A soggy good time on Mount Rose

Rough skinned newt

What a wet day on Mount Rose, but I had to do it.  I had already scheduled my dial-a-ride to the trail head and it was too late to cancel.  I was also depressed, but I knew that hiking might help cheer me up. I was depressed due to our financial situation and due to it being exactly one day to the year since my oldest daughter flew the coop.  I have not seen her once since then.

  I left my DSLRs at home and packed along my waterproof point and shoot camera for this soggy trip.

My bus picked me up at 6:15, there was already one passenger on the bus and she got dropped off at the Port of Shelton.  The bus left me at the trail head at 7:04 am and my return ride was due to pick me up between 3 and 3:30, so I had ample time to hike all of the Mount Rose trail.

For this hike I wore my boots so I could keep my feet dry.  I also left Patches at home.  I knew she would be wet and cold and miserable out there.  I sure missed her, she is so cheerful when she runs up the trail ahead of me.  She loves hiking and when I go without her she howls and cries and makes the most pitiful noises, or so I am told.  But she did just go hiking two days before so she probably  needed to rest her arthritic knees.

It took me over an hour to reach one hour rock, I was depressed and moving slow and I am not a morning person.  I must have perked up after I passed one hour rock, because I was at horse camp before I knew it.  Shortly after I passed horse camp I saw the first snow on the trail, then as I got near the summit it started snowing.  The snow was wet and fat and mixed with rain, so I knew it would not stick.

I had my tea on the summit and I managed to stay warm because the snow and rain stopped for a bit and I had my hot tea to warm me up.  If Patches had been with me she would have been miserable and I would not have been able to take my break on the summit.

I headed down the loop in the long direction as and I headed down the rainfall gradually increased. First it was just misting, then it was drizzling and by the time I got down to the benches it was raining.  When I reached the road it was pouring, but I did not really care because I was in a good mood by then.

I got to the road nearly an hour before my pick up time so I wandered down to the lake shore and had my tea.  Then about ten minutes before my pick up time I decided to start hiking up the road in the direction that my bus would be coming from.  I did this so I could keep warm, I knew that if the bus was at all late I was going to get quite cold.

I made it all the way out to the pavement before my bus arrived at 3:30.  The driver was very glad that I had walked out to meet her, it saved her some time and she was unsure about where the Mount Rose trail head was.

By walking out to meet my bus I added and extra 1.3 miles to my hike.  Also by being out there for 8.5 hours I got quite a work out.  I'm still tired today and I know that I'm in pretty good hiking condition but I think that being out there for so many hours kind of took it out of me.  Also I had just done Mount Walker two days before.

Thanks to Mason Transit I can keep hiking even if there is no money for gas in the monthly budget.

7 miles with 3,500 feet elevation gain

Mount Rose loop plus some road walking

This feather was standing up like it had been dropped there just for me

Slime mold on the move

illegal campfire at 3,500 feet on the steep half of the loop

 Ptilidium Liverwort

Hot tea on the summit, note my patented tea bag
toe warmer on my left foot

fairy slipper orchid

crucified on Mount Rose

Lake Cushman bus stop

My bus just reaching the dirt

My view at lunch time

Just one of those days on Mount Walker

I was not super excited about  going hiking today, but I get so bored sitting at home and my wrist hurts when I spend too much time on the computer, so I forced myself out the door.  The driver on the Brinnon run whose driving makes me sick is off duty for the next four weeks, so I knew it was safe to take the bus up there and to bring Patches with me.  Patches only throws up when that one driver is on duty. 

I was wearing the wrong color of pants for a long bus trip on this particular day and that had me worried all day long. Maybe this trip was just one big mistake?  I did not have any other pants that both fit and were the right color and were not made of cotton.  Also I did not have my rain pants with me, because I had just plain forgotten to pack them and I only had a flimsy rain jacket.. maybe I would die of hypothermia up there!  Or not.. as it’s only five hours between buses.

When I got on the bus in Shelton I saw that it was a driver I had never seen before.  This driver did not like Patches and she caused quite a ruckus that only ended when she called her dispatcher and the dispatcher said that Patches was kewl to ride the bus.  I had to argue with her for about five minutes, and even though I won in the end and got to ride the bus with Patches my mood for the day was ruined,  not that I was in the best mood to start.  I was following the law to the letter (not the spirit) for service dogs, so I stood my ground and won, but still it was a horrible thing to have happen.

The bus driver was very friendly after that nasty business was over with.

Bus driver who started a big argument about Patches,calling
in to dispatch to see if Patches is allowed on the bus after I
argued with her about it for about five minutes

 

In Brinnon I transferred to Jefferson Transit.  On Jefferson transit all dogs are good dogs, so there is no stress about Patches.   But the driver was the same grumpy one who I had last week.  I got on and said hello and told him I was getting off at Mount Walker.  As a courtesy,  I always warn the drivers about my stop because it is in a 55 MPH zone without a lot of room to slow down.  The driver just glared at me.. Sheesh.. so when I got off the bus I just ignored him instead of saying thank you like I always do.  It felt so weird for me to do that on a small town bus.

