And this is the end of the flat which is only at the beginning. Mt. Rose is like The Sirens from The Odyssey making herself alluring and irresistible with her beautiful start but soon after she was whopping our booties!
My hiking buddies Sugarmama Shannon and CortO. Sugarmama Shannon was sure to warn us that bear dens are everywhere and she's more scared of bears than cougars. Every other turn we took "is that a bear den?" No. No its not. And the bear watch continues...
Mt. Rose is sooo green and lush with babbling brooks and cool air.
As we climbed steadily up the mountain we could see remnants of an old forest fire and the impressive way the forest has really rebuilt itself. Nature never ceases to amaze me.
As we climbed steadily up the mountain we could see remnants of an old forest fire and the impressive way the forest has really rebuilt itself. Nature never ceases to amaze me.
(See that bear den?)
Mt. Rose was steep steep and more steep! Can I just say right here that I have a pet peeve with Mt. Si. I understand that it's a great conditioning hike but it's way too crowded and lacks all sense of nature due to it's draw to half of the Seattle population everyday. It's so stinking nice to find a steep hike that compares and smells like forest while lacking the ipod, jean-wearing, couples-holding-hands hikers that you'd find on Mt. Si.
See that bear den?
On a nice sunny day that above photo would show the surrounding mountains and Lake Cushman - a nice reason to go back!
Oh yes Corto. He is "super fit" which are his words and not mine. As he says this I groan and complain and tell him to shut up but reality is - he's super fit. He's worked so hard to transform his body this year so much so that it's skipped from inspiring to envy from folks like me. In this photo his displaying his hard-earned little perky-booty. Show off that booty proud!
"I'm super fit!" See that bear den?
As we steadily climbed up the fog became thicker. The forest was so still and smelled so very good. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and my knee was killing me but I was in pure bliss.
See that bear den?
See that bear den?
That's our trail there somewhere. And a bear den.
Those are some fun guys!
Those are some fun guys!
After climbing for a while, passing well-prepared hikers on their way down and taking in their tips and warnings we hit the snow. From this point we had to look for the orange flags on the trees that marked the trail. Can we keep going? Yes we can!
We passed a hiker 15 minutes prior to this who told us we were 800 vertical feet from the top. As the snow became slick and steep we still were determined to find our way to the summit. As CortO said we were experiencing Summit Fever. (PS, Into Thin Air is a very good book and my scaredy cat moments on trails like these are n-o-t-h-i-n-g.)
After shivering and working our way up the snow we looked at the time and realized we'd rather get back to the trailhead to make it to Hoodsport Winery before they closed instead of risking our lives for a hibernating summit that we have little to no chance of actually finding. So, we turned around with wine on our mind. And wine really is some of the best motivation ever.
See that bear den?
Turns out the winery wasn't that great yet I still bought a bottle of pear wine. I can never resist. Back at the campsite CortO took to the bbq and fixed us some brats! And man oh man they were soooo stinking good that I've been daydreaming about them around dinner time ever since.
Campfire: Best Smell in the world.
Dude!!!
So here's my summary of Mt. Rose: She is gorgeous, challenging and I have unfinished business with her. And as far as I know the bears are invisible. Happy Hiking!
No comments:
Post a Comment