2018's first Rainier

Today I cleared the 14,411-foot elevation gain for 2018 -- my first Rainier.

At times my heart rate exceeded 140 bpm. I cleared 2 mph the first mile. The weather was cool but not cold. I sweated enough to steam up my glasses. My nose ran. My eyes teared up. My body was wet. And I had to stop several times to catch my breath. Also, my right hip hurt a little this time and I slowed down on the descent.

The low ditch along the trail at the first mile was loud with cascading water that ran out onto the trail and down the path, so the mountain was still giving up the moisture it had collected in the winter.

I reached the summit, ate an apple and some trail mix, contemplated a hungry chipmunk and some camp robbers, then headed back.


Statistics for the day:
Distance: 6 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,000 feet
Weight carried: 14 pounds
Time: 3.5 hours, or better than 1.7 mph
Distance year to date: 53.7 miles
Elevation gain year to date: 14,665 feet.

Too little sleep

Today the weather was supposed to be awful in Seattle: 30-40 mph winds, maybe faster, and lots of rain. Didn't happen. But instead of being threatened by falling limbs, I was handicapped by too little sleep. Didn't get my nap yesterday before heading off to my dance class at 6:30, and then stayed up until 2 a.m. after getting home, watching videos on the computer, because I thought the day would be a bust.  It wasn't. There was overcast broken by clear sky at Tiger Mountain. There was heavy rain, but that presented no problem. The problem was I was sluggish and without energy. At the one-mile mark I decided that death was nature's way of telling me it's time to slow down and I resolved to go home and catch up on my rest.

Consolation prize: This was a good shakedown for my four-day vacation at Ocean Shores, and I realized I needed to get my backpack that has a rain flap.

After turning back I turned on Map My Hike to get a sense of the elevation gained. Here is the map from that point to my car:

North faces left on this map. The elevation gained was at least 500 feet.

Statistics for the day:
Distance: 2 miles
Elevation Gain: 500 feet
Weight carried: 14 pounds
Distance year to date: 47.7 miles
Elevation gain year to date: 12,665 feet.

Today I identified another landmark: The hitchhiking log:

Look closely at the far end and you'll see it has its thumb out.

Tiger 3: temperate lowlands; frigid summit; landmarks

Yesterday, Tiger was all about carrying weight -- 34 pounds. Today it was about making it to the summit, moving quickly, and naming some landmarks. There are some distinctive features along the route that deserve names. Perhaps the names I introduce here will become common over time.

This is how the hike looked in the lowlands:

This is what it looked like as I approached the summit:

And this is what the summit was like -- gray, windy, frigid.

I set out at 9:56 a.m. and  three miles later, I arrived at the summit at noon. That averages to 1.5 mph. I carried a 14-pound pack that included extra warm clothing. I wore rain pants over my heavy safari pants; two layers of underwear on my torso along with a long-sleeved winter cover of artificial fabric with zippered neck; a down-filled long-sleeved zippered cover, a fleece vest and a wind-breaking water proof hooded rain jacket. I started cold but warmed up quickly. But at the top the wind chill quickly got to me and I realized I didn't want to stay there. I donned microspikes and headed back.

I didn't use trekking poles for almost the entire descent and my legs held up well, although the muscles did feel the extra work. I descended without my glasses, which I put away for most of the trip because the cold air was causing me to tear up. Again, my nose was quite drippy. I returned to my vehicle in approximately an hour, which figures to a 3 mph descent rate.

The landmarks I chose to name:

The twins, two rocks located within a half mile of the trailhead

The dead umbrella -- a tree carcass with root ball  along the trail prior to the one-mile mark.

The hairpin, a sharp turn before the 2.2 mile signpost

Statistics for the day:
Distance: 6.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,000 feet
Weight carried: 14 pounds
Distance year to date: 45.7 miles
Elevation gain year to date: 12,165 feet.

Climbing the Nook Trail

Lush moss adorned the trees.

Yesterday morning, Joan Tito, my hiking companion, and I took what was a new approach for me to Tiger Mountain. We ascended the Nook Trail on a day that the forest was verdent with dampness and an abundance of moss. It was like a rain forest. We climbed to the merger of the Talus Rocks Trail and Tiger 3, then descended to the trailhead and returned to the car.

I wore my 20-pound weight vest and a 14-pound pack on the way up. She wore the vest on the way down, to get the experience. The Nook trail portion of the hike was listed as one mile; the distance to the linkup with Tiger 3 another 0.4 miles; and the descent about 0.8 miles for a total distance of 2.2 miles. The highest point reached was about 1,060 feet, so I'm claiming 500 feet of elevation gain.

So, statistics for the day:
Distance: 2.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 500 feet
Weight carried: 34 pounds
Distance year to date: 39.2 miles
Elevation gain year to date: 10,165 feet.

The descent from the merger of Talus Rocks Trail and Tiger 3 to the trailhead

The talus rocks are giant boulders that create caves; the fence appears to discourage falls.

A fall can land you in a pit of a cave, like this one, which represented a 10-15 foot descent.

