[polarbear]

I had breakfast Friday morning in Leavenworth and set out for a trip to Spider Meadows. About a mile out of Plain, a black bear ambled crossed the road in front of me. A neat way to begin a trip. I arrived at the trailhead to Spider Meadows at about 10:00. As I signed the trail register, I noted that if I'd left a few days earlier, I might have bumped into a locally famous outdoor chef that could have cooked me some Chicken Phad Thai. As it was, I'd be having canned chowder for dinner. A cool wind was blowing as I started out making it feel more like September than August and I had to wonder if I'd brought enough warm clothing. About 4 miles up the trail I ran into a guy carrying a large pack and a saw that was about 5 ft long and with what appeared to be a scabbard for it. Fortunately, neither guns nor saws make me too nervous. It turned out that he was a WTA trail crew member and they had been doing work on the trail that week. He had removed several blowdowns and was on his way out. There was evidence that WTA had been doing alot of hard work on the trail, rerouting a small section of it, and managing some boggy areas that the trail ran through. When I arrived at the meadows I ate lunch, and took some pictures of the distant peaks and the beautifully flowered valley floor. I hiked up the valley a ways and explored what I thought might be a good route up the eastern slope but ran into pretty heavy brush a few hundred feet up. When I got back down I figured I'd better grab a campsite. I ended up camping across the stream near the meadow entrance--a really nice spot. More people began to arrive and soon there were several tents in the same area. It turned out to be a nice evening talking with some of the other campers. In particular, since I had forgotten to bring a spoon, I was able to swap two blueberry poptarts for one with some other campers. For two poptarts, a quarter of my supply, I expected sterling silver ware but alas it was a plastic spoon. Three deer came out and grazed in the meadows near our tents. As it grew cooler I lit a campfire and a couple kids from the neighboring tent helped keep it supplied with fuel. They were up there for a two night backpacking adventure and were really excited about it. It was cold that night, and I'm thinking it's time to replace by sleeping bag I bought eons ago with something better. It's early August and I still felt a bit cold in the bag. More like a one season bag than a three season. I awoke in the middle of the night to see the moon above and the stars shining incredibly brighty. It warmed up in the morning more quickly than I had thought it would so I got up early. I noticed there was frost on my pack. The WTA crew was already stirring and I started making breakfast. By this time others were starting to get up. Pretty soon I heard a kid yelling from the snowfield up on the left, "I am king of the glacier of Spider Meadows." Well if you snooze you lose. There were other patches of snow that I could claim as my kindom but they were more remote and probably no one cared about them anyhow. The best one had just been claimed. What to do? I decided to hike up the trail and explore. Ultimately I made it to the ridge above the lower Lyman Lake. A few minutes earlier I'd run into a couple other hikers that warned me about how thick the mosquitos were there. "They must not know what bad mosquitos are like", I thought, "because I don't see hardly any here." Then I looked down at my arm. They had flown in under my radar evidently because there were about twenty on my left arm and three on my hand waiting for the command to drill. I took a few pictures and skedaddled. I hiked a mile or so with a couple guys that had been doing some similar exploring that day. They had forgotten to bring a can opener so they were going to have tortillas without beans that night. Fortunately I had a can opener with me. They didn't have poptarts but I lent it to them anyhow. It was alot warmer that evening due as one person told me, to a film of clouds above that was holding the heat in. It was a long hike out and the length of trail from the meadows to the parking lot seemed about a mile longer than I'd thought with many false parking lots before I reached the real one. It was a great trip and I made it to Gustav's in Leavenworth 5 minutes before they closed there grill.

[polarbear]

There may be nothing wrong with chowder and poptarts but on the other hand, I have this nagging feeling that there is something very wrong. I kept expecting to hear someone way, "You mean you packed in a stove for that?" But after a PB sandwich anything will seem pretty epicure for dinner. The key is establishing a low base from which to improve on. Next time I'll bring a half filled bottle of paprika so at least it looks like I'm not just opening cans. p.s. I have learned a method at work for identifying berry filled poptarts in a vending machine so that I never get the chocolate or cinamon ones. I will reveal this secret to anyone for the price of a trail park pass.

[MCaver]

Great report, PB. Makes me want to check out Spider Meadows. With my own spoon.

[Dean]

PB, your story reminded me of the time I was decided to go stoveless a few years back. I had packed into Nada Lake (late start) and had my campsite set up and was ready for my new experiment in stoveless cooking when I opened my pack to get my food out. Oh oh, not there, so not only had I gone stoveless, I had reached a new level of going light weight (or light minded), I had also gone foodless. Sure ruined my dinner that night. Thanks for sharing your story.

[jimmymac]

Since we're revisiting polarbear's fine account, I noticed another angle that I can sure relate to. I wonder if other folks ever experience this.

[Leafguy]

I start hearing people. Problem is, about every 10th time, there actually is someone! Kinda cool hearing the wind, trees and water doing their thing though. And no, I'm not a "shroomer" either.