Josh Lewis

Part of it had to do with my age, and the other part was it was night time. It was no supprise, I thought of this happening, and knew it was possible, but once I got past Index I thought I was free of worry of them. The effort was hard because the bike was cheap quality, there were some times I had to push it. It was indeed more exciting that a your casual mountaineers field trip. Glad you liked my story. Would you believe it, the people of nwhikers said the opposite response, they thought I was full of excuses on this trip! Here is a link to when things got over the top in my other thread: http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7982626&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=105 As response, Thanks, I don't give up so easy, I was forced to give up when I got home, my brother gaurded my bike when I got home (the brother who did not know about the trip, the other brother who knew was not home at the time). The bike would squeek an aweful deal, I have to make my movie with it. I very much appreciate this comment, perhaps one of my favorite replies to my trip reports of all time. There are people who are trying to stop me from trips and such, but that does not stop me. After all I am a die hard. But at the same time I been working to be responsible this year on my trips, I want to go big, but not to far in over my head. LOL! This ranger was nicer than a lot of other ones I met, but he still interfered with my trip, and the end to my trip was quite annoying. Some guy heard the phone calls between the ranger and who ever he was talking to and so happened to know my name. He mis understood some of what went on, then told a friend of mine, that friend told Eastking's wife, then Eastking's wife told Eastking, and by the time it was morning when I woke up I got a phone call from Eastking with him asking "What! Josh why would you try to solo Mount Baring at night!" I laughed when I heard this because it turned into a mini rumor, but I straightened the story with my friends of what acually happened whcih was said in the report. I'm guessing someone mixed the city of Baring for the mountain. As response to the question "what were you doing wrong?", I was biking on the side walk. You know rangers can me Thanks, that is one reason I can go on trips nearly every weekend, sometimes I got to go big to go at all. My age had a factor. I had a reflector vest on, although found it best to strap to my pack so it could cover as much of my backpack as possible using my ice axe to hold it on. My shirt even had reflectors on it as well as reflectors on the pedals. Anytime I would see a car, I would go completely off of the road, which in ways it was safer at night because I knew where they were. The only factor I was not completely safe from drunk drivers, if someone swirved and too up the entire shoulder while I was on it, I could be in trouble. Really! That would be awesome! I was wearing a head lamp, but was not wearing a back light. I'll send you a pm soon, I gotta to go. Thanks for the offer!

I like goggles better because they seal onto your face while the other ones (glacier glasses) I have had issues in the past, fortunately I have a better pair (of glacier glasses) now but have not gotten a chance to test them out.

Got another trip report posted.

