Monthly Archives: October 2011

A hiking26 – SteriPen Thumbs Up -

Last month I dropped my SteriPen while refilling water bottles in a creek just off the Shedroof Divide, in Pend Oreille County. I was a bit concerned that the pen quit working, I had planned on using it on the PCT, but if it’s not impact proof, this is bad. Less than two weeks ago I called the company, discussed the issue, and a few other things, of which I received a few “we’re working on that” replies. I returned the pen, and a replacement just arrived with a note that reads “The tested pen was found to have a snapped lamp. The replacement Adventurer is ready for the waters of the world.”
This replacement came without having to dig up the receipt, or any additional charge, other than the cost to ship it back to them. I’m incredibly impressed.

Tom uses the SteriPen on a litre of water.

If you’re not familiar with a SteriPen, it’s a great alternative to the comparatively large water filtration systems that most backpackers carry with them.  It’s a light weight (under 4 oz. w/batteries) and a space saver that can easily attach to your pack straps.  Although it doesn’t filter sediment from the water, (filters are available) a bandanna or coffee filter stretched over a bottle, does the trick.  The pen, when partially submerged in water, purifies 1 Litre of water in 90 seconds by eliminating over 99.9% of bacteria, viruses and protozoa that cause water-borne illness.

Most likely i’m repeating myself here, so bear with me as I skip back to February when I began toying around with the project out into the cyber world.  I contacted a few ‘pro’ long distance hikers with some basic questions.  Ryan a.k.a. Green Tortuga in the cult Letterboxing world, replied not only with the easiest understood answers, (or possibly just the answers i wanted to hear), he also continued to correspond with me after I dropped the dress bomb on him.  In fact, his reply was “Wow…. I’m… speechless. =)  Well, I’ll give you this much–anyone that bumps into you on the trail is NOT going to forget you!”.

In the global scheme of things, His location, six hrs away in Seattle, was local.  So He agreed to go on a hike with me, and of course I offered  to leave the gown behind, to which he replied “Even if you bring a dress, I’d still consider it. But if you wear a dress, you have to realize, there’s a very good chance a photo of it will end up on my blog.”.  I was already posting pics on line of me gowned up, why should a blog post phase me??  I’m very much a hands on learner, and spending time with someone who’s not only hiked the PCT in 2010, but has more than 7000 miles of long distance under his feet, is just what i need.

It’s been a long year hoping to sync our schedules, and the iffy Seattle weather… Over stressed from thinking too largely about what hiking 26 COULD be, I was stressed out and loosing focus.  I scheduled an emergency vacation, then hit Ryan up for hike time.  I gave him the entire week to work with, and he set forth watching the weather.

As my time off grew close, the weather was not cooperating.  We both were interested in the Olympic Mountains, on the peninsula west of Seattle, or Mt. St. Helen, which took me back to my days in grade school, when a teacher showed us a jar full of volcanic ash from the disaster.  Hoping for the Olympics, the weather won out south of Seattle.  The erupted volcano it was.

I arrived to meet, and pick up Ryan Thurs afternoon, after a trip to REI to buy a water filtration system.  My Steripen – an awesomely handy and easily portable water purifier that uses ultraviolet light to kill bacteria – quit working on me the week prior.  With no time to send in to fix, I didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of the pro.     While Ryan loaded his pack and gear in the truck, I quickly eyed it for things I didn’t recognize, or might need and had forgotten.  He climbed in the truck, reclined the seat prepared to relax for the 3 hour ride south.  Along the way he explained that he hates being in cars, so much so that he sold his and spends most of his time operating on foot, as everything he really needs is local, other than the trails of the mountains that taunt him from afar.

We stopped in one of those C towns off I-5, for lunch @ Burgerville !!!  This place deserves to be mentioned. Only found in Southern WA and OR, their menu is comprised of locally grown, natural food.  Yum.  (and Ryan picked up the tab, so that was awesome too.) We discussed the possible routes, Clockwise or Counter Clockwise, around the mountain, the first camp spot was going to be 15 or so miles from the Trailhead at the Johnson Ridge Observatory.  Most start the Loowit Trail from closer points on the south side of St.Helen, but this additional mileage would provide us with a much better view of the breach, where the side of the volcano blasted horizontally, and the cone collapsed, causing a massive landslide up the Ridge and down the Toutle River, filling the valley, and in the end raising the river some 150+ ft.

Since we wouldn’t make it to the park office prior to closing, I called (the woman who answered and transferred me was named Helen, I wonder if people often ask her if she’s a Saint???) and listened to what advice the woman had to offer.  Her advice was rather simple.   Don’t enter from the point we wanted to, and go the direction opposite of that which we discussed.  Ok, Done.  We weren’t listening to her.  Honestly, I was letting Ryan handle the decisions anyhow, he’s hiked far enough that I felt I should trust his decisions.

