tributaries: September 2008

After two weeks of rain in August―two weeks! August is always solid sun―it had to be good weather in mid-September. The power of imperative does not disappoint—we had beautiful, clear, warm, and sunny weather. It coincided very nicely with a trip to the mountains my brothers and I had planned.

The drive up went fairly smooth. Only one small detour took us by the Boeing plant up North unexpectedly... the one with the 100 ft. photo banners hanging off the buildings. Quite surreal, I'd never seen that before. Which I can also say about the underwear clad barista we drove by minutes before (no relation to detour) emptying coffee grounds into a dumpster in high-thigh cut black, lacy underwear topped by a black fleece jacket... all fleece or flesh... new trends in northern Aurora Ave fashion? Sometimes you just need to get out of Seattle to see what's really going on. Although I hear that this sort of fashion is exactly what the minister of Uganda is railing against.
addendum: or perchance performance? doubtful, but I had to laugh when recently I stumbled upon this

On the way to the Easy Pass trailhead we stopped at the Marblemount Ranger Station to get a permit. The one that expressly states no camping on heather (as has Beckeys for a couple of decades now). But then again, America is an exceptional country. The rest of the Hwy 20 drive was as beautiful a drive as always. Every car club ever thinks so too. We saw about 100 Rolls Royces on the drive back. Get yr drive on while there's still fossil fuel to burn... Actually, this was probably the furthest I'd driven all year.

The first day we hiked up and over Easy Pass down into the Fisher Creek valley, up the valley and up another pass (the steep one below) into moon-shine and upper Silent Lake.

The sheer beauty and magnetic powers of the cascades can energize me to hike until I drop, especially when the moon is full and the sky is clear, but the rationale here was to get up and over the snowfield while it was still soft from the warmth of the day before it turns into cement overnight...
We had axes, but no crampons.

The moon between Fisher and Black peak.

I got up at dawn and hiked up the Arriva ridge.

Arriva ridge 180 westward view, from left: looking across to the glaciers on the North face of Black Mountain. The valley below is Grizzly Creek, the next mountain over is Meulefire, behind which is the impressive NE face of Mt.Goode. To the left in the distance, Glacier Peak. Mt. Logan is the one cut off between frames, the black V... in the distance between Goode and Logan are Buckner and Forbidden (capped by one of the first clouds that were soon to be plentiful that afternoon). The west peak of Mt.Arriva is on the right and the beautiful glacial green lake below terminates the upper South fork of Fisher Creek; Mt. Baker is the white mountain in the distance.
Click on photo above to get full view.

In the afternoon this bear came loping over the pass on muscular haunches rippling bleached hair in the sunlight, moving quickly down to the lake and then swimming across without hesitation. Not the first time surely - was for me though, wow! a swimming bear...
On the other side of the lake, after shaking like a dog, he threw him?self against a small tree and rolled off the other side. I went to that tree the next day and could barely bend it... that bear easily weighs twice as much as me and probably a whole lot more.