Trip: Mountaineers Field Trip Attempt - Date: 4/16/2010 Trip Report: This took place between April 16-17 This trip turned out to be a strange event for me. This trip has a little history to how events unrolled. It all started when I signed up for a glacier skills class which was going to take place at Stevens Pass. I needed a hide there, so I got the group leader to take me there. On Friday (April 16) she was hit with a family crisis, and could not come on the trip. "Oh boy" were my thoughts because I did not want to further get a bad reputation with the mountaineers by not showing up, when I climbed Eldorado Peak I had already skipped a knot class. She told me to call the club house which by this time it was nearing closing time, and the club house gave me kinda cheap instructions on how to set up the car pool idea. I called one of the members who were to be a driver but they did not even know they were signed up, but after a while I finally got associated with a driver. Unfortunately I could not figure out where the parking ride on 65th st in Seattle was after spending a while doing research on the place. Eventually I gave up on the idea, and a more adventurous idea came to mind. "What if I could bike there" were my thoughts. So I decided well I might as well go for it, if it is my only option, I guess I'll take it. Unlike my last bike ride, this time I wore a construction vest that had reflectors, and wore a head lamp. So I gather my gear at 7:30 and head out the door by 8 p.m. Even leaving out the door I almost fell off my bike because the vest got caught on something. I now was dashing for the bus hoping to make it on time. (I was early but sometimes busses can be 5 minutes early) I took the bus to Everett, then to Gold Bar which took 2 hours. I arrived at Gold Bar's last stop at about 10:10 p.m. Even though I had tons of time, I was still worried if I would make it in time, I had to be at Stevens Pass by 8 in the morning. I would get no sleep getting there, but thats how it was last time, and it worked out. As I started biking one or two cars honked at me, and it did occur to me that it was possible for police to pull me over. I remained very cautious on that highway, any time there would be a car coming I would either be completely on the other side of the road on the side walk, or if there was double cars on either side I would completely pull off the road, sometimes I would go off the road even if it was only one car just to play it safe. As I was biking I did hear barking dogs, the worry already loomed over me, so I did not hesitate to pull out my headlamp because I would atleast want to be able to see if they were coming for me. Once I got out of the dog naborhoods, I felt much safer. On this trip I was not riding a small bmx bike thank goodness, but the bike I was using was from the 1980's and for some reason caught a lot of friction which made biking more difficult, as well as the gear shifting problems. As a result of the friction the bike was more noisy and would attract more dogs. Biking to the city of Index was quite enjoyable, in a way it felt old fashion biking here, there was a train that went by, and the town felt remote, and I realized why some older folks might say "I miss the good ol days" because for some reason the place had a nice calmness to it. The bike ride did get tiresome at places with all the terrain and such, and I had a few more moments where I was worried about dogs chasing me. Soon I was passing the city of Baring which excited me because I knew if I biked on I would make it in time. The whole reason I started late at night was because bus services do not start up early in the morning so this seemed like the only way to make it on time. As I was biking I see flashing lights. "Flaming L" were my thoughts (not sure what that means, but its fun to say). A ranger pulled me over, and asked if I had any i.d. I replied "no" because I do not even own a i.d. So the trip deteriorated at this point. I had to tell him my name, home, phone number, and all that stuff, he tried to call my mom which he got no answer. In day time its hard to get a hold of her even then! I must have been waiting 45-55 minutes or so because he told me the time before he started asking questions, and then he told me again later. It was 1:45 a.m. by this point, and he told me he cannot let me proceed. So we took apart the bike and then started to head back home. I did not agrue with him, and in ways agreed with him. When I got home my brother Kyle was a bit ticked that I had done this bike ride, as well as some other people. I did not make it to the mountaineers trip, and ended up loosing this one. Atleast I had a fun trip, got a good work out, and most importantly learned my lesson. One of my lessons being the mountaineers were not meant to be for me, also I should always explain myself to multiple people rather than just telling one person where I was going. And highway 2 is no place for bikers at night. Afterwards: I found it quite interesting that Geohiker intercepted one of the messages of the police so late at night, and told Miss Iris, which she told BearQueen, which then was told to Eastking. The story became similar to telephone, oh wait, a telephone was used in this. Any ways, Eastking calls me up and says "You attempted to climb Mount Baring solo in the middle of the night and got arrested!?". Lol, I laughed at that one and told him to gets his facts straight, and told him the story.

