Mowich and Tolmie Peak Lookout Hike

Last summer we wanted to go up to the Mowich area to see the lake.  I had not been up here but heard about it often. Ben has been here several times and wanted to come up here with me to see the scenery.  We drove up in his dad's truck and sadly the gate was closed.  I figured that it was summer time and the gate and road were open by now.  So we hiked the 4 miles up to Mowich Lake instead of driving up there to do the Tolmie hike.  We wouldn't have had enough time or energy to do both so we decided to wait until next summer to do it. 

We waited.  I suggested that this next weekend would be great to do it because the weather would be great, clear so we could see Mount Rainier and we would stay dry.  Ben agreed.  We had planned to do some hiking and camping so we went grocery shopping, bought a small battery powered lantern and a single burner stove to make food with.

Like I mentioned, throughout the week we went shopping.  I got easy food to make for our meals.  The least amount of stuff we had to pack the better.  I made sure my clothes were clean and all of our toiletries were in its container.  I charged all the batteries and phone power sticks because where we were going there was no power or cell phone coverage.  I added a query to the GPS for caches along the way.

The night before I packed everything I could that I was not going to use that night or morning.  I had Ben pack up all of his stuff before going to his shift so he could just leave there in the morning.  He ended up having to go back to his station to pick up stuff he forgot.  I had to stay until at least 9 to make breakfast for dad, take his blood pressure and O2 levels before I could leave.  Mom had half day so she could take over at lunch time.

Ben arrived and we started packing up the rest of the stuff and I made some breakfast sandwiches to get us by until lunch time.  We left shortly after for Bonney Lake.  We had to stop by his mom's house to pick up his Nalgene bottle, mess kit and some other odds and ends he's been keeping in his Explorer.  We bought some ice for the cooler, got to his mom's house, found the items, used the restroom, left a note and then we were on our way to Mowich.

He took me the back way to Carbonado and drove through Wilkeson, the last town before the long 17 mile dirt road that led us to the lake.  We stopped at the Mount Rainier National Park boundary.

We got out at the gate and grabbed an envelope to put our $20 fee in and filled out the necessary vehicle information and placed the tab on the dash and the envelope inside the drop box.  We continued on and as we got higher and higher Mount Rainier got bigger and bigger on the horizon.  We made the dusty turns and hit sections of potholes and washboard surfaces.  My Escape was getting very filthy.

We worried that we left too late and all the camping spots would be taken.  Ben also mentioned bears and wild cats and what we would do if we encountered one of them.  I highly doubted that we would come across one.  We just had to make sure that our food was in the car when we were done using it.

We arrived shortly after 1ish and saw the parking lot was packed!  I had Ben get out to see if there were anymore camping spots and he said there were a few...first come first served.  We got out the tent and the tarp and picked out a spot.  It was quite a walk from where we parked to where our tent spot was.  I suggested that we just put up the tent and worry about the other stuff after our hike to Tolmie Peak.  He agreed.  I started putting up the tent as he went to go get a couple other things from the Escape via wheel barrow.  Yes, they provided a wheel barrow.

I got the tent up but the raised box area was too small to put the tent stakes in so we had to move it to a bigger raised box area.  I got frustrated with the tent and it was already hot.  He helped me move it to its final location and he put the stakes in.  We threw in a couple of sleeping bags and pillows.

We took the wheel barrow back to its area and went to the Escape to get ready for our hike.  I made some sandwiches, grabbed the bag of chips, some chewies and filled up our bottles with water because we would need it.  I grabbed my walking pole, Ben got the GoPro ready and we were off.  About 5 minutes into it I realized I forgot my camera.  We walked back and decided to drive closer to the trail head.

We got onto the trail around 3ish.  The map mileage told us it was a 5.6  mile hike round-trip but it reality it was more than that with the switch-backs.  It was closer to 7 miles.  I haven't hiked this much in a while so my body was not used to all of this walking or the hills.  We encountered several structures of basalt columns along the way.  Ben wanted to climb them.  We did bring our climbing shoes.  I just knew we wouldn't be able to because we would be too tired from hiking on the way back down.

We passed several people hiking back to Mowich.  They said it was definitely worth the view.

