Lyman Lakes Overnighter

Of all the most scenic places I've hiked and traveled, the Glacier Peak Wilderness ranks high - definitely top five. I imagine if I ever make it to New Zealand or Switzerland I'll find places that rival the alpine lakes of Northern Washington for sheer beauty. Until then I'm going to consider myself extremely fortunate to live six hours and several miles of walking from these insane, mind-blowing landscapes.

26 miles RT (including Cloudy Pass). Trip report here.

Mount Aix Hike

Wonderful alpine hike east of Mount Rainier with two new hiking buddies. Mount Aix is the highest point between Goat Rocks and Mount Daniel, and from its top you have in-your-face views of Rainier, Helens, Adams and Goat Rocks, as well as the neighboring 7,000+ foot peaks in the Nelson Ridge group and the distant Stuart Range. The drive is 3 hours 45 mins from Portland in the early morning, but (irritatingly) closer to 5 on the way home (tourist traffic). Totally worth it, even with the five miles of switchbacks up to the ridge. We saw goats on Fake Bismarck (the un-named peak blocking the view of Bismarck), encountered little snow,and generally had an awesome time. One of our party scrambled up the class three summit block, while my partner and I stayed just below. We explored the class two route up the back, but it seemed unappealingly long and also somewhat sketchy. Both approaches had their drawbacks, and we decided that we were not missing out by playing it safe. Excellent hike with excellent people.

Colchuck Lake Overnighter

Couldn't get people to join me for this one, so I took off optimistically for what I termed a "tourist hike." Leavenworth is five hours from Portland, so I left Sunday morning and arrived around 1:30 via US 97, which is butt ugly from Goldendale to Ellensburg. I was surprised at how close the trail is to town - it's only an eight mile drive to where charming Icicle Road intersects Eightmile Road, and from there only four more to the popular Stuart Lake trailhead.

The trail is about 4.5 miles to the lake, somewhat longer than the mileage I had read. The hiking is challenging but not harder than your average Gorge hike. Think Table Mountain or Silver Star. With a pack, I was hot, but it was not bad at all, and extremely well-marked for such meandering, rugged terrain.

At the lake, campsites are not immediately apparent. There is one at the outlet of the lake  but the others are on the south side of the lake near the approach to Asgaard Pass. In the picture below, you can see the lake with the pass, Dragontail Peak and Colchuck peak from left to right. Asgaard looks scary as shit here, but in the late summer it is mostly a very steep scramble. It's the shortest of two entrances to the Core Enchantments zone, and many hikers do it as a long dayhike to circumvent the permit process.

I explored around the rim of the lake a bit, and decided to do more in the morning. I backtracked to the first campsite near the privy.

At camp, I took plenty of pictures, ate dinner, read my book and mused about life and why I do things like drive five hours to go sit by myself on a rock and eat dehydrated food from a bag. No doubt this was a gorgeous lake, but not necessary as a backpack. I guess I thought it would be fun. And it was, mostly, until my night-time visitor. At about midnight, a large animal clambered up the boulders about five feet from my tent and then hovered near it for the rest of the night. I would hear it intermittently, scared out of my mind. The fact that I never heard my bear canister and stove jiggle from my kitchen area baffled me, and I couldn't understand why the animal was just hanging out. Was I being stalked? I yelled, made noise, and prepared to do battle with my trekking poles, but in reality all I could think was to kiss my ass goodbye if it came into my tent. I swore up and down never to camp solo again, despite every other uneventful experience I have had. Eventually, I relaxed and drifted off for a few minutes. And then, at 4 am I heard the metallic click of hikers carrying trekking poles and mountaineering gear, and saw the faint glow of first light. My relief was intense. I got out to relieve the bladder that had been bursting since midnight. After fumbling around with my gear for a bit and journaling about my experience, I got out again. This time I noticed I wasn't alone.

This large goat was hovering near my toilet area, about 10 feet from me. At first, I was surprised in the way that you are when you realize you are a) being watched, and b) in the presence of wildlife. I was calm enough to take a picture before shooing him away. He didn't exactly shoo particularly fast, and in fact it took quite a bit of noise and a bluff charge on my part before he scampered up the trail a bit. "Wow, that's pretty cool," I thought. "Now, on to breakfast." I started to move towards my kitchen when I noticed he was back, and had noiselessly shimmied into the trees behind me. What the hell...? I tried to scare him off again, and this time he just stared at me with creepy narrow-set eyes. We carried on like this for about fifteen minutes until I started to feel a little threatened. It occurred to me from his sounds and movements that this was my night-time visitor! While I knew he wasn't a threat to me, his persistence was getting a little freaky. Once he got too close and I lobbed a rock in his direction - this seemed to provoke him a bit. At this point, I gave in. I'm stubborn, but I'm not that stubborn. Touché, goat. You can have my campsite and whatever dried pee you can find, you weirdo. I hastily stuffed my backpack full, and he escorted me out like a damn security guard. Fuck you, goat.