No Equipment Failure This Time

Since the weather decided to stay nice we decided to finish what we started last week and hike up to Camp Muir. Pam and I were joined by Sherrie and Gary for our hike. We arrived at Paradise and were on the trail at 8 AM. We seem to do this hike on the winter route a lot so it was nice to actually see the trail instead of snowshoe tracks.

 

 

It is pretty hard to argue with John Muir on this one. The wildflowers were still in full bloom as we made our way to the Muir snowfield. We have been very lucky along the way to have some fantastic weather for our adventures even when it is raining at home. I think the old adage is the fortune favors the bold or something like that and I agree.

 

We screamed along getting in more than 2 miles in the first hour. We took a little break to take in some food and pose for pictures.

 





After our little break we headed up into the snowfield. the next almost 3 miles took the better part of 3 hours as we made our way through the snowfield to Camp Muir. Along the way we were discussing the altitude at Camp Muir. We were split because I remembered reading 10,188 and everyone else was sure it was 10,080 feet. When we arrived at the main camp it was 10,080 but to the right there is a rocky scramble. Sherrie suggested that she take the GPS up and see what it read. Gary and I decided that we might as well be dumb and climb the thing as well and Pam decided to remain sane and take the necessary picture of the fools on the rock so up we went.

 

 

Predictably, the GPS read 10,188 on the top. There is actually a highest rock for a memorial of some sort. We made our way back to the main camp and got a couple of shots before heading down. I had some trouble on the way up after about 9600 feet drawing breath. I think it was mostly that I needed some calories. I'll be more careful next time.

 

Mt Adams

Mt Hood

Mt St Helens
 

Pam did  a little minstrel show

 

 

As we descended so did some fog. We didn't get too far down before we were making our way through the fog bank. We got in a couple of glissades, but not too much. The snow remained too firm to plunge step or as Sherrie likes to call it running down the mountain like a 2 legged deer. We did make it down in less than 2.5 hours. There were tons of tourists on the lower part of the trail. I must have heard 10 different languages as I hiked down. I just need to learn the universal language of get out of my way I want pizza for situations like that.

 

I had a zipper failure on one leg of my hiking pants.

 

 

We did eventually get our pizza at Whitacker's Basecamp Grill. We left home at 5:45 and got home after 7:30 to an unstressed and waiting Athena. She amazes us regularly with her ability to sleep all day when she knows we will be gone a while. 

 

Be well and more soon....