 We got to the turn off where we would hike towards Eunice Lake instead of straight towards Ipsut Pass (we might save that for another outing in the future.)  We took the junction towards Eunice Lake, which took us downhill then to a steep one mile climb to Eunice Lake.  When we came into the valley where the lake was I was in awe.  It was so pretty and the water was so clear!

The last mile to Tolmie Peak Lookout was very steep with several switch backs.  Ben told me to treat this last portion like a video game and this was the boss stage.  Each switch back was a boss that I had to beat until I reached the top, in which we won the game.  We passed a group of loud women who said that the Blue Angels flew by Mount Rainier about a half hour ago.  Ben and I heard a loud plane but we were in the trees and didn't see it but never thought it would be the Blue Angels. We stopped at a clearing and soaked in the views from 5900 feet.  We could barely make out Seattle to the north and we saw Mount St. Helens to the south. We walked another 100 feet and there was the lookout.  The view of Mount Rainier was gorgeous!  We arrived just after 5.

We relaxed, took pictures with the camera, GoPro and my phone and ate our late lunch on the lookout while staring into our fantastic view.  Two other groups of hikers came and went as we were enjoying the area.  We decided to leave around 6 so we could get back, cleaned up and finish setting up the rest of our tent.

Along the way we passed a lot of hikers heading up for the sunset and blue moon.  We had no idea that the blue moon was happening.  We had some curious birds follow us for about a half of a mile.  Upon further research I found out these gray birds who seemed to be comfortable being around humans were Gray Jay's.  I've never seen or heard about them until I got home.

We got back to Mowich just before 8, drove my car back to the lot, we got back the exact same parking spot, took our sleeping stuff out and took it to the tent.  We ate another sandwich and got ready to rinse off in the lake.  We brought our towels and clean clothes with us.  We tried to get done before it got dark. We got our clean clothes on and  I got the lantern out and we continued getting our tent ready to sleep in.  After arranging everything, brushing our teeth and using the bathroom one more time, Ben got his computer ready for us to watch a movie.  We decided on The Proposal because we wanted something funny to watch.  We went to bed just after midnight.

Next Adventure:  Spray Falls Trail, Waterfall and the Trip Home

Into the Wild and Into the Wild Truth

I was too little to actually remember when the news story broke out late summer of 1992. I was going into the 3^rd grade upcoming school year.  Since then, up until I actually read the book, I heard about it every now and then when it was brought up or when I saw something online about it.  Being an adventurer myself, (not as hardcore) I was drawn to the curiosity on what the book was about.  I knew it was about a kid just out of college and he traveled to Alaska and died inside of a bus.  I really didn’t know anymore beyond that.  I love me a good mystery and by nature I am a very curious individual anyway.

I watched the movie before I had the chance to read the book.

Just before I met Ben to eat dinner at one of our favorite places, I decided to go a little early and browse around at the bookstore just nearby.  I had to wait until he got off work anyway.  I knew what kind of a book it was so I thought I would be able to find it on the shelf, turns out I was correct but the bookstore had a special section on travel memoirs that I didn’t know about.  The book was piled on that table with several other travel memoirs written by other authors.  I could have walked away with several but I was on a mission to learn more about Into the Wild.

Honestly I didn’t know what to expect when I read this.  I now knew the story based on the movie but I know most books differ from the movie.  I thought I would give it a try pretending I hadn’t seen the movie.  While reading it, I found out that it was written by Jon Krakauer  and he did all he could with the notes, photos and personal accounts and stories by Chris McCandless’s family and friends.  It was incredible that he could tell a story with just very little since he didn’t actually get to talk to Chris about his experience face to face.  As I read further and further into the book I understood why Chris left the way he did being the victim of domestic abuse and his values. Also, that we were all young once and want to experience life without anyone telling you what to do.  As I read on, I found out that there was more to the story than Jon wrote and knew about.  You could just tell.  There is also speculation that Jon didn’t write the story well and that he was just filling in the gaps with stuff that didn’t happen.  For me I can agree and disagree, we really won’t know what happened ever, but we can still assume what did happen out there in the Alaskan wilderness.  Or Chris was stupid and was ill prepared for his journey to Alaska…we really will never know.  We just have to take it with a grain of salt.

