July 20th Quick Update
Hello all from Wenatchee, WA. We only have an hour here at some cyber-cafe before they close, so this is going to be quick. We also have two rolls of film ready to be put up and we'd like to get those links up too.
Hoh Hike
In short this hike would be considered a major learning experience, or perhaps to some a failure. We hiked for two days toward Mount Olympus, trudging up excruciatingly steep inclines, cursing every ounce of stuff in our packs. Late on the second day, the trail got too dangerous to continue. In the three days that we ended up on the trail, we were the only non-climbers that we saw that were attempting to go as high as we were. The danger that turned us back was a series of steep gravel/sand slides that we had to walk across. They were basically crumbly cliffs w/ about a 200 foot drop from the trail. It was steep enough, that as we walked along, we could put our hand on the "cliff" wall, and it was loose enough that when we did put our hand there, part of the cliff would crumble away and fall those 200 feet. The trails we were on were very loose and probably 12-18 wide. We finally turned back when we hit what was the last slide crossing, but the trail was probably closer to 8-10 inches wide, and slanting downwards away from the wall. At that point, we turned back and hiked back down a couple thousand vertical feet to make camp, then hiked back to the truck the next day. The major thing that we learned was that our packs weighed too much for alpine hiking. The weight was fine for a coastal trek like the West Coast Trail, but add mountains and altitude and too heavy of a pack proved to be dangerous to us. Thus began the [rather expensive] "2001 Weight Reduction Program". We had the Enchantment Lakes hike next (major climbing and altitude) and something would have to change.
2001 Weight Reduction Program
So, the goal for the 3 days before Enchantments was to lose as much weight from our backpacks as possible, almost regardless of cost considering the pain we went through at Hoh (which I did not have time to explain above). We ended up getting new, lighter boots for Matt, sleeping bag for Julie, sleeping pad for Matt. We ended up removing the alpine cookset and stove... we would eat nuts and berries. We removed all forms of entertainment... playing cards, books, small radio. The 4-season mountaineering tent was replaced with a 3-season lighter variety. Gone were the tiny backpacking sleeping pillows. No more worrying about pictures - the SLR camera and lenses stay in the truck. Anything that added an ounce was scrutinized. I don't have time to lay out all the numbers, but all of this shed about 12 pounds from Julie's pack and 18 pounds from Matt's.
Enchantment Lakes Hike
Excited to try out our new gear and lighter packs we set off for the Enchantments Lakes, which we just completed a matter of hours ago. We'll write more about this hike later, but we're running short on time. In short, the weight reduction program was a huge success! The first day we scrambled from the parking lot altitude of 1300 feet to our first night's camp at 5400 feet feeling great. The next day included a climb that would have turned the old Matt and Julie back, but we climbed 1500 feet over the course of 1 mile (that's steep) with only a few scenes from the movie Cliffhanger re-enacted. We made a base camp at 7000 feet and hiked to 7800 feet the next day on a day-hike, leaving the majority of our gear at the base. That was yesterday, and we hiked back to 1400 from 7000 today - a killer one-day drop, but we survived (but are quite sore and tired from the trip). Hopefully the 2+ rolls of film we burned can capture some of the spectacular beauty of the Enchantments, we'll see in a couple weeks. It is a place that must be seen to even begin to understand this amazing place.