Thanks! It was indeed! As for the cat, her name is Kitty. I Appreciate it! I posted this trip report on nwhikers and pretty much got the opposite response. It was a tough but outragously fun adventure! I can't wait to return, next chance I get to go there, I want to climb it, and if anyone wants to join me, let me know. The cat photo was taken in my drive way as the car was pulling out, the cats name is Kitty which is a she, I had to zoom in to take the photo, although I will admit she could loose a little weight, but atleast she's a happy kitty. Indeed! This year things have been going better with my trips and how often I am able to get out. Perhaps I could start putting more of the reports here?

I vote Glacier Goggles! Now thats the stuff.

At first my feet felt hardly different, but a few minutes later once I had my boots on, and went out side into the heavy mist and snow, I stomped my feet until I could feel them again which was a relief. After that they helped for a long time. I might be able to get a job, but in my house I am caught in a wierd situation when it comes to that, I can work under the table just fine. I currently own two nice pairs of boots, one was donated to me from someone on nwhikers, and the other pair I got for a awesome price here on cc which my gear scholarship paided for the pair which was $100. Buying a car would be hard, but not impossible for me. As for what you said "On another note, you are a fascinating human being." I appreciate that, I've had people say nice things to me, but rarly ever do they tell me that one. As for what you said about facing many demons, that is very very true! I'm impressed you knew that and some of the people who know did not! So I'll explain some things that go pretty deep. Some of it has to do with troubles at home, troubles in life, and the beckoning question of wether I believed in God. So much hinged on this. Last year when I did this trip I was faced with so many challanges, it was the hardest year of my life, enduring each day to day was a battle, and I felt like the odds were against me. In school I was not doing so well, I tried so hard to enjoy my school, but there were some classes I absolutley hated, it seemed as though it was easier for everyone else, and they were so much better off than I, it made me feel like I was not a smart person, it drove me nuts. At times I was also very lonely, and started coming up with ideas like "I do not belong" and I fought the idea time and time again. I also felt betrayed by some of my friends, earlier in the year I got kicked out of the glacier course of the osat because my brother was my driver and some how the situation got set up so I got kicked out. Then I had my Camp Muir White Out trip which turned many people against me, I did not go for another mountain trip until this one. It was week after week of being home, my home is not that fun of a place to be. Sometimes it can be crazyness (fortunatley in recent times my home has not been) and I think it's amazing I did not go on this trip earlier or did not take this trip as far as I had intended. Even after this trip I almost ran away, so close, but I did not believe it would be the right thing for me to do. I would go to bed at night having a hard time going to sleep always pondering my toughts, the temptation of adventure at this time ready had it's grip on me, and yes I do plan on writting a book on this and the dark side of the story that goes along with it. There were events that brought me to do this adventure, I resisted doing this adventure for a very long time until I finally snapped, when school had just eneded, my Mount Adams plans fell apart, my friend could not take me for a trip, and I figured it would be a long time before I could ever go for a trip (it had already been a long time) I just decided "I'll go for it!" There is so much more to the story, but I think you have an idea. In recent times things have been going well, been able to go out with good partners, regained trust and respect of many people since. I been trying to be more responsible on my trips since the past. Now one thing you gotta remember in my trip reports, when I say acrazy event, I don't leave out the details of the drama (basically don't assume there was something else crazy in the story that was not mentioned). I hope to see you sometime as well, if you ever want to join me on a trip, or if I could join you on a trip, let me know.

