4 posts tagged “hiking”
A few weekends ago, I did the classic High Divide hike in the Olympic range, a few hours west of Seattle. My excuse for taking this long to get this entry up is that I got a new laptop with Windows Vista, and the Vox bulk uploader only works with XP, and damned if I was going to bother uploading photos three at a time from the web interface. Anyway. It took a few weeks for me to remember that one of my work computers still has XP, so I uploaded them from there. So that's my story.
Back to the point: I actually attempted this hike once last year. That time, I ended up in hospital with a doctor scraping half the Olympic peninsula out of my knee. This was more indicative of my terrible foot-eye coordination than to the demanding nature of the hike, although it is one of the tougher hikes on the peninsula. I vowed to come back this year however, and did so with a trusty gang of friends. This time I amazingly made it through the two days without even tripping over my own feet once - possibly some sort of record.
High Divide is meant to be all about the views. The 3000 foot elevation gain gives you amazing vistas of the Olympic mountains, snow-capped still even in summer. Unfortunately, it rained almost the entire weekend and our whole journey was wrapped in thick fog. We looked out off cliff faces only to see a big soup of grey. It was a testament to the magic of the place that it was still an incredibly beautiful hike. We walked through lush, ancient rainforest, green meadows, high barren alpine ridges and past tranquil lakes. And fog is always good for one thing: black and white photography. Hence, in this post I'm going to let my pictures do the talking: a photo-essay, of sorts.
Rainforest
The forests of the Olympic peninsula are among the oldest on the planet. Every inch of these woods are teeming with life, from the tallest hemlock to the tiniest little 'shroom.
Meadow
The climb to the high country runs through impossibly green alpine meadows full of flowers and gurgling brooks. I kept breaking into "The hills are alive with the sound of music..."
Wildlife
My first ever bear sighting in the wild! We spent a few minutes watching this guy pottering around the meadow, and our day was made.
Camping
We set up camp on a sheltered hill by Heart Lake. That silhouetted photo is of Sean doing his best hungry bear impersonation. There are so many bears out and about in the park that campers have to hang their food on bear wires 12 feet off the ground. Or hungry bears will smell your food and try to join you for an in-tent picnic.
Morning
We had to pack up in the morning in rain and fog. It didn't look like it was going to clear up or blow away very soon, also the tent was turning into a swimming pool, so we just decided to set off. Better out than in.
Raindrops
I got some good raindrop shots.
B/W
And some good dramatic black and whites.
High country
Despite the lack of views, the high country was still undeniably majestic, and still had some snow-covered patches even though it was late summer.
Llamas
We met a guy leading llamas up the mountain.
Ending
It was good to rest our tired feet at the end (sprinkled with some feats of strength, of course).
Civilisation
The sun came out just as we hit Port Angeles. We consoled ourselves with a good meal at the Cornerhouse, best diner in town.
Last weekend I organised a backcountry hiking trip in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The Alpine Lakes are a beautiful protected area of craggy peaks, lush forest, sub-alpine meadows and cool blue lakes just an hour or two from Seattle - and on the drive there, I thought for the thousandth time how lucky I am to live so close to such things. Our destination was Lake Caroline, a 6 mile (one way) hike that starts just south of the town of Leavenworth (one of my favourite places in the universe... or not). In the way of company I had Astha, Sean, Jon and Punit, all backcountry first-timers who wanted to come along on a warmup hike to get a feel for the weight of the pack and so on before a longer hike in the Olympics that we have planned in a few weeks.
The first couple of miles of the hike went through tall grassy meadows and some rocky sections, with a few foresty bits and stream crossings on the way, and those big peaks always in our peripheral vision (we knew we would have to climb up one eventually that day). Everyone was in good spirits and getting used to their packs well. We stopped for lunch at Little Eightmile Lake and met a friendly chipmunk.
From the first lake, the trail went straight up the side of a hill. We were certainly glad it was slightly overcast, because due to a forest fire a few years ago there was absolutely no cover and full sun would have been brutal. The climb went up and up until it reached a beautiful meadow blooming with alpine flowers.
Getting to Lake Caroline itself was a pretty steep descent. The thought in my mind was that getting up it the next morning was going to be a strain on the old quads. But anyway, the lake was beautiful, and we were the only people there. We found a spot for our tents, made some dinner, and then explored the lake for a bit. It would have been perfect if we weren't getting constantly swarmed by mozzies. Eventually we got sick of constantly swatting and getting bitten and retreated to a tent for some card games and listening to a reading of the latest Economist (thanks, Sean).
The night got pretty cold, but I slept alright. The only casualty of the night were my favourite pair of hiking pants, which inexplicably got a huge rip in them somewhere between when we stopped hiking and when we went to bed. The next morning we refilled our water bottles and headed back down the mountain the way we came. The meadow looked even more beautiful in the morning sun. Around lunchtime, we stopped at Eightmile Lake, which is a side trail off the main trail to Lake Caroline. By that time it was extremely sunny and we were all hot and sweaty. We ended up jumping into the lake for a swim. It was freezing, but undeniably refreshing and lots of fun. Having dried ourselves off, we set a cracking pace back to the trailhead, and back to civilisation. All in all, a top weekend.
... was the theme for the night, when Al and I went to see Rocky Votolato play at Neumo's on Friday. Al has already written up a full report, so I will not repeat all the details of the evening, except to reiterate that it was a great show, and I was impressed that Rocky managed to get through a full set plus an encore despite having pretty much lost his voice over the course of the tour. He growled his way hoarsely through most of the numbers, which was something to get used to considering his voice sounds fairly soft and soothing on the albums. But it gave the songs a different dimension, and I enjoyed the show. I really need to get hold of Suicide Medicine somehow. It isn't on Zune Marketplace.
Yesterday a group of us (Aparna, Astha, Andre, Ricmoo and I) decided to
inaugurate hiking season with our first outing of the year at
Rattlesnake Ledge, about 45 minutes east of Seattle. It was a nice
little warm-up hike, with some great views at the top, and all the
fresh air apparently sent Moo into a state of exuberant craziness that
I never thought possible even from him, climbing into hollow logs,
striking statuesque poses atop rocks, and chasing chipmunks around
perilously close to cliffs. It was a thoroughly entertaining morning. (A sampling of pics below, full collection here.)
