Lakes Lakes and more Lakes

Who: Krista/Roomie (now from Alaska), Andreas, me
What: Lake Tallipus/Ollalie Lake
When: Monday, Sept 27th, 2009

Krista was up visiting on her layover from Vermont to Alaska. Since this was her vacation (and she had been to Seattle before, seeing "the sites") we decided to get out into the wilderness, while staying away from anything "hardcore."

As the guidebook claims, if we went on the Lake Tallipus hike, we would dance the laid-back switchback shuffle. [They were TOTALLY right].

Andreas, anxious to test out his new 70L First Ascent pack (another buy from Rainier Festival), packed in about 40lbs. I packed water and "summit treats" (chocolate chip oatmeal peanut butter cookies--yea, that's right).

It was a perfect hike. Not too many people (ok, it was a Monday), but it was definitely a great way to have a conversation without getting out of breath. We called the hike: mellow, peaceful/tranquil (no traffic sounds!), and other synonomous words.

Krista took some photos...

Alison designating Andreas as trail leader


Mushroom. Remember, red is most likely to be poisonous.


Lake Tallipus


We were able to climb over some of the fallen trees for an extra bit of excitement.


Krista was as amazed at the 'hairy trees' as I was when I first came to Washington. Turns out, this is actually totally the norm.


Lake Ollalie


Side Note: I had done this hike before, with VTAlan. Alan likes to walk ahead of people. I like to walk to the side. So whenever I would increase speed to be beside him, he would increase speed to be ahead. Before we knew it we were basically running up the hill and were breathing hard. It was a good laugh when we realized this.

This time we took a great slow pace and were able to comfortably pick on eachother the entire way.

Mailbox Peak

Who: Me, myself and I
What: Mailbox Peak!
Where: Slightly north of Mt Si
When: Sat, Sept 26th, 2009

I was feeling bad about not getting out much lately. I guess I've been busy (paragliding weekend recently, some climbing) but I haven't been hiking in awhile. I wanted to try a new hike and happened upon Mailbox Peak.

The story isn't that exciting but the people I met were interesting. Here's a picture story.



This hike is steep as crap. Wow, why don't more people do this one as a training hike? It's like an exit past Mount Si and sooo much less croweded (oh wait, I mean, it's really crowded, you probably shouldn't bother going).

The hike is also way more "natural" feeling (some might say 'unkept' but these people don't count). Apparently they're planning on fixing it for there were 'caution' signs on a few tree's.



There were also many mushrooms along the way!



I was shooting pictures of this spider web when some hikers came down the trail. I showed them what I was shooting (it was above the trail, but high enough that nobody disturbed it). The hikers responded that they were surprised it hadn't eaten anybody yet.



I got "lost" a few times on some switchbacks. I would happily be going along when I'd realize the trail (surprisingly well marked--I've never seen so many markers on a WA trail) was a little to my left or right. Fortunately, going up the trail I didn't notice any traffic sounds (sadly, at the top, you could).



I think the real reason I got "lost" was because I'd be like "oh wow, a root ladder!" hike up it, to find the real trail to the side. Opps.



Walking up the trail I was in a cloud the entire way. It was great for a cool morning on a steep hike. It was so beautiful I had to restrain myself in taking photos (I wanted to take one every few steps).



All of a sudden I was out of the trees and above the clouds!


After another super steep half mile (of alpine meadows!) I reached the summit and two mailboxes greeted me!



Inside I found a trail log (there were a TON) and randomly opened it to a page from a week before where my old roommate Chris from VT had signed the log! How exciting.

I also met an older (ish, like in their 40's) couple who were all in love. It was cute. The man, in an attempt to utterly embarass the woman called everybody on the summit ("hey Blondy, come over here") to check out what he wrote in the trail book, against the screaming wishes of the woman. It read "no sex for me tonight, she's spent." For the record, she totally beat him up the mountain and was waiting on the summit for his arrival.

All in all, this is definitely my favorite hike UP. Down was hard on the knees, even with poles (without poles it would have taken me twice as long). But, totally worth it, and my new recommended hike for you!

Granite Mountain

Who: Me, Myself, And I
What: Granite Mountain
When: Sunday, Sept 23th, 2009

I had sent my parents on this hike a week earlier, but had never been on it myself. Then, Alan showed me a picture that he had just done the hike too. I felt like I was missing out (as Andreas had also told me it was an epic view).