Tiger 3: 33-pound conditioner

Today Tiger again had snow at the summit, and I didn't have my microspikes. I got off to a slow start, feeling low energy, but picked up the pace after the first mile and reached the 2.2 mile mark, approximately 1,560 feet of elevation, before trail conditions became too slick to navigate. Ascent was 2 hours; descent one hour.  Top heart rate was approximately 130. I wore my 20# weight vest and a 13-pound pack. Allergies kicked in and my nose and eyes were streaming.

Statistics for the day:
Distance: 4.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1,000 feet
Weight carried: 33 pounds
Distance year to date: 37 miles
Elevation gain year to date: 9,665 feet.

Snow pellets before the one-mile mark; snow was falling more heavily at the summit.

Past the one-mile mark, snow had accumulated and small bits were dropping from trees.

The scene at the 2.2-mile mark. Without micro-spikes, time to turn back.

Cable line detour

Sign along the Cable Line trail

The West Tiger Cable Line trail is a rough, steep, and poorly kept route that parallels in some places the Tiger 3 trail on Tiger Mountain, and which reaches the same summit, at 2,500 feet elevation. Today I abandoned the traditional trail at the 1-mile mark and followed a narrow path that joined up with the Cable Line trail. It shortened my hike to the top by perhaps a half mile, but it made up for the shorter route by being steeper and more daunting.

Today's plan gave me an opportunity to check Map My Hike software against known points on the Mountain. For example, the elevation gains reported on Map My Hike indicated that the one-mile mark is at approximtely the 1,200 foot elevation level, which means I gain 700 feet elevation by climbing from the trailhead to the one mile mark. Then Map My Hike indicated another 1,000-foot elevation gain to get to the summit. The actual summit figure is 2,522, so I believe the software understates the actual elevation gain. For today's hike I'm going with the official figures and claiming a 2,000-foot elevation gain.

The images immediately below show, left to right, the path from trailhead to the one-mile marker; the Cable Line climb from the one-mile marker to the summit; and the descent from the summit. The Cable Line doesn't intersect the Tiger 3 trail at the point where I joined it, but it comes close.

The Cable Line trail can be deeply gullied; here it is characterised by gravel and clutter.

And here it is a curving and slippery.

The hike was made uncomfortable by the presence of allergens that kept my nose flowing, complicated by the oversight of not bringing handkerchiefs. Fortunately my backpack came with a roll of toilet paper.

Climbing the Cable Line trail acquainted me with an interesting phenomenon: On several occasions my heart rate topped out at 128 bpm -- but some beats were stronger than others. So while my pulse didn't get any higher, the pulses were stronger, indicating more fluid being pumped. This happened on the steeper slopes, where I was working harder.

I'm going to claim 5 miles, although I think I hiked farther. And I claim as well a 2,000-foot gain.

Statistics for the day:
Distance year to date: 32.5 miles
Elevation gain year to date: 8,665 feet.
Weight carried: 13 pounds
Speed:  2-hours to the summit.

The Caves of Tiger 3

Intersection of two trails

Today I revisited the Talus Rocks Trail, so named for a pile of some massive boulders at the bottom of a slab of rock that is being etched by a long waterfall less than a half mile west from Tiger 3. Some parts of the hike are a little steep, and trekking poles helped in the portions of the trail where there were some steep and muddy descents/ascents.

Today I wore my 20# weight vest and a 13-pound pack -- the most I've hefted since before my radiation/chemo treatments for prostate cancer. So this is a new post-treatment milestone.

Pictured at the left, the long waterfall precedes the boulder fall. It descends a steep slope adjacent to the trail and then crosses the trail where there is a makeshift bridge of logs. I chose to walk beside the foot bridge because the ground and stream were easier to navigate.

The first sign of the boulder fall was a defile in the ground that almost looked like a descending staircase. (See photo below.) That introduces the hiker to an uneven but navigable collection of boulders before the path descends again via the Nook Trail to the "Traditional Plateau," a mile further on.

The defile that signals the boulder fall

I began the hike from the parking lot, reaching the one-mile marker at about 1,280 feet, according to a Tiger 3 topo map, before descending to the fork that heads to the Talus Slope.
My weight vest forced my heartbeats to 140 per minute. I made about 1 mph in the ascent. The entire hike from car to car, probably equaled 3 miles. So here are the stats for year to date:

Distance year to date: 27.5 miles
Elevation gain year to date: 6,665 feet.

I wore my winter hooded jacket; a cotton hoodie; the weight vest and my backpack. When I started I was chilled, but I warmed up reasonably fast. I left after 2 p.m. and it was quite warm.

There were a few people on Tiger 3, fewer on the loop that took me past the Talus Slope.

The first of the boulders, which together define sort of a small "open concept" cave system.

Farther along the trail, a look back; the fence deters hikers from venturing toward a drop.

The hardy and venturous can make their way through this defile to the far side.

Right: There's enough space between these boulders for most to squeeze through.



Below: This old-growth forest stump near the end of the hike and close to the Tiger 3 trailhead, could hold 3-4 adults in a cozy embrace.