The Challenge Returns . . . 

Three times has it defeated me -- or did I simply fail? Mount Adams. Roger Matthews, my hiking consort, dreams again of summiting the mountain that defeated him on his last two tries. Now, we two, like Tenneyson's Ulysses, once again contemplate pushing off and striking the sounding furrows. Or the equivalent, anyway.

And so my objective is to average an ascent of 4,000 feet per week over the next 20 weeks to steel myself for the adventure once more. Not optimistic, but determined. I will limit my objectives, and I will obtain them: To take off 15 pounds and to make a mere 2,000 foot ascent almost effortless with 40 pounds of weights. And maybe, just maybe, I will actually make it to the top. That will be an extra.

The journey begins today.

Mt. Adams Training Hikes 2021-2022
Date	Location	Gain	Distance	Comment
11/1/2021	Capitol Hill	300'	RT: 3.7miles	No Weight
11/3/2021	Rattlesnake	1,200'	4.4 miles	Weight: 18#
11/7/2-21	TMT/cable/T3	1,400'	5+miles	Wet/cold/Helped/18#
11/8/2021	Bank, Metzker, Ivars	300'	5.5 miles	$4 energy coke
11/11/2021 Vet's Day	Rattlesnake	1,200	4.5 m in light rain	Good gloves; 100min+ to top
11/16/2021	Mt Constittion, Orcas	1,050	4 miles+	Mt. Lake -Little Summit
11/17/2021	Cascade Lake, Orcas	Negligible	2.7 miles	Finished in dark
11-21-2021	Tiger 3	1,600 feet min	5.7 mi	No pack. 1.65-2.9 mph !
11-24-2021`	Whole Foods / Tiger 31	2,000 feet      Σ = 7,700	1m + 6m Σ= 38.8	21#; salt tablets; cramps
11-28-2021	TMT,K-3, Tiger 3; crossed high point creek.    WET!	1,600	6m	Rain > lt snow; 4-5 hours; torch last 2 mi. Not cold.
12/8/2021	Des Moines beach park		3 miles with Larisa	Walked healing toe
12/9/2021	Des Moines beach park		3 miles with Larisa	Walked fast, healing toe
12-14-2021	Tiger 3	750 feet	2.5 miles in about 1 hour	Snow/rain; tested old boots.
12/17	Downtown & Alma's	400	8 miles	Helped find Real Change
01-01-2022	To, through Arboretum	200	4.4 miles	With Shira's Family. Snow
				alt 228 = Σ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

11/7/2021: Cold rain, Cable Line exhausted me; gloves failed; legs tired. Runner, Kyle, passed, I asked for help, with pack and gloves. Water and gorp revived me. We walked back together. 

Resuming this blog 

 A pandemic and then a dislocated shoulder had gone a long way toward cooling my interest in this hiking blog, but now I'm back at it, because I'm hiking again, and shooting photos -- and it's the photos that give this blog life, so now there will be more again. 

 My right arm is sufficient healed for me to hike and camp, although I still need to be cautious. My arm is not healed enough to encourage another fall. While I have been hiking, the hikes of the near future will be about challenge and conditioning, and my arm is cautously up to the task. 

 Today's hike mainly involve the Nook Trail on Tiger Mountain from Tradition Plateau to the caves where it intersects with the Talus Rock trail.

View from a foot bridge over a creek gulch.

Path like the Wizard of Oz's yellow brick road.

More of the path.

A cave at the junction of Nook and Talus Rock trails.

The Talus Rock Trail squeezed between boulders.

Shelf fungus on a downed tree.

Mushrooms on a dead tree over the trail.

The route from parking lot to caves.

Summary: 2.6 mile hike and 600+ foot elevation gain.ADDENDUM:Oct 29, returned, took Tiger 3 past 1.1 mile marker: 18#, 2.8 miles, 700+ elevation gain.Summary to date: 5.4 miles, 1,300-foot elevation gain.

Fungi on a dead tree adjacent to the trail

This hike was intended to improve my stamina. I wore my weight vest and carried an 18-pound pack. Speed was a little more than 1 mph uphill. I got as far as the 2.2 mile hike, starting from the lower parking lot. Had to rest a lot. Toward the end got a twinge of a leg cramp. Did a few yoga walks when I returned to the Fit.

Conditions: overcast, cool, light drizzle.
Load: 38 pounds--backpack and weight vest
Elevation gain: 1,100 feet, at least
Distance: 5.5 miles at least

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 11 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,200 feet

Tiger Mountain: recovering stamina

Water descending Tiger 3 jets under a road and descends down a bank.

I haven't done any serious hiking for a few months. That, and insufficient sleep last night taxed my energy today. I hiked to the 2.2 mil mark on Tiger 3 in about two hours and descended back to the car in a little over an hour. Lacking a Discover pass, I camped outside the park. My resolution is to do more hiking.

