Hike: Heliotrope Ridge
20 Sep 2011 18:24![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nwhikerHeliotrope Ridge
5.5 miles, 1400ft elevation gain.
September 4th, 2011
Fantabulous hike, and there will be photos, so
September 4th had an inauspicious start. My hard disk drive bit the dust. We were ready so early so we could hit the trail early before the buggies got too thick, but a few hours diagnosing the disk issue ate up our earliness. We decided to head out hiking anyhow, since the drive wasn't getting any deader (for those who don't know, dh was able to use low level tools to get all my data.). The sole advantage of our later departure, is that we were able to stop by REI in Bellingham: I'd decided to pick up a walking staff. I'd never used one, and probably won't any time soon, but I wanted a telescoping one for difficult stream crossings. I don't think I really need it, but I wanted to try out having it. Much of the time, I'd get a hand from dh, and he said he could tell I never needed it, but I just needed to feel that extra security. Anyhow.
We got to the trailhead and some of us used the potty. Some of us did not.
We all had lunch.
And headed on the trail.
Only to be met with a "the bridge is out" notice. This is a bridge right at the start of the trail, so we decided to check it out.
I'd checked the trip reports at WTA, and it sounded like there was a work around, but a few groups came back without attempting a crossing.
We got to where the bridge was supposed to be. It was clearly trail-taped off, with the trail marked closed. People were crossing on the snow, which is a probably what took out the bridge. The path was clearly marked on the white stuff. A ground right ahead of us went over, and one of the girls slipped and fell, almost to the edge. Her sister and parents laughed. From where we were, we didn't have a good angle on this.
We went downstream a bit to see if there was a better crossing spot. There appeared to be a log over the stream, but to get to it, there was a big drop, 6-10ft or so, and I balked at that. Plus, hey, how would we get up it later?
A few more groups went across the snow, and despite misgivings, we did too.
And when we got to the other side, we realised just how fucking stupid we'd been.
The snow bridge Was maybe a foot or so thick. The fall into the stream below? Probably not survivable. The slide the girl had done earlier, that had made her parents and sister's laugh so hard? Two feet more and she'd have probably been dead.
I have never, in all my years of hiking him, seen my spouse so upset. Normally, he gets over things and doesn't harp on them for freaking ever. Not this time. He was quite shaken and just kept on coming back to how stupid we'd been for the rest of the hike, and over the next few days.
Here's kinda the situation, though it's hard to see the scale of things.
This is from the far side, slightly off trail. That drop is about 10ft/3m. The dirty snow at the top of the photo is the "trail" we were on.
FWIW, it seems the snow bridge has melted out. Which is good. It was freaking dangerous.
Anyhow, we headed up the trail. It was a pretty easy one, to be honest, but with lots of stream crossings, some of them quite "iffy". We all managed fine, really. I was quite pleased with my hiking staff. Again, I'm not sure I really needed-needed it, but it was nice to have, and certainly make me less nervous. I really didn't want to get my feet wet!
The trail sorta peters out on this this vast, sloped rock field, with lots of streams to cross, and a view of Mt Baker. Witness:
We crossed all the streams, and headed up towards Heliotrope Ridge with its overlook view of the Coleman Glacier.
Here's the last bit of trail up to the ridge. It's steep!
At the ridgeline, you have an incredible view of the massive waves of ice that is the Coleman Glacier.
My family, again on the ridge.
After admiring the glacier and trying to listen to it creak (we heard it a bit, but not a lot, there was too much melting water/stream noise), we headed back down.
At the first stream crossing on the way back we had one of those moments. With Linnea. When you go "huh?". Dh was going to help her take a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig step to a rock, where I could grap her and steady her on landing. He told her, twice to take a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig step. She starts out, he's kinda holding, then all of a sudden, he's completely holding because instead of taking a big step, she's done a tuck. He has to put her down int he middle of the stream, where she gets water in her boots. Not a happy child. Or happy parents. Thought in retrospect? It was kinda funny to see her curl up into a ball instead of taking a step.
We stopped for snacks right after that, and for some reason known only to them, Perry decided to build a cairn on AC's head and AC decided to let him.
We filtered a few more liters of water. Delicious, clear, glacier melt. So cold and good.
And then the whining started. Because Linnea... had to go potty. And hadn't, at the trail head. Grrrr. It's not like this hasn't happened before. She has to both poop and pee, she admits. Grrr. We continue down. There is a backcountry potty (ie a box on top of a hole in the ground) about 1/3 of the way down, and we stop there. Linnea, to her credit. does go pee. She refuses to poop, claiming she "doesn't really have to go". Yes, we should have insisted, but it was getting late and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of light to attempt to find the ford or the log bridge at that initial stream crossing.
