Sunday, February 03, 2013

Berry Creek Falls Loop

http://www.everytrail.com/guide/berry-creek-falls-loop-at-big-basin-redwoods-state-park
On sunny weekend in California, I decided to take a hike with some colleagues also visiting from Zurich. I was quite surprised to find a nice forest so close to Mountain View. It was a 1hr drive and the plan was to pick some lunch on the way. If we were going to drive an hour we were going to find a subway or something on the way. But we actually ended up on a windy forest road right as we got out of small town of Saratoga. I was thankful that I had bought chips and whole bunch of bars before starting on the hike. They were going to be very handy for lunch for all 6 of us!
Driving on the windy road was fun, though I missed my Scion tC, it would have been so much fun to drive it on that road, kind of like going to Snowqualmie falls. The Dodge rental was driving like a truck. We still made it safely to the trailhead. We paid the state park fee, and asked about the trail conditions. Some reviews online suggested we do the loop anti-clockwise as it leads to less uphills. The ranger suggested we do it clockwise. We decided to do that as it also gave opportunity to turn back after the falls is people don't feel very strong to make another 6 miles. I was quite glad we did that. First 4 miles were mostly downhill. We saw a lot of huge trees on the way, most with split trunks, perfect places to setup a tent inside! View of the falls was great. I was expecting lot more water due to recent rains. At the falls to very brave souls decided to take a dip in ice-cold water and survived. We took a short food break. Everyone was feeling quite strong, so we decided to march on for another 6 miles.
The loop this way was better because we got to gain major height using stairs next to the falls. All the falls looked great. Once out of the falls we somehow ended up in a open desert-like area, somewhat above the tree line. It was a interesting surprise after walking though wet redwoods. The way back was full of rolling hills. The original description said 1000ft, but I am sure it was more than 2000ft of cumulative elevation gain, but spread over a long distance so it was not so bad. After taking more food breaks, we finally reached back to the trailhead, still smiling.




Sunday, September 16, 2012

Sauk Mountain

I made a visit to Seattle and decided the best thing to do was a hike! We decided on a short and easy hike to Sauk Mountain which had promises of really good views. Since the hike was short, we started quite late. We had quite a bit of drive up to Mt Baker area though. On the way Rashmi, who was doing her first hike asked - why do you have to drive so much when there are mountains to hike within 1 hr along I-90. We did not know how to answer, the best way was just to show why, and the mountain did not disappoint.

The views started at trailhead itself which was quite high. The trail was quite unique, make of 20+ switchbacks which were all visible from the trailhead. If this was in Switzerland, there would be no switchbacks, infact there would be no trail, its a mountain, you can see the top, just get up there! But here there were really nice switchbacks. We make our progress through these, waiting to see what's on the other side. On the way we were hoping to see some blue berries. But the season was almost gone, and whatever berries were there, were already eaten by people before us. Still we tried to hunt some small berries on the way.
Once close to top at the false peak, we were greeted with site of a lake, and an awesome view of North Cascade. Such clear views of North Cascades is not very common. From the false peak there is another 20 min of hike mostly on rocks which leads to the true peak. We were lucky to get one of the clearest days in Seattle. The surrounding mountains looked amazing in the blue background. I tried to think what is the difference between these mountains and Alps, for they are definitely different. These clearly looked gentler and wilder at the same time, while Alps look more daunting and tame with grasslands at the same time.
Way down was uneventful, just some more attempts to get blueberries. We ended the day with some Ethiopian food at Queen of Sheba.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Shriner Peak

If you like wild berries, this hike is for you!! I have never enjoyed berry picking so much on any hike. Its a medium 8 mile - 3400ft hike. This late in the season with all the practice behind us it was easy. The hill sides are full of huckleberries and some blueberries, we just could not eat enough. There is a lot of fall colour. Views on a clear day are just breathtaking. With 3500ft elevation gain, its a workout, but totally worth it. At this point, the trail is very well maintained, but there is no water on the trail. We took about 3 hrs to hike up, plus more than 30 min berry ticking, and 2 hrs to come down.
http://picasaweb.google.com/hiking.glory/ShrinerPeak#

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Half Dome

Thursday September 3, 2009, phone call to talk about my trip to CA. 5 minutes later, deciding to do the half dome hike. Next 30 min endless calling to ask others if they want to join. In 2 hrs all plans made, all flights booked! That was the beginning of Half Dome hike in Yosemite National Park.

