Tour 7

(Sent into Agnes Creek again. 2 days ahead of a horse pack group led by the Courtney's- a big name in Stehekin- it's called hike it and like it. The hikers go, their stuff gets packed. And we unfortunate ones get to haul ourselves and our stuff ahead of them to make sure the horses can get through)

Day 1. Office Day
Apparently we needed to sharpen tools and bs for a day. By 1100 we had everything done and all of our trip prep complete so our boss took pity on us and let us go home early to pack. - I get the suspisionthat they give us an office day every so often because they think it's good for our health.-
Whole afternoon to pack, so I read a book, went swimming, started a knitting project, got groceries in the evening, read some more, and finally packed around 10 pm.

Day 2.
Stopped by the Stehekin bakery on our way to the trailhead. Hitched a ride from a park service ranger. Pizza and a stehekin sticky bun made an excellent lunch. Our boss wanted us to hike 12 miles this afternoon- we're supposed to clear the trail (which we were just on the trip before last) for a horse pack group. Felt like we were being sent on a fools errand.
Ran into a huge mess 4 miles up. We get angry when we're hiking a trail that's been cleared, aren't expecting work, and find a lot of it.
This huge tree had broken apart right down the middle of the trail. Giant sections of tree obliterating the path. A couple hikers passing by lent a hand and helped us move one section. That was pretty awesome- wouldn't of moved it otherwise. Axed through another chunk to move it. 3 hours to clear one big tree. Around 7, when we finished, we made it only one more mile and made camp. So much for the boss's plan. That tree kicked our collective ass.

Day 3.
Kristian's on vaca this tour so it's just me and the guys, and I wouldn't necessarily call what they do as work.
We slept in today after a 13 hour day yesterday. That was fine with me. But they really meant sleeping in. camp was packed by noon and we were just hanging around reading. Halden volunteered to clear one easy tree we left yesterday solo. So Kenny and I sat by the creek and read a couple more hours. Had a really late lunch, then at 3 they decide its time to go the rest of the 12 miles to camp at a place called Hemlock where our work starts. 7 mile evening hike.
The Lyman volunteer wilderness ranger, Tressa, was sent to help us work the PCT and we met her at camp this evening. Enjoyed conversation with a new person, and at our campfire tonight she read a story from her book 'Desert Solitaire'. We enjoy campfire readalouds. We also amused Tressa as Halden bartered some freeze dried veggies for some of the pudding I had brought (I don't think she thought it was an equal trade, but it definitely was.)
Agnes has many berries on the trail which tempered the hike, as I walked I had to pause every now and then for some huckleberries, some thimbleberries, and I found some salmonberries (although those aren't very enjoyable). I actually enjoyed the hike this time- my pack only weighed in at 50 lbs w/ out tools -yay!- and for once I don't have the saw strapped to my pack. It's rather nice. (Kenny's pack only weighs 45 lbs and I don't know how he does it. I'm determined to eventually get my pack that light). No real complaints on the trail aside from the pulaski trying to hit me in the head from where it was strapped to my pack.

Day 4.
We moved camp around noon- 2 miles up the PCT so we'd be closer to our work. Talk about a nonmotivational day. It was nice to hike w/ Tressa. We took our time enjoying berries and swapping stories on our hike up.

Kenny had the brilliant idea this afternoon to go on a 'family' fishing trip to some lakes that looked like a good bushwack over a ridge. We talked about it for a while, and all the results were negative: it looked steep, there might not be fish, we might not find the lakes... but we are young and crazy and decided to go for it.

It was a very steep climb up the mountainside. Jumping from tree to tree, hanging on to willow branches, scrambling up dry creek beds, at times crawling on all fours. One false summit, then a snowfield and a boulderfield to traverse, and we were on top of the world.
It was amazing up there. We could look down into the basin and across where clouds were rolling over the lip of the peaks and hanging there suspended like a foamy waterfall.
We hound our lakes-Banock Lakes- but were stopped from climbing down to them when we ran into a cliff. Sheer drop down to the lakes.
Kenny dropped his pack and fell into the heather, and within five seconds all three of us (Kenny, Tressa, and I) were sprawled in the meadow, staring up at the blue sky with a sweet breeze flowing over us thinking 'This is not a bad life'.
We lay there in the evening sun for awhile, dreading the steep climb down, but eventually, we knew we had to leave our spot of heaven.
The climb down was just as adventurous as the climb up: skiing down a snowfield, falling from one tree into the next, letting go hoping you'd catch the next branch, slipping and sliding down the duff, belaying down facing the cliff, lowering yourself from one handful of willows to the next. Miraculously we traversed far enough across the slope that we slid right into camp, thoroughly pleased with ourselves.
We once again enjoyed our campfire, exchanging adventure stories (Tressa had many good climbing ones). Halden had someone new to tell all his stories to. Kenny and I would start giggling at the start of each story and Tressa, by the end of the evening, started predicting the end of every story. With Halden, it's like going on a long roadtrip and after driving a ways, realizing you only brought one cd to listen to and you have hours of road ahead of you.
Tressa and I were lying right next to the fire listening to the sounds of the woods and Kenny's ipod- earphones dangling in a pot amplifying the tinny sound, with Kenny and Halden adding their musical overtones to the mix. I started stargazing, but the moon was so bright you couldn't see any starts, so I was just gazing, up at the deep sky, just enjoying being in the woods.