I read that book in two days.  I needed to know what happened.  When I was done I wasn’t satisfied.  I knew there was more to learn.  I did some research on the internet and watched a few documentaries on YouTube and read a few articles and even the one article that started it all, Jon’s story in Outside magazine published January 1993.  I even found out Chris’s sister Carine, wrote a book called Into the Wild Truth, information she kept from being shared in the first book, so she wouldn’t alienate her parents.  That one also kept my interest.  Out of everyone who knew Chris, she was the closest person he could trust…we all know she can not speak for him but she could shed light on some of the situations they endured as kids living in a house hold full of lies.  I know everyone has a different perspective on what growing up “normal” is, if you don’t know any better or have an example to compare, than it’s deemed normal.  I know this example doesn’t even compare but I grew up in a mobile home until I was 12.  I thought everyone lived in a mobile home until I was old enough to go to other kids houses and found out they didn’t live in a mobile home.  Or kids who think it’s normal to have divorced parents or kids who didn’t have grandparents.  I am lucky enough to have grandparents and know who they are and I am very thankful to have parents who are still married.  In this day and age, having parents who are still married is almost uncommon.  With all of that aside, we were introduced to the possibility of why Chris left and didn’t want to be contacted by his family, got rid of his money and some of his material things, they just didn’t matter to him.  He wanted the adventure of a lifetime and he got it.  Unfortunately, his journey to Alaska proved fatal and he has become a pop-culture icon for travelers, adventure seekers, hikers, people trying to find themselves and his story is even read and taught in educational curriculum's around the nation. I wanted to read it to have my own opinions and thoughts on the story and I don’t care what everyone else has to say about it.

"Happiness is only real when shared" and I believe that.  Most of my memorable happy moments were with my friends or family.

For me I enjoy reading biographies, books based on true stories, mysteries, true crime, ghost hunting, histories and tragedies (9/11, the Titanic, JFK..etc.).  I know that is a really weird list of topics to enjoy reading about but they keep my interest.  

I truly enjoyed both books and I look forward to the next interesting book I come across.

Next Adventure:  Mowich and Tolmie Peak Lookout Hike

Remembering ZenKitty

When I started geocaching in July of 2010, I never thought I would meet so many awesome people while doing this new found hobby of mine.  Throughout most of 2011 and 2012 I saw many logs with the handle of Zenkitty.  Immediately I thought it was a woman.  I don't know if anyone else does this but I try to picture what the people look like before I meet them when I see their geocaching name.  For example, my name cougarcach24.  I've met people who thought I was a middle aged woman or I was a college kid.  I chose that name because I did graduate from WSU and our dining center money was called "cougar cash".  So I figured cougar and we're "cach"ing so that made sense.  I added the 24 after it just because that was my favorite number.

May 12, 2012 there was a meet and greet at the park in Centraila, May Days (GC3FQ3K) led by (at the time) the WSGA SW Washington chapter representatives, Geek&Gopher.  That was the same day I met them for the first time.  At the time I had no idea how much of a relationship I would have with them.  Bob, Bev, Derek and I went down to the event to meet some of the Lewis County cachers.  We got there really early so we stood around and talked to each other.  We signed the logbook and met the hosts, Geek&Gopher or as I call them now Brenda and Ray.  When more people showed up we started mingling.  I remember walking with Bev to go talk to a really tall guy standing next to a shorter man, who ended up being his brother.  He introduced himself as Zenkitty.  You're Zenkitty!?  I thought you were a woman!  He told me he got that often.  He used his cat's name for a geocaching handle.  We also met his brother Bak09.  I've seen that name often as well.  As more people came that knew him our circle had gotten bigger in the matter of minutes.

I enjoyed meeting new people at that event and it was a scavenger hunt event so we had a fun game that requiered us to drive around Centrailia and look at the murals scattered around town.  We answered a question, wrote it down and once we got all 10 of them, we headed back to the event and turned in our papers.  I was the first one back with the correct answers so I got to pick a travel tag and I got a cache container I ended up using in Tumwater called The Prize (GC3MM8R).