I have been to Yosemite many times. But I have never camped or hiked in there. Most of my visits were like just tourists. So the trip up Half Dome was long pending. It is of course a scary trip. I did not worry about the mileage or about the elevation gain. The cable rope climb in the last section was the major worry, can I do it? Secretly I knew I can do it, but its like marathon, you know you can do it, but still its not truly true unless you actually do it. So finally all stars aligned and the trip was decided. We were going to fly to CA on Saturday 12th, drive to Yosemite, stay in a hotel and do the grueling 14 - 16 mile hike and drive back. Yeah, it was as hectic as it sounds.

The flight to CA was at 6:50am, meaning had to wake up really early Saturday morning. I am lucky that I can sleep well on the flight. I slept the moment I sat on my seat. Do not remember the take off also. I woke up when we were almost over the bay bridge. It gave me the much needed 90 min of sleep. We had nice home made parathas for brunch and then started for Yosemite close to 12:40pm. It proved to be a longer drive than we thought becaue we were all so tired from the flight.

Once in Yosemite, we decided to skip the Galcier Point and head straight to the campsite. The plan was to enjoy Bridal Veil falls, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls on the way. The first surprise came in front of El Capitan. The rock is impossible to miss, but the surprising part was missing Bridal Veil falls. There was almost no water in the fall. It was like a small stream of water dripping, being throwing from one side to other by wind. It looked like no water was hitting the ground as most of it was just getting blown away by wind. Quite a sad situation. But wait, we thought this was sad. When we reached Yosemite Falls, it was even harder to believe. There was not even a drop of water on this fall, the Yosemite Falls were dry, both upper and lower.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

St Helens climb

I cannot believe that I did it! Finally, on top of St Helens.There was never a question of 'can do', but would all the stars line up with permit, weather, time and would I be able to do it. And that happened this Thursday as I had planned. Got the permit from someone, packed my bags on Wednesday night, camped at Lone Fir Resort and finished the hike on Thursday! awesome! My fascination with St Helens is because of its volcanic status, its an active volcano with marks of eruption are so visible around it. I have been wanting to climb it since I heard that its possible to climb.

We started from Seattle on Friday night to camp at Lone Fir Resort. The plan was to get a good night sleep, get up early and start climbing early and then drive back home after the climb. We reached the report at around 8:00 after a 3 hr drive from Seattle. It was like a city there, resort cabins, restaurant, proper restrooms with showers, and even a entertainment room with TV and stuff. It was mainly a RV campsite. Among all this there was some open ground to setup tent. There was only one other tent in the area and my guess would be that they were also camping for the night to climb Helens. We quickly setup the tent, went out to watch some stars and then went to sleep.

Thursday morning, we got up early according to the plan, quickly packed up and had a breakfast of maggie. There is a climber's registration that you have to sign in and out. I guess in case of emergency they want to keep track of who is still on the mountain and stuff. We signed the register and started for the trailhead around 7:00. It was a nice 30 min drive, mostly paved road. Last 3 miles was gravel and I hated driving buckbeak on it, but well, no choice. Luckily the road was not bad, no potholes, he handled it pretty well and did not complain at all. The trailhead, Climber's Bivouac has a pit toilet which was surprisingly clean and non-smelly. There were couple of people camped there, but the place has no water. In fact there is absolutely no water on the whole trail.