So, on a beautifully sunny day I took a hike up Granite.

I started late, in hopes to avoid some of the mid-day crazy heat. My body does not care for warmer climates.

I don't have much to say about the hike, except, the view at the top is an excellent 360 degree view of mountains, mountains and more mountains. The hike was steep pretty the entire way, for a great workout. I was actually scared I was going to be sore after the hike since I feel/felt like I haven't been working out much lately. But, in addition to beating the estimated time by an hour, there was no sore-ness!

The downsides of this hike: you can hear the road pretty much the entire way (a major bummer in my book). 75% of this hike is not in the shade. Granted, it's a beautiful alpine meadow for a majority of the way, but I shall stay away from this hike on hotter days.

My parents picked a ton of huckleberrys on the way up, but I didn't see any easily accessable ones on my trip.

I took a couple photos, but none were worthy, I need a filter for my lens. But I do want to climb this pointy peak sometime:

Anybody know what it is?

Sorry for an almost negative post on a hike that everybody says is the "greatest thing ever." I think I'm just sad that the road follows you the entire way.

Mt Si

Who: Mom, Dad, me
Where: Mt. Si
When: Sept 3rd or 4th (it wasn't a weekend, that's all I know).

My Mom wanted to climb Mt Si since she'd heard so much about it (I even own a hiking book titled "Beyond Mt Si"). Since it's a nice hike, just rather crowded, I relented.

The weather was near perfect, a little cool, some sun, but nothing devestating since most the hike is in the trees (both Mom and I don't fair that well in heat).

On the way up my parents questioned me as to why I enjoy climbing/hiking when sometimes it's scary/painful. (Earlier we had a conversation about crack climbing killing your feet and how it can also hurt your hands). Sure there may be some amount of 'pain' involved, sleeping in freezing tempatures without a proper sleeping bag or just being cold on a route, or whatever. But the thing is, after its done, you don't remember that part. You just remember the solitude or epic views or other more pleasureable moments. You don't remember (at least, not as much) how scared you were or how impossible the climb seemed. They didn't really understand.

We got to the top making pretty good time--Dad kept asking me 'how's the pace?' I think he had upped it a notch from his normal hiking pace. It's really hard to compare when you're behind somebody; I don't notice if it's slower than I would go.

After getting to the top, I decided to attempt to bring my parents up the haystack (a steep rocky scramble) on Mt Si. When we got to the base they looked at it slightly skeptical but kept positive tones and we made our way up; they were following wherever I led.

Soon we passed some girls coming down who claimed it was "too scary" and they had given up. This didn't instill confidence.

We went a bit farther up when we came upon the crux of the route. Suddenly it was a bit steaper than what we had been climbing before. This killed all confidence and the 'rents decided to turn back.

The problem was they didn't know how to get down. Mom was scared to move an inch. I demonstrated ways of downclimbing and how one should 'trust' their handholds and such, but Mom wasn't having any of that. She'd attempt to move her feet down, not trust her hands, and then freeze or go back up to her original position.

Fortunately, since it wasn't a weekend, the trail wasn't too crowded. At this point there was nobody else on the final haystack scramble.

After a lot of demonstations, encouragement, and directing, we got to the bottom of the scramble. I'll give them (my parents) credit, they did improve as we got lower and started downclimbing much faster.

By the time we reached the bottom my Mom claimed "see, if I had practice, I could have done it" and "if we went up again right now, I'd totally do it." Dad seemed skeptical and tried to remind Mom about the fear not 15 minutes ago, and vetoed any second chance on the haystack. Mom refused to remember any fear and claimed the scramble was now, totally do-able.

To the top or not, it was fun (everybody thought so). At this point I reminded my parents that this scramble to them was the equivalent of some rock climbing/alpine hiking that I do. Sometimes it's scary, and you have to weigh the calculated risk. But once you get down, you completely forget how scary it was moments ago, and are either excited for a second chance or make it a mission to come back and conquor [it] perhaps coming more prepared (training or equipment wise) the seoncd time.

Dad took some pictures of the view, black squirrels (we don't have those in VT) and slugs, but I don't have any of them.

A few days later I took my parents rock climbing at Stone Gardens (indoor rock gym). They had fun as Andreas and I belayed them. Mom once again claimed that if she had this practice she would have been able to 'fly' up Si. Once again Dad had a slight look of skeptisism. I had a big smile.