Zenkitty (Jim) suffered from an illness that eventually took his life April 2015.  He told Ohjoy that he wanted to be celebrated at the train station in Lacey because he loved trains.  July 22, 2015, we had an event, Remembering Zenkitty (GC2BN5C) in his honor and a very large turn out showed up hosted by Ohjoy and co-hosted by TracyTom and Jackson Clan.  We had snacks and drinks, signed the log, traded travel bugs and if anyone wanted to share stories about him they could.  We did see a few trains go by during the two hours we were there.  I didn't know Jim that well but I did cross paths with him and remembered how many people he met and how he impacted the geocaching community.

RIP Zenkitty!  >^.^<

Next Adventure:  Into the Wild and Into the Wild Truth

Battleground Geocoin Challenge

Due to all the chaos and people on vacation we decided to do the Battleground Geocoin Challenge the day after the event.  Brenda and Ray were coming home from visiting her son in Virginia, Bob was fishing at Westport with the guys and I didn't have much going except taking care of dad and helping mom.  We were invited to go down and do the challenge with Brenda and Ray and have a BBQ at their new house afterwards.  I was excited.

I got all of my stuff together and laid it out, made a query on the new GPS, brought some snacks and made sure I had cool clothes because it was suppose to be pretty hot on Sunday.  I tried to go to bed as soon as I could because 6 a.m. was going to come very very fast.

My alarm went off and I grumbled out of bed.  I got all my stuff together and put it in the Escape, I was suppose to meet Bob and Bev at their house.  I got there just after 6:30, we piled in their car and off we went to the 13th Street Denny's in Chehalis.  They ordered off the value menu and ended up not being able to finish their food so I got a pancake, some eggs and a piece of bacon.  We got out of there with enough time to stop at the Toutle Lake bathroom stop and the cache at the Gee Creek rest area before meeting up with Brenda and Ray at their house.

I read on Facebook that there was a new cache inside the Gee Creek rest area and it was pretty awesome.  It won the cache of the month for June.  We just had to stop.  Fits Like a Glove (GC5TP1D) and it did indeed fit like a glove.  It reminded me of hazmat or developing x-rays.  The cache was inside and you had to stick your hands inside the gloves to get the cache open, sign the logbook and close the cache back up.  The hardest part was writing your name on the logbook with the gloves on.  We gave it a favorite point just because it was creative and we've never seen anything like it before.

We put their address into the Nuvi and she directed us to the house.  We got out and they greeted us and welcomed us into their new house.  It was perfect for the two of them, their dog Zuri and when Matthew is living there.  It had a back yard, air conditioning and everything fit into its place.  They were so excited to finally be out of the apartment complex.

We got into two cars, I rode with Bob and Bev and we followed Ray, Brenda and Matthew.  I guess we did them as the Nuvi took us to them.  The Nuvi did a bad job, I would have done it differently but we still had fun, laughed, took pictures and enjoyed the summery day with friends.

There were 10 caches and the theme this year was colors and flowers.  When we found the caches we were to write down the color of the flower or both.  We had no problem with any of the caches and they were all there!  That was a huge plus.

Strong Roots (GC5Z8DE) was out by the golf course where a cache used to be that Ben and I couldn't find last year, it's been archived since.  We found it quickly by the building.

I think we've been to almost all the cemeteries in Washington State and some of them twice. To Sleep...(GC5Z8ZZ) was located inside a cemetery surprisingly we've never been to before.  It was located behind the headstones within a thicket of trees.  Some experts suggest that the practice of placing flowers on gravesites has been around for thousands of years. The tradition possibly started to mark the burial sites of noteworthy individuals and it was also used in Ancient Rome to create a comforting environment in which the deceased’s spirit could wander around the grave

 
We found ourselves at a gardening store shortly after.  Planting a Seed (GC5Z8F2) was found really fast by Brenda and the weather was steadily getting hotter.  We cracked jokes about butt shots, front shots and Team Boobs.  Brenda signed our names and relayed us what the color of the flower was.

