Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Real Weather

Notice: I finally got around to erasing that god-aweful header of 'Enlightened Ultra-Adventurer' off of this page. It was an inside joke that made 4 of us laugh in Bend, but no one outside of our silly circle. There was a nice mix of Andrew Skurka and Backpacker insults hidden within.

Welcome to WA

Entering WA was a bit depressing. There were lots of clouds. No views. Lots of climbing. Disco and I were in some sort of funk, and he blamed the cloudy grayness....giving us Seasonal Affective Disorder like people get who live up here. I don't buy it, but I had no energy for those first 2 days out. We have started to find lots of wild fruite out here: huckleberries and strawberries. Fantastic and those boosted our mood.

It took a while for WA to grow on us, but it really blew our minds in the Goat Rocks Wilderness. The views grew massive, the wildflowers were out in full force, and we got our first dose of threatening weather for a while. We were up on a ridgewalk which Disco described as being similar to the interior of Glacier NP....deep, deep valleys with waterfalls everywhere. During this ridgewalk, clouds starting rolling in. Not happy cumulous...but dark, grey, and tall cumulonimbus. We were a bit nervous about the weather, me especially since my rain system was minimal at best: a wind-shirt and poncho-tarp. Luckily we made it down from the ridge, views unobscured by low-lying clouds, and camped for the night.

After 6 days without a town stop, we stopped into the 'town' of Steven's Pass...really just a gas station and ski resort. After a fantastic sandwich, it was off into mosquito territory. I left Disco and POD behind after another fantastic day being dazzled by so many wildflowers. Sad sad times since they were some of my best friends out here, and I don't think I'll ever see them again. I camped beside a tarn with a great view, to setup for my longest day yet: 70 miles of hiking. 70 MILES.

Hiking 70

To successfully hike 70 miles, I decided I needed to make use of every second of daylight. It was tough to sleep due to nervous anticipation, and I was out of camp at 4:55 am. I got to see the sun rise above the wilderness valley and I was off with great speed. There were a few large climbs up to passes providing spectacular views. There were downhills from these climbs where I was moving at 4.5 mph. Lots of hills were around to slow me down. At the 24 mile point, around noon, I was exhausted, and the day was barely 1/3 of the way done. I took a 30 minute break and felt completely refreshed. After about 40 miles, at 4:00, I met up with friend Gopher. He let me lead because he knew what I was doing, but he kept up with me for a good 30 minutes, giving me some conversation that I needed on the long day. After darkness came, and I hit the 50 mile mark, things started to get blurry. I had a decent amount of energy, but after mile 56, I had to take the caffeine pill and ibuprofin that POD had given to me. This gave me the boost I needed at took me to mile 65. At mile 65 or so, I started to run out of energy and begin yawning. Sitting for a 5 minute snack break, I decided to try to make the 70 miles within 24 hrs. This required a constant 3mph pace...usually doable without a problem, but 22 hrs into the hike, became a bit tough. Sadly, the terrain became much much harder than I've seen since the High Sierra. My tired muscles could barely handle the downhills, which felt way way steeper than I know they were. At points I had to jog down them because I felt like it was too difficult to control my muscles enough to hike normally. There were tons of rocks on the trail like the AT, causing me to wince at every painful step onto them, and jumping from rock to rock...avoiding mud...walking on icy snow. With 15 minutes to go, I didn't t hink I'd really make it. I started to walk as fast as I possibly could....very hard to do at this point. With 7 minutes to spare, I made it to the road...70 miles later. I found a space to sleep behind the ski lift, and drifted off.

After the 70 mile day, I had some long, tiring days until I caught up on sleep. The hiking was spectacular through the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The last day before town, a storm rolled in, showering us with sprinkles all day long. I was hiking alone for that 31 mile day into town, and loved finally seeing clouds and watching the fog drift in to the mountains. It's very moody out here, and when the sun finally breaks through it feels like it has meaning...none of those boring blue skies like California always had.

No more updates until I'm westbound on the PNT I think.

3 comments:

samh said...

Damn. I was trading email with Disco the last couple weeks and when he told me you'd hiked a seventy mile day I was in absolute awe. People are always in awe when I tell them my record day was forty miles. You nearly doubled that! Props to you. Hands down. Rock on.

Anonymous said...

Damn it Beat, why'd you have go and throw down a gauntlet like that?! I'm gonna feel like an underachiever now! Let's see if me and Yorkie can do 140 this weekend in Wales ...

Anonymous said...

Knifey and I only managed a 69 in Wales, but enough of out tent aerobics - had a good time reminiscing about AT adventures. I enjoy reading about your adventures. Knifey and I hope that you will make plans to come visit us some time soon! Enjoy the mail drops Knifey and I put together- they're quite heavy so pig out in town and share the food with your friends.

Hike On
Viva la Beatbox!!