoma area still wanted to go so after my chemisty exam on Friday morning we set off, heavy packs and a good sense of adventure. We were leaving a bit later than I wanted to but I figured I could make up some time on the highway which was a nice thought but alas not be to. We hit a slowdown in Everett and then after downtown Seattle, except for a short period where we were able to drive the speed limit it was no faster then 40mph and as slow as stopped most of the rest of way to Olympia. We picked up Warren just fine right below Tacoma and continued on. We actually finally got to the trailhead on the Peninula about 7:30ish or so and rather than camp beside the road we opted to hit the trail and see how it went. Warren had the whole thing mapped on his GPS and we all had lights so I didn't figure we were in danger of getting lost.

We made it somewhere between 1/3-1/2 the way up before darkness desended upon us. We pulled out the flashlights and headlamps and continued plodding on. I am pretty sure by about 9:30 the kids thought I was extreemly mean and trying to kill them because while I allowed many stops to take off their packs and drink water I certainly wasn't letting them stop every 10ft. like it felt like they would have prefered! It was pretty steep, 3 miles with a lot of switchbacks and at least 1/2 dozen logs to be climbed over or under so by about 10:30 or a bit after when we finally made it to our destination we were pretty wet with sweat and then the chill set it. We set up camp and colappsed into bed. That first night I didn't sleep too great because for some reason I was warm and toasty except for my feet. So there I was in my mummy bag trying to do yoga poses to tuck my toes behind my knees and then hold the other foot to try and warm my toes! Didn't work to well I must admit. I am sure I slept some but it wasn't quite as good as I would have liked. We were the first people of the group to get there and so we got a great camping spot on the highest area of the rocks. The first night it was perfectly clear and despite a little whinning it was totally awesome to be hiking in in the dark surrounded by mtns. under a canopy of incredible stars. That first night everyone in my group saw a meteor but me! Figures!

Sat. we got up ate a nice leisurely breakfast and then around lunch time we headed up some more (only another mile) to the top of Col. Bob Peak. When we got up in the morning it was still clear and sunny but then the clouds started rolling in. By the time we got the peak the clouds had enveloped us and it was totally awesome to be hiking around in the mist. At times the clouds would clear and we would get a tiny glimps of the valleys below us. It reminded me of the verses about seeing through a glass darkly but then face to face. It was all foggy but then for just a moment we would get a glimps of what was really beyond the clouds. We got a couple of geocaches along the way and signed the log at the summit saying we were there and headed back down.

By this time most of the other people that were coming in were there and we made some new accquaintences and put names to faces which was fun. It turned out though that not quite everyone was there, there were two people missing. There was a teenage girl and another woman who had gone off ahead of their party and were missing somewhere on the trail. We had a bunch of radios with us and so after the father and brother of the girl didn't return right away after going down to look for them I headed out after them as well with a radio just in case something had happened to one of them because I knew that none of them had radios. If there was a problem at least I could call back to the camp and we could get more help if they weren't found in short order. A little while into my trek down I did meet up with them coming back up and it turned out that two had taken a wrong turn and had basically doubled their hike for the day! Another reason to stay with the group! I walked back up with the woman and the father of the girl, serving up encouragement as I could, you know the "It's just a little farther, just around the next corner it starts to level out." until I am pretty sure she was close to thinking I was a crazy lying woman! She was so tired by the time she joined us on the rocks where we camped. The woman, Diane, ended up not having a tent, just a borrowed bivy sack and a tarp but Jacob, who is great with knots and shelters and such things, rigged her up a nice little shelter, served her up some warm coffee and all was well!

So there we were, there to watch the stars and it was getting cloudier and cloudier all afternoon. We kept hoping that maybe the sun would break through in the late afternoon but no such luck. As it stayed cloudy right up until about bedtime when it started to rain! Nicki was in my small tent and so I told Diane to climb in there if she started to get wet. Jacob and I were sharing his bigger tent which we also ended up sharing with another guy who also packed a little too light and didn't have a tent, proper sleeping bag or pad, etc. We didn't have extra of the latter two items but he did have a fleece sleeping bag thing and a blanket and we were able to at least keep him dry so it all worked out. We all stayed dry and somewhere in the night it stopped raining and stayed dry through breakfast the next morning. It started to rain again as we were breaking down camp and pretty much rained on us the entire way down! But with ponchos and duck covers for the packs pretty much the only things wet were our feet and legs after walking through at least a mile and half of trail that was overgrown with dripping berry bushes. The berries! There were tons and tons of blueberries and huckleberries where we camped and all along the trail so that made for a pretty tasty walk down. We had pancakes with fresh huckleberries in them for breakfast and there were also huge salmon berries to be had as well along the trail. The fresh edibles were definetly a nice addition that I enjoyed on the hike both going up and down. :-)

Oh and those cold feet I had the first night, not to be repeated. I might be crazy but I am not stupid and the second night I stuck a couple of med. sized rocks on my little stove and warmed them up, wrapped them up in a towel and stuck them down my sleeping bag. What delight! I slept like a baby the whole night except when I woke up once to check and see if the sky had cleared. It hadn't! Next time I'll try and remember to bring some of those disposable hand warmers to stick at the bottom of my bag if I am cold again but the rocks actually did just fine!

The drive home was without incident, not nearly as much traffic and we made home about 8:30pm. We dropped off Nicki at home and I went over and spent the night at Jacob's house and we got up about 2am to actually see if we could see some meteors! Yes it was clear last night and between the ones we saw when we firt got to his house about 10pm and then at 2pm I would say I finally got to see about a dozen! Drove all that way, hiked all that way and didn't even see one until I was home! Oh well it was a fantastic time and totally fun and I would do it again without a second thought. Might pack a few different things but we were pretty well prepared and it really was a great trip. Despite the whinning and wetness the kids really enjoyed themselves and said they had a great time so it was worth all the hassle. Now I am just trying to figure out where I should take my next little adventure!

I did take a bunch of pictures so I'll try and post some soon when I get them off my camera.