Eugenian

Any reports from this past weekend regarding the road/trail approach?

ahh yes...to the south... I'm thinking then Deathball rock (hard to forget that name) or King's Castle/Rock. It might even be Harvey Mtn. but I doubt it. I even checked the district map this time and re-thought through the whole SOUTH concept.

wolf rock? It's been a few years since I worked for the FS in McKenzie...but that's my guess...however, I'd have to check my district map...the geographic memory has become blurred by too much moving around.

You're SURE you don't want to think a little more about summer school?

Pure psychic stupidity (and lack of reading skills) ...would still like a report though...

If I remember correctly (and the permanent tissue damage on the sides of my feet serve as a constant reminder the knee bang down from Hayden pass to the Elwha trail is about 8 miles o' fun. Last summer some of this section was washed out and/or lost in a bog or two. Not to say you can't make it though. Sounds like a great time to me. I went from Dose over Hayden, up over low divide and out Quinault in 3 1/2 days and saw a total of 4 people from Dose to Low Divide and never camped near anyone. This was in August. You should have a true lonely time in October. To answer your question (and WITHOUT being a smart ass as above) there is a lot to see. Take the side trip to thousand acre meadow from just before Hayden (see the Wood guide). Scramble a couple peaks in the area. Of course...if you really want to see stuff, you might want to try to add a couple days to your itinerary. Report back!

I'm guessing Alpine Ascents is the "evil" AAI...but why? (of course I could be wrong...that little white house that American Alpine operates out of does exude a strange "funk")

Anyone been up the Obsidian trail in the past few days? Any word on daytime mosquito activity?

So did you do the whol Timberline Trail in one day? I'd be curious to hear how that went, times...etc.

RE: McCleary Just check yourself for ticks afterwards...either they are everywhere up there, or I'm some kind of TICK magnet. All in all though, it's a fun place to play.

Great TR and great pics! Thanks for being the first fresh post in a while. Looks like you had a great day.

Looks like a fun time! Diamond is a great area. BUT - how were the bugs? I had a nasty experience around this time two years ago. So what's the bug beta?

And what happened to the question mark. Why was it taken away. It was so useful for asking questions.

this is awesome...I just got that the "face" in the third watch picture is Dan -'s from this page on his site: http://www.mountainspeedclimbing.org/biographies_of_speed_climbers.htm Fantastic bit of subtle photo work...and a fine joke. You can never have too many at Dan's expense... nicely done!

NASCAR and motocross are about the only worse things I can think of to call a "sport" then speed "climbing". BUT, I did learn an interesting and absolutely rediculous fact from that Dan - driven website: "US mountain speed climbing raised to true sport status with my (Dan -) official speed records on the four tallest glaciated volcanoes in the continental US: Mt Shasta, Mt Rainier, Mt Hood, & Mt Adams. These glacier volcanoes provide the most vertical relief (elevation gain) and the greatest difficulty and challenge for a speed climber... they are the most challenging mountains for speed climbing in the continental US." What a freakin' joke...somebody pat that guy on the back because he is just getting loopy from having to do it so much to himself.

...and nevermind, I'm heading up today to find out for myself.

wow...nobody has anything to say about bugs in the Olympics?

I'm heading into the Olympics for a week or so on Monday and I was just wondering if anyone had a recent bug report to share. Down here in Oregon it has been a nightmare of a July in the Cascades and having grown up in WA near the Olympics I can't remember it ever having been THIS bad, but I thougt I'd check. I'll probably be heading up the Dosewallips and down over low divide and out the north fork Quinault. Any info is much appreciated! Thanks!

Thanks for the info! Does anyone else have a time estimate from the car to lake Helen? Any recent info on the snow line?

A couple Shasta newbies heading south and trying to plan our drive times, etc. Does anyone have a reasonable estimate of the hiking time from the TH to Lake Helen? Also, where does the solid snow start...trying to decide on leathers vs. plastics. Thank you!

Thanks for the info! Looking now like we're going to go for Shasta and then Thielsen the next day, so that was nice to read.

Such positivity... Well, assuming that i do in fact enjoy the alpine experience of scaling large "gravel piles", if anyone has some recent beta on Diamond, Theilsen, or Bailey it would be much appreciated.

I wasn't planning to ski...just the climb. I finally got one of my Washington friends to submit to some Oregon climbs, and I'm trying to pack in as many one day ascents (that I haven't already done) as I can into a 3-4 day window. Thanks for the feedback, any more would be appreciated.

Just wondering if anyone has wandered up any of these recently. I know there is a report from a couple weeks agao for Diamond Peak...but any more recent info would be greatly appreciated, especially approach info for Theilsen. Thanks!

I'm hoping to hit one of the supposedly decent weather days this weekend and head up the S. side of the S. Sister. Anyone know how the parking situation is? The Deschutes web site makes it sound pretty negligible, some real first hand advice would be great! Any room plowed? Thanks!