They say you can't control the weather and I guess they're right!
We dreaded heading for the Pacific NorthWest and for good reason.
Five Months of warm, sunny summer weather had to balance out somewhere....
and Washington certainly took care of that!
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| Does that look like west coast weather or what?? |
With time and daylight running out Darrell tries a new strategy..
Running!
A trip to REI for some new waterproof equipment and we're off!
(new pack, hat, raincoat, rainpants, etc.)
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| Good to go!...wish me luck! |
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| Running in the rain...Oh Joy! First day of running! (kind of enjoyable) |
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Second day of running!...Scary....
.. got through just before dark! ......(not enjoyable!)
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With no overnight gear it would have been downright
dangerous to be caught out over night! - Time for a change of plans!
The two one-day legs are now done! ( Crest horse camp to road 5603)
Back to overnight camping!
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| With limited daylight early starts are a must! |
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| This leg goes all right... some nice, fall colours! |
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| A happy face to keep you going.... |
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| A bit of snow but not bad! |
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| Hopefully he was going the other way? |
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"Ah... salvation!...the white VW!"
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That completed the 'White Pass' to Hwy 410 section!...
Now back to try the Goat Rocks .
(Left these as long as possible due to some 7000' passes)
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| Starts out OK - nice hiking! |
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| Still fine - Looking good! |
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approaching 7000'
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| All of a sudden it's not looking so good! |
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| Now it's not looking good at all....... Solid snow and icy to boot! Too dangerous to attempt alone - especially without crampons! No choice but to turn back....bummer! |
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| Did I tell you ? - " I hate snow!" |
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| The trip back is disgustingly nice |
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| I guess this is why the 'Goat Rocks' are called what they are! |
It's now the middle of October - and with some 350 miles yet to go it
doesn't look promising. Unless the forecast for the rest of October indicates
lots of warm, sunny weather this trip is over! Right now it looks like we'll
have to book some holidays for September, 2012 and complete it then!
Rats!!
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| And this guy was really helpful ....... he offered me a quarter so I could call someone who cared! Nice! |
COACHES CORNER:
After spending all summer looking for sections that were free of 'old' snow
it was discouraging to now be looking for sections free of 'new' snow!....
It meant we were back to driving around trying to keep Darrell on the trail!
Needless to say this kept 'Pickup' & 'Dropoff' (our trail names) pretty busy!
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| The view from the 'cockpit'........ we saw this a lot! It felt like we drove in & out of every small town in America about four times! |
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| This was probably our longest stay ... 'Randle' - just north of Mt St. Helen's - About 5 or 6 days! We even managed to get Darrell to do some cooking!... (notice Sandy's gleeful smile!) |
And talk about the world being a small place!....
Guess who we met in the Randle Motel restaurant?
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| Vern Tejas - the very accomplished climbing guide that Darrell met in Antarctica! (He has probably broken more climbing records than any other guide!) |
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| Since we were near Mt. St. Helen's we checked out the old 'miners car' .....Certainly looking worse for wear after 31 years! |
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| Someone was getting into the winter spirit (not us) This must have been an easy one - it was only 6" tall! |
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| Heading south into 'Goat Rocks' to meet up with Darrell...... After hiking in for 3-4 hours and no Darrell we get a phone call.. "I can't make it... I'm turning back - see if you can pick me up at lake 'xyz' " "OK....Sure...never heard of it ....but no problem" |
I think we found him by about 9:30PM - He was already asleep in the bathroom!
After another night in Randle we headed north to Winthrop the following day.
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| Our 'Charlie Brown' Christmas tree! |
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| On the way to 'Maple Pass' |
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| A batch of 'Angle Hair' fungus |
And now for something completely different.....
Ever wonder why Dutch farms are so neat,tidy and clean??
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| It's easy.....They train their pigs! |
And here's one last really, really hungry cat!
I guess that's it for this year..
tune in next September!
