August 13 - August 19, 2012

Monday, August 13:

After the tough weekend, I needed a break today!  I only did a 3 mile hike, but I returned from trail 130 with nearly a gallon of ripe huckleberries--and that beats distance most any time!


Tuesday, August 14:
Today I decided that I really should run; after all, I have a race coming up soon!  I was short for time, so I just started at my parents' house and ran up to the top of Antoine Peak and back.  This means that my actually running distance was longer than the 5 miles I get to count for Hike-a-Thon as I have to subtract the road running.  However, by starting where I did I get to avoid the difficult parking situation at the trailhead, take Blaze along for the run, and work in the garden before and after the run.  Nice!



Wednesday, August 15:
I showed up to practice to make sure the girls were safe at Iller Creek, but this is the "dead zone" where I'm not actually allowed at practice, so after checking in with them I ran my own loop on the ridge + creek trails (4.5 miles).  I don't feel like it's safe to have them meet there without an adult present.


Thursday, August 16:
Today was my second H-a-T WTA work party on Mount Spokane.  We drove down to the work location, so hiking distance during the workparty was minimal.  I did walk up and down the hill a lot today--I started with tread work, but after lunch I started working on the switchback with Lynn; I was the "rock gatherer" responsible for finding the largest stones I was capable of carrying.  Lynn was then able to focus on rock placement for our reinforced switchback--we didn't quite finish it today, but it looked awesome despite being not quite done yet.  There's another work party over the weekend, and they'll finish it at that time.  The tread was done by the end of the day, and the trail looks fabulous!  


I got my mileage in after the workparty--I was one of the hitchhikers to the work location, so after we finished and I signed out, I took our newly-rebuilt trail up 130 to Day Mountain and across to Saddle Junction.  I fully intended to walk all the way back to the car and switch into my running shoes for an afternoon trailrun, but I have to admit that I was tired!  I had stashed a large container in my backpack for just-in-case, and I changed my mind about running when I saw the huckleberries on 130 and 140.  I ended up with 4 miles hiked and nearly another gallon of berries--and all that after a day of trailwork!

Friday, August 17:
Today I drove to Montana for a weekend backpack trip with the Mountaineers.  Of course, I screwed it up, although I didn't know it at the time.  I wanted to find something new and interesting to hike on my way to the trailhead, but there really wasn't a lot between home and Superior that I haven't already hiked before.  The good part was that I stopped in Wallace and found a huge book sale in town--fifty cents for hardbacks and a quarter for paperbacks!  I got several choice books (Conrad, Eliot, Atwood, Lawrence, Prolux, a hardback of Adams prints, and even an Oxford Press English translation of the Qur'an!).  Instead of a hike enroute, I arrived at the Clearwater Crossing trailhead (the wrong trailhead, but again, I didn't know it at the time), set up my tent for car camping, and then did a dayhike on the Straight Creek Trail until the third water crossing (I couldn't do it without taking off my shoes, and I didn't bring my sandals for the dayhike), and after that I went out the North Fork Fish Lake Trail.


Saturday, August 18:
This was the day that I figured out, too late, that I had screwed up.  I was supposed to be meeting people for a backpack trip; some were supposed to arrive ahead of me, and some were supposed to arrive after dark.  When I got there on Friday night I saw a car with a Mountaineers plate holder in the parking lot, so I thought everything was fine and that the ones who were supposed to arrive ahead of me were already out on the trail.  However, the ones who were supposed to arrive after me never came, and then I began to remember something about a hike to Hart Lake first...which was a long way in the opposite direction from the trail I was on.  Oops.  I mostly felt awful about being in the wrong place when people elsewhere were expecting me...and also a little stupid for bringing every area guidebook I owned but neglecting to bring my Kinnikinnick with the driving directions to the right trailhead.  Oh, well.  I came ready to backpack, and I love a good solo trip just as much as a group trip (sometimes more-so!)  I started up the West Fork Fish Creek Trail to the Siamese Lakes Trail, determined to make the best of it.

Once I arrived at Lower Siamese Lake I saw the owner of the Mountaineers plated vehicle in the parking lot--Galen was leading a trip up here for the weekend, too!  They were doing the loop in three days (whereas I did it in two), and they were still at the lake when I arrived.  I was able to take the campsite they vacated (the nicest one at the lake!).  It was hot when I arrived, but after a snack and icing my legs in the lake for awhile, I decided to do an extra hike up the ridge near camp.  I thought about trying to find the spur trail to the upper lake, but instead settled on taking the main trail to a different spur trail up to a high point on the ridge (that part didn't count for mileage, but I got some great photographs).  This is all part of the Great Burn Proposed Wilderness; there are still standing snags from the fire which occurred in 1911, and few trees have returned in the high country.  Of course, on the lower portions the trees are either coming back nicely or else still alive with heavily scarred trunks.  The lower elevation cedars are especially impressive--massive trees that survived the fire and still have the charred bark to prove it.  It was a  15.5 mile day.
   

Sunday, August 19:
I woke up very, very early to the sound of some large animal crashing through the brush near my tent.  I slept with my rainfly on but open, so I peeked out of the tent to see what I could see...and promptly forgot about the existence of potentially dangerous wildlife.  The sunrise over the lake was fantastic, and I grabbed my camera and jumped out of the tent to take pictures!  I never did figure out what type of critter woke me, but I'm glad it did, whatever it was!

After pictures and breakfast and packing up, I had to do the toughest portion of the whole hike--the section from Lower Siamese Lake to Chilcoot Pass.  After that, it was all downhill back to the trailhead.  I quickly passed the other backpackers who had beaten me to the trail, and the climb was made less painful by the scenery (I was just stopping to take pictures, not because I was winded--wink, wink).  After the pass, the best part of the trail is Straight Creek Cascades.  If it's this good in August, I wonder what it looks like in July--and I'll bet one can't reach it much before July.  It's really a series of five or six falls--very pretty.  I stopped the longest here to take pictures, and then the day was getting hot and I was intent on catching Galen's crew, who had gotten about a 5 or 6 mile head start on me.  And I was successful, too!  I didn't catch them all, but I did catch the last three people in the last mile of the trail.  Back at the trailhead we were shocked at the number of vehicles--mostly horsemen.  I didn't see a single horse while on the trail, but there must have been 10-15 horse trailers in the parking lot.  The side trails really spread everyone out, and before I had even finished loading the car to go home I was plotting giant loop route out of Clearwater Crossing to try next summer--I haven't worked out all of the details, but I think it's possible to do a 50-60 mile loop from this trailhead!  There's a good one to plan for Hike-a-Thon 2013!

On my way home I made a stop at the Montana State Pine Tree State Park--a parking lot and very short trail to the largest Ponderosa Pine in the state of Montana and a primitive camping area.  I was hoping for more of a trail since it was a state park, but the tree was probably only 50' from the parking area.  I don't know if this will count for State Parks for H-a-T or not, but the tree was impressive.  My daily mileage was 11.1.

Stats:
Running total: 9.5 miles (wow.  I need to improve that.)

Hike/backpack total: 39.1 miles

Week total: 48.6 miles (can you tell I was tired this week?!)

H-a-T total through 8/19:  185.34 miles