Anyway I was finally off the buses and free to hike and improve my mood in nature.  But what trail did I want to go up?  The crowded Mount Walker trail or another more peaceful trail that is nearby?  I opted for Walker in spite of my anti-social mood because I knew that the gate to drive up Walker would be open soon and then going up walker would no longer interest me. So one last hike up Walker I decided.

When I got to the gate I saw it was open, so I knew there would be cars driving up, but maybe not too many on a weekday?  No there were lots of  cars and lots of people and none of that cheered me up at all.

Then at the top there was no view, so I went to the other lookout for some peace and quiet but ended up dodging cars.  Once I was at the other viewpoint I noticed that my backpack was falling apart due to fabric fraying and I cannot repair it this time..  What else can go wrong today I wondered? 

I soon found out.  My pocket knife, my favorite pocket knife was missing a screw and I could not close it and then two really loud young women showed up while I was still trying to get it closed.  Yep, not a good day.

Lunch was six ounces of brie from the Grocery outlet, about 20 generic wheat thins, some dried garbonzo bean flour "trial mix"  and a cup of vina cafe.

I headed back down half an hour early with the plan to stop and have another cup of vinacafe at the closed campground.  As soon as I got stopped the rain started coming down hard.  It was not supposed to rain more than .06 of an inch according to my weather forecast that had never failed me before this week.

 While making my tea I suddenly had to go dig a cat hole.. but wait there are closed outhouses in the campground, maybe they just say they are closed?  Maybe I could use one of them?  Nope, no luck they were boarded shut and I had to go now!  No time to dig a cat hole.. oh yeah, it was just one of those days.

With that horrible business settled I had my tea in the rain and worked my way back down to the bus stop.  I felt bad because Patches was so wet and would be sure to stink up the bus with wet dog smell, but at least it was Jefferson Transit where all dogs are good dogs.

But what about my transfer back to Mason Transit?  Would I get another new driver and another big argument. Would I be stranded in Brinnon? These thoughts filled my mind as I waited for the bus in the rain.  I hid my face whenever a car went by, since to me each passing motorist was a potential kidnapper or rapist and having Patches there to protect me  did not help my mental state much because I was so stressed out at this point.

Luckily the Mason Transit driver was one who knows me, a super nice guy named Bruce and the ride back home was just fine.  But still, I was depressed by the time I got home.  I had started my hike a bit depressed but I knew a hike would cheer me up.. but not this time, too many bad things happened and I ended my hike just as depressed as I started.. sigh..

I don’t have many pictures because the light was just awful for photography… (of course)

6.5 miles with 2,170 feet elevation gain

View from the top

Jefferson Transit dog rules

Mason Transit dog rules
As if I could lift up a 45 pound dog in a crate!!

Oh the inhumanity of it all

Fabric fraying failure

Fabric ripping failure
(I probaby sewed in that spot too many times)

trail runner who frightened me

I wonder if this connects up with the other rainbow trail?

Dog tired

Cost to do Oregon PCT?

I'm trying to guess what it might cost for the two of us (me and my ten year old daughter) to hike the Oregon section of the PCT this year.  This is what I have guesstimated so far:

PCT cost estimates
Donations to angels	?
Green super feet for daughter	25
Postage for food (5 packages)	30
2 pair lightweight pants one each	60
Rain pants for daughter she outgrew hers	40
2 pair of thin shorts,  one for me one for her	40
Dirty girl gaiters	40
6 pair toe socks	60
A room on the train trip down	75
Camping and showers	100
A motel room or maybe two	150
A few restaurant meals for 2	150
Running shoes for both of us	200
Transportation to and from trail	200
Snacks at resupply points	200
Delorme in reach SE	300
Total	1670

I have not included grocery store food since we would be eating that even if we were not hiking.

I'm looking for ways to make this trip cheaper.  I might be able to sew gaiters for us, Maybe we can find a cheaper way to travel?  I might be able to get my daughters shoes in a thrift shop.  Maybe we won't need $200 worth of snacks.  This is all just guessing on my part.  Delorme offered me a $50 "pro" discount on the inreach, but even then it would still be the single most expensive item on the list.  But we don't have a cell phone and I feel we need someway to make contact in case of an emergency.


This is more than I was hoping to spend, but we will be able to use a few of the items on this list even after we have finished our Oregon hike. I'd love to get some help paying for all of this or some photography jobs to help me pay for it.

My spouse is terminally ill and he just lost his job.  I am disabled by PTSD and I get a meager check from Social Security.  My spouse will try to get on social security, but it could take quite a while. 

