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mntsun Wunderer
Joined: 08 Jul 2007 Posts: 206 | TRs | Pics Location: Squaresville |
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mntsun
Wunderer
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Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:01 pm
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…not a word I heard could I relate, the story was quite clear
We had several firsts in Leavenworth that morning: first time to Leavenworth Ranger Station, first time picking up an Enchantments permit, first time picking up a permit that morning not part of the lottery, and first time trying to use McDonald’s restroom (failure). We found the trail (oh, so that is where the trail goes) and set off at 9am up the steep, dusty and already hot trail.
Sometimes clearly marked trails and USGS maps give a false sense of awareness. We had planned to camp at Little Eightmile Lake to be close to the trail to Windy Pass. However, we sailed right by Little Eightmile, the sign saying we were passing Little Eightmile, and even coaxed ourselves into an alternate reality by noting the body of water known as Little Eightmile was not on the map. When we reached what we thought was Little Eightmile, we wondered how honking big Eightmile must be, and realized we were on Eightmile. Failure. We soon made lemonade from our lemon, finding mostly level bivy sites right on the lakeshore, with an impressive view. There were also no bugs.
In the hazy heat, we spotted something that looked man-made across the water. Our backtracking also allowed us to check it out, some sort of dam, possibly a good place to hear night whistling or the laughter of children. Even the people we had seen around the structure moments earlier had vanished. We did not stay long.
Good place to hear voices
The trail to Windy Pass was quickly regained and the work began. Time was now noon with the trail intensity increased proportionately to its sun exposure, and it became a race to reach Lake Caroline before we ran out of water. To assuage our suffering, the mountain went agro with an immense flower display. Black Sedges in dry slopes, Falkland Island Sedges around the streams. Fields of Shooting Stars, to quote Pojar and Mackinnon “one of our most beautiful wildflowers”, Lupine, Indian Paintbrush. To a lesser extent Columbine, Stoneworts, Elephant Head, some Scirpus species.
Elephant Head Columbines, Lupine Field of shooting stars at dusk
The mood was jubilant as we reached the known and moderately dreaded descent to Lake Caroline. Not more than a few yards down we passed two fisherman completely decked out in mosquito netting. They warned us something about the mozzies being “about as bad as they have seen”. Pishaw, I thought, they must be ultrasensitive with all that netting about them.
Several moments after that thought passed, the mosquitoes lit into us about as bad as I have seen. After the dessicated ascent, we had planned on taking a break in the shade; this was no longer even remotely an option. Mark bravely tried the outhouse only to find it much worse than standing around, which is still, in the comfort of home, is hard to imagine. In fact, I am applying hydrocortisone everywhere just relating the story.
More flower fields as we escaped the Caroline Lake mozzie meltdown. What a disaster it would have been to haul our camping gear up to the mozzie infestation! Despite the situation, the generally good mood improved even more by realizing our previous mistake may have saved our camping situation.
Sure as the dust that floats high and true, when moving through Cashmere
Trusting previous beta, we found water around 6800’. Pumping the water with both hands, I quickly found myself under serious attack. Mark and Chris saved the day by fanning the mozzies off me; the cloud was so thick it was literally a two-man job.
The famed Cashmere arm rose above and gave us that hinky feeling of “how exactly are we going to get up that”? We had faith that all will be revealed. Windy Pass was filled with the refugees from Lake Caroline; too bad for them and for us that the pass was not so windy and the mozzies were still an issue. All along the long arm the views to the Enchantments improved, Stuart dominating the horizon in a show of force with Sherpa, Argonaut, Colchuck, Dragontail, Little Annapurna and Cannon. We were able to follow a trail much of the way, but it has a habit of disappearing in the worst places.
as I scan this wasted land My eyes fill with sand I am a traveler of both time and space All will be revealed
To quote Mark, we had entered the “Class Scree” section of the trip. Every half hour we would add another half-hour to our estimated summit time. Mica and/or schist underfoot kept us entertained as we traveled through geologic time. We skirted Point 8200, dropped 200’ to gain the next magnificent summit ridge, and then into the loose, screeish, scrambly route circumnavigating the summit area to the north.
All I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground shooting stars by day along the straits of fear
The best routes are closest to the north ridge, the easiest likely being the final gully. We found little difficulty more than scree until the penultimate blocky section that one could certainly define as class 3. While the summit area is large, the summit itself is small, awkward and ready to fall apart at any time. The bugs were with us at 8501’ and the 5:30 time was getting late. Luckily, I found Yet’s brownies, safely stowed in my helmet! THANKS, YET!!
Let me take you there
The scree route down was screeingly slow due to scree and having to sidehill across scree. We were tempted to take a real trail down into the valley, but with darkness approaching and the mozzies awaiting to strip the flesh of the epically lost, we retraced our looong route back to Windy Pass. Marmots checked us out and demonstrated mad snow skills. Then it was time for mozzies. I stopped to refill water bottles solo for the sake of getting the heck out of there, but once both hands were full I realized how desperateness of this venture; without the rest of the team the mozzie cloud was downright frightening.
no provision but an open face Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace, whose sounds caress my ear Trying to find, trying to find where Ive been across the sea of years
We pushed hard to get up and back over to the dry flower fields and the land of nobugs. Unfortunately for our mental state, either the clouds followed us or the temperatures on the dry side were more conducive for bug swarms? Scaring deer and who knows what we raced down the slopes arriving back to camp by headlamp at 10:01pm, to tell tall tales over lake-chilled margarita shooters. The days totals were something around ~6100’(+) gain and ~16 miles. VERY FEW BUGS AT CAMP. Sleep came fast and was good.