I laught at that tactic to this day, but it was needed to make a phone call.

Trip: This is My America! - Date: 9/26/2009 Distance: 40 Miles (24 on bike, and 16 or so on foot, a few of the walking miles were road walking) Time: 3 Days Who Came: Michael and I Elevation Gain: 8,000ish Feet This was one of my longest adventures yet! I've wanted to for a long time to bike to Sahale which is a Native American word meaning high place, which the summit is around 8,800 feet high. This is my most favorite of all mountains in the world, and especially considering that to me mountains are the most beautiful place in the world, this is what I consider paradise. This trip took place September 26, 2009 through the 28th which is three days total. The adventure consisted of about 40 miles of traveling, which we would bike from the road closure which was way down the valley, and bike up to the trailhead, and then to the pass, up Sahale Arm, and to the summit from there and back home. Two days before I had just climbed Mount Pugh which is a little over a mile in elevation gain so even before the trip I was a little tired. On September 25 my mom was going to buy us a glacier rope which would have worked out except, the Alderwood Mall REI she bought it from did not sell glacier ropes and I was not with her so she got tricked into buying a climbing rope which was instead of being 70-80$ for a glacier rope, the climbing rope was 190$! Not only that but it weighed around 4 times more than what the glacier rope would have weighed which the climbing rope was 10 pounds. This made a change in the adventure before starting. It was more than what should have been bought so we needed the money back which we had to wait the next morning for the store to open before we could return the rope. We got to the store and the lady said we need the debit card we bought it on, so we had to drive all the way back to my mom, and then back to the store and get the money back which went onto the card. After this my brother went to try to get the cash from the card and there was a transfer delay which would be atleast 48+ hours! When Michael came to me he told me "were not going, were going home!". I was worried at this point and wanted to know what was going on. Once I found out the details I came up with a plan which succeeded. I had 40$ or so in bills and change which 18$ or so was in quarters, dimes, and nickles. We then had to drive back to give my mom her card and then I called my friend Mark and spoke with him about borrowing his glacier rope which he was fine with and spoke it over with his dad which too was fine with us borrowing it as long as we took good care of it. We left for home and made 3 bean burritos for each of us, a some what filled jar of peanut butter, a small bottle of jelly, a half loaf of bread, and a little bit of other stuff which would serve as our food for the trip. My bike tire was messed up so my friends dad let me borrow his which was a bit old, but would work for the trip. If everything went according to plan, we would be back Sunday, but the rope deal complicated the trip and later ended up extending it. We drove to Mark's house and got the rope and he inspecked our gear and such which from here we set off for Cascade Valley. By the time we got to Cascade Valley the sun was already setting behind the ridge which I was hoping before that we would be there 24 hours ago which meant we would have to ride bikes fast. The start of the trip was tiring, the up hill got a bit steep, although perhaps if I had been using a better bike and if we did not have heavy packs it would not of been as bad, although we still had lots of distance anyways. The rangers said that the road would be closed at mile marker 12 but acually it was closed at mile marker 11 which added 2 extra miles which were a little extra than what we had in mind. Around mile marker 12 was where the construction was taking place, the bridge was fine, but they were doing extra repairs so that mabe it would last the winter, commonly bridges washout in winter time here. After this we had a ways of down hill which was nice. As we went down another hill I looked up and Johanesburg Mountain looming above with clouds over it which looked very big. Then we would bike up as much of a hill as we could, then walk our bikes. And it would sorta be a repeated cycle. We did not see another person until nearly making it back to the car which for days we would see no one. I was a little worried about the thought as we kept going further and further into the mountains, but at the same time it was a comforting feeling to not have to deal with loud noises, and to have quietness. There did pose danger though, if one of us got hurt or injured while hiking or biking it could be bad, we were many miles away from the car, and far from any other person and a long time before anyone would start searching for us which even then they too would have to go a long ways through the valley to find us. So we had to keep an extra caution, and not do anything reckless nor ride our bikes to fast. As we biked through the woods the sun started to set and it started to get darker and darker which we could see mountains through the trees glowing bright red which at a few spots got a clearing of. One of the mountains I remember was sticking out bright, My Beautiful Sahale! It was quite an amazing feeling being out in these woods in the Cascade Valley. Eventually as we went on we got to mile marker 21 which we knew that the remaining road from here was steep so we stashed our hikes off to the side behind a log near an old abandoned cabin. From here we walked up the road which we knew our only head lamp was low on power so we decided to save it for Cascade Pass. Using slight moon light, star light, and feeling when going up the road we got to a creek which we purified our water with my mom's water purifier. After this we hiked the last mile to the Cascade Pass trailhead. Before we got there I was looking up and watching as clouds would rise over Cascade Peak and the Triplets with a little moon light making the clouds light up which gave a really nice atmosphere to the place. The stars also made for a great show, I felt like a pioneer the way that it looked, just me, my brother, and the mountains. Later we finally get to the trailhead and turn on our only head lamp. I was in the back so that Michael could use the light to shine the way which I would watch ahead so I could know whats ahead, where I was standing there was hardly any light which sometimes I stumbled but not often. Even though normally this would be an easy hike to the pass but the bike ride, climbing Mount Pugh, and the heavy pack took its toll on us which even though my legs felt strong I felt quite tired and it later felt somewhat relentless switch backing through the woods which finally we got to Cascade Pass. From here we set up Camp and I went to sleep fast, which was very solid that night and woke up a little after sunrise. We had breakfast which was waffles and syrup and we headed up Sahale Arm. Even though it was nice and sunny, it was colder than I expected, not in temperature, but the winds kept blowing which made me have to wear a jacket going up. On the way up we found a small pond which was a good spot to purify water although