The next 2 weeks...

... are going to be hectic. Not only has winter descended upon this amazing place:


It's also the last week of Mountain school, and I'm wrapping up my last session with kids here in mid-40 degree kinda rainy weather. The kids all had fun, we found mushrooms, ran amuck, hid behind trees and blind folded each other while trying to meet a tree.

but more importantly, we're getting ready to go floating down a river for 18 days.

I received a book today written by Edward Abbey which contained his journals from his last trip down the Grand. The quote on the back cover reads "Water topples upon us, filling the boat in an instant. The force of the river carries us through the first wave and into a second, deeper hole... I think I can almost see bedrock bottom. The third wave towers above us. Far above. The Great Wave. Heavily our water-loaded boat, askew, climbs up its face. Never makes it. As the wave hits us from the portside our dory turns over with the grave, solemn, inevitable certainty of disaster. No one says a word as we go under."

no, i'm not worried at all.

Yesterday, i also read an amazing post written by one of my friends that will also be joining us on this trip. You can read it here. But the quick summary is that he traveled to the source of the Colorado river to see the trickles of water that we would soon be paddling down.

I leave for Flagstaff on the evening of the 9th, and at 10am on the 10th, we are picked up by our outfitter and will be taken to Lee's Ferry. The day will be spent rigging rafts, meeting new people, hugging old friends and traveling to a nearby ranch for supper. We'll camp at the rafts at the put in site:



From there, we will set off on November 11th and travel 225ish miles down the Colorado river through the Canyon. We'll be picked up at Diamond Creek at 10am on November 30th


From there, we will be shuttled back to Flagstaff and then I fly back to Seattle on December 1st. Somewhere during that time, I'll go for hikes, look at rocks, get wet, go for runs, eat Thanksgiving dinner and miss my family. But it will be an amazing experience and I cannot wait.

With that being said, i'll be accepting guest posters for the blog now :)

SNOW!!!

So, today Teresa, Dennis & I ventured 20 minutes up the road to Washington Pass where we experienced something amazing... SNOW.

We set off on a 2.2 mile hike up to Blue Lake, which is nestled right near Liberty Bell at Washington Pass. The rumors were proven to be true and snow levels ranged from 1 - 2 feet in places, especially up at Blue Lake (6,250 ft). It was amazing. Snowballs were thrown, bets were lost over animal tracks and snowmen were built. It wasn't blue or sunny out, but precipitation held off long enough that we were able to enjoy the scenery and the hike. Enjoy some photos taken by both Teresa & I.

Blue Lake!

Liberty Bell, Concord Tower & Early Winter Spires

What animal do you think these belong to?

found a hut with no roof. Obviously, step 1 is to enter through the top versus the door on the other side

Patrick the Snowman!

Hannegan Pass - relived

So... if you recall from the summer... i've had it out with Hannegan Pass quite a few times. To date, I had been on that trail 3 times and had reached the pass zero times (Story here). On Saturday, I was on a mission to reach said pass, and to claim it as my own and then summit something else around there depending on time and weather. We had a pretty huge weather system moving in, so my only goal was to get to that damn pass regardless of wind, snow, rain or intense heat and run as much of the way there and back as possible.

So, the book told me it would be about 5 miles to the pass and then up to Hannegan Peak with 10.2 miles of trail running and then 3000 feet of elevation gain. But here's the thing... there were no signs... and then I ended up running in a white out. So, with that being said, I ended up summiting both Hannegan Peak & Granite Peak, ran almost 14 miles and had about 3500 of elevation gain. I honestly just figured out I ran up Granite Peak when I was looking at my topo map program, and realized that Hannegan Peak actually does not have a false summit, but there's another peak (Granite) about .3 miles away... Also, before getting up to either peak, I got to the top of the pass and saw trails going everywhere, so I just started running out and back on trails until I finally saw the one I wanted to get to in the distance... which resulted in me bushwacking up a slope grabbing onto slide alders and small trees until I hit the trail I wanted.

Something I haven't mentioned yet, is that when I hit Hannegan Pass it started snowing and the wind picked up considerably. This meant that visibility went to about 300 feet quick, and it got cold. So, while running up the trail to Hannegan Peak, I couldn't see anything around me, or understanding why I ran up to two completely separate mountains.

Of course, the second I got off the summit (which was pretty darn quick) and started running back down the trail. once i got back to the pass, the storm moved over and the sun came out about 30 minutes later. Go figure.

Anyway, i'll stop rambling while attempting to piece my day together and show you some fine pictures from Saturday.

SNOW!!! typically, you can see a mountain across the creek below... not after this moved in

Grouse getting snowed on... and getting confused as I kept trying to move up the trail

storm's coming

Post-storm. Clouds parted and you could see Ruth perfectly.