Like thoughts inside a dream
Heed the path that led me to that place My shangri-la beneath the summer moon, I will return again
Hiking large scree distances in lightweight hiking shoes so soon after Bryant Peak was awfully hard on everyone’s feet. Our next objective, Eightmile Peak would have to wait another day.
The temperature was nearing 90 by 10am. We found a shady crag and climbed a couple routes, rounding out a solid Leavenworth mountaineering weekend.
We initiated Chris into the Gustov’s tradition, although we seemed far out of place that afternoon. A well-manicured man seemed to be incredulous about us cleaning up in the bathroom; would he prefer to sit next to our unwashed selves?
Overall, it was a great trip. Everyone stoically managed the mozzie insanity and kept pleasant company throughout!
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Yet Member
Joined: 23 Apr 2005 Posts: 2634 | TRs | Pics Location: Happily Ever After |
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Yet
Member
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Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:31 pm
Re: Exsiccated and Chomped on Cashmere 7/19-20/2008
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huron Member
Joined: 13 Sep 2004 Posts: 1035 | TRs | Pics
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huron
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Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:35 pm
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mntsun, your words are matched only by your mnt skilz. All I have to say is...
Ooooh Ooooh Yeaheeah.
BRE rations Chromozome Crags Cashmere crest
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Mesahchie Mark A Lerxst
Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 700 | TRs | Pics Location: In Wonderland |
Good times! Still scratching where the vampitoes found weakness in my defenses, but otherwise recovered and rehydrated (learned a new word, too). Thanks for getting the ball rolling, mntsun - glad me and Magnum could join along!
flower fields...
this mountain is big!
Ridges to run...
mntsun profile
Magnum fronts the 'Chants
Colchuck Lake
Good sunset acoming...
Heading back
Stuart Northside
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mountain high space junkie
Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 71 | TRs | Pics Location: between hikes |
What kind of brownies were these, anyway?
Your photo captions remind me that every time I spend a few days in the woods, some song is carving its form into my brain like a glacier carves alpine basins. At least yours was Led Zeppelin, and not (like my last 4-day experience) "Turkey in the Straw".
"When one loses the deep intimate relationship with nature, then temples, mosques and churches become important."
-J. Krishnamurti
"When one loses the deep intimate relationship with nature, then temples, mosques and churches become important."
-J. Krishnamurti
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GeoTom Member
Joined: 19 May 2005 Posts: 3215 | TRs | Pics Location: Earth |
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GeoTom
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Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:39 am
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I think we saw you guys from the Icicle Ridge Trail, and I thought I smelled some brownies
Nice job
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puzzlr Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 7220 | TRs | Pics Location: Stuck in the middle |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
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Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:24 am
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Great TR, great pictures, great song.
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yukon222 Member
Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Posts: 1893 | TRs | Pics
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yukon222
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Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:41 pm
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Fun to read TR. Not many things worse than trying to fend off ravenous mosquitos. Sometimes it doesn't even matter if you hike/run as fast as you can.
How'd the cross country terrain look from Lake Caroline directly north to Cashmere? When I made a Cashmere attempt this Spring in the snow, it was a nice shortcut to head directly north, rather than that long sweeping traverse near Windy Pass. Might not be such a good shortcut with the snow gone now.
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huron Member
Joined: 13 Sep 2004 Posts: 1035 | TRs | Pics
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huron
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Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:56 pm
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yukon222 wrote: | How'd the cross country terrain look? |
It was trail turning to boot path at the ridge. A nice walk, but long as you said. Another ridge to the NE looked like it would cut some time, but we chose to stay on the path. Didn't want to crush any of those cute little flowers.
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Mesahchie Mark A Lerxst
Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 700 | TRs | Pics Location: In Wonderland |
What I want to know is what happened to the rest of the brownies? I only got one at the summit!
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Gray Lazy Hiker
Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 1059 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle, WA |
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Gray
Lazy Hiker
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Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:38 pm
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Mesahchie Mark wrote: | Good times! Still scratching where the vampitoes |
Damn it.
Now I am picturing an icy drink made with rum, lime juice, and mosquitos.
--Gray
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Yet Member
Joined: 23 Apr 2005 Posts: 2634 | TRs | Pics Location: Happily Ever After |
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Yet
Member
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Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:56 pm
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Well, actually Mark was borrowing this word from me.
vampitoes: mosquitoes who are especially fond of the neck area
But yeah, a drink with mosquitoes would be pretty funny! Drink up!
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Schmidt Alti-Dude 4th class poster
Joined: 06 Jul 2007 Posts: 1361 | TRs | Pics Location: Looking for Adventure 201! |
Looks like you had a good time, nice trip report.
Anything stated by me in no way reflects the attitudes or opinions of my wife
Anything stated by me in no way reflects the attitudes or opinions of my wife
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Schmidt Alti-Babe The Ice Queen
Joined: 11 Mar 2008 Posts: 606 | TRs | Pics Location: Buried by backlogged pictures |
Troy, why does it look like you're afraid to be holding the brownie bag? I'd be clutching that tightly if I were you!
Way to go, guys!
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Yet Member
Joined: 23 Apr 2005 Posts: 2634 | TRs | Pics Location: Happily Ever After |
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Yet
Member
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Thu Jul 24, 2008 10:32 am
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Ssshhh .... he was praying!
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