Category: Hiking

Chinook Pass – Dewey Lake – Monday to Thursday August 27 – 30, 2018

A couple of years ago I thought my overnight hiking into the mountains was over and looked at my shelves of hiking/camping gear and thought about getting rid of it all.  Last Christmas Brian asked as part of my Christmas gift if I’d be interested in going hiking with him, yes.  Being in my late sixties ( I just found out that I’m in my late sixties ) I mapped out a four hiking days three night trip.  Started at Chinook Pass and went south to Dewey Lake (south end of the lake), American Lake, Dewey Lake (north end of the lake).

It was a great hike with Brian and we plan to do it again next year.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all sunny days and Thursday morning started with thick fog.  By the time we got up the hill out of Dewey Lake the fog had lifted and we had some nice views during out hike out to the pass.

Kelly Butte Fire Lookout – Wednesday September 9, 2015

Took the day and went for a hike with Dennis and Mike to Kelly Butte Fire Lookout. It is located off FS Road 70 the Greenwater Road.
Beautiful sunny day with just a hint of fall color.
This is the trail, 2 miles 1200 foot altitude gain.
 Overhead picture of the lookout, the blue line is from my InReach GPS tracking system.
Kelly Butte from a distance.
Little closer.
Can you see the Lookout?
Beautiful morning for the mountain.
Some of the Fall color.
Dennis and Mike on the way up.
Had to get a picture of Dennis and the mountain.
Just some cool rock.
First view of the Lookout.
Finally some pictures of the mountain from the tower.
Nice hike on a really beautiful day.

Ranger Creek – Sunday August 16, 2015

Morning inside temp 51 and outside temp 43.

Hiked with Dennis to Lake Eleanor and then on to Grand Park meadow inside Mt. Rainier Natl Park.

Started at 12:30 back to trail head at 5:00 traveled 8 miles and I was tired.  Nice hike on a beautiful sunny day.
The mountain was clouded in by the time we got to Grand Park but that is what living here is all about, clouds and rain.  Mt. Rainier actually makes it’s own climate around itself.  The entire Pacific Northwest was clear yesterday except for the area around right around the mountain.
Dennis at the trail head.
Trail head map to lake.
Beautiful day in the old growth forest.
Lake Eleanor
Another Lake Eleanor.
Trail above Eleanor.
Little wild life.
First meadow
Mt. Rainier from the first meadow, by the time we got to Grand Park the mountain was clouded in.
One of the first views of Grand Park meadow.
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Ranger Creek – Saturday August 15, 2015

Morning inside temp 56 and outside temp 49.

Some blue sky and the ground is starting to dry.

Dennis and I went for a hike today.  Drove down to Camp Shephard trail head and hiked the Snoquera Falls trail about 5 miles (Fitbit distance).

My InReach did not get a good location fix at the trail head, when we got to the falls it had only posted two locations.  We were in tall large timber.  It did this once before while we were driving and when I up loaded the data the complete track was posted to the mapping program.  We will see what happens when I get home.  InReach only had the track from the falls out, not the first half of the hike.

Remember we have no internet and only Jean’s phone will get texts while setting at the passenger side window.  On the trail today when were above Camp Shephard Dennis had four bars of 3G.

I got stung by a bee, I can not remember the last time I got stung by a bee.

Typed on iPad to WordPress

Ranger Creek – Wednesday August 12, 2015

Morning inside temp 63 and outside temp 55.

We had some rain last night, I could see the sky light up and than several seconds later the thunder so it was hitting a ways from here.  The sky has a lot of high smoke in it today.  The sun light is orange.

The side of our motorhome is white with today’s light it is a light orange.

Had light ash falling all day.
Fir needle for size comparison.

Then I smugged the ash with my finger.

Hank and I want for a walk along the river.

Mariners got a no hitter today.

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Ranger Creek – Friday July 24, 2015

Yesterday two young Forest Service guys stopped by to see how long we had been camped here.  There is a big event going on here this weekend and they wanted to ensure we had not overstayed our welcome.  The event is a fifty (50) mile run, up to Suntop and back then to Coral Pass and back.

Link to the trail they are running.

They anticipate a large number of people and wanted to free up as many camping site as possible.  At this point us and one other group at the far end of the runway are the only people here.  Not sure why they stopped, us being here would not make much difference in the areas camping capacity, not like there are a lot of people here during the week.  The funny thing is they didn’t even  check to see if we had paid for the time we have been here.  I did ask them what the camping restriction are for this area, it is 14 consecutive days and then you have to be gone for 2 days and the 14 days starts over.   We have decide to go home for the weekend and come back on Tuesday, I will go fishing Monday morning.

At 7:30 this morning the Honey Bucket guy drove by with eight Honey Buckets on his truck, you know that has just got to be a shitty job.

When Hank and I got up this morning it was 57 degrees inside and 48 degrees outside.  We have noticed the catalytic heater is putting out more heat here than it did during our Memorial Day trip. This one is over 10 years old and I was beginning to think about buying a new one.  At this point I think it is just an oxygen levels thing.  We are at 2500 feet here at Ranger Creek and during our trip we were at 6000 to 9000 feet, that is a big difference in the percentage of oxygen in the air.  I don’t know how long these are supposed to last, I do know that dust on the mat is what kills most of them.  When I got this one I found a big plastic container at WalMart which the heater just fits in and slides under the couch this keeps it pretty clean. It might be worth making a cover for it so it is also covered during the day when we are in the desert this fall and winter.  I could use a pillow case for a cover, that might work.
Here are a couple of trail pictures from this week.

Ranger Creek – Monday July 20, 2015

Hank and I went for a walk today up the hill on the west side of the airstrip.  We followed a road up the side of hill leading to where I think the Coast Guard Station’s head works for their water system.  Last week I found an old pipe in the ground made of flat steel rolled and riveted into a pipe.

See the rivets in the flat steel which was rolled into a pipe.

We found a spot where at sometime in the past had been a water collection dam.  We spent some time looking around and found a newer pipe going further up the creek to another water collection spot.  It looks like the newer pipe is cast iron.
A trail continues past the end of the road up to the trail which runs from the airstrip to Suntop.  We continued along this trail for a while.  Looking at this trail it it is evident there was a mountain bike rally here on Saturday.  The trail was soothed out from all the bikes running down the trail and at trail junctions orange surveyor’s tape attached to limbs with clothes pins.  I am guessing someone we’ll come back later an take these down.

Here is a InReach map of where we hiked.  When we get home I think I will pair my InReach with my traveling Facebook site.  This way I can post locations from InReach to Facebook via satellite.

Friday 7/24/2015  I figured out how to post to Facebook from my InReach, posted the location of our house.