| Ranger's Logbook, By MikkiD |
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
Hey heat wave comrades, wasn’t it just a week or so ago we were complaining
about the exceptionally cold weather? You got to love the Pacific Northwest!
What’s the saying? “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute?”
So, if you think a couple of days of triple digit numbers would melt off all our
winter complaints, think again! There is still snow in them there mountains,
and I have the photos to prove it!
I have just made the mistake of asking Bear, my co-worker, how my opening
to this blog was coming along and he used the word “corny´, so I’ll get right to
the dry facts (pardon the pun).
Starting to the north. Our Wilderness Rangers spent most of last week
working n the Waptus River Trail. It’s log free to the Pass, but after that, you
are post holing in deep snow. About half of the Pete Lake Trail is still holding
snow (as of Friday) but I’m sure we are down to a third after this weekend.
Billy, another crazy Wilderness Ranger, reports that the Ingalls’ Way Trail is
snow free to the Pass, but you get into about four feet of solid snow on the
north facing side (which means a fairly challenging snow traverse across the
slope, so if you must go, don’t forget your ice ax). Billy explored the possibility
of making it to Lake Ann this weekend, but was denied by the white stuff of
winter.
We ran the Liberty Jeep trails last Wednesday and they were getting really
dusty. The upper Table trails are still holding snow (Regan trails, 4W315).
Hard to believe, but true. We will explore a little more up on top of the
mountain next weekend and report back.
To the south, we ran the 4W307 to Funny Rocks and saw one very small
patch of snow. It’s probably gone now. It was dusty, but fun. A lot of rigs were
playing on the Funny Rocks, and we almost got a rollover on video… The
4W308 still has some snow on it, but we will run it next week and let you know
how it looks after the big NW heat wave.
The Taneum is a long dust bowl that suddenly hits a snow bank. There isn’t
much in between. Our crew still couldn’t make it to the top of Quartz Mountain
via the 1363 (Taneum Ridge Trail), but they will next week (unless it snows
between now and then). You can, however, drive to the Quartz Mountain
Campground, but the FS 3100 road is sort a mess (rutty and narrow, so I
wouldn’t drive a motor home up there).
If you saw me in the Manastash this weekend and I told you I’d post photos
on the web, click here. If you didn’t see me, but you were there, you might be
in some photos because we were hiding and clicking during our lunch break.
If you weren’t there, you probably aren’t on the photo page.
Well, as you can tell, I’m tired and just want to have a nice dinner, so I’m
signing off. I hope you had fun on the trail this weekend! Get through your
work week, and we’ll see you on the 4th!
about the exceptionally cold weather? You got to love the Pacific Northwest!
What’s the saying? “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute?”
So, if you think a couple of days of triple digit numbers would melt off all our
winter complaints, think again! There is still snow in them there mountains,
and I have the photos to prove it!
I have just made the mistake of asking Bear, my co-worker, how my opening
to this blog was coming along and he used the word “corny´, so I’ll get right to
the dry facts (pardon the pun).
Starting to the north. Our Wilderness Rangers spent most of last week
working n the Waptus River Trail. It’s log free to the Pass, but after that, you
are post holing in deep snow. About half of the Pete Lake Trail is still holding
snow (as of Friday) but I’m sure we are down to a third after this weekend.
Billy, another crazy Wilderness Ranger, reports that the Ingalls’ Way Trail is
snow free to the Pass, but you get into about four feet of solid snow on the
north facing side (which means a fairly challenging snow traverse across the
slope, so if you must go, don’t forget your ice ax). Billy explored the possibility
of making it to Lake Ann this weekend, but was denied by the white stuff of
winter.
We ran the Liberty Jeep trails last Wednesday and they were getting really
dusty. The upper Table trails are still holding snow (Regan trails, 4W315).
Hard to believe, but true. We will explore a little more up on top of the
mountain next weekend and report back.
To the south, we ran the 4W307 to Funny Rocks and saw one very small
patch of snow. It’s probably gone now. It was dusty, but fun. A lot of rigs were
playing on the Funny Rocks, and we almost got a rollover on video… The
4W308 still has some snow on it, but we will run it next week and let you know
how it looks after the big NW heat wave.
The Taneum is a long dust bowl that suddenly hits a snow bank. There isn’t
much in between. Our crew still couldn’t make it to the top of Quartz Mountain
via the 1363 (Taneum Ridge Trail), but they will next week (unless it snows
between now and then). You can, however, drive to the Quartz Mountain
Campground, but the FS 3100 road is sort a mess (rutty and narrow, so I
wouldn’t drive a motor home up there).
If you saw me in the Manastash this weekend and I told you I’d post photos
on the web, click here. If you didn’t see me, but you were there, you might be
in some photos because we were hiding and clicking during our lunch break.
If you weren’t there, you probably aren’t on the photo page.
Well, as you can tell, I’m tired and just want to have a nice dinner, so I’m
signing off. I hope you had fun on the trail this weekend! Get through your
work week, and we’ll see you on the 4th!
| Mount Rainier from Manastash Ridge |
| Wildflowers in the Manastash |
| Mount Rainier framed between two snags. |
| Above Funny Rocks Below Kyle and Scott |