Trot down the trail, we do. With Linnea increasingly miserable and whiny, and Perry and AC doing their best to be cheerful to counteract some of her misery.
We get the the snow "bridge". There is a couple with a baby in a backpack about to go over it, and they seem surprised that we're going off trail to look for a better crossing. Dh points out how thin the snow is, and we all go in search of some other way to get across the stream.
It was pretty obvious that the log we'd seen before was going to do it. It was getting to the log that was difficult. The couple and their baby, dh, Perry, and AC were soon almost there, though dh and the kids waited before the climb down the embankment for Linnea and me.
Because Linnea? Was not doing too well, poor sweet little nut. Her tummy was in serious pain, I'm sure, she was in tears, and as we went off trail, a devil's club caught her on the shoulder. Devil's club? you ask. Nasty plan. Spines on the stems, the leaves, the flowers, and the freaking FRUIT. Nasty nasty stuff. Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus, Araliaceae; syn. Echinopanax horridus, Fatsia horrida). I mean, check out those Latin names!
The assault from the damn plant was the final straw, and she sat down on the ground, in the middle of the damn pricklies, and started to cry. It was absolutely heart wrenching, this was real, a child who had just had too much. I got her to the edge of the embankment, with the intent of getting her there, and giving her cuddles, but dh knelt down and told her to pull it together, that we had a difficult stream crossing on a log to do, and then we'd have to climb up a steep hillside on another log, and she needed to pay attention and keep focused.
She did. She got it together, sniffled a few times, and we carefully made it across the log and then some stones to the other side of the stream. Then there was a log that was leaning against the hillside and we walked on that. That was, to be honest, quite scary. Then the kids scrambled up the rest of the hillside one way, dh and I went the other. It was hands and knees stuff.
Finally the trailhead. And Linnea claims she can "wait" to go to the bathroom, but she was summarily out-voted and made to use the not-too-awful Forest Service pit potty. Phew!
And then home. And to listen to dh freak out about the snow bridge crossing for the next few weeks.
All photos at the flickr set. There are a bunch that are repetitive because I was getting them to try to do one of those composite shots.
5.5 miles, 1400ft elevation gain.
September 4th, 2011
Fantabulous hike, and there will be photos, so
September 4th had an inauspicious start. My hard disk drive bit the dust. We were ready so early so we could hit the trail early before the buggies got too thick, but a few hours diagnosing the disk issue ate up our earliness. We decided to head out hiking anyhow, since the drive wasn't getting any deader (for those who don't know, dh was able to use low level tools to get all my data.). The sole advantage of our later departure, is that we were able to stop by REI in Bellingham: I'd decided to pick up a walking staff. I'd never used one, and probably won't any time soon, but I wanted a telescoping one for difficult stream crossings. I don't think I really need it, but I wanted to try out having it. Much of the time, I'd get a hand from dh, and he said he could tell I never needed it, but I just needed to feel that extra security. Anyhow.
We got to the trailhead and some of us used the potty. Some of us did not.
We all had lunch.
And headed on the trail.
Only to be met with a "the bridge is out" notice. This is a bridge right at the start of the trail, so we decided to check it out.
I'd checked the trip reports at WTA, and it sounded like there was a work around, but a few groups came back without attempting a crossing.
We got to where the bridge was supposed to be. It was clearly trail-taped off, with the trail marked closed. People were crossing on the snow, which is a probably what took out the bridge. The path was clearly marked on the white stuff. A ground right ahead of us went over, and one of the girls slipped and fell, almost to the edge. Her sister and parents laughed. From where we were, we didn't have a good angle on this.
We went downstream a bit to see if there was a better crossing spot. There appeared to be a log over the stream, but to get to it, there was a big drop, 6-10ft or so, and I balked at that. Plus, hey, how would we get up it later?
A few more groups went across the snow, and despite misgivings, we did too.
And when we got to the other side, we realised just how fucking stupid we'd been.
The snow bridge Was maybe a foot or so thick. The fall into the stream below? Probably not survivable. The slide the girl had done earlier, that had made her parents and sister's laugh so hard? Two feet more and she'd have probably been dead.
I have never, in all my years of hiking him, seen my spouse so upset. Normally, he gets over things and doesn't harp on them for freaking ever. Not this time. He was quite shaken and just kept on coming back to how stupid we'd been for the rest of the hike, and over the next few days.
