Vesper Peak

It started on Monday, August 4, 2008 when I came home, and heard the news that we were going for another hike! Once again as usual I am very exited but unfortunatly no friends are allowed and we leave late as usual. But we brought a tent. It was perfect weather on Monday but crummy on the weekend which because it was a week day, it was not very populated. The drive there was scenic with the alpenglow. When we got to the trailhead, I took a few photos, and we packed our gear and started hiking in the dark.

It started out in woods and we crossed a few creeks, oh and did I mention I was carring two heavy packs! This made it difficult because my mother is’nt very good at carring supplies and she is’nt good at packing the right stuff and brought a little bit of luxury stuff. When we get to the Stillaguamish River, the original bridge was washed out, so we decided on spending the night in the woods because it was too much for my mom at night. We put up the tent and transplant a plant so that we do not hurt the wildlife and sleep well… exept waking up once from a Racoon or rat on the side of the tent which freacked out my mother and she thought it was a bear at first which we were worried about, but thank goodness we were safe. We woke up the next day and boy was it so refreshing to wake up in the mountains! The sun shining happily and the river near by to cool me off. I took some creek exposure shots because it had a lot of motion.

Camping Spot		Sun Shining Through Woods		Spider Web

Looking Towards Big Four		Creek Falls		Water Motion

We went back to the car real quick to take back the camping gear, and started the hike. Which I said “Hike On!” We crossed the river ok, thanks to the help of this nice guy using two logs that were placed but looked somewhat weak. After crossing the river, we started hiking up the bottom of Morning Star, which was very hot! This part for me became quite a challenge because not only was it steep, I had lots of stuff, but it was friggin hot! And If you know me, my #1 weakness of all times is heat which is why I could not ever live in Arizona unless it was winter. But I endured and kept pushing on though. It must have been atleast 90 something.

Sperry Peak Reflection		Tree Reflection		Little Red Flower [img]		Purple Flower and Mount Dickerman

View on the way up to the Valley

Once we got into the valley between Morining Star Mountain, and Sperry Peak, it got some what cooler which for me was a huge relief. There was still snow in the valley even at this time of year! The snow this year was more than I have ever seen it at this time of year. Also the trail it self was a bit damaged at places. Trees nocked over, and part of the time while hiking through the valley, we just followed the boulder field which was nice because then it got to the point were we were on snow. Later we got back on trail which was almost as good as not being on trail, and keep going on and off until we get below Headlee Pass which I call Deadly pass because of it’s great steepness!

The Valley on the way to Headlee Pass		Heading up through the Snow

Morning Star with the Sun above		Looking Up Headlee Pass		Looking Down Headlee Pass

There was still snow on the way up which was to our disadvatage, and part of the trail was missing at parts making us have to go strait up and hold onto trees and holding on for dear life. But Once we got pass all the crazyness, it gets much better for us, and we get to the pass with a nice view.

Glacier and Sloan Peak		Vesper Peak

After our brake at the pass, we decided on going to Vesper Lake which was only a half mile away and was’nt too difficult. At the lake, it is still frozen and it reminds me of a glacier, because it has that blue water at the top, yet its all really thick snow. We take a rest at the lake, and my mother wants to sun bathe on some dry rocks, and I ask If I can continue on. She says I have less than an hour. So I try to hurry back down a little until I get to Vesper Creek and start the ascent up the ridge.

Snow Shadow		Vesper and the Sun

It was kinda nice, being able to hike alone and finally have peace and quite and the whole mountain to just me, and there were no foot prints, and it was snow all the way up, and before I heard you need crampons. The heat keeps getting to me, so I keep covering myself with lots of snow, and usually I don’t say this, but Thank goodness for bringing my cotton T-Shirt because it helped absorb water. As I kept going up, I started to get some what scared because the slope with the snow, and there being cliff’s below, but I planned my route out good, and made sure that even if I fell, I would be safe. It was cool how the snow was perfect because I would’nt have to kick step, until I got a few hundred feet from the summit. Then it got real steep, perhaps 50-55 degrees and it was harder snow, which became too much, so I went around the summit and was rewared with a 360 view! What an amazing sight of Glacier Peak, to Del Campo, to Three Fingers and even Eldorado Peak was in view.

