After my third extra-tentular excursion, I decided to stay up and start boiling water for breakfast. It was getting light so I could look around at the woods and meadow where we were camping. I was scanning the area for the deer whose spot we had taken when I got an even bigger alarm than a bear in camp—there was a tent on the other side of the trail about 50 yards back. I was batting a 1000 yesterday. I didn’t help the one couple and I yelled at some other hikers to get out of here when I thought it was a deer. I went in and woke up Pam.
We quietly cooked breakfast in the hopes that we could get away without being seen. They only knew our tent and wouldn’t recognize our packs if we ran into them on the trail later. As luck would have it, they got up a few minutes later. I went over to apologize about yelling at them explaining we had some deer rummaging around earlier. They were a young couple with a couple of toddlers and this was their first opportunity to get out since the last kid had been born. They were going to do the same loop we were doing but in only 3 days. They didn’t have a water filter so they were boiling all of their drinking water for the day. I offered to let them use my filter. It was the least I could do after yelling at them to move on last night. They declined.
As we talked, they kept moving fast. They explained they were running behind schedule already. They had planned to make it up over Cameron Pass yesterday but they ran into a young couple where the girl was hurt and he was carrying 150# of gear. They helped them carry everything all the way up to the Deer Park Trailhead which was why they were running so late last night. Great!
I tried to chase a good Samaritan young couple on their first night of freedom in a couple of years who unselfishly interrupted their compressed schedule trip to help an unfortunate couple (albeit, not to bright couple on their first and last camping trip together) to hike an extra 20 miles carrying their gear all the way uphill to the nearest parking lot. The only thing that could make me feel like a bigger shit is to find out in 50 years that the young couple on their first trip were just celebrating their golden anniversary with their savior couple who had stood up at their wedding after saving them in the backwoods of Olympic. I’ll try to be nicer from here on out. We tried to justify it to ourselves as we were really tired and were aching because we’re old. Look, we even had to take 800mg of Vitamin I just to fall asleep. They were less than half our age so they were ultimately stronger than us. Karma is a bitch if she doesn’t buy our excuses.
Let’s just say for the record, Karma didn’t buy our excuses and she is a bitch. I, ultimately, paid a bigger price than Pam because I was the one who yelled at Sweet Polly Purebred and Wonder Dog.
The first couple of miles of the hike were not much different than yesterday. A gradual incline with occasional views of the valley when we would emerge from the trees. Occasionally, we would pass through a berry patch at which time Pam would let me lead because she knew I really wanted to see a bear and she also knew she needed a little bit of a head start in case I did because I am the faster runner. We stopped for lunch next to a creek in a bend in the valley. After lunch, we could see Mount Cameron and the Cameron Glaciers. The trail headed on up to the glaciers and then it got steep. The final mile was a 1000’ climb over shale. Pam is slow (but steady) when it comes to uphills. I just can’t walk that slow plus I like to minimize my time in the sun as we were now above the tree line. Pam also wears a bright pink broad brimmed hat which can be seen for miles. At the very least, it reflects light like a flood light at a new car sales event at the local dealership.
As we got to the base of the glaciers, we got separated by about ¼ mile. I was aiming for the shade of the cliff up ahead. I could always see Pam’s hat when I looked back. I got to the base of the cliff and noticed the trail switched back and climbed up the side. I went up top and dropped my pack. We still had another half mile to the pass. When I looked back I couldn’t see Pam. I ran back to the cliff and looked over. She had missed the switchback and was about 50 yards out front of the cliff with no trail in sight and crying because she thought I’d ditched her. I laid over the cliff and directed her back to the trail. By the time she caught up with me, she was just shy of panic attack (a mere hair’s width shy).
She calmed down and we finished the last bit to the top of the pass. The worst was already behind us, but the damage had been done. She wanted to turn around and head back to the car. If the other passes were this bad, she was done with hiking for good. I think I was also having a low sugar and we should have stopped longer at the pass and snacked but we pushed on after just a few minutes of absorbing the panoramic view of the Olympic Mountain Range. We had over 1000’ to drop down before heading back up to Lost Pass. The trail was like a tunnel in the bramble. I got my poles crossed and tangled in my feet and I fell. Just on the trail, but enough that it woke me up.
Pam’s hair width was now gone. I didn’t want to turn around so I brushed it aside and just kept going. About a half mile down the trail, I did it again, only, this time, I didn’t fall uphill and stay on the trail. I fell down to the right and did 3 somersaults before I arrested my fall. Fortunately, my glasses fell off on the trail so Pam was able to retrieve them. After a few minutes of trying to calm myself (and Pam) I decided to assess the damage and find out what I’d done to myself. To my immense relief, nothing was broken, just a few scratches on my arms and legs. I walked straight across to the trail, dropped my pack, and got my glasses from Pam.
After checking my pack, I could only see that the pack cover was destroyed and my favorite water bottle had fallen out. This was my pink Nalgene bottle which I had dropped off a cliff in Nepal and climbed down to retrieve as it was wedged on the edge of a 2000’ drop. Then I dropped it again while bush hogging at my place (it fell off the tractor and I didn’t notice). I found it a year later when I was bush hogging the hill below my house—it still had good water in it. As far as I was concerned, this was my lucky water bottle. I went back to where I had landed (against Pam’s wishes) to find my lucky bottle. I was able to see it at the bottom of a 100’ drop just 5 feet further down from where I stopped myself from rolling. Now I was weak kneed! Karma was just giving me a warning—this time!
I went back to Pam and told her I couldn’t find it. I told her I was pretty tired and wanted to stop at the next site. Not too much further, the trail leveled out into a nice meadow with marmots running around. Just as we started climbing out of the meadow, we found a couple of nice campsites. We took the one right on the trail.
After setting up camp and eating supper, I decided we needed a reward. We didn’t bring any alcohol on this trip after carrying way too much at Isle Royale (maybe someday, we’ll learn moderation) so I popped our Jiffy Pop popcorn.
