nolanr

The good: trailheads will be approachable by car a lot earlier than normal. The bad: kickstepping over usually snow covered brush and talus in the spring isn't going to be so good.

Nice to sorta meet ya Matt. Hey don't feel bad, I unintentionally went swimming that day in the creek draining down from below Del Campo. After uttering a few choice words I got a pretty good chuckle out of it. Who new going swimming in a mountain stream in January w/ an air temp of around 40 could be so pleasant? Didn't even get the least bit cold on the rest of the trip out.

Were you guys up there trying it again this Sunday? Driving a white Subaru Outback? If so that was me chatting w/ you in the parking lot after.

If I remember right from the 'ol college days 60-80 is considered normal for resting heart rate. I don't know if there's any correlation between heart rate and a person's body heat regulation. As someone else pointed out just because you have a lower heart rate doesn't mean you're circulating less blood, because you get a higher volume of blood pumped w/ each beat. Dehydration would definitely effect heart rate. The blood is mostly water. If your body is low on water, your total blood volume will probably be decreased, also it is thicker (more viscous). Therefore your heart has to work a whole heck of a lot harder to provide oxygen to all your body tissues, meaning a higher resting heart rate.

Nothing bu t iodine in the Cascades. Once in a while I'll drink right from a creek. Or I'll put snow in a paritally full nalgene and make slushies. I go minimalist w/ the iodine, give it 20 to 30 minutes. I only use 1 tablet instead of the recommended 2. Never had any problems. When I was a young squirt me and my brother used to drink out of the creeks all around Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, never got sick but I wouldn't do that anymore. Iodine taste doesn't bother me at all, I'm used to it. It did dye the tube on my platypus yellowish, no worries though.

Viva la Cascades!

A friend of mine did the NE slab, I believe it was the Sunday before yesterday. Said it was real thin, hairy in places, not a lot of good places to put pro. That's been his white whale, he's been trying that sucker off and on for the last 3 or 4 years several times each year. I think he can retire from climbing now, what's left to do after that?

Sounds good. That's part of what drew my attention to the area, I figured it didn't get a whole lot of visits. I've never heard anybody mention the area before as far as I can remember. I'll set my sights for late May/early June, I'll let you all know what I end up doing and how it goes. Cheers.

Thanks everybody. I think I might go up via Owyhigh Lake, spend a night there and try some stuff on Governors Ridge one day, the Chimneys the other day. I know they don't open the road up to Sunrise until fairly late, you can drive in partway earlier in the season though, right?

Another good option in the Olympics, 1/2 day outing is Mt. Angeles. I just did that last weekend. You can park directly below it and pretty much just kick steps straight up on the south side, seems like higher avy danger that way. I start at Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center, traverse along Sunrise (?) Ridge to the base of Angeles, wrap around to north side and then just a little kick stepping gets you to the top.

Definitely true. When I was hardcore into weightlifting taking more than 1 or 2 days off was unthinkable to me, but that's because I was too dumb at the time to realize I was overtraining. Taking 1 or 2 weeks off to the let the body fully recover, or switching to a different kind of activity that is lower intensity for a short amount of time is a good idea.

Yeah, you must be an alien. I nibble every few hours and usually have a couple of small lunches during the day. I use GU but am not addicted to it, definitely keeping a handful of them in pockets is a good idea so you don't have to stop. That's lucky for you that you can keep going strong all day w/ minimal food intake.

Anybody played around in that area? I'm thinking way ahead for next spring or summer. I've done several of the summits in the Tatoosh and really enjoy that area but thought I might try something different.