Vesper Peak Panorama		Looking North West

North Cascade Peaks		Mount Pugh		Glacier Peak

There were lots of bugs at the summit, so I hurried and took some photos and went down. I thought I forgot my sunglasses on the way down so I went back up and saw that I was’nt the only one on Vesper, the nice guy who helped my mom cross the creek also summited after me. He took a photo of me on the summit and I went down. The way down was a lot of fun! The snow was perfect for glassading, and at first was worried about the snow freezing over but I was lucky and kept going down until I got to almost the bottom of the ridge. It was a nice feeling having the sun just above the ridge. I looked down and was wondering were my mom was. So I hurry down and run across to see were I left her, and to my disbelieve, she was not there which worried me. My thought was what If she went looking for me, but once again the nice guy who helped my mom cross the creek came and we waited a moment and thought well perhaps she went down without me. Once we went down to the pass, my luck was good, and I saw my brother and that made me feel much better that they did not go looking for me. Turns out I guess I took an hour too long, and they did not want to go down in the dark. On the way down from Headlee Pass, there were lots of mosquitoes which was bad because it was steep, and they kept bugging me until I got to the snow field which turns out they hate the cold which was to my luck. We came down off trail and got back on just before dark, and hiked the rest of the way down fine, although crossing the river in the dark was annoying because I had to get my boots soaked. But for me all in all it was a good trip! And the car ride home I had Chocolate Milk and food. Vesper is still snowy even at this time of year, so I recommend ice axe, or ski polls which I did bring and came in handy. So anyone who comes here, know your limits, and be safe!

Another Time we went: We were wanting to go on a hike during the day of September 15, 2007. Vesper was our choice, but unfortunaty we left late as usual so we decided to spend the night at the trailhead and brought my friends Mark and Sean. We had a camp fire that night and the weather did not seem to hold up very well vecasue the valley above was filled with mist. When we woke up, it was the came, mist everywere up the mountain, just as I was taking some photos, I heard some kind of music, trumpets and it was a very nice sounding thing, we wondered how could be music in the middle of the Cascade so loud, so I called it and to this day the Mountain Song. But turns out it was some guy hanging out at Vesper for a few weeks with his broken down van and his speakers playing loud, and he was fairly nice although I scared him when walking to find out thwat the noise was. We started off the hike and it was dark even though it was almost midday! There were blueberries along the sides of the trail, which some were good and some were not. Later my friend Mark wanted a Photo of him and a small glacier on the way, so I did so, but my other friend Sean who is a little imatture got in the way of his photo thinking it was funny. From here it pretty much went down hill, Mark threw blue berries at Sean thinking it would make him go away, and Sean thought they were rocks, so Sean starts getting angry and calling Mark names…. Oh no, I thought to myself. After a huge conflict with verbly fighting, Mark was angry and headed down, and my mom was cold so she decided that it was time to turn around, but my brother Michael who came did not want to leave and same as I, so we decided that we continue even without my mothers permission and said he would take all the blame. So we hiked up Sean me and my brother, and the mist just kept coming and going and it would pick up again. I decided it would make a nice shot so I used the cool effect to capture it, which is this one. For those who know Headlee Pass, it is steep and in ways considered dangerous, but our Mountain Madness compelled us to keep going. Just before getting to the pass, it was so steep, if you through a bolder, it would tumble down about a 1000 feet back on the trail below, and my friend Sean kept throwing them and we had to get him to stop, and once almost hit me in the head with a bolder about the size of my head and lucky for me I have good reflexes and dodged it, and made him have to appologize. After the switchbacking up the steep Mountain, and got to the pass, it was starting to rain. Unfortunatly Sean did not bring a jacket, so I gave him mine, and I had an emergancy pancho which only partly coved me and by this point I was very wet. Once we got up near the top, it was time to turn around because I was so cold, I could not move my hand and my friend could hardly move, we had to keeep him in motion, because he was starting to get in some of the first stages of hyperthemia. On the way down, which was tiring, he would almost fall asleep from being so tired and cold and it would have been bad to carry him down the pass, luckily he never did fall asleep and we mangaged to get him to keep going and we got down safly and had Pizza near home. So remember to always bring a Jacket when going to the Mountains and make sure your friends do too!