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HitTheTrail Member
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 5452 | TRs | Pics Location: 509 |
So, I have had this idea of spending a few days around Mad lake from the Chiwawa side (Chikamin Tie TH). The lower road tread is good to the Minnow Creek TH but starting to brush in. Up to the Basalt Ridge TH the tread is not bad but worse brush. On to the Chikamin Tie TH both get much worse. About a half mile from the end there was a washout that left half the road gone so I put it in low 4WD and went way up on the steep bank to get around it. Looking back I cannot recommend that maneuver.
Typical lower road Road brush
The trail starts out good with a few non problematic stream crossings. The last stream crossing I made I had the choice of 1) getting wet to my waist, 2) scooting on a wet broken log, or 3) making a flying pole vault leap and grabbing for brush on the other side hoping my pack did not pull me back into the water. I will not disclose the method I picked since it made about as much sense as the road maneuver.
Start Going around the rocks
Anyway, at around the 5K level the snow got deeper and I had to fire up Gaia on my iphone to route find. Finally, I hit a high snow covered saddle with water running underneath that was just a bridge too far my risk taking. Especially with a gravely ill wife at home that is depending my support. So, BAIL I did.
Nearing the 5K level Trying to exit Brush incoming
I ended up camping at the Rock Creek campground in the Chiwawa. To add insult to injury the new hammock suspension I was testing out failed and I had to sleep in the back of my truck. Good thing I was not at Mad Lake. To redeem my trip I hiked up the Basalt Ridge trail from the Chiwawa the next day. That’s always a nice hike.
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zephyr aka friendly hiker
Joined: 21 Jun 2009 Posts: 3361 | TRs | Pics Location: West Seattle |
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zephyr
aka friendly hiker
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Thu Jun 22, 2017 3:29 pm
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HitTheTrail wrote: | ...or 3) making a flying pole vault leap and grabbing for brush on the other side hoping my pack did not pull me back into the water. I will not disclose the method I picked since it made about as much sense as the road maneuver. |
Love this part. Talk about a rock and a hard place.
Glad you made it back to tell the story. Best wishes for your wife's recovery. ~z
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wildernessed viewbagger
Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 9275 | TRs | Pics Location: Wenatchee |
Lucky for you adversity at a young age will benefit you when your older.
Living in the Anthropocene
Living in the Anthropocene
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Bootpathguy Member
Joined: 18 Jun 2015 Posts: 1787 | TRs | Pics Location: United States |
Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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kite Member
Joined: 28 Sep 2009 Posts: 1414 | TRs | Pics Location: Olympia |
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kite
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Thu Jun 22, 2017 4:12 pm
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Wow! 4wd flying pole broken log low risk adventure adventure.
so the part i am afraid to ask about, is when did the hammock suspension fail? with you in it?
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Bootpathguy Member
Joined: 18 Jun 2015 Posts: 1787 | TRs | Pics Location: United States |
kite wrote: | Wow! 4wd flying pole broken log low risk adventure adventure.
so the part i am afraid to ask about, is when did the hammock suspension fail? with you in it? |
Oh yeah! I forget about that part. Testing out a "homemade" anything, is the biggest "risk" of all.
Dummy forgot to ask his friends to try it
I'd rather go bungee jumping
Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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HitTheTrail Member
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 5452 | TRs | Pics Location: 509 |
kite wrote: | when did the hammock suspension fail? with you in it? |
Yes but luckily I was only two feet off of soft ground. I have gone retro and am now using zero hardware on my suspensions. Just the original Becket hitch South American Indians used on their hammocks 2000 years ago. That works well with a flat weave webbing (like my daughter's old climbing runners cut open). But this time I was trying a round weave 1/8" amsteel. Don't do that! Any round weave tends to slip. As I now know.
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HermitThrush Member
Joined: 14 Jan 2016 Posts: 384 | TRs | Pics Location: Brainerd Lakes Area, MN |
Really helps to pull in your mirrors when you're in terrain like that! Good effort.
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HitTheTrail Member
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 5452 | TRs | Pics Location: 509 |
HermitThrush wrote: | Really helps to pull in your mirrors when you're in terrain like that! Good effort. |
Yeah, but I don't think it would have made much difference in this case. My fenders are flared almost as wide as my mirrors and in most places the brush was against the doors anyway. The way I look at it is that getting out on an adventuresome hike is more important to me at this stage of my life than my paint job. That can always be buffed out by your local detail shop. Not taking that hike is an opportunity lost (on that day anyway).
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HitTheTrail Member
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 5452 | TRs | Pics Location: 509 |
BTW, I just got a call from my son-in-law. He and a buddy just trail ran a loop from Maverick Saddle up to Mad Lake, Two Little Lakes and looped back down towards Tyee Ridge then down Billy Ridge to Mad River and back to Maverick Saddle. He said Two Little Lakes had about 6' of snow but Mad Lake had patches of snow and the upper Mad River valley is absolutely great now. Hmmmmm, I can see another trip in the making. But starting from a more south easterly direction. Maybe I will enlist him as a guide if he will slow down long enough.
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