I've thought about this before too. I've seen people of various different minority groups hiking frequently, climbing less often, and it's almost never blacks. A group w/ the American Alpine Institute or some such group on the south side of Baker had one black guy probably high school aged in their whole group. Saw a black guy hiking up to Pyramid Lake (N. Cascades Hwy) another time. And I vaguely remember being in a little cafe in Pt. Townsend, there was a black guy in there talking to a friend of his and I think he had just got done w/ a major jaunt on the PCT. The only other time was one summer I worked at a camp and we took the older kids (approx. 14-16) beginning rock climbing on some rotten crags east of Enumclaw. A lot of the kids were from the inner city and a lot of them were black. Some of them wouldn't even do it. Most of them tried, they did fine but got pretty freaked out when it was time to get lowered off from the top. It was interesting cuz some of these kids were pretty tough and street wise but you get them out of their element and they were very uncomfortable. Anyway, it just seems like it takes a shift in ideology. There's no reason blacks can't climb, hike, backpack, whatever. Before there was Tiger Woods you probably didn't see too many black people golfing (other than NBA players in the off season). I bet that changed some peoples way of thinking. Before Venus and Serena Williams starting ruling the womens pro tennis circuit I bet you didn't see too many blacks playing tennis. I bet there's a whole lot more young blacks playing tennis now. It just has to start somewhere.

That makes me nervous playing the same team again. Hopefully they'll be able to do the same thing to them. Yeah, the BCS sucks. But you know, D-I doesn't have a playoff because they're concerned about the, ahem, student athletes. It would be too hard on the them to play all those games and go to class and all that. No really, it has nothing to do w/ the money they could be potentially losing if they changed the system they currently have. And never mind that every other division of college football manages to have a playoff.

Rodchester, I beg to differ. Iowa and Ohio St. don't play because the Big 10 Conference isn't smart enough to have everybody play everybody else each year so they can settle it on the field (kinda like the Pac 10). Iowa didn't opt out of anything, it was league scheduling. Ohio St. has barely beaten Purdue and Illinois in the last 2 weeks, 2 very mediocre teams. I have been watching the tube lately. Right back atcha.

Oh yeah? My alma mater Central Washington is whuppin' up on everybody, too. Division II, I think. Beat up on D I-AA Montana State earlier this year. I gotta say, will somebody please beat Ohio State. They gotta be the worst undefeated team since BYU several years ago. Iowa would kick their ass, too bad they don't play this year.

Bet you didn't know all of the above mentioned peaks were on the East Coast before you saw the movie, huh?

I agree, go for it. I've been up Pugh 3 or 4 times, various times of year or conditions. Took a dog once (not to the summit), no problems w/ that. I prefer it in late spring/early summer when there's still snow on it (fairly steep in some places) and it's not a walk up. Definitely worth your while. Fantastic view of Glacier Peak as well, I might add.

I second that notion for TFJ, did that last month, good times. You know, while you're around the neighborhood, hiking up inside the remains of the crater of Broken Top should not be missed, that's one of my favorite places I've been. [ 09-24-2002, 07:26 PM: Message edited by: nolanr ]

My home town (White Salmon, WA, Klickitat County) made the news w/a huge pot bust, 6000 plants, estimated value of $7.5 million. I'm wondering which of my high school classmates were involved. Heard something about the DEA agents standing REALLY close to the smoke as they torched the plants w/ big grins on their faces. Like this.

Right on, I've been saying the same thing for years. Inspiring when you see some 60 or 70 year old gray hair still puttering around on trails, I just hope I'm still going strong at that age.

I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one that has heard of David James Duncan. Agree w/ all of the above. Brothers K and The River Why are two of the best books I've ever read. I've read several Ed Abbey books, I like his collections of essays and short stories better than his novels. For whatever reason I liked Hayduke Lives! better than The Monkey Wrench Gang. Both of the aforementioned Timothy Egan books were good. Also read The Power of One a long time ago, remember that being good. Finally for an original idea, Ivan Doig is pretty good, especially his historical fictions about Scottish immigrants in Montana (no sheep jokes ) English Creek and Dancing at the Rascal Fair. Can't think of the author, but Watership Down was a pretty unique and interesting book. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller was absolutely hilarious. And I've enjoyed all of the books about Polar exploration I've read, not quite the same as climbing literature but you get the same spirit of adventure and some real bad ass dudes that faced some daunting challenges.

Dr. Ben Krazy is Agent Orange! Damn, that guy just keeps popping up everywhere.

Do it in the winter and it might be more sporting. I did Pugh on the 4th of July and it definitely wasn't a walk up under the conditions at the time.