Trust me, there's a Pika there. That guy was echoing "eeeeps" all the way up the valley until he could get a better look at me. Keep eeeping little guy!

I have no idea what day it is

I went running with some of my running friends up here. We were talking about our winter running plans. I was then informed that my main route for night running is also frequented by cougars.

So, if you're wondering what to get me for christmas, please get me cougar spray.


It was a long day, and i'm looking forward to sleep. I'll come up with something amazing and dramatic for tomorrow... like how i kind of took over a non-profit last week. more on that later.

Just another normal day out here

Today I went out into the wilds with park Wildlife Biologist, Roger. We went and picked up 5 of the last traps (hair snags) from the Marten project I wrote about back in August. In all, Roger estimated he placed 60 traps throughout the summer along the highway 20 corridor and it took us about 6 hours to remove just 5.

It was a fantastic day, we visited two traps on the east side and then three traps on the west side. One of the east side traps had suspect grizzly hair on the snag, and the entire trap was mangled. On the west side, we had less success, and one of the pieces of chicken was still left on the tree (gross). We trampled through the woods and talked about anything from pika projects to skiing this winter. I'm happy to say, I have a new backcountry ski partner! We also discussed some possibilities for graduate involvement in the winter time, which would include skiing, traps, and skiing. hooray.

Anyway, just to give a 20 second history on the Marten project, the Pine Marten is a small little guy that needs a pretty good home range in order to be viable. It is also one of the species in the North Cascades complex that they believe to be healthy and in abundance. So, this project is to test to see if hwy 20 acts as a barrier for martens, causing isolated populations to be formed. There are traps set on both the north side and the south side of the highway which will catch the hair of the pine martens when they go for the gross meat under the hoods of the traps. The hair samples are then transferred to a lab in BC where they identify the DNA from the hair samples. The researchers are then able to figure out if the martens on both sides of the highway are sharing the same DNA, are possibly even the same martens, or do not share any similar strands. The results will then show if the population is isolated, or if the martens are willing and able to cross the street to make friends with the other martens.

Here are some photos from today.

Marten trap destroyed by bears. You can see the hair snags on the tree

nice east side forest

gross. one month old chicken on a tree. still gross

following Roger through the "Fun Zone!" This required multiple stream crossings via slippery logs and devils club.

Mount Larrabee

So, on saturday Frankie & I set out on hwy 542 toward Mount Baker. We took a left onto the forest service road that would lead us back to Twin lakes and the trail head. It ended up being a beautiful and pretty darn cold day. Our goal was to summit Mount Larrabee, which Fred Beckey described as an easy scramble up some loose rocks. What Frankie & I should have learned by now is that what Fred Beckey deems easy, is typically scary and or life threatening by normal human standards. The first 2.2 miles was up a nice switch backy trail that led us to a beautiful mountain pass with amazing views of our surroundings. From this point onward, there is no defined route to the summit maintained by anyone. So the fun started. We got "off route" and visited an old abandoned mine. This then caused us to go back up 500 feet through blue berry bushes until we got to where we were supposed to be. Then, we went up a scree, tallusy, pumicy thing to the side of Mount larrabee. Only 1000' feet to go to the summit. This is where the fun started. I honestly could not tell you which way was the "right" way to go, except that we did not go that way. We climbed up some gross crumbly rock face where the rock you were holding one second that was attached to the mountain would be in your hand detached from previous mountain resting place. The word "exposure" or phrase "Frankie I'm really scared" was uttered or mumbled multiple times over the next hour... but thankfully we reached the summit and had AMAZING views (photos to come). We actually ran into one of the guys from the graduate class ahead of me, which was completely random when you're in the middle of designated wilderness, on a crumbly shitty trail that you made yourself. The way down was much easier since we had learned many lessons on the way up, and it took us 6 hours round trip. Frankie has some amazing photos and videos, but he's on a plane going to Korea, and I only have the few photos from my camera. Enjoy

Objective. We climbed up the South West face. So, from the photos vantage point, the side to the left.

Views for days!!

Baker!

Fun zone. This is where me met Mike, the C9 grad. Note the different rocks and how they point in various directions.

GLACIER!!!!

Kids.... again!

So, i'm on round three of trying to impart knowledge on small children this week. Today I will count as a success. These kids are rad. They're stoked to learn, they listen, they laugh and they ask questions. Who can ask for more?! I typically hand out jobs to kids like:
official map keeper
plant biologist
ornithologist
naturalist

and the kids typically look at me like im nuts... today though, they had to fight for the chance to do it... weird. They actually want to go hiking for an entire day. I mean, really?! Here are some shots from today.

yes, they're doing gang signs

peering over the dam. They then started spitting over the dam, only to find that the wind would cause the spit to fly back up and into their face. no lie.

more peering

mountain construction on the shores of Diablo

More focused mountain building

Tomorrow - off to the trails to explore!