a bit green and cold, but it was good enough. After this we further headed up the Arm until we got to Sahale Glacier. This is where things slowed down. Michael had a hard time putting on his crampons which he would try to mount them with shoe string which did not work so he used the straps which took a while to put together which I spent time trying to figure out why to use the figure eight on a bite which I realized because you have to shorten the rope by coiling it and having it around your neck, then you have to tie a figure eight on a bite so that non of the tension is on the coiled rope. After spending a while getting ready to cross the Sahale Glacier we started to head up. At first we were making good time up, but it soon got steep and my brothers crampon fell off! This worried both of us a bit, although I guess he was more worried about it than me, I offered for him to use my crampons and I go crampon less but he refused and kept having to readjust the crampon. Later when it was not as sloped it wasn't as much of a problem. We had to cross back and forth between the glacier because there were some crevasses that blocked a long portion of the standard route which there were no boot prints because with the whole road closure almost no one went up here. It was a very cool feeling, leading my brother up the mountain almost feeling like a guide. After going back and forth around crevasses and crossing snow bridges we were nearing the summit. At one point the crevasses crossed each other which worried me, but to our luck we found a snow bridge that worked well. And who says Sahale is not much of a glacier, in late season it very much is one with wide open crevasses. We unroped and headed up the South West Ridge, it started out as a scramble through rocks. The rocks were loose as we went up, a deal of choss. As we were scrambling on the ridge I got to a point were I did not feel comfortable and decided I would have to turn around and find another way. When I got down Michael said he was done, so the last part I had to solo. Even starting out was worry some for me, I had to be careful and hold on tight to the rock which was solid. As I pushed myself further and further up the face I was some how almost in some kind of trance, perhaps summit fever and kept going further up the rock. It got to the point were it felt like class 4, crazy emotions started striking me. One of the quotes someone once told me was "Go ahead, get yourself killed" - (Someone from Nwhikers) for some reason it kept filling my mind, the moment got more and more intense with each step until I got on the summit ridge about 100 feet from the summit. It was one of the scariest spots I have ever touched, I only took one photo from this spot and carefully put my camera away. Normally I would not have even taken the one photograph but I some how felt compelled to do so, the moment was so beautiful and view was unique. I looked up at the summit which looked atleast class 5, way to dangerous to approach, not only did the ridge look loose, but a huge cliff and glacier were below me, and I decided to call it quits here. Boston Peak looked even more intimidating, I did not stay on this spot long because of the dangers, after the trip I found out I was on the wrong ridge. Down climbing it was frightening, careful which each step worrying about a fall. Finally when I got to the class 3 part I felt a lot better. As I was heading down a safer route I looked back at the summit block at what could of been the right way to the summit which I believe goes a little around the east part. I decided against it because not only did it look a little iffy, I was solo, the sun was going to set soon, and my brothers crampons were falling off which would not be good if the glacier froze over. Even though we spent such a hard time trying to summit, I decided it was not worth the risks and that Sahale will be there some day, and besides a return trip when snow covered would be better! I return to Michael, we rope back up and try to get down as fast as possible to avoid the glacier freezing over. Heading down was not too bad, the place was starting to get sunset colors, and soon we were off the glacier, and the only time the rope was stepped on was the last step which was a tiny little mark. We repacked our gear and made a hurry down, it began to get cold quick, especially with the winds. On the way down we came back to our pond which I believe was partly frozen by this point, to filter more water. Filtering the water was extremely cold, my hands started to go numb in the proccess. We soon had to break out our head lamps, but fortunately the moon was out to help provide some light on the decent. Later we finally got back to Cascade Pass to sleep in our tent. After eating and such we went to bed, but as we were about to go to sleep the wind picked up and we started seeing lighting up parts of the tent which frightened me at first because I had no idea what was going on. To our amazement the wind was creating static electricity which glows in the dark, but I was soo tired that I soon fell asleep. When I woke up the sun was up which meant it was time to go and pack up our gear. We originally did not expect to stay a second night but considered it possible, so our food supply was short. I drank out of the jelly jar and had strait up peanut butter. Heading down was not as terrible as I had expected it to be, for the most part it was easy, although I had become quite thirsty by now due to the lack of water we had left. fortunately a ways down the road we hit the creek again and filtered some more water. By this point we were running down the road, although eventually I had to stop because it became a bit much running down the steep road with heavy packs and being tired on a hot day. Atleast the conditions were nice. We soon got to our bikes near the cabin and started heading down. After a few miles we got to the down hill section which worried me due to the slope and turns, Michael was way ahead of me, and I did not slow down much because I did not want to fall behind. Later when we got to the bottom of the hill we took a break, Michael noticed the strange noise coming from the bike (this was the same bike I used on my Steven's Pass Attempt Trip which tends to get a lot of friction). Michael "fixed it" or atleast for a little while, until the clicking came back, we swapped bikes which was so much easier on me when going up hill. "And I thought going up hill on my bike was bad enough" Michael told me when we got to the top of the hill. We swapped back, for good reasoning to. I took one last look at Johanesburg before riding down the other side of the hill. I would have taken more photos but I already deleted enough photos as it was because I was using a memory card which had 128 megabytes of space which I was disappointed about. After biking, and sometimes hiking up hill we later got to the construction zone which I was glad to see them at work on the road. After this we biked down hill and then were at the car. From here we drove home. I had to miss Monday of school which we had not expected to miss but ended up having to. This was an exciting adventure which I been so long wanting to return here, I hope to go up to the summit some day. After all, This is my America!

