Mt saint Helens ehh. Sounds fun, and very strenous! I am sure there are other ways up, but the only one i found info on says five miles and 4500 ft elevation gain. I think my knees would ache a bit, but it would be a very pleasant adventure, and I bet the view from 8600+ feet is amazing.
So to update the fishin thread with my adventures of the past couple weeks. I'll try to be brief and not tell to much about the non-fishing adventures.
It seems the weather has been pretty wet over the last weekends, which added a element of mystery to our memorial day weekend. Originally I had no intentions of going out and joining the masses of city folk pretending to be mountaineers, but the wet weather got my hopes up.
Ya' see though they live in the NW your average Seattle-ite runs from rain when without their shelters and conveniences, though there are many hardy folk intermingled so a few were always disturbing the tranquility of nature.
Friday the 28th I had managed to get off work early and promised my daughter a day on the trail, so we grabbed the gore tex, and went to do some investigating. Albino had asked if Bear Lake was open yet. So up we headed. The road was a mess after the last turn heading to the pinnacle lake trail head, and a couple trees had to be chopped and dragged out of the way. And!!! I learned that my truck has very little departure angle when going through diaganol crevases in the road. Enough said
My daughter and I arrived at the trail head to find a trail in as bad a condition as the road. She perserveered(sp?) and made the easy .3 mile to Bear lake which was ice free. There was a bit of snow around the edges and the camps were a muddy mess, but the brookies were jumpin out there. We tried our luck for a bit before she drug me to hike up the rest of the 1.5 mile to pinnacle lake. The hike was rather treacherous for a 4-year old, but we finally cleared the trees into a valley pummeled by the icy grip of winter, yet flowers were blooming in the ice. Pinnacle is 1/2 way ice free but has a couple really scary looking avalanche fields on the far side by iodine gulch. Be Good fishin by summer solstice though. It may even be ice free by this week but probably not.
Bear Lake
Sunday the 30th. My girlfriend and I decided to hike to the summit of Mount Pilchuk. It was a very misty day and the hike quickly warmed us. The trail was in good shape and snow free but for the last mile. But I suppose that is to be expected over 5000 feet in May. Up top we could only see about twenty feet and the footing was pretty slippery on the old rotten snow. In places we were post holing up to our knees, but overall It was fun.
A pic of shiloh near the summit
Monday the 31st found me with a need to scout the Alpine Lakes. Shiloh and I strapped are packs with ice gear as well as fishin poles and headed out early.
We were going to go in via the new trail up to mason lake but were detered by the crowds. Instead we headed in Via Talapus Lake trail.
The weather was chilly and a bit drizzily but only occasionally. The 2 miles to Talapus were easy and crowded with day hikers. We mostly kept our heads down and set a brisk pace. After about half an hour we found ourselves at Talapus Lake. It was Ice Free and had 4 campers around it. We climbed out into the outlet looking for signs of fish but they were not active and down deep. I reckon they weren't feeling to cozy with the cold weather and all. not to mention the fishin pressure.
Soon we were heading up. A brief pause at Olallie Lake showed a few fisherman stomping around in the mud and icy snow to fish the recently thawed lake. Many a mountaineer has told me tales of big fish in Ollalie if you know how to fish it. Me thinks there full of sh**, and just trying to keep me away from the true fish pots up above.
That said we headed up the mountains into the curtain of mist hangin over the lower lakes. Around Olallie and up to the 1st ridge line ther was quite a bit of rotten snow and ice on the trail. But interestingly it disappeared after about 4000 feet and never reappeared. By the time we got to the Basin of Lakes on top it was getting time to eat so we took a quick loop to see them all and dropped into a sheltered basin for lunch.
This Basin and our quick loop on top included; Island Lake, Rainbow Lake, Blazer Lake, Lake Kulla Kulla, and Mason Lake. Most are completely ice free with some snow around the edges. The more Sheltered two, Island and Kulla Kulla, had the most ice. Island was 3/4 exposed water, and Kulla Kulla about 1/2. To keep the amount of pics down here is one from one of the ridglines you figure out which one.
This weekend we headed up to Mt Baker with my daughter. Again the weather was a bit damp. But actually turned out to be much nicer than expected. A day spent on the forest roads showed a lot of damage, and our favorite little camping spot on Skyline Ridge Road to be inaccessible due to a stream tripling in size and eating out the bridge and road, and for that matter the whole face of the mountain. We settled for a couple river hikes along the nooksack river, and headed back to silver lake for a bit of fishing. You really need to fish this lake with a boat, but $ was a little tight so we gave it a shot from shore. Mostly I worked on perfecting My daughters casting abilities. She's getting pretty good. I mean look at that determination.
That's all folks, well at least till next weekend.
