A couple Weekends ago....

I had a really good time.

I decided that I needed time away, so I decided to spend some time alone. I picked up a last minute flight out to Seattle, Erik picked me up, and the next morning, he dropped me off in the Cascades about 45 minutes east of Seattle. I'd picked out a hiking trail from a guide book late the night before.

It was a 1 mile hike to the trail junction and other 3 mile trail to the top of the mountain. In the 3 mile hike, I climbed 4000 feet, reaching an altitude of 5630 feet. This took about 4 hours including lots of time for photos.

I passed a hiker and his friendly dog heading down. He smiled and told me that I'd have the peak to myself. I saw no one else for the remainder of the evening.

As I crossed the treeline into the alpine, I was greeted by flaming red flora and interspersed pines. I'd brought along Mason Jennings & Jolie Holland lyrics to sing to myself, but I only had 2 random lines stuck in my head from "Stairway to Heaven." I hadn't listened to this song for months.


And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.

I now knew why monks build monasteries on the tops of mountains, "and it made me wonder" if Robert Plant was doing the same thing I was when he put pen to paper.

Irony how the thin air was deep breaths for the soul.

As I reached the peak, clouds were streaking across the sky at high speed...visibility was low, but I was able to make out some alpine lakes in the backcountry. I could see down, but no longer across the canyon.

It was getting dark, and I setup camp at 5300 feet. Campfires were not allowed at that altitude, but it didn't matter, because everything was wet anyways. I was making dinner over my stove, when I heard a noise behind me. I spun around to see a mule deer not 20 paces away, walking around like nothing was going on. It didn't seem very impressed or scared by me. This made my wonder what business he had up here, and perhaps a bear would too.

At about 8pm, it was getting dark, and I called it a night. I woke up in the middle of the night, and I felt something cold & wet on my face. It was ice. I reached out of my sleeping bag to discover that my breathe was condensing on the outside of my sleeping bag and freezing . Wow. It was cold, but I was comfortable in my bag.

In the morning, I woke up, thinking that I need to pull down camp and get going, but it was beautiful out.

The morning of Saturday the 13th, I climbed the 300 feet back to the peak and saw an awesome sight. Beyond ridge after smoky ridge was Mount Rainier......reaching from the horizon for the heavens. Even Mt St. Helens was visible (from Oregon) The sky was crystal clear, and clouds were blanketing the valley thousands of feet below. I was sharing this view with no one else. I sat in awe on the frosty rocks until most of my extremities were numb from the cold, and headed back to camp.



I tore it down, and back down I went.

I'm coming down the mountain, and this whole. darn. valley's. mine.