:tup: For publicly mentioning it. I don't blame you one bit if what you said it true about the signs not being visible or noticible.

I would be up for a scramble or something, if your interested call me 503-895-3912.

Hmmmmm... it happeneds that the car is in my yard right now, and Michael mentioned something about possibly being able to borrow it, I'll try to pull some strings tommorow.

Your not the only one stuck without a partner. This weekend (or atleast this Saturday) blows because of all the avalanche danger, my partners bailed on me (for good reasoning) and even my bail out peaks became too dangerous.

Me and a friend of mine were considering the ice cliff glacier route, but not sure how conditions will be like next week.

Wow! This situation sounds rediculous.

They do for the most part, but yesterday they gave a report: …Major Spring avalanche cycle probable... along with generally increasing avalanche danger through Sunday… Increasingly warm and mostly sunny weather Thursday and Friday should be followed by continued high freezing levels reaching near or above 10,000 feet over the weekend along with a chance of afternoon showers, mainly Sunday. This anticipated warm weather…with the highest sustained freezing levels this spring since appreciable snowfall was received in April…should produce a significant increase in the avalanche danger carrying through the weekend. Increasingly deep wet snow conditions should develop at progressively higher elevations and onto more shaded terrain as this warm weather continues. Recent warming conditions over the past few days has already begun producing widespread natural wet snow avalanches, both loose and slab releases on most south facing terrain below about 5000 feet and at lower elevations on all aspects. Reports from control work efforts at Chinook Pass Wednesday indicated significant wet snow conditions and large entraining wet snow avalanches had reached to the ridgeline above 6000 feet, whereas earlier unstable conditions were generally from 5000 feet and lower. Both natural and easily ski triggered slides were entraining laterally and many reached the valley bottoms with large debris volumes. Some large natural wet loose slides have also been reported on south facing terrain on Skyline Ridge and Lichtenberg Mt near or just east of Stevens Pass, with such slides entraining much of the gradually weakening and melting snowpack and some involving mud and rocks. Another indicator of increasingly wet and rotten snow conditions stems from a road building operation on a north exposure around the 4000 ft level near Alpental that had to be terminated prematurely on Tuesday when the snowcat was unable to gain traction in the very wet, slushy snowpack. As a result of this increasing potential for a significant spring avalanche cycle and potentially dangerous avalanche conditions on slopes not experiencing recent avalanche activity, back country travelers are urged to perform careful snowpack evaluation, cautious routefinding and conservative decision making during the increasingly warm and mostly sunny days ahead. Be especially aware if you start to posthole and sink into wet snow above the boot top, or if you encounter recent avalanche activity on similar slopes, increasing sunball activity, or smaller wet loose slides kicked off from traverses. Also be sure to avoid slopes beneath cornices as these may fail during the warm days ahead and trigger some larger slides on the slopes below. Be sure that the primary goal for your trip is a safe and fun outing rather than having to reach the summit during dangerous conditions.

This is more intense than when black diamond was robbed thinking they had diamonds.

I may be interested! If I'm not climbing Rainier or Eldorado, then I'll let you know if I could join.

Darn I wish I had seen this offer ealier! Oh well, next time your heading down there, let me know. As for my rock experience, I would say I climb 5.6-5.7.