We started our hike at around 8:00am. It was a very clear day, just some hanging clouds in horizon. The trail starts in a jungle. Its a nice green jungle from where its hard to imagine just few miles away a mountain erupted with such force. The jungle trail is about 2 miles and I was totally doubting myself if I am on the right trail! After about 45 min, we saw a wall of rocks. There was no sign of mountain from the trail. Soon the trail climbs steeply with a couple of switchbacks, till you emerge in an open area from where the rock scrambles start. There is also a toilet here, and we saw a couple of other trails forking from here - lowit or something.
We could see Mt Hood from the trail once it opened up on one side, and Mt Adams also appeared soon. Adams really looks like Rainier from here, but it was clear that its not because little Rainier was missing. The rocky part is where permit area also starts. You can hike upto here without a permit, but I don't see what is the point! There is no trail in the rocky part. Its just a wall of rocks and you scramble your way through. There were some wooden poles to guide you. Its not a difficult scramble, just keep your eyes open for the next pole. It was a good idea to keep eyes open and make sure that you don't get yourself stuck among a great pile, as some parts are hard to navigate especially since lot of rocks are loose. This is where we first experienced the high wind we kept hearing about. Sometimes wind was so strong that it felt it will throw you off the rocks!

 The first rocky section is small and ends soon. Its well marked with poles. After that there is a flatish portion, less rocks. The actial trail takes you over the rocks, but we chose a way on the side, a bit lower than the main trail. It is lot of scree, but I found that easier to navigate than rocks. There was also much less wind here than on the top. From here you reach another rocky debris which is harder to navigate and there are less poles here. If you look carefully, you can still find a sort of trail among the rocks. There are flatter scree parts in between rocks, clear sign that the rocks have been deposited here by some force. From here you also start seeing the final summit which is like a beach in middle of mountains!! We could clearly see the wind blowing up there and all the ash and sand flying around. After this final rocky section which I hated the most, we reached the final scree slope. From here you can see the train of people going up the summit, it looks so far far away! The scree is really hard to go up, you take a step and slide back half the step. Poles were definitely useful here, espeially for me since I was getting quite tired here. Still we must be making good speed as we did not stop at all and overtook a bunch of people on the way up.
 
Almost an hr of hard work on that scree slope and we finally reached the summit of St Helens. I almost don't want to call it a summit as its so short, still its the highest point you can go on the mountain. Then we looked down at the crater and its huge! You see the 3 sides of mountain and then a open area on one side. It almost appears that this is not one mountain, but a range. In the middle is the lava dome. And then you look up and there is Mt Rainier, just standing there beyond spirit lake. It was definitely a sight to behold. We were lucky that among the high windy times, there were short low wind times when we could take out our camera and take some pictures. Most of the pictures are quite washed out though because there was so much sand suspended on the air. The activity on the dome has almost stopped, so we did not see much smoke or anything.

We were at summit at about 12:30, and spend about 30 min there, did not feel like eating because of all the sand that was blowing. Then began the long way down. I thought I am going to hate descending that scree, but surprisingly not! I actually quite enjoyed it once I figured out that once you step sideways, how much ever you try, you won't skid all the way, the scree just makes a step for you. And of course there were lot of already made steps by other people that I could walk on. So getting down that was quite fun and fast, most of the time I was just skidding around and letting graity do its job. We stopped just before the rocky part to grab a quick lunch. This rocky part which I found hard while coming up was easlier this time. We caught a trail that lead through the flatter sandy sections among rock and came to the middle part. This was again lot of scree and skidding as we were taking the trail which is below the rocks. Even then it did take us quite a while to navigate the whole thing. We were down at the edge of forest by 3:45. The walk into forest was easy, took us less than an hour for the 2 mile stretch. It was a nice change to walk on flat surface with shade of trees.
More Photos - https://picasaweb.google.com/103561338002909087861/StHelens_08_27?authkey=Gv1sRgCKyqlrC0iq3huAE

We were back on trailhead and ready to start driving by 5:00. A quick stop at Lone Fir Resort to sign out at climber's register and freshen up, and then straight drive home. On the way, as the tradition goes (or I hope it becomes a tradition), we stopped at Denney's for a Oreo Sunday!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Lake Serene and Bridal Veil Falls

This is quite a easy hike to the lake. On the way there is a short detour to Bridal Veil falls, a nice multi-level waterfall.