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Trip Reports
Here's where you peruse WACer trip reports and post your own for everyone to see. Remember: Never let the truth interfere with a good story! | Trip Reports |
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| GuideBook | |
| Weather | Perfect |
| TrailConditions | Trail covered with snow |
| Owned By | Cynthia |
| Mailed to WacList | |
| RowId | 109 |
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| Report |
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I keeping with the bushwhacking theme of the weekend, I decided to treat myself to a weekend at Guye Cabin and do day trips out of there. Saturday I decided to climb up Silver Peak, which I hadn’t done in years. After a few miles on the PCT, the trail was pretty much snow-covered so I just followed the footprints in the snow. The trail broke out into the main east-facing drainage below the ridge and there was snow pretty much all the way to the top. I could see a solo hiker just below the ridgeline and found where his trail set off from the main trail. I chatted with a couple who were planning on climbing Silver, he with hiking boots and a pack - she with trail shoes and a sweater and a stick. When queried, I advised against ascending the slope without axes (“even if I have this stick,” she asked?) I said that I was going to continue on around to where I thought there was an easier route up. After a bit, I found another couple ahead of me trying to find the trail (the tracks were going every which way at this point.) I asked about the ascent route and the fellow suggest that at this time of year it was just as easy to climb the snow slope below the ridge now that all of the cornices had gone. I figured what the heck, I’ll go back, follow that other guy’s steps up, and not have to worry about route finding. Doubled back and found his steps and did just that, though I cursed his route selection a few times. About ½ up I saw the first couple ascending the slope too, though not in my tracks.
I continued on up to the ridge, feeling distinctly unhappy. Here I had come up what ended up being a very steep snow pitch with snow that wasn’t softening at all, I was by myself, and off route, and I didn’t want to go flailing about off the beaten path. I sat down, got out my map, and said this was stupid, if I didn’t want to be here I needed to go home and back down I would go. I was putting on descent clothes when I heard voices in the basin. There, almost 1/3 of the way to the top, was the couple without axes climbing up. All I could hear was the guy yelling, “I am sorry, I am so sorry!” as he kicked steps for her. They then had to scramble up over the rocks to gain the ridge. In the mean time, I spotted another party higher up on the ridge and realized that they must have come around the easier way. I looked over the edge at my steep descent route and said nuts to that, I am going to contour around and find the other trail. Sure enough, I found both the trail and the other party coming down and confirmed what I thought originally was the easier route. I asked about the couple above and determined that they were still there. I decided that it was in my best interest to go find them and let them know how to get out. They were very happy to see me and were just beginning to speak to each other again now that they were trying to figure out how to get back down, since there was no way they could safely descend the route they came up. I pointed out to them that I could either rescue them now, or later (as my pager was going off for a mission on Mt. Si.) Fortunately they saw the humor in the situation, now that they had an alternative.
I continued on up and then caught them on the way back down. We chatted for a while and reminded them to be sure and turn left when they got farther down to the main trail so they didn’t go the wrong way. I ended up stopping for lunch below the tarn while they continued on. As I was packing up, another couple appeared below me coming up the slope, sort of. I asked them if they were going up or down and they said down. Turns out they were wandering in circles, trying to find the route out. Don’t snigger - it is easy to do there. I said that I had a beaten path where I was that I was going to follow it. I set off and heard them behind me. I went charging merrily along, following the tracks, but then the tracks petered out to just faint tracks in the woods and it just didn’t look right. Oh dear, here we go again - I am all by myself and off route again. Many years ago, a friend and I hopped up Abiel, Tinkham and Silver in a day and inadvertently walked right over the PCT and had a miserable, cliffy bushwhack down to Twin Lakes, and I knew that I DID NOT want to do that again! I got out my map, checked my elevation, and realized that sure enough, I was a couple hundred feet lower than I thought I should be. Not only should I have turned left, I should have gone up, a detail that haunted me all the way out for not sharing it with the first couple.
The second couple was no longer within earshot and I debated if I should go get them. I ended up going back and found them descending an ugly drainage. I invited them to check my route theory and join me in finding the trail. I was glad for the company and they were glad for a map, having packed the wrong one. I clambered up through the woods, and sure enough found the trail a few hundred feet above, much to my relief. From there, it was a pleasant hike back down the cars. I concluded from the day’s adventure two things: it was good that I had the skills to get myself back to where I needed to be (and help out a few others in the process), and that while I don’t mind hiking by myself, I don’t much like being off-trail all by my lonesome.
Headed back to the cabin for a nice shower and dinner. I spent a quiet evening reading in the window seat, that is until I looked up and saw a big BEAR walking up from the river! It was a beautiful mahogany brown adult bear, snuffling around the yard. I then remembered that I had left all of the doors open into the cabin and he was heading for the lower entry. I made a beeline for the basement and peaked around the corner. In all of my years at Snoqualmie, I have never seen a bear before and there he/she was, looking very healthy right in front of me. Unfortunately the door squeaked and the bear quickly shuffled through the rhubarb patch and then down towards the swimming hole. I was so excited I called Bill Hooper once my heart stopped pounding. I confess that my plan to sit outside and look at the stars that night was a bit less appealing.
I decided to give my body a rest on Sunday so I hiked up to the pass to buy a Sunday paper and dashed back between thunderstorms, fixed a nice breakfast, and washed the inside of the cabin windows I spent the afternoon wandering the property in the sunshine looking at wildflowers and feeding flies to the carnivorous plants I found on the ski slope. At 6 p.m., with the skies finally clouded over and rain beginning to fall, it was time to go home.
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