Trip: Mount Baker Journey - Date: 4/23/2010 Trip Report: This was among one of my more interesting adventures, for a while I been wanting to reclimb Mount Baker in April but was unsure of when the right time would be. This trip took place April 24-25, 2010 (Saturday-Sunday) The trip idea sparked when I was sent a private message on nwhikers: "So im still interested in climbing Baker Colman Deming with you... its more for training than any thing else but we will give the summit are best shot..." -Quest for Adrenaline I have never hiked with him, but from the stories I've heard about him, if they were true, he was a very experienced mountaineer. We had some phone conversations and we talked about what to bring and if the weather was terrible we could always bail. By the conversations he seemed like a nice guy to climb with (later I found when meeting him in person to be a nice guy and cool partner). Getting to Mount Baker was an issue, he had no car as well as me. He told me about a cheaper bus ride to get to Bellingham from Everett which was slightly pricy but cheaper than the rest. It was $12.75 each way. On the night of Friday April 23 I had to do a bunch of research on how I was going to get to Mount Baker and those kind of things. Then I also had to pack my pack, which took a while. When I finally got all my gear together, my brother throws up and I end up having to clean it. :rant: Then my brother forces me to trim my finger nails which I was kicked out of the bathroom as I was doing it and the only other light I thought of was outside which was dim. I ended up cutting too much and my fingers were hurting and bleeding a little, "uggggggg" I thought to myself because I hate having short nails because it hurts, although mabe I trim them too short. Anyways when I go to bed it was about 12:00 a.m. Bam! I wake up at 3:30 a.m. to get up and go for the trip. I had only 3 and a half hours of sleep. I now had to bike to Marysville to catch the bus by 7 a.m. The ride was around 15-16 miles, and yes I rode the old bike that once again catches friction making the riding harder, unlike last time, this time I had way more gear in my pack, but fortunately there were plenty of side walks the entire way. It was interesting going through Everett at night because there were so many lights on the trees in the main street. (I guess that shows how often I visit downtown Everett at night ) When I saw that it was 4:30 I tried to bike fast because I wanted to make it to the bus at the casino in time. It was a beautiful little place as I was crossing the bridge over Snohomish River, with the dark blue of the sky. Getting into Marysville there was a smell of donuts in the air which made me droll in my mouth. And then for some reason a block later it smelled like bacon. :huh: I get to the Casino and realize I do not know where the bus arrival zone was. I stash the bike in the bushes to prevent it from being stolen, and the bus I was going to ride charges $10 each way for a bike on. Finally I find the exact location of the bus pick up which in front of the hotel section. The lady at the counter was nice to me, and gave me free water and newspaper as I waited. I was a half hour early which was a relief. After waiting a long time I started to wonder if I was at the right stop and such. 10 minutes after the expected arrival time for the bus I really started to wonder what was going on. I asked the lady and she had me call up the bus service. I had called the bus service the night before to make sure you do not need a reservation which they told me wasn't required, but what they did not tell me was that if no one reserves, then the bus does not show up! "Blame it!" I thought because now I had to wait 2 more hours until the next bus. "This is bad", now meeting Kurt at the trailhead seemed like less of a possibility, but I just had to remain in high hopes. As I waited the lady told me I could take a nap... unfortunately that was not so, when I took a short nap leaning on my pack, the manager (or seemed like someone who worked there) told me to wake up because it looked bad. I understand that it looked bad, but it was annoying because I was running on a few hours of sleep and had a Mount Baker climb on my hands. I decided it would be a good idea to call home to make sure Kurt did not cancel or something. When I tried to call, the operator would not let me call because my phone number is an Oregon number because our phone service magicjack does not support Washington phone numbers. So even calling my nabor from home is long distance! After waiting three hours at the hotel the bus finally comes and I am now heading to Bellingham which I get some nice sleep. When I get to Bellingham it was around 10:30 a.m. and the bus driver made a special stop just for me so I could get as close to Mount Baker as possible.(although he would have drove through the spot anyways, but the stop was not usual) When I got off the bus I had to start running with my heavy pack which was much harder than I had expected and hurt my shins. As I headed East on Baker View, I knew that I was making very slow progess walking, so now it was time to start hitch hiking. This was the first time I have ever hitch hiked, and I don't encourage it, but to my amazement it worked. I took a while for me to build up the courage to acually do it, I kept some what putting out my thumb, but was to shy to do it, it felt so strange and out of place. At one point when I was finally going to do it, a cop drove by, so I stopped for a few mintutes. Then I got my first ride which was only a few miles, but hey, every mile helps! Getting the second ride took a long time, I was now in East Bellingham. You learn a lot about being patient when hitch hiking, in the movies they make it look so easy, but in a pinch I had already known it would not be quick. A half hour later I got another ride a dozen or so miles further east which the people who gave me a ride were nice. And yes Curt I offered them gas money, but they did not except it. The guy who drove me told me about the lady at the gas station who might be able to help me make a sign to Glacier. As he said, she was nice and provided me some cardboard and ideas of how I should make a sign. On the side of the road the sign did not work out as well as I had hoped, if anything it acually made it harder to get anywhere. Eventually after a long time I got rid of it because it was not helping. fortunately a nice lady pulled over and gave me a ride to Kendall, even though she had kids in the back with a dog, and it was a small car. :up: I would have been against the idea of hitch hiking, but I heard biking was dangerous on this road (which the further East I went, the more I realized why... thin side walks, ect.) and there was no bus that I knew of that goes to the city of Glacier. In Kendall it was raining a little, my cotton clothes were starting to get wet (Kurt recommended I wear casual clothing to increase the odds of me getting picked up which is probably true). fortunately I did not spend to long in Kendall and someone drove me all the