We drove into Lewisville Park, a very well kept park just north of Battleground.  We've been here twice now to get caches.  It was good timing for us too since a few of us had to go use the restroom.  It took us a few minutes to pinpoint the cache because the coords were a little off.  I found a tiny geotrail and found the bird house, Soar To Great Heights (GC5ZB9E).  We were right next to the Lewis River with several people from the area enjoying the cool water.

We had a few more to go before we were done with the 10 caches.  One took us to Daybreak Park, a place we've been to at least five different times over the years and to another cemetery that we've also been to before.  The last cache of the challenge took us way away from Battleground up the 503, which we saw a fantastic view of the south side of Mount St. Helens and down a long winding road out by some wineries.  Lucia Falls was our last stop for Brighter Days (GC5Z8FZ) a sunflower cache hidden inside of a downed stump.  I was so excited to go down to the falls to see them.  The water flow was low for this time of year but we've had extremely dry weather this summer.

We piled into our cars and out of the heat and drove back to Brenda and Ray's house for some food.  We finished our passport and gave it to them to go pick up the coins when the chamber of commerce/city hall was open.  It was the same front as the past years but the back was different.

We took off our shoes and relaxed while Ray prepared our burgers.  Bev made a potato salad, we had chips and drinks.  My burger was delicious.  While we ate, we shared stories, talked about random things and enjoyed each others company.  We met Matthew's mother.  He and his mom stayed at the house and watched Zuri while Brenda and Ray were on vacation, saved more money by having them stay than to hire a house or dog sitter.

We left around 3ish with the intention on caching on the way home.  However, it was hard because Bob and Bev have like all the caches along I-5.  I found a cluster of a few we could go get off the back roads of Battleground.  Before we left town, we finally found one called Stonewall Stax (GCMRK0) that we DNF'd in 2013.  Yes finally!

From there, we drove out to the small cluster of caches which included Windmill Cache (GC43Y1J), Tribute to Mtribe (GC3VBD0) and Home on the Grange (GC5G0VD) which the cache was nothing to write home about but the location was cool.  Lots of large yellow smiley faces.

Kansas City (GC21W6Z) was a power box intersection cache, I really don't like these ones, it hadn't been found for a while but Bev had the cache in hand after Bob and I overlooked it.  Glad we found that one.

I don't know how we stumble upon the caches that we do but this next one, Yellow Submarine (GC4Y2W) was one of the cooler ones that day.  It was off of a side road and the property was riddled in fun artifacts, one being the submarine on the road and right behind it was a small scale replica of the Golden Gate Bridge that went over a pond.  It was an awesome set up they had.

We picked up one more at another cemetery on the way back towards home.  Spirit Quest: St. Mary of Guadalupe Cemetery (GC5MYTY) was easy to find.  Bev spotted it and I went in and grabbed it.  I found it really odd that it was next to a wheat field.  Reminded me of Pullman in the fall.

We weren't satisfied with only finding 20 caches so when we drove towards home Bob and Bev wanted to get the new ones that published at Rainbow Falls State Park.  Before we headed off that way we stopped in Adna to get a newish one at Rose Park called Adna Rose (GC5WF9H).  We've been there before many years ago.  This one was near a trail work out shoved back inside of a tree cavity.  It was a really nice walk through the trees.

We walked back to the car and drove out to Rainbow Falls.  We parked along side the road and made our way around the loop gathering the four caches in the Rainbow Falls Trail Series (GC5TG96, GC5TG92, GC4B1ZM, GC5TG9D) and we had to walk up two very long steep hills.  I walked with Bev because Bob leaves her behind.  It was a nice sweaty walk through the woods.  Afterwards I used the bathroom and took a few pictures of the falls before we left to go back towards I-5.

When we got back towards Adna we stopped at the convinience store and got gas.  We weren't that hungry but wanted some ice cream we stopped in Chehalis at the Wendy's to get cheap Frostys.  They were tasty.  The freeway was backed up so we went the back way on Hwy 507.  Our luck here ran out and we had to wait for a really slow train for about 15 minutes or so.  We got back to their house where I put my stuff inside the Escape and went home.  I got home about 8:20 that evening, got a shower and logged my caches.  Overall we found 25, enjoyed the sun and the company we had today.

