Squeezed between Mt. St. Helen's and Mt. Rainier

Last Tuesday finally brought us beautiful backpack weather. Yes....I am a fair weather backpacker when possible. Ben and I had been packed, and watching the weather reports since Sunday. I knew that some of this trip was going to be along a ridge line, and I do not want to be hiking on a ridge line if there is any chance of lightening. So we watched and waited. Tuesday morning it was a GO!

We jumped in the Jeep and drove like crazy up to our trail head, which was two hours north of us toward Seattle up I-5. We navigated through several small towns and up a logging road before our boots finally hit the trail. I pecked a fast kiss on Jim. He promised to meet us on Friday at the end of the trail, on the other side of the mountain range from where we now stood. He said that he would have cold drinks waiting for us...

Hot damn, we were finally on our way!

The first couple of miles are spectacular. There is a waterfall that can't be appreciated with out actually standing in the fine spray that it gives off while you hike the trail that goes behind it. We saw several bikes laying along side the trail while we walked, but no people. It was very strange. We wondered where all the bike riders were!?!

As we walked on we passed more abandoned bikes laying along side the trail. It wasn't until maybe mile four that we past a group of kids and a few adults walking the trail toward us. They called out to us as they past. The kids were very interested in the fact that we were headed out for a four day three night trip into the wilderness. It turned out that these were the owners of the bikes. They had felt the trail too dangerous for bikes, so they walked it for awhile before heading back to the start.

We made several creek crossing, not giving them much thought until Ben slipped on a rock and gashed his hand deeply. It gushed blood for awhile before we stopped, so Ben could do a little mini surgery to get the sand out of the gash. We gathered up the first aid supplies that we had between us, and got the wound cleaned up pretty well. It was evening by now but we had not past any camping spots. Ben was in a little pain but we pushed on until down off the trail down a slope we spotted a fire ring. I made the decision that, although it wasn't an ideal spot to spend the night, it didn't look bad--I figured a bird in the hand is better than a bird in the bush. So we slid down the slope and made camp for the night.

Unfortunately water was a little further down from us than we’d prefer, but Ben bushwhacked his way down and back while I got a fire going. In the morning I decided to head out early alone. I found myself in some pretty thick forest, with waterfalls greeting me at every turn. I had unhooked my bear bell when left camp, and was glad that I had. The tinkling it makes as I walk is a warning to any big furry animals that I am coming down the path. A surprised bear can be a mean bear, so I tinkled my way through the woods alone until Ben caught up with me a couple of hours later.

The first two days of this hike was a steady uphill trod. I just kept telling myself how good it is for my butt. This gives me the will to keep going up on long hill stretches! By early afternoon we had climbed up to a ridge where there was a spur trail that would take us down to the lake, where we planned to spend our second night. Our information said it was down two quick switchbacks, than down a short trail to the lake shore. Well.....turns out not exactly. It was two long, steep switchbacks and then an almost straight down slide into camp. But what a beautiful, remote, camp and lake it was!

We set up our little tents and Bella (Ben's trail dog) headed for the lake as soon as we took her backpack off. She jumped in and started swimming. We joined here as soon as our tents were up. That cold water was heavenly.

Just as we were settling down for the night, here came a man and a woman sliding down the short trail into our camp. It was eight o'clock in the evening and the light was starting to fade. They said a fast hello and headed for the other side of the lake. We couldn't imagine where they came from so late in the day, but these two were trail people, and didn't give us a second of concern.

I was not looking forward to the crawl back up to the ridge line in the morning. I went to sleep hoping that there would be a better way back up to the main trail. When we crawled out of our sleeping bags, I was thrilled to find that mosquitoes didn't seem to be active yet. Usually in July you do not want to be anywhere near a lake in this area of the country. We had two bottles of eucalyptus spray in our packs if we needed to ward off the little blood suckers. I was very happy to pack up and head out unbitten.

We hunted around a bit and did find an easier trail back to the switchbacks. This was a stroll through the woods that I welcomed--much nicer than crawling on my hands and knees in the dirt back up the other way!

We didn't have a long day of walking our third day out. We just hopped from one lake over to another about four miles away. This lake is named "Dead Mans Lake", and is just off the main trail. It is half full of sand that was blown out of Mt. St. Helen's when it blew its top off in 1980, so, because of this, a nice sand beach greeted us. I immediately started to set up my tent and gather firewood. I go into nesting mode when we hit camp, and the cold water was calling to me to come take a dip......and then it happened. A bite. And then another bite. And then I was swarmed with a cloud of mosquitoes. I dove into my tent yelling and swatting while Ben stood and watched the show. "They don't seem to care about me" he said as fifty of the little buggers sat on the netting of my tent licking there chops waiting for me to run for the lake. All my lovely white, tasty, flesh was just out of their reach. He was right. They weren't interested in him, all their love was for me. I went to sleep with buzzing in my ears, cuss words on my lips, and my flesh bathed in eucalyptus oil. My personal plan for the morning was to be up, and away from that lake as soon as I possibly could. Ben could fend for himself. Actually, I would offer him as a sacrifice. Maybe they would go for him. Perhaps I would be able to escape on up the mountain without being eaten alive. I realized that lake is named correctly: "Dead Mans Lake". Someone most likely had been sucked to death there.

Just one more steep climb was ahead of me before reaching the ridge of heavenly views that was our goal. This was our last day hiking and it was going to be spectacular. I was looking forward to the sight of Mt. Rainier on my left, Mt. St. Helen's on right, Mt. Adam on the horizon ahead of me, and my old friends Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson to the south. I was going to be able to see all five of these volcanoes from the ridge I was heading toward.

Bella and I left camp early. She was as anxious to get away from the lake as I was, and we made good time up to the top of the mountain. Our plan was to wait at the top for Ben, under some shade. But we found out that there was a problem with this plan once we got there: The mosquitoes were waiting for us up there now. They were twice as bad in the shade. So for 70 minutes we jumped, hopped, slapped, and ran around in circles in the hot sun while Rainier, St. Helen's, Adams and even my old friends Hood and Jefferson laughed at us.

Bella kept running on down the trail hoping that we were going to just keep walking. As long as we were moving our blood was harder to suck, but I didn't want to go on any further without Ben. So we hopped, and slapped, and did the mosquito dance until he showed up. I was v-e-r-y glad when I spotted him in the distance making his way up toward us. When he arrived I was throwing on my pack, ready to run down the trail away from the vampires, when Ben said to me, "Did you see the mountains? You can't let the mosquitoes ruin it for you!" As I was running away I yelled, "I saw them!!!!!!!!"

We did two miles on the ridge with not much shade. Bella had her hiking trail boots on so her feet would not burn on the hot rock and ash that made up the trail that we were now walking on. On our left was forest, green and lush. On our right, utter devastation. St. Helen's had blown down all the trees here when she blew up. The trail started to quickly drop once we again hit the tree line and switch backed down to the valley where Jim would pick us up. We past two men sitting by the side of the trail here. They asked me where I was coming from and when I told them they said, "That’s Awesome!"

When we hit the end of the trail Jim was not there yet, so we dropped our gear and settled in to wait. The picture of Bella at the top of this page is at the end of the trail: She sums this trip up pretty good: Tired, but satisfied! Our faithful drop off/pick up guy showed up with cold drinks and fresh salads.

A really great end to a really great hike....well, all except for those stupid mosquitoes!