way to the city of Glacier which was out of there way, and dropped me off at the very beginning of Glacier creek road. I was now 8 miles from the trailhead of Mount Baker. As I walked I was impressed at how many homes there were along the side of the road, after walking about 3/4 a mile or so, someone drives by, and I was able to get a ride to the trailhead! They told me they saw me on the way and asked "were you the guy way back there holding that Glacier sign?" which I was impressed that I beat them on time, but they stopped at some place on the way. About 1/2 a mile from the trailhead I see a tent, I yell out the window "Kurt, is that you?" and sure enough he did not leave me. Before this the fear came into me "what if I did not meet him at the trailhead, then what?" but fortunately that was not so. It was now 2 p.m. or so. I will admit, Kurt had a little bit of a rigged tent, but right back at me, my sleeping bag was only rated 15+ and my ground pad did not cover my full body length. We stopped before the trailhead because there was a spot next to the road without snow and that was not too sloped. I put my pack away and changed into some acual mountain cloths. Even though it was a little crowded in the tent, and I had to be careful not to knock over the logs (which was holding up the tent as well as some stake sticks made of wood found in the woods). I was amazed when looking through the fog and rain at how much fresh snow there was, Kurt told me chances were good we would not summit, but if conditions improved we would make an attempt. In the tent we told each other stories of some of our climbing experiences, and atleast for me even though it was rainy and wet, I was enjoying the stories and good company. Kurt would tell stories of when he climbed the north face of Baker and his partner being low on ice screws which sounded quite scary, also he told about when he climbed Mount Shuksan and a thunder storm came in which they had to leave all there metal gear and descend the glacier without ice axes and such, and later the ranger threatened to fine them for "littering" which I laughed at this part because this quote comes to mind "Hmmmm should I bring my gear down and risk my life, or should I be safe and leave it, and get it later". :lol: Another thing I liked about Kurt was he understood some of my stories, motives, and struggles better than a lot of people do, even people I know don't understand why I sometimes do what I do. After telling tons of fun stories and such it was finally time for us to get some rest for the Mount Baker climb. unfortunately because we were slightly sloped I kept sliding which made sleeping a little hard at first, plus there was some kind of rock or stump below me. When I wake up in very early morning, the weather still looked very bad, infact the surroundings were covered in fresh snow, and conditions looked perhaps worse. After getting some side sleep we eventually decide to wake up. When we had some breakfast the weather was still bad, and climbing Mount Baker seemed like it would be reckless to attempt. I would like to note that I wanted to atleast check out some of the trail, but Kurt was using good judgement of not even trying out the trail because for most of that day the mountain was covered in clouds and bad weather. We packed up the tent and got ready for the way down. We now had to walk around 8 miles to the main road below. Atleast the scenery was decent, and there were some sun spots down in the valley, Kurt told me more about his younger years and such. When we got to the bottom we headed our separate ways and waved good bye. I decide to wait in front of the Glacier Creek Road to increase our chances of getting a ride which is why we did it separate. As I waited for about a half an hour, a ranger patrols by. "Oh no" were my thoughts because I sure as well did not want a repeat of last week, so I started to walk a mile down the road. I finally found a good turn out zone to start trying to hitch hike (you need a place for cars to pull over or else it would be unlikely you would get picked up). A nice lady takes me a mile into the city of Glacier. From here I waited a few minutes or so (perhaps 20) and some nice elderly folks picked me up and drove me all the way to Deming. In Deming it was the same story, I was stuck for a very long time wondering if I was going to get a ride, about an hour of waiting (or atleast it felt that long) and a very nice guy took me the rest of the way. We had a little bit of conversations, and he took me to the air port which was out of his way, but he was nice and knew getting around town would be harder. At the airport I first had to figure out where the bus stop was, then I had to make sure I had a reserve so that away they would acually pick me up this time. I have no cell phone, so I ended up having to try to use a pay phone, walking into the airport felt strange with a security guard looking at me while I had an ice axe in my pack with a helmet sticking out, and terrorist risk was at medium. The change machine would not except my dollar because it was wet from being in my pack in the rain on the mountain. The security guard recommended me asking the shop people for some change, and they rudely told me to use the change machine. So now it was time for some new embarrassing tactics... blowing my money a lot. I kelt blowing my money over and over and over which people kept looking at me strange, but hey, if this was the only way, I had to do it. The security guard asked me "so what happened with the store" and I told him what happened. After being much out of breath my dollar was finally dry, or atleast dry enough for the machine to except it. Now I was finally able to get my 4 quarters to make my phone call and head home. The bus ride home was nice because I was able to get more sleep. Once I got to Marysville I grabbed the bike and started to head towards home. I so happened to see a bus stop that was bus 200, and it so happened to be speeding to the stop, so I made a wild dash to catch it in time. I made it! This shaved off 12 or so miles of biking. I decided not to take two busses to save myself another dollar and biked the last 3-4 miles which I found to be quite tiring with all the hills and such. Once I got home, the adventure was over, but I had a fun time. Even though I did not summit, I had an incredible journey, and an experience I will not soon forget. Kurt it was very nice meeting you, and I very much enjoyed your company, and hope to see you on more trips. The next time perhaps the approach won't be so long. Can't wait until my next grand adventure!

And no one took this deal? I certainly would love to buy the upper Black Diamond Contact Strap crampons. Are they still for sale? Email sent.

So good you had to post it twice? I posted this trip report back in my crazier days.

We did not go, partly because of this problem, also we heard things were supposed to get crowded, and transportaion would have been around 45$ per person via bus and train.

Well not too much biking. Just to Marysville to get to the bus.