With 15 miles of hiking needed to reach our first camp, the only option was an early Friday morning start.Fast Forward here – stops at every viewpoint along the way. Mystery signs pointing to Elk in every direction. – Astounded by the size of the Mtn, and freaking out that we were backpacking ALL THE WAY AROUND that giant – Bridges – Trees – Parking – Dinner in the parking lot – nice discussion about the incredible canopy of stars overhead, complete with a vivid swath of Milky Way overhead – Sleeping in the truck cab, Ryan in the bed. – Wake up – repack our packs (left the water filter behind, Ryan never uses one… I’ve heard of this, and felt I was safe practicing the same ) – quick round down the concrete trail @ the observatory learning about what we were about to hike on – head out on the trail – stop to take photos and …

Me & Mt. St. Helen

This is where things seemingly went awry.  I was already hot, and needing to shed a layer.  Ryan had mentioned all right turns at trail junctions at some point, which was all I needed to know, as he pushed on.  Just to be clear, this was in the first few miles of our 40 miles together.  I didn’t know how fast he hiked, if he would wait if I fell behind, if he would hide in what little foliage existed, and play a prank on me…??? I arrived at the first somewhat obscure trail junction, turned right, and advanced out through the vast swath of muddy destruction caused by the breach.  There was no sign of Ryan anywhere.    It wasn’t long before I realized the map he gave me was in the truck, and we hadn’t officially decided which clockwardly direction we’d hike.  My opinion of him was sinking fast, what kind of guy hikes that far forward, in the early miles of the journey, without stopping, or at least slowing until I could catch sight of him.  And once on the Loowit, would I be following behind him and rejoin at camp that night? Or would we run into each other on the opposite side of the mountain?  Surely he thought I was too slow and had already lost hopes in my ability to hike St. Helen in the 3 days allotted.  WHERE THE HELL WAS HE !???

Did Ryan go this way or thatta way?

When I reached the Loowit junction, I stopped, relaxed, ate a snack, scoured the mud plain, and saw nothing but Elk, (the elk of course would soon see something noteworth).  Once I made the decision to press on counter clockwise, here came Ryan around a bend, and with a wave, my confidence was instantly regained, as I realized that it was HE who was behind.  It turns out he’d missed that sharp first turn to the right, then fully knowing that I would be pushing fast in an effort to catch up with HIM, he wondered too, where we would reconnect…

ELK - WERE - EVERYWHERE

The Elk are likely still discussing what they saw that day

Pressing on, together, COUNTER CLOCKWISE, we stopped for a few photos, and discussed the mass quantities of little frogs that existed in the somewhat wet plain that was supposed to be without water this time of year.  His little buddy Wassa, a little stuffed 8” or so backpacking moose ( I hope it’s a moose, otherwise Wassa will be angry with me), enjoyed a photo shoot or two, and as the trek seemed easier, I decided it was time to don the dress stuffed in my pack.

The gown that came from Helena MT ended up at Mt. Helen

It was a last minute gown decision, not yet modified for trail life, but if fit, and it was HOT, and of course not long after I put it on, we encountered a stream of silt rich water.  The issue of crossing the creek didn’t lay in getting our feet wet, rather hiking the rest of our day with shoes FULL of silt.  The water was thick with it.  So as Ryan made his way across while I scouted out an easier crossing, he began recording video from the banks.  I’m happy to say, that although I ended up with a wet boot, I didn’t get the dress wet.  Quite possibly one of the strangest things Ryan has ever heard himself proclaim on a trail “ it can be rough, but you kept your hems dry “ …  Want to see this video? Check out Ryans version of these antics on his blog
http://www.anotherlongwalk.com/2011/09/well-be-going-round-mountain.html

I removed the great white gown at our next break, and it was smooth sailing for a while.  An incredible amount of time was spent hiking up and down gullies of trickling, or often dry creek beds.  As I walked along the edge of the south fork Toutle River, it’s banks, seemingly alive and angry, blowing dust and ash into the air, I failed to realize this incredible drop off to my left was something we’d soon hike down into.  I found Ryan sitting near another trail junction,  with a matter of fact look on his face, This was the rough spot we’d both heard of, and that over there, an area untouched by the blast, thick and green, is camp.  We were going to arrive at camp earlier than expected, but getting there would be no easy feat.

The depths of St. Helens ash, and the gorge we would have to cross

Ryan follows the long trail down ash and silt

Surprisingly it wasn’t as terrible as it looked.  The only real danger lay near the bottom, where the boulders and steep grade posed a possible threat.  I scrambled down, and Ryan leashed the packs, and dropped them down.  Standing clear of possible concussion, I waved for Ryan to follow.  Once again, it was a difficult stream crossing for me.  I was SURE I could make it across with just a few LONG STRIDED, no chance in hell I was gonna be able to land my foot on those boulders, steps.  But I tried, and again, Ryan has photos of this.  One foot firmly planted at the bottom of, what was more like a stream than a river, and now, both boots were wet.  Carry on.

Ryan works his way down the steep banks of the Toutle

This day all wraps up with ryan lying down in one of the most beautiful and green camp sites I’d ever had the good fortune to stay in.

Camp Sweet Camp

I ran off along the creeks and played photo-shoot once I found a beautiful vignette.

100% backwoods drama happenin' here.

Once my feet were sufficiently freezing from crossing the water (camera on one side of the creek, vignette and myself on the other), it was time for dinner, where Ryan taught me camp knots I’ve already forgotten, and threw in a good story to boot.  To sleep I went, and lucky for you, that also means the end of this entirely too long blog post.

While Ryan napped, I curled up with the newest issue of Backpacker Magazine