Next Adventure: Remembering Zenkitty

SeaTac Airport, REI and Lake Fenwick

Mom and Erika got up and headed out towards the hospital around 8 that morning.  Ben and I slept in a bit more and got up to meet them at 9, we were to take her to the airport before her flight at noon.  Mom called and told us that her car wouldn't start, they had stopped at the Safeway off of Martin Way for coffee and probably some doughnuts.  They called us back and told us that the car started and not to be in a hurry.  We got ready and got in the car and headed towards the hospital.  We really had no plans for the day except to take Erika back to the airport.

We got there around 9 and went up to the 11th floor.  Erika was visiting with dad one last time before she goes.  She did a few laps with him before she had to say goodbye.  We all left and went downstairs to the Escape and got on the freeway.  I knew we would make good time because the traffic wasn't that bad.  We talked about some stuff and listened to some Fall Out Boy.

We got to the airport quicker than I thought we would.  At least I got here there with a lot of time to spare than when Doug and Jen were late picking her up.  We pulled up to the curb...there were a lot of people and cars around, parked and got out.  We told her bye and Ben took our picture.  She actually gave me a hug before we parted ways.

We got back into the Escape and got a hold of Doug to come meet us in Tukwila at the REI to get his work boots he left in my car a few days ago.  He and Jen met us and we didn't have to wait that long, I was truly surprised.  We wandered around the store for a while visiting.  Ben and I wanted to replace the GPS I broke the previous week.  I did some research and found out we could get a Garmin Oregon 600 for $400 with a discount for being an REI member.  At some point we will get $40 bucks back for it, therefore making it a better deal than Cabela's. We didn't end up getting the GPS at that store.  Doug bought some boot laces and a Nalgene bottle before we left.  I gave Doug his boots and we really didn't have any plans after that except to find some food.  They went back up to Mill Creek and Ben and I found an IHOP to have some pancakes.

The place was packed but we only had to wait maybe 10 minutes.  I ordered some orange juice, Ben had coffee and he got waffles and I got blueberry pancakes.  It was delicious and hit the spot.  Since we were up here we decided what the next course of action was going to be.  I needed gas so we went in search of some cheap gas and then from there he wanted to go to the Seattle REI.  If I would have known that I would have had Doug and Jen meet us there.  Oh well.

Ben took me a really weird way to the REI and we could have ran over a bunch of people and lost my side view mirrors.  We finally got to the parking garage and found a place.  We walked in and looked at the climbing stuff first, clothes, tents, shoes, used the restroom, and finally looked at the GPS's.  We both knew we needed one so we gave up and bought one.  I took him outside to go get the cache on the property, Rock Edge Interstice (GC2432N), one I got on 8/13/11, which seemed like eons ago!

We went back to the Escape and decided we weren't done being up here yet so we wanted to do some disc golfing.  We found one in Kent called Lake Fenwick Disc Golf Course and I saw some good reviews about it.  Ben had been here before so he was somewhat familiar with the area.  We plugged the address into the Nuvi and off we went.

I have never been to this area before and it was pretty nice considering it was "in the city" between I-5 and 167.  We got out, brushed off the discs, it's been a while since we've played, and off to hole 1 we went.  This course was very hilly and lots of obstacles to throw your disc into.  I was under par a few times and had a couple of great throws.  There were many times we were off and had to go searching for our discs.  We even found a disc for a kid who was looking for his for the past hour, took me 5 seconds to find it.  We got lost looking for a hole we could not figure out and we messed up hole 17 and 18.  Whoops!  We had fun though.  Ben ended up getting really dirty by retrieving his disc and basically sliding on all fours down a hill backwards.  I wish I had videoed that.

We called Ben's mom to ask what she was up to.  We decided to go visit since we were in the area.  We ended up meeting her at the store and being weird to her and Amy.  We remembered we didn't have anymore body wash in the downstairs bathroom so we got some more and of course we got some ice cream.  We ate dinner and took a shower so we weren't sweaty and dirty anymore.  We settled down and watched American Sniper and then had to drive back to my place because Ben had to work the next day.  We got home late.

Next Adventure:  Battleground Geocoin Challenge