Memorial Day camping

On memorial Day '07 we actually had time off of that thing called a job so that we could do something other than sit and watch crap on TV. YAY! So I packed up our poop, also known and referred to as 'shinizzle' and we set off on a little journey to central Washington to camp and hike. (not necessarily in that order)

We drove east of Seattle to Snoqualmie Pass and just on the other side of it at the exit for the town of Hyak we turned off and went down a short road that became gravel and one of the endlessly enumerated forest service roads. it looked as if we were the first people on the road this season because the plants were overgrown and wreaked havoc on the ol' paint job. Also, there were some snow patches that covered the road and it didn't look like anyone had been over them yet. (plus in one spot there was a big washout of the road and it was creepy going around it.

I was telling Amy about the times in Colorado, growing up, that my family would be on some little Mountain pass in the Trooper and we were glad that the Trooper was so narrow- Cliff up on one side, cliff down on the other. Although, my momma never saw these areas due to the closing of her eyes- adrenaline junkie she is not.

Finally we came to a spot that was 4wd specific. 3 foot deep snow for 100 yards... aint happenin'... So we set out on foot the short time to the trailhead (trailhead- ha!)

Sometimes the internet is cool- sometimes it lies. We (ok- I) found a trail on the net that would take us up this steep, short trail to a beautiful lake. Judging by the topo lines we were near where the trail should be but because of snow cover and a liar of an internet we could not find a trail.

Now, my route finding skills are rudimentary,but I have a little bit of them. I guarantee that we were NEAR the trail but we were damn sure not on it. I question the fact that there even IS a trail, there might be a WAY up, but it ain't a trail.

See how happy Amy is? She didn't bitch at me once! I promise ;)

So after going up (and I mean UP) for a while we decided to go down. This decision was not at all affected by the giant cliff in front of us.

We decided, and by 'we decided' I mean I was told, that we weren't going up the cliff and that we wanted to camp in the valley because we were nervous about going up a cliff when there wasn't a trail. We agreed and set off down the huge valley wall that we just spent an hour going up.

After a little while we found a spot suitable to pitch a tent (or pinch a tit, as Ball would say). It was the first time we used the Marmot Swallow tent and that tent is BOMBER!

It was cool breaking in the new tent on a few feet of snow. Get it done right first time out.

The night came kinda fast and we spent the time on a rock eating and looking at the view while the shadows crept up on us.

The next day we decided to go up a road that we could tell goes most, if not all of the way up the opposite wall of the valley. This trail was easy. It was a road! the walking was eays but we had no idea of what to expect once we got on top of the ridge.

If you look close, you can see Rainer in the background. (to the right of us)

This is the other side of the ridge- thats I90 going up Snoqualmie Pass, and a ski area where the trees are missing.

Up on top of the ridge we came up on a snowy meadow with one little space of ground. It was flat and dry and so we decided to camp there. It was a great spot. We set up camp and ate a snack then lay down and got suntans. The weather was awesome. It was about 75 in the sun and we had shorts on just laying around wasting time on vacation- PERFECT!

We spent two days up there chillin in the snow and enjoying the nothingness. On the second day we hiked most of the way up the ridges highest point, stopping just short... another one of 'our' decisions. But the view was beautiful and we WERE high up the ridge- only rocks stood between us and the pinnacle. We could see the lakes that we had origionally attemted to get to. There ain't no damn trail, I promise. They were frozen still so they wouldn't have been any fun anyway... maybe next time on 'The Adventures of Jeff and Amy"

Amy pondering the cosmos (Rainer in background)

Lazy bastard

Yes, she is standing up