[bobbi]

our very own nwhiker, Phil thanks for recognizing me along the new trail to Mailbox Peak, July 14, 2018!

adding these photos from previous meetings along wonderland trail, 2011:

mtngrl and her dad

Don and his kids

also met graywolf near Humes ranch, ONP, a few years ago. forgot to take a photo!

[nordique]

I've been hiking for scores of years now but back in about 2006 I started a tradition of taking trailhead photos for hikes I led or went on (where the leader let me take a trailhead photo). I label the photos, first names only: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nordique/collections/72157635214773009/ Maybe because it's the first photo in each album for each hike, but those trailhead photos rack up a lot of views! Of course, the best part for me is that I am behind the camera, not in the photo!

[Phil]

Awesome to finally meet you bobbi!

[wolffie]

When I did the Devil's Ridge Loop and adjoining country including Devils' Creek CG, Devil's Creek, Devil's Ridge, Devil's Staircase, Devil's Pass, Devil's Backbone, Devil's Ridge Trail, Devil's Peak, etc., I met an interesting fellow named Mephistopheles who claimed to work for Lucifer (who might be the same as Prometheus -- not sure). I made a bargain with him: I sold my soul for a base pack weight of 10 lbs., and my dog's feet not hurting, and no mosquitoes. It was wonderful for awhile, but then we started climbing up and up to Devil's Pass, and the trail got rougher and rougher, with more and more blowdown, and hotter and hotter sun, and less and less water, and my dog's knees were hurting, and there were no mosquitoes but so many horeseflies I could have collected them for dinner, and my pack weighed only 10 lbs. because I was out of food and water, until I finally complained, "Doesn't this Dogamned climb ever end?!" Whereupon Mephistopheles replied, "No. It doesn't." Then I woke up.

[BigBrunyon]

My eyes are always peeled for celebs on the trail. Hoping to run into a big name celeb on the trail soon.

[John Morrow]

I've run into our Governor, twice as a member of Congress and once as Governor. But I am sworn to secrecy as to where. We have a hiking advocate in the office for sure! Other famous hikers: JimK, b00, mehitabel, I know there are others but I forget.

[Kascadia]

Dear husband and I were doing a little "trail maintenance" on Chiroco ~12 years ago when a party of 3 went by with a . After we were done, we went back to our exercise routine and caught up with party at the traverse above the bench in the woods. One gent commented on our "hurry" and somehow the topic of climbing came up. Gent perked up like he'd been plugged in and wanted to talk about peaks we had done. Thank goodness, by then I'd realized who I was talking to and just said, "I know who I'm talking to, Dr. Hornbein, I don't think I'm going to pull out MY climbing resume with you. It is an honor to meet you." He shook hands with a grin and introduced his young male and female friend like they had done the first solo winter ascent of the S. Face of Annapurna. He then talked a little about where he was in life. He was incredibly gracious and humble. I was incredibly awestruck.

[gb]

Probably the most interesting fellow I ever met was in September of 1994, at Dodwell Rixon Pass, though I never got his name. Perplexing would be the best way to describe it. I had camped in the upper pass after coming in from Long Ridge on the Bailey traverse and I was solo. Don't remember which day up there but I started to walk across the pass to make an attempt on Mt. Queets and there near a tarn below the peak was another human.....wearing a cotton sweatshirt and blue jeans, a tall, very thin man at that time perhaps around 30. He was not camped in the area. We probably talked for half an hour and I was really curious about his story. He was unaffiliated but said that ONP would often call on him to help locate missing persons. He told me one of his favorite day hikes was Mt. Carrie. A couple of years later I met him again on Mt. Townsend where he had hiked from the north..... The Lone Ranger. There was no horse.

[gb]

Another interesting meeting was on the Vesper Peak trail and would have been in August of 1982. I was hiking in with Barb Sherill to climb the north face of Vesper and we were in the rocky area beneath Headlee Pass. We came across a gentleman in his 70's working on the trail. Barb knew the man and started a conversation and introduced him as Will Thompson who was a climbing partner of Lloyd Anderson of REI and the members of the original 1938 Ptarmigan Traverse party. I though it was so cool that he was out there on his own working on the extremely rock trail.

[gb]

Perhaps the most amazing meeting of my life, though, took place while I was staying at the Alpine Cub of Canada hut in Canmore in the spring of 1981. I was reading in the library which had many very old copies of classic Climbing books. I believe I was reading an original copy of Howard Palmer's "My Exploration in the Selkirks" of 1912. He was guided by Conrad Kain. It was quite a small library, and an elderly woman walked in. I immediately noticed that though she looked to be over 80, she was also quite clearly strong, with big shoulders and large bones and hands. Of course I knew she was a climber and wondered who she was. I introduced myself and she responded that her name was Phyll. I said, Oh! Phyllis Munday! I told her, of course, that I had read her husband's amazing book of adventures, "The Unknown Mountain" and that I was really expecting (though I never did) to climb Mt. Waddington. She was very enthused and she opened up an old book on the BC Coast Range (I don't recall which book but it may have been her husband's). For the next hour or hour and a half she went through the book with me looking at the images of glaciers and peaks in the Coast Range. I remember her exclaiming "oh, how much bigger such and such glacier was then!" (in the 1920's). Her eyes absolutely lit up as if she were back there again with her husband Don. One of the last things I recall was her saying that the last time she saw the area was when she flew over in 1950 with Don. As she said that, her eyes teared up. Phyllis and Don Munday were not only climbers, but were explorers of the highest level. Don Monday was the first to discover Mt. Waddington. They walked in from the Georgia Strait and sea level at Knight and Butte Inlets many times for expeditions into the Waddington area and a number of other prominent Coast Range Icefields and peaks. Mt. Munday is named after her husband who died of illness not long after 1950. Phyllis Munday went on to be extremely involved in philanthropy. From her Vancouver home she was undoubtedly one of the most respected members of the Canadian Alpine Club until her passing about ten years ago. As an honor for her spirit of adventure and philanthropy she was Knighted. She was a really cool lady. Towards the end of our conversation she enthusiastically asked me to come up to her home and see "Don's old lantern slides" considering I planned a trip to Waddington. I regret I never made that visit and saw those slides. "The Unknown Mountain" is an extremely inspirational and historic climbing book. Read it if you can. You can also find a great deal about both Don and Phyllis Munday and their adventures and climbs from an easy Google search.

[Frank]

In 1977, I was on a climbing trip to Mount Brooks in the Alaska Range east of Denali. After the climb, we crossed the Muldrow Glacier and ascended to Oastler Pass. As we got to the pass, a helicopter landed by us, and a guy jumped out and started to shake all our hands. We looked at each other thinking “Who is this guy?” It was Bradford Washburn. A few days later I met him in the park lodge. I bought his book, and he autographed It for me. Loved the post about Phyllis Monday. Don was a fine mountaineer. It is a shame he didn’t ever make it to the summit of Waddington.

[Leafguy]

Hit The Trail and I “thought” we had come across Bernie Sanders at the junction above the Smithbrook TH once. But we couldn’t get him to fess up. 😎