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I've done several hikes this summer, but for now here was the most interesting trip I've been on. I'll post more later when I can go through my photos and pick the best ones. Ape Cave, Mount Saint Helens - Cougar, WA This was a cave, so there's not many photos from this trip.  Pay attention to this sign. This sign is important.  Entrance to Ape Cave I hiked lower caves first, then upper caves with a good friend of mine. I knew there was an 8' lava wall to climb, but I wasn't prepared for how smooth it was. I barely made it up that thing, with my friend's help. I slipped the first time and wound up with a really gnarly bruise. Definitely wear pants for this excursion, and bring a warm jacket as the cave is 42*F year round inside. The rest of the cave was 27 house-sized piles of boulders to climb over. Upper Ape Caves was absolutely brutal. Toward the end you get treated to The Skylight. Worth it.  
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Sep 2, 2013 20:52
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 10:18 |
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How many of you carry shelter with you when you day hike? I was reading up on what to bring with me to go hiking at Mt Rainier National Park, and their website recommended a shelter as one of the 10 essentials you should bring. This make sense, since the weather can take a turn for the worst really quickly on the side of a mountain. I got an 8x10 tarp, painter's drop cloth, tent stakes, and guy wire in case I run into trouble. I also have a wire saw for making a lean-to if I need to. I hike solo, so I've put together a whole survival pack to take with me when I go hiking. I also picked up a can of pepper spray in case someone tries to assault me. There's been attempted rape of lone hiking women on trail around here over the last few years, so I'm kinda paranoid. Has anyone ever been attacked by another hiker before? Most the people I run into seem pretty cool but it always is there in the back of my mind every time I pass someone.
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Sep 5, 2013 06:48
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I was wondering how comfortable a tarp shelter is verses an actual real tent. I haven't built up much strength yet, so I'm trying to save as much weight as possible. I don't intend to backpack until next (late) spring since I'd be backpacking in the Cascade Mountains, so I'd probably only be using the tent in good weather or a light rain. My friend seems to think I'd be better off just carrying the extra weight and get a real tent. Trouble is I'm doing this on a budget, which is another reason the tarp has appealed to me. There's no horrible poisonous things that crawl on the ground where I live that I'd be worried about interacting with. Mostly just black bears, cougars, and mosquitoes. My tarp-pitch of choice is a pyramid with a hiking stick/trekking pole holding it up. The front entry is small enough I could jam my backpack in it to prevent the weather from getting in. My tarp is the cheap blue kind that's 8x10, along with a 1mil plastic painters cloth as a groundcloth, 8 tent stakes, and reflective guyline. I might get a space blanket to glue to one side of the tarp to better reflect heat.
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Sep 11, 2013 07:34
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Citizen Z posted:I'm going to have a weekend to myself in Seattle while on a business trip, but no car. Any Seattle Goons able to recommend a good day hike I can get to on public transit? I think Cougar Mountain is right up your alley. There's trailheads in Bellevue and Issaquah. The Wilderness Creek trailhead is along state route 900 which I know has bus service. Red Town's trailhead is also along a rather busy road in Newcastle. http://www.kingcounty.gov/recreation/parks/trails/backcountry/cougar_trails.aspx According to Google Maps, travel times for noon on Saturday are as follows: Red Town trailhead is a 2.5 hour bus ride, Wilderness Creek is 1.5 hour bus ride. Red Town: directions | trail info Wilderness Creek: directions | trail info Please note the Red Town is a 1 mile walk from the bus stop, whereas Wilderness Creek is 3.8 miles to the trailhead along a busy 2 lane highway with no shoulder. You probably couldn't walk to Wilderness Creek safely so Red Town might be your best bet even though the bus ride is longer. If you're pressed for time and need to stay within Seattle, check out Discovery Park. Lacrosse fucked around with this message at 09:49 on Sep 12, 2013 |
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Sep 12, 2013 08:43
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There's a place in Washington State called Washaway Beach that used to be the town of North Cove until it started falling into the ocean at a rate of about 100' a year starting in the 1980s. You can read more about North Cove here: http://www.washawaybeach.com/history/  Every year I'll see another house in the news that had fallen into the sea during a wind storm. There's actually one for sale right now, for $200,000 you too can watch your home and all of your belongings be taken by Poseidon. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1094-Blue-Pacific-Dr-Grayland-WA-98547/108179666_zpid/  Anyway, I've always wondered if it'd be uncouth to poke around Washaway Beach with a metal detector. A lot of these homes are several yards away from the ocean then a storm rolls in and they're suddenly under the waves within a day, so not enough time to evacuate valuables. There's probably a lot of cool poo poo buried in that sand. edit: here's a great PDF of maps that show the course of the erosion from the 1940s up until 2013: https://www.co.pacific.wa.us/dcd/images/CAO/2016.03.31%20Washaway%20Beach%20shoreline%20predictions%20%202016-03-31.pdf Lacrosse fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Sep 21, 2021 |
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Sep 21, 2021 03:17
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 10:18 |
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BeastOfExmoor posted:This is all good advice. Here's the list of dates Highway 20 has closed. An October closure would be very unusual for recent years. If a good storm comes through its already starting to get snowy at the higher elevations, I saw the Crystal Mountain cam already had snow. I did a day trip up to Teanaway with the rock club to do some field collecting and it snowed on us the first weekend in October 2018. I slept at a campground in NE WA earlier that week and it was 22F out overnight.
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Sep 29, 2021 00:55
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