Here's kinda the situation, though it's hard to see the scale of things.
This is from the far side, slightly off trail. That drop is about 10ft/3m. The dirty snow at the top of the photo is the "trail" we were on.
FWIW, it seems the snow bridge has melted out. Which is good. It was freaking dangerous.
Anyhow, we headed up the trail. It was a pretty easy one, to be honest, but with lots of stream crossings, some of them quite "iffy". We all managed fine, really. I was quite pleased with my hiking staff. Again, I'm not sure I really needed-needed it, but it was nice to have, and certainly make me less nervous. I really didn't want to get my feet wet!
The trail sorta peters out on this this vast, sloped rock field, with lots of streams to cross, and a view of Mt Baker. Witness:
We crossed all the streams, and headed up towards Heliotrope Ridge with its overlook view of the Coleman Glacier.
Here's the last bit of trail up to the ridge. It's steep!
At the ridgeline, you have an incredible view of the massive waves of ice that is the Coleman Glacier.
My family, again on the ridge.
After admiring the glacier and trying to listen to it creak (we heard it a bit, but not a lot, there was too much melting water/stream noise), we headed back down.
At the first stream crossing on the way back we had one of those moments. With Linnea. When you go "huh?". Dh was going to help her take a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig step to a rock, where I could grap her and steady her on landing. He told her, twice to take a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig step. She starts out, he's kinda holding, then all of a sudden, he's completely holding because instead of taking a big step, she's done a tuck. He has to put her down int he middle of the stream, where she gets water in her boots. Not a happy child. Or happy parents. Thought in retrospect? It was kinda funny to see her curl up into a ball instead of taking a step.
We stopped for snacks right after that, and for some reason known only to them, Perry decided to build a cairn on AC's head and AC decided to let him.
We filtered a few more liters of water. Delicious, clear, glacier melt. So cold and good.
And then the whining started. Because Linnea... had to go potty. And hadn't, at the trail head. Grrrr. It's not like this hasn't happened before. She has to both poop and pee, she admits. Grrr. We continue down. There is a backcountry potty (ie a box on top of a hole in the ground) about 1/3 of the way down, and we stop there. Linnea, to her credit. does go pee. She refuses to poop, claiming she "doesn't really have to go". Yes, we should have insisted, but it was getting late and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of light to attempt to find the ford or the log bridge at that initial stream crossing.
Trot down the trail, we do. With Linnea increasingly miserable and whiny, and Perry and AC doing their best to be cheerful to counteract some of her misery.
We get the the snow "bridge". There is a couple with a baby in a backpack about to go over it, and they seem surprised that we're going off trail to look for a better crossing. Dh points out how thin the snow is, and we all go in search of some other way to get across the stream.
It was pretty obvious that the log we'd seen before was going to do it. It was getting to the log that was difficult. The couple and their baby, dh, Perry, and AC were soon almost there, though dh and the kids waited before the climb down the embankment for Linnea and me.
Because Linnea? Was not doing too well, poor sweet little nut. Her tummy was in serious pain, I'm sure, she was in tears, and as we went off trail, a devil's club caught her on the shoulder. Devil's club? you ask. Nasty plan. Spines on the stems, the leaves, the flowers, and the freaking FRUIT. Nasty nasty stuff. Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus, Araliaceae; syn. Echinopanax horridus, Fatsia horrida). I mean, check out those Latin names!
The assault from the damn plant was the final straw, and she sat down on the ground, in the middle of the damn pricklies, and started to cry. It was absolutely heart wrenching, this was real, a child who had just had too much. I got her to the edge of the embankment, with the intent of getting her there, and giving her cuddles, but dh knelt down and told her to pull it together, that we had a difficult stream crossing on a log to do, and then we'd have to climb up a steep hillside on another log, and she needed to pay attention and keep focused.
She did. She got it together, sniffled a few times, and we carefully made it across the log and then some stones to the other side of the stream. Then there was a log that was leaning against the hillside and we walked on that. That was, to be honest, quite scary. Then the kids scrambled up the rest of the hillside one way, dh and I went the other. It was hands and knees stuff.
Finally the trailhead. And Linnea claims she can "wait" to go to the bathroom, but she was summarily out-voted and made to use the not-too-awful Forest Service pit potty. Phew!
And then home. And to listen to dh freak out about the snow bridge crossing for the next few weeks.
All photos at the flickr set. There are a bunch that are repetitive because I was getting them to try to do one of those composite shots.
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