Day 5.
Work? Oh right, that's why we're out here. We moved a couple boulders, then took our packs with us as we worked our way across the PCT and over cloudy pass to Lyman Lake. Tressa and I took a short cut (or at least we cut some switchbacks out of our lives) by staying up on the PCT and cutting across Suattle pass trail over to Cloudy. From there it was a quick drop into Lyman where we jumped into Tressa's 6 man cook tent to hide from the cold chill.
We sat around drinking tea, reading, and planning a dinner party while we waited for the guys to show up. They found us there a couple hours later curled up in sleeping bags cozy as can be.
Our dinner party was amazing. It took a little more effort and thinking than we really wanted to put into it (we were tired from the trek) but it was worth it. We made a stir fry compiling all the dried veggies we had, mixed in some beef jerky and chicken in a pouch, threw in some Asian noodles, and topped it off w/ soy sauce and peanut butter. We were quite pleased with the result, and for dessert we mixed up pistachio chocolate pudding. We can be quite creative with the limited supply from our packs (aided greatly by Tressa's cache of food). Then we enjoyed the evening w/ another chapter from Desert Solitaire- one man's rant against industrial tourism, and of his love of national park gems.

Day 6. Camp Day.
We hung out w/ Tressa for another day. Woke up late. Made a pancake breakfast. The boys surprised us by cleaning up the cook tent, so we left them to it and went to rehabilitate a campsite.
Wiled away the afternoon reading, knitting, fishing, and enjoying life. Tressa's front yard is a pond, a grassy field and a lake. What a life. I sat by the lake edge knitting, watching Kenny fish and Tressa wade out to join him for a fishing lesson. I was just enjoying the rhythm of life at the moment: the needles flowing, the cast of the line, the reel in, a happy bee buzzing in a mountain bog flower, the sunshine, the cool breeze, sitting by a glacier lake with a waterfall on one side, completely surrounded by peaks. This is life. This is how it should be. To enjoy the simplest things and our only serious thoughts are planning a meal with fish and figuring out what ingredients we can conjure from our packs to make a feast.
I can see why Tressa volunteered to be a wilderness ranger, she has an amazing job- just living by a lake for a few months and chatting w/ hikers who pass through.
I went fishing w/ Tressa again in the afternoon. We didn't catch anything, but we still enjoyed wading out into the lake and casting. It's like sitting on the bank throwing rocks into the water- you're not accomplishing anything, but it's still enjoyable.
Kenny caught 3 fish and we made a feast: fish cooked on the fire w/ polenta cakes and rice w/ veggies as sides. We took everything out to the campfire and enjoyed the night by the flame. We made an amazing apple pie over the fire for dessert too! It's awesome compiling our food w/ Tressa's stores and being creative with our concoctions.

Day 7.
We did a bit of work. Spent the day brushing the Lyman trail. Did all of the work in one long day. We partially explored an old mineshaft, and ate lunch on a giant's staircase. A couple of hikers we met at Lyman met us at the bottom of the trail and said they appreciated our work. At least this time I was not miserable gardening in the woods- it was cloudy and there were occasional berries to pick. Of course- right when we finished the rain poured out from the clouds that had been creeping over the peaks for the past few days.
It rained all night. We hid out in Tressa's cook tent reading and listening to the patter (Tressa had moved camp down to Hart Lake and Holden village a day ahead of us, so we were chilling in her camp w/out her).

Day 8.
And it rained.
We were out of work and it looked like the guys were just going to sit there all day inside the tent, so I said I'd rather sit at Holden. They were fine with me going by myself, but by afternoon decided they wanted to hang out in the village also. We waited till 3 so that we could sneak past Barbara- who was camping at Hart Lake.
No need to be sneaky though, as she was already back at Holden, so we had to deal w/ her anyway. We had grand schemes to meet up with Tressa again and have ourselves a party at the guard station and eat all the toast in Holden.
We did get a hook up to make ourselves banana boats in the village kitchen. Raided their supplies and created a masterpiece of marshmallows, bananas and chocolate butterscotch. Enjoyed too much toast and camped on Patti's porch (at the guard station).

Day 9.
The rain came at 630 this morning. The three of us on the porch exploded into the guard station- giving Patti a good shock and a good laugh. We sprawl out on the floor to sleep more, but Barbara soon came in, so no more sleep.
Tressa left for her days off in civilization, and Barbara proceeded to give us too many options of work to do. We already had a plot though, but while we listened Kenny wrote up a list of the things she was saying along w/ a few other ideas which included among other things: arson, hiking to Stehekin for the bakery, and escaping to Canada.
Our original plot we carried out however, which was to climb up Copper Basin. We heard the views were great, so Kenny and I headed up there, we had a plan to scramble up Mount Furno- we were also sort of brushing the trail. It was a nice hike- however, the peak was shrouded in clouds and we decided against trying to kill ourselves summitting in the rain. Instead we spent the afternoon back at Holden, enjoying their hospitality: hot shower, toast, tie dyed t-shirts, mexican food-it's Mexican week at Holden- a mariachi band, tea, and plenty of time to hang out reading and eating toast in comfort. We also got to hit up the icecream bar and hung out in the game room, reading the walls, eating popcorn, the guys played pool, and we watched an open mic show.

Day 10.
Back to the world again. Barbara drove us down to the dock early in the morning, so we went over to the Lesmeister's (they are caretakers of the Lucerne landing and live in a forest service cabin by the lake). Their cabin is gorgeous! It's homey, and comfortable. Built by a CCC crew sometime 50 years ago or so. They have a lovely green lawn w/ a garden. A little haven in the woods. We enjoyed conversation with them while waiting for the boat.
The boss tried to talk us to death when we got back to the station, but eventually, we were released home to large meals with lots of meat and Fresh vegetables as well as hot showers with Soap and being able to lean back in a chair that had a comfortable back to it.