So Friday there I was faced an opportunity not to show up and bail on what has become one of my favorite hike - Mt St Helens. I have been fighting my first cold in almost 3 years and I was ear plugged and nose plugged and energy-less when we arrived at the Lone Fir Cafe in Cougar to pick up our climbing permits.
Sherrie, Pam and I were there together and I decided that I couldn't do the climb the next day and that we should have them re-sell the permit to someone who could use it. That lasted until we were done eating with Pam and Sherrie asking me whether I was sure. They'd say "What if you feel better tomorrow?" We grabbed my permit back and headed for the Climber's Bivouac to set up camp.
I didn't sleep more than about an hour all night. I was miserable. Luckily, it was a clear night and we had our fly pulled back for star-gazing. That was fantastic! The milky way was thick up there away from any lights. And at about 4 AM the moon developed these ray arms that I have never seen before.
I got up and set to making coffee for the gang and ate a little breakfast. I was still quite sick and really without any energy and had decided I would hang around camp and read while the gang climbed. Again, Pam and Sherrie were like "Maybe you could just hike up out of the tree line with us" (about 2.5 miles) and other subtle and not so subtle urgings.
I relented and donned my boots and hiking gear and decided to see what I could do. At 7:20 we hit the trail.
We were trucking along and I felt slow. Everyone was right on my tail so I was sure I was going slow. We went up to just before the outhouse (2.14 miles) and stopped to wait for Pam and Gary to join back up. I checked the mileage and my watch and realized that we did that mileage in 45 minutes - decidedly NOT slow.
It isn't far from the outhouse that you leave the tree line and begin the nearly 2.5 miles of bouldering and scree. There is no in between to be had - not nice chunk of trail. You are either climbing over boulders or struggling in the scree.
Oh, did I mention it's steep too? So the only way I know to beat such a beast is head down hiking. You just look where your next step is and try not to look to the summit. You really don't get a view of the summit until you get past the 3 walls of boulders that lay just before the final scree field anyway.
Once over the boulders and into the scree it is a lot like trying to climb up a mountain covered with pumice marbles. Every step you take you lose half of or more to sliding back down. Somehow or another Gary and I reached the rim at 11:05. The weather wasn't perfect, but Mt Rainier, Mt Adams, and Mt Hood were visible. With the brush fires going on in the Gorge everything was a little hazy. The wind was blowing close to 25 MPH which was great to get cooled off.
We didn't stay long at the summit. We headed down after 15 or 20 minutes and ran into Pam and Sherrie along with our 3 new friends Adam, Steve and Matt. Perfect timing for a group picture.
Pam and Sherrie continued up and the rest of us headed down. Gay and I arrived back at camp at 1:45 and I started in on my second beer of the day. I had one in my pack as you can see in the picture above. Our new friends were less than 10 minutes behind us. We equipped them with beers and sat looking back at the mountain. From our camp area you could see most of the climbing route and we could even see climbers nearing the top - pretty cool!
Just before Pam and Sherrie walked back into camp a large group that had permits to climb Sunday arrived and were having trouble finding a spot to accommodate them. Pam and Sherrie arrived and got a drink and a chair and we decided the right thing to do was decamp and let the next day's climbers have our site. We headed to Centralia to McMenamin's Olympic Club for dinner and then on to home where a hot shower and a familiar bed was a perfect ending to a fun and challenging day.
I learned that I am right when I say you have to tell yourself yes even when every part of you body is saying no. I am confident that fitness doesn't get you through difficult tasks as much as your ability to turn nos into yeses. I will likely get to enjoy another 4 extra days of this cold for deciding to climb yesterday, but it was worth that price and more.
Be well and more soon.
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