Oh what a fantastic day for a hike. My birthday hike.
Got up at 430 again like last week. A bowl of oatmeal with fresh blueberries, lots! This time I was on the road at 610 and no car problems. Got to Beverly Campground NE of Cle Elum at 8, and started hiking the Jungle Creek trail 1383.1. It was nice and cool out, mid 50’s, sunny, no wind, a good start. After about 3/4 mile the trail disappeared under overgrowth. I continued on for another 1/4 mile bushwacking my way. Then I decided NO this isn’t going to work very well. Yeah, I could continue and eventually get out of it as I gain altitude. But it wasn’t what I wanted. So after 1 mile I turned around and headed back to the truck. Thats 2 miles so far.
I then continued up the road like last week and decided to do Longs Pass, which splits off the same trail as Ingalls Lake. Its been a few years since I last did it, 2007 maybe. I started hiking there at 915, and the temp out was cool but 60’ish. The late snow has all disappeared from the trail, and its only 2.5 moderate miles up. I was passed by several people, and there were about 6 people already at top when I got up there at 11am. But I continued along the ridgeline and found a private rock to rest on. The others already there didn’t take long before heading back down, and pretty soon I was all alone.
Click this link for a reasonable video I made from my phone. Its 16 MB size may take a few minutes to download.
The first picture you can see the trail arriving at the pass. Pic 2 & 6 is Mt Adams, Pic 3 is Rainier, 4 is Mt Stuart, and the last pic is the valley I came up from. The temps were nice and cool all the way uip and half the way down, with a comfy breeze to help. About half way to the bottom it really started to warm up but was probably no higher than low 80’s.
I rested at the top 1.5 hrs, until 1230, then as I started down I ran into numerous people heading up. One said to me “nice boots”. I said thanks and turned and looked at his and they were the same as mine. So we chatted a bit. He had a slight accent, and said he’d gotten his boots in Chile. I got mine locally at REI. Told him mine just started leaking, he didn’t even know they were supposed to be waterproof. Then his mate caught up and we went our separate ways.
I got back to the truck at 2, so about 5.5-6 miles on that trail, 8 total. I slowly drove out of the woods. When I got to Cle Elum, I stopped for a Root Beer Float, and checked voice mail. One from Karen, and one from Dad. I called Dad, Mary sang me Happy birthday, and we chatted. Got home at 4. After a quick cold shower, we wend to dinner in Snoqualmie at the Woodman Lodge. Mac n Cheese with dungeness Crab. MMMM. A great end to a great day!