Hard times have hit.  The three of us have to try to live on one crappy little disability check.  My check is so low that it qualifies just one person to live below the poverty level. 

Hiking is one of the cheaper hobbies out there and its good for my mental health, so I'm going to try to do this.  My doctor is encouraging me to do this.

We are living in subsidized housing and I have money in savings.  If not for that we might very well be out on the street.  I don't have a family that will help me.  I do have a family, but it's not one that will help me.  Hence my PTSD.

We already have backpacks, a gps, stuff sacks, a first aid kit, sleeping bags, sleeping pads and a ten year old tarp tent.  I already have superfeet.  I have three months to try to get the rest of the stuff together.

My dehydrator is working full time to prepare food for our trip.  I think we will be eating a lot of beans and rice and chicken.  There is a store in town that has power bars 4 for dollar but they are all expired so I don't know if it would be a good idea to ship those.  I don't know how much food we can get from hiker boxes so I don't plan on depending on them at all.

Big Creek 16 tons of cat food

Mount Warshington

Big Creek is close to home and on a paved road, so I’ve been going there a lot.  This time I used dial-a-ride to get there.  My morning pick up was at 6:15, when the bus arrived there was already one passenger on it, the bus went uptown and picked up another passenger and then dropped them both off at the Port of Shelton before taking me to Big Creek.  I was unsure where the bus could drop me off with active logging at Big Creek, but the logging has stopped so I had the bus drop me off in front of the campground as usual.  I got off the bus at about 7:20.

I could see no sign that the trail was closed inside the campground, but I went up the temporary trail anyway because I wanted to get high fast.  Hot weather was predicted at sea level so I wanted to gain some elevation before the temperatures soared.  It turns out that half of the trail is still closed and the open half is getting crowded.

I only stopped briefly at the lookout before I continued my climb up.  I took my lunch at the big rock with 4 benches around it on the Lower Ellinor trail at about 3,200 feet.  I spent an hour relaxing at lunch time and I felt good because I took that time.

Lunch spot

Lobaria linita on rock at my lunch spot

At about noon I started back down the trail to meet my bus at 3pm.  I got down to the bottom early so I stopped under the Big Creek Bridge and soaked my feet while Patches had a nice swim.  My pick up time was between 3 and 3:30 and the bus always picks me up closer to 3:30, but this time the bus surprised me by arriving right at three.  I did not even have my trekking poles folded up yet and Patches was still pretty wet. 

Lisa was my driver but she was training another driver also named Lisa.  Lisa used to be the driver on the run that leaves Brinnon at 3:15.  Lisa looked very official in her role as a trainer today.

The bus stopped at the hospital to pick up a cantankerous old glutton.  I knew this woman and I don’t like her, she is very demanding and takes advantage of the fact that she has a mobility issue.  One day at the food bank she insisted that I push her around in her wheel chair and then she crowded me out.   I think Patches picked up on my discomfort her.

The woman alos had a "service" dog and a walker.  But before the drivers could load the woman and her dog and her walker onto the bus they first had to load all kinds of cat food and a watermelon and a shopping cart onto the bus. What a sight that was.  The woman was just being released from the hospital... Who the hell gets released from the hospital with tons of cat food and a load of groceries?  

 She had a full case of canned cat food and a 30 pound bag of dry cat food.  The bus drivers really struggled to load all of her crap onto the bus, I felt sorry for them. Crap kept falling everywhere.  I had to laugh as a watermelon began to roll down the sidewalk.

 

Poor Lisa and Lisa

WTF?

loading

 

 Patches was rather confused by the whole carry one and the woman was mean about it, but soon she switched her attention to cussing and bitching about the hospital and the bus drivers and on and on.    So my PTSD was totally triggered.

Wow.. I was so relaxed and happy after my hike but the experience with that horrible woman on the bus set me on edge.  If they try to load her onto the bus with me again I’ll just get off and walk home.  I never want to see that horrible woman again.

My husband just lost his job so we are now officially below the poverty level for a family of 2, and we are a family of three.  My husband is too sick to work anymore.  It’s been a very stressful week and my PTSD is in over drive.  I am manic and not the happy kind of manic, nope, the irritable as hell kind of manic..  My doctor says I should hike, she knows that hiking is good for me.  But how shall I get to the trailhead with no money?

I may need to do a kick starter or take money out of my dwindling savings account if I want to through hike Oregon on the PCT this year.

8.5 miles with 2,400 feet elevation gain

 

First mycoheterotroph of the year

Mystery fungi

alternate trail

Waiting for the bus

One of many new stumps in the campground

Patches begging for my lunch

Where I had lunch



Plastismatia Hairy Eye lichen

Dictyopterous simplicipes

OMG chop down the whole forest!
It's butt rot!

Lichen makes basalt look like granite