What a hellish day.
On Thursday, I decided to break in the Audi with a hike. After consulting Ira Spring and Harvey Manning's 100 Hikes in Washington's South Cascades and Olympics, I decided to head out to Randal, WA to tackle Juniper Peak, an 8 mile hike at the northern edge of the Gifford Pinchot national forest.
Hitting the road early, I had planned to reach the trailhead by 11am, peak around 1pm, back in the car by 4, then home for dinner by 6. In reality, I didn't reach the trail head until 3pm, spending a full six hours in the car. To make matters worse, by the time I found the place, only enough sun remained for the shorter, much shorter 3 mile Tongue Mountain. What happened?
I blame Harvy and Ira. Their directions sent me on the wrong road. And it took me 20 miles of forest service road to figure it out. So 20 miles out means 20 miles in. By the end of the day I had taken the car on nearly 50 miles of dirt roads and would end up paying for it - the belly pan broke and somehow, I lost the liner to the wheel well.
Anyway...it was getting to be late afternoon and I decided I didn't have the time to do the longer hike, so settled for Tongue Mountain trail, which shares the same parking lot. Its a super super short hike - just 1.5 miles up and 1.5 miles down. Small reward for the effort it took to get there, but on the bright side, I did get great views of Rainier, Adams, and Helen's, which isn't something you see every day. When I reached the peak, I decided that the hike was worth all the hassle (it wasn't, but that's what I keep telling myself).
"at least I have this sandwich which has been in my car for 5 hours."
Its no worse than when I took my Honda out hiking!
And I did this on a Thursday, fool. You willing to skip work?
Posted by: jacob rhoades | September 08, 2008 at 11:08 PM
Taking an Audi on forest roads, crazy. You need to get the allroad version...
Looks like a fun hike. Invite me next time fool.
Posted by: Jayson McIvor | September 08, 2008 at 10:34 PM