[foofoofunky]

Dean and I took Friday off to do a 2 nighter on Langille Ridge last weekend. I was very unimpressed with the abundance of clearcuts in this forest, I think it's the most I've ever seen. We were on FSR 28 looking for 2809 that was to lead us to the trailhead at the North side of the Ridge. We found the road, but it most certainly was not a road- hadn't been for decades. This confused us immensely, as our green trails map was last revised in 1998. We decided to drive up FSR 2810 to the South end of the Langille Ridge instead. The road was covered with sharp rocks from landslides, and it took a lot of patience and teeth grinding to make it to Boundary Trail 1A. Langille Ridge is heavily used by motorcycles, which was more than apparant right away. It is not easy to hike correctly when the trail is dug out so bad. We got to the ridge after 1.5 miles. It was completely fogged in on both sides, but we saw the potential for great views if it cleared up. The trail was slow going because of the ruts and our indecision to keep on our rain gear or not. The rain came and went every 10 minutes, and when it was gone the sun shone bright on us, which made us roast in our gear. We at last just kept it on, which ended up being the right decision later. About 3 hours into the trail we were getting worried. We had seen no flat place to camp, nor any water source. The temperature was quickly dropping. We approached snow on the trail, and carefully got passed it. 5200 ft. We had been hiking over 3 hours, it was now 4pm. At this point there was freezing rain, and we were almost finished with one of our two bottles of water we brought. After rounding a corner, we stopped dead in our tracks in front of some very sketchy snow on the trail. It was impassable, and we knew it was too dangerous to even consider. The steepness of the ridge caused the snow to make the trail disappear- to cross it we'd need ice axes. The only thing that made us think twice was how close we were to the next junction where there was a creek. We quickly decided what the right thing to do was: fill our bottles with snow for water, and head back down to "make up" a campsite and warm up. We used our bare hands to put snow in our bottles, realizing this was getting a little serious. We were wet on the outside from the rain, the inside from sweat, and now our hands were wet and numb. We tried to stay warm the best we could. About an hour down we found a very bumpy and uneven area on the ridge, right next to the trail. We knew we had to make this work. We set up our tent in the freezing rain, covered all our gear with a tarp, and took shelter inside. Our bags and some liquor warmed us up fairly quickly. We left the tent only once to cook dinner, then remained inside. Luckily our little radio picked up the Mariner's game. The next day we packed up in the snow/rain in our wet gear and hiked back down to our vehicle. Tough luck for a 2 nighter, but we are learning a lot this year. On a side note- We drove over Cayuse and Chinook passes on Saturday, and I was absolutely enthralled with the beauty of these passes, and with William O. Douglas Wilderness. After seeing so many clear cuts, I felt such relief to see untouched miles and miles of trees. Wow! Any suggestions on a great trip there besides American Ridge?