Blowing Down the Mountain

Today’s trip was Blow Down Mountain and Crater Lake Peak, and once again EastKing and Craig came along as well as two other people who which I forget there names. I was very much exited because I thought I was out of luck for the week, I was in a way a little under the weather because it has been so darn sunny and I have’nt been getting out and we been having conflicts at my house. This time it was redemtion as EastKing and I call it because of what happended on Jolly, I did’nt know my limits because I do not believe in my own personal limitation, that’s a part of the reason I call myself Flow because of my endurance, but sometimes I get carried away until it becomes irresponsibility. Fortunatly this time all was good! We summit not one, but two peaks with great views. They are not very known, which in a way is an advantage because we can hike without seeing very few people, as compared with Mount Si near by.

At first when we got to the meet up spot we were slightly early at 6:40, and after waiting around 15 mintures, I feared that somehow there was a misunderstanding, but fortunatly it was’nt. We got to the trailhead early and started off on a easy road like setting. Eventually we hit snow and soon needed our snowshoes. For some reason my snow shoes pop off easy because there’s not much of a tightener, or something to hold it in place after it’s tight. It kept coming out of place which fortunatly after pulling it tight it worked, but without snowshoes, the hike would have been extremely tiring! As we were going up a few turned around which worried me that it would be to snowy to summit, but that was’nt so. We later got onto a more open slope with what was perhaps the best views of the trip. It’s interesting that the view below the summit is better than the acual summit, although there’s some other stuff we could see once at the summit. We could see Teneriff, Dixie, Si, McClellan’s Butte, Kaleteen, and of coarse Rainier.

Mount Si Summit		Mount Rainier		Hiking Up

Looking West		Summit Path

At the summit, of coarse I had to get a EastKing shot, which is tradition, and I’m his personal EastKing pose photographer, I mean why else would I be a photographer….. to take photo’s of mountains? We soon decended the summit onto the lower Crater Peak summit which was apart of the ridge, although honestly speaking it’s pretty much part of Blowdown Mountain. As we were hiking through the woods, it was snowing hard with big clumps and with wind…. oh and I mean snowing from the trees, it was mostly clear out. We got to Crater Lake Peak fine although with still the same find and it was a little cold. Unbelievably EastKing got a fresh photographer to get his EastKing pose…. Perhaps I got fired…… poor me. Anyways we ate and such and took photos and soon headed back up to go down, because we had to go over the ridge.

Climbing to the Summit		Us on the Summit		Bald Eagle

Summit View

The way down was enjoyable, we took our old tracks back so that we would’nt end up losing were we were. It started to become hot out, but not to terribly hot, but sorta a nice hot, but gave me a slight dizzy feel to it. We were a bit tired going down, due to all the snow, plus the snowshoes were hurting my feet. Later we got out of the snow which was a releif to my feet. I talked a bit with Craig and …. that one other guy. We all got to the parkinglot safely, once again another great trip. This trip really enlightened me and cheered me up! I would say more, but sometimes you gotta be there to really know it.