Monte Cristo Backpack

We found time to wedge a backpack into our highly constrained schedule: we don't do weekends (too crowded), and Karen had on-call duties for the Seattle Amigos Chapter while the volunteers were in Latin America.

We were excited about our North Cascades destination (Hannegan Pass and Copper Ridge). Our attempt several weeks earlier was aborted due to Tom getting sick the night before. When doing our pre-trip due diligence, a trail report from the previous day provided some bad news:

Unfortunately the adventure was majorly marred by the biting flies, which swarmed us from the moment we stepped out of the car and stayed with us most of the way. I'm an avid hiker and have never experienced this level of bugginess. DEET had zero effect.

OK, so the reality is that we're not that tough. We've been in some serious bugs over the years, and honestly, it's not very fun. So, what's Plan B? Tom spent hours scouring over his ideas, trip reports, etc., looking for something that met most/all of our criteria. But he couldn't converge, and time was running short. So, he pulled Karen into the process, and she popped up with Gothic Basin! It was perhaps only a 1-nighter, but that would be OK, too.

So off we went the next morning, with 2 nights of food, on up the trail. It goes up at a pretty good clip, and is unrelenting ... and stays steep when the trail itself eventually turns very rocky and rooty. We finally arrived in the lower basin mid-afternoon, and set up camp at the edge of a bluff (away from the other obvious campers). We hoofed it up to the edge of Foggy Lake, and enjoyed the spectacular views of Del Campo and Gothic Peaks. On our way back to camp, we stopped by a little pond, only to get to watch some nearby campers collect firewood. OK, now this area isn't within the National Forest, so there aren't any rules, but fires at this elevation aren't really ok, since there's not enough firewood for everyone to do it. Maybe they didn't know that ... so they get a little slack. But they took it to a whole new level ... trampling over the heather and throwing big rotting logs down the hillside!! Then carrying it all back to their campsite with a sense of accomplishment!

Fortunately, we were tucked far enough away from them that we only got snippets of their music (probably through their bluetooth speaker). We generally had a relaxing evening, and had some outstanding views at sunset of the nearby peaks.

After hiking down in the morning, we decided to walk the 3 miles on the decommissioned road to the old mining town of Monte Cristo, camp at the Forest Service campground there, and day hike up to Glacier Basin. We had a brief wave of enthusiasm just before reaching the townsite, and decided to just take all our gear up to Glacier Basin and camp up there. Unfortunately, our aging legs combined with the high temperatures, unrelenting sun, and not-quite-accessible stream, forced us to turn back about half way. We were pretty whooped, and, with our tails between our legs, headed back to Monte Cristo to camp. In the morning, we were pretty lazy, so opted to forego the day trip up to Glacier Basin, and save it for another time. The casual 4-mile hike out the road took us to the car, and a early-afternoon arrival back home.

The trip also provided some good info for us. Tom confirmed that he loved his new, light pack (ULA Catalyst, 3 lbs). During our uphill climbing, Karen found a new desire to lighten her load, and questioned why we brought some unnecessary items (bear canister, Chacos). So, upon our return, Tom ordered her a Catalyst for her birthday!

Tom has also finally fallen in love with his new camera (Panasonic Lumix ZS100). His old Canon G9 bit the dust, so he replaced it several months ago. The new one has an electronic viewfinder, which enables Tom to actually see clearly what he's taking pictures of (since he rarely puts on his glasses while hiking). This allows him to re-engage with the picture-taking process, which he's been missing for oh-so-many years. The camera also has a touchscreen, which allows you to touch where you want the focus and exposure to be determined. Unfortunately, this proves incredibly problematic ... since either a finger or a nose (when using the viewfinder) seemed to always touch the screen. Tom finally decided to turn it off, and now it's all fun! Hopefully, the resulting photos will improve, too!