[Gil]

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Never trust a journalist. Especially a retired journalist. Modie and Wilson shanghaied me into this with a trip report about an eight-mile, 2,000-foot-gain stroll east of Chinook Pass. Turns out that's the trip report for the OTHER trail around the OTHER side of Fifes. What we wound up on was a 15-mile escapade that included five miles of off-trail, during which we got lost in the clouds that descended and wound up groping our way down through dense timber back to the Crow Lake trail. AND we didn't make the summit! But we had fun anyway. Fifes is a really wonderful ridge of odd spires, clefts and cavities. After our initial confusion about which trail we should be on, we got on the right one and set off up the Crow Lake trail. It's really pleasant, winding steadily up a ridge. The trees and cloud cover kept the temperature agreeable, and a large section of the trail goes along a ridge line, so there are beautiful views. You come up to a high point on that trail, then are supposed to set off cross country toward the peak, which we did. As we side-hilled along, there were lots of flowery thingys to take photos of.

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Things progressed nicely, and after lunch we were up on the ridge making our way toward the west summit. I've never seen so much shed mountain goat wool (or yeti fur) in my life -- it was everywhere, and when we brushed up against bushes, it would stick to our clothes.

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Finally as we worked our way along the ridge, and got our first really good views of the peaks it became apparent that we were running out of time and that the weather, which had been merciful until then, looked to be changing, with the clouds getting lower and lower.

Fifes Peak, west summit

Fifes Peak, east summit

We got just below the west summit, where we would have to make a fishhook approach to the ramp up to the top, and the clouds rolled in in earnest. Better part of valor, etc., we decided to bag it and started on our way back.

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We ran into a bunch of mountain goats in the fog, but they fled back into the mist along the ridge in front of us. Cleverly, we thought we would follow the top of the ridge back a little farther so we wouldn't have to sidehill as much back to the trail. Well, we went WAY too far west and wound up on a steep, timbered slope with no visibility.

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By hooking back south, we were eventually able to get off the slope and down into an area of huge meadows that the Crow Lake trail crosses and get back on track. Then it was another five miles back to the car and the long drive back, punctuated by an enormous dinner at the Mazatlan in Enumclaw. Next time we'll know better about how to tackle this one!

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