Conditions: overcast, cool.
Load: 17 pounds
Elevation gain: 1,100 feet, at least
Distance: 5.5 miles at least

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 5.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1,100 feet

Hiking a mountain bike trail

This slop starts with a dip, then a sharp curve that is more than semi-circular, then another drop.

I've been sitting, and it's been raining, but today I decided to chance the weather and go hiking with Roger Matthews in Covington on property owned by Real Life Church along Summit Ridge. This was ground the church provided for mountain bikers to shape to their desires.

Names of the trails; they vary in difficulty.

Symbols at trail heads to indicate difficulty.

The Sobriety trail's two diamonds indicates extreme challenge.

A steep descent leads to the jump in the middle of the picture.

The landing zone is the pile at the right. There is a large rock between the two.

It was an easy hike. I didn't bother to register elevation gain or load.

Return to Poo Poo Point

In some places the steep trail seems like a staircase, due to the stepping stones.

It was an overcast Monday with fog on the low hills leading up the Chiroco trail to Poo Point, the launch zone for parasailing. This was a SVTC hike, a four mile hike up a rather steep trail for a 1,700-foot elevation gain that resulted in a visit to the launch pad for hang gliders.

The hikers left me behind part way through. I had been awakened at 5 a.m. with a call from Malawi, Africa, and I think the loss of sleep slowed me down. I had to rest a bit and then catch up. This was my first hike at Poo Poo point for a few years, I believe--long enough ago that I didn't remember parts of the trail and they seemed new.

Trailhead figure

Distance for the day:   4 miles
Conditions: Low ceiling, cool, some fog
Load: 16 pounds 
Elevation gain: 1,700

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 264.7 miles 
Elevation Gain: 79,078 feet. 9,088 to 6th Rainier

Light hike on Tiger Mountain

The highest point I reached this day.

From 2.2 mile point to car.

I missed the SVTC group today because I went to the wrong location, so I moved a couple miles down I-90 to Exit 20, High Point Trail, and made a light hike to the 2.2 mile marker on Tiger 3.
Distance for the day:  At least 4.5 miles
Conditions: Clear skies, cool.
Load: 16 pounds pounds 
Elevation gain: 1,400  feet, at least

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 260.7 miles 
Elevation Gain: 77,378 feet

Cougar Mountain: Coal country and cold war anti-aircraft missile battery

The legacy of King Coal in King County is the fact that there are some places you just don't hike.

Monday, Nov. 25, 2019: Even the best laid plans . . . .
Snoqualmie Valley Trails Club had to make some adjustments to our hiking plans yesterday because King county had decided that the hazards of hiking in what had been coal country presented required mitigation. The hike was led by Yaz Obara from the Cougar Mountain Regional Wildlife Park trailhead, and we hadn't gone 100 yards before we came across the surprise expressed in the hoto immediately above. So we changed directions, but we still got in a nice hike on this drizzly an rainy day  in an area with lots of side trails. Yaz's summary afterward noted that we hiked from the trailhead to the anti-aircraft Peak and back. "We hiked Cave Hole Trail, Klondike Swamp Trail, Harvey Manning Trail, Shangri-La Trail and Coyote Creek." His map is immediately below.

Distance for the day:  At least 3.5 miles
Conditions: Chilly, raining, overcast.
Load: 17 pounds pounds 
Elevation gain: 400  feet, at least

Statistics, year to date:
Distance: 256.2 miles 
Elevation Gain: 75,978 feet



Below is a more complete map of the park; click on it and you obtain a  larger image, which can be downloaded and saved. Copies are provided at the trailhead.

The "history" that must have been in this small building has gone the way of the Nike missiles.

Immediately above is one of the remnants of what had been a Nike anti-aircraft battery. At one time it probably had information about the air defense installation, but now it's just a hollow shell. However, here's some details about what was going on at Cougar Mountain, long after coal was no longer being mined there: 

The Nike missiles were our air defense against Russian bombers. They had a maximum speed of 1,000 mph, a 25-mile range and a 70,000 foot ceiling. They packed a punch -- a tactical nuclear warhead. Documentation that I discovered in a cursory search indicates they may have also carried conventional explosives. The missiles were driven by four radars at the Integrated Fire Control (IFC) area of each Nike site: Target Tracking Radar (TTR), Target Ranging Radar (TRR), Missile Tracking Radar (MTR), and High-Powered Acquisition Radar (HIPAR).

There were approximately 265 Nike missile bases which can still be seen around cities across the United States. As the sites were decommissioned they were first offered to federal agencies.

Fellow hikers: Yaz, Richard and Cherie, Tom, and two others whose names eluded me.