Eatonville, Washington, 11:30 PM
I handed the officer my driver’s license.
“Did you know you were doing 42 in a 25?”
“No, I guess didn’t realize that.”
He shone his flashlight in the car. We looked back at him meekly. He glanced at me with my sun scorched face and bloodshot eyes, at Rob with his matted bandana hair, and at Doug in the back seat peeking above his blanket.
“Looks like you’ve had a long day. I’m gonna save you a $170 ticket and just make this a warning … What have you been doing anyway?”
I thanked him and gave him the short answer. Here’s the longer version:
No Bridge
The sign at the trailhead read, “Bridge Out 1/4 mile (Not crossable)”. This matter-of-fact warning played no role in our decision making process, and we happily marched off into the woods. The route from Christine Falls to Camp Hazard begins at 3,600′ and ends at 11,600′, an even 8000′ of gain. This is the most strenuous day hike that I know of. We soon found that the sign at the trailhead was accurate, so we bushwacked upstream until we found enough stepping stones to get across the stream, and we were on our way.
No Water
I reached behind me to grab my water bottle only to find it missing. “Dang, I can’t believe I just lost another water bottle,” I thought. Fortunately I had an extra quart in my pack, so I dug it out and placed it in the outside pocket for easy access.
We came to a stream near Comet Falls and searched for a place to get across. It ran through a canyon of sheer snow walls about 10 feet deep. Fortunately we found a snow bridge that spanned it. I was thinking, “Boy it’s a good thing we don’t have to climb down those vertical snowbanks to get across.” At that very moment, my water bottle shot out of its pocket and went sliding over the edge into the river, floated for a short ways, and lodged itself in some rocks. I was now waterless. I hesitated, wondering what to do. I decided that I should at least try to retrieve it, so I gingerly lowered myself down the snow wall, grabbed the bottle, and gingerly eased my way back up. Whew!
I was pleased with the recovery effort, and happily put the bottle back in the outside pocket. Yes, the very same pocket which had twice failed to hold it’s contents. The flaw in my logic didn’t occur to me until 15 minutes later when I reached around to find nothing but empty pocket. Okay, I think I need a new system for my water bottles. Doug graciously loaned me some water, and, to augment that, I spent the rest of the hike munching on snow chunks.
No Key
The hike was nothing short of brutal. I felt very nauseous, as I always do at altitude. We didn’t linger too long at Camp Hazard, since the hour was late. We needed our headlamps for the last couple of miles, and we finally reached the car after a 14 hour round trip!
We wearily drove down the winding park road until we came to an abrupt halt at Longmire. The gate was locked tight, and we couldn’t get out! I was irritated and shivering from lack of calories, but there was nothing to do but try to find someone with a key. As luck would have it, one light was on in a nearby residence. A teenager was surfing the internet and listening to music with his headphones. We got his attention. “I’m new here,” he said, “but I have a bunch of keys. We could try ‘em, but I have no idea if they’ll work.” We walked back to the gate, and after a couple of trys, he found one that turned the padlock, and we were free! Free, at least until we were detained by the Eatonville police.
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