Early this morning, Jazz and I took off east on Hwy 2 toward Steven's Pass in the Central Cascades, in search of the trail head that would lead us past Bridal Veil Falls and up the base of Mount Index to the banks of secluded, picturesque Lake Serene. This wasn't our first mountain hike - our inaugural run was actually last weekend as we spent the day trekking up to the summit of Mount Si in nearby North Bend, WA. And for those of you who aren't in the know, the "Mount" in Mount Si stands for MOUNTAIN - as in, four miles more-or-less straight up and back. Holy Switchback, Batman!
Border Collies absolutely love the outdoors and all it took was one word - "go" to get Jazz up and stretching by the front door. So, despite the very crisp (27 degree) early December day, some serenity apparently sounded very good to her as well. We were first to arrive at the trail head and just after 9AM started off across the frozen parking area toward the mountain. The trail skirted a fast-moving stream as we made our way along the slow (but steady) incline toward Mount Index, through groves of moss-covered old-growth trees and younger evergreens. We crossed the stream several times before the trail began snaking it's way south, covering the ups and downs of the rolling hills that lay in the shadow of the peak.
At a mile and a half in, we were working hard and I had stripped layers down to my fleece - I noticed the perspiration that had sweated through was now lightly frosted, a testament to the fact that though I was quite warm, it was still very cold. Of course Jazz covers twice the amount of ground I do on a hike like this, running well ahead and then back again as if to say "hurry up!" Not sure how she does it, but she does it. I debated whether or not to take a detour and make the steep incline up to the falls. I ultimately decided to do it, since the biggest point here was to exercise - despite the memories of how I felt coming off of Mount Si last weekend. It was well worth the 1/2 mile ascent as I got a sweet view from the base of the falls out east over the Cascades and ended up sitting there for twenty minutes before trucking back down and continuing on toward Lake Serene.
Shortly after that, we dropped down into a small valley, across a well-made timber bridge and up the other side as we started to encounter scattered patches of snow and ice. Unlike Mount Si, where the last 3/4 mile was all snow and ice, this was intermittent which was good. I slid back down Mount Si last weekend and didn't want a repeat performance here, which was in part why I chose this lower altitiude hike in the first place. The trail got very steep all of a sudden and continued straight up for the remainder of the trip (gaining 1500 feet in 1.5 miles, or so the guidebook tells me). It was steeper and more rocky of a climb than Mount Si was, or at least so it seemed with countless switchbacks and imbedded stairs along the way.
After some time, it started to level off, at least some, as the trail that originally made its way eastward turned west and steadily climbed up the side of the mountain. Despite the effort it took to get there, the views were tremendous and I snapped a few pictures with my iPhone to send off to Red. By now, we entered a pretty established snow-field and it got pretty treacherous in places. We continued on another half-mile or so before coming to what seemed to be a frozen waterfall. There was a raised footpath that crossed it, but the path itself was under packed snow, which brought me to a painful dilemma. I could tell I was getting close to the lake, but after last week just didn't want to deal with the slow-going, slippery route I was facing the rest of the way. A half mile of this was enough already. Anti-climactic, I know. For those of you keeping score, that makes it Mountain 1, Dave & Jazz 1.
We carefully crossed back over the snow-field, but it was dicey in places where we had to cross sheets of bare ice and even Jazz slipped (the first time I'd seen her do so). At this point, the trail was startlingly close to the precipice and the thought of plunging down hundreds of feet crossed my mind more than once. We made it back across safely though and were able to quickly start our scramble back down the mountain. We stopped at a fallen tree, which caught my attention on the way up as a good picnic spot. So, Jazz and I sat there and rested, splitting a turkey sandwich and some chunk ham I got from the market earlier along with a bottle of water before carrying on. We ran into a couple about halfway down that was on their way up. In tennis shoes and leather jackets, they were even more ill-prepared for the journey than we were and decided to turn back also. They mentioned there was supposed to be an old mine around there somewhere, but we ended up making our way back to the parking area together.
I'd like to get back there - maybe next spring - and find that mine as well as make it to Serene. On the way up the mountain, I thought about how I'd like to be making the climb with Red and maybe, depending on how things work out, we'll get the chance to do just that.
Now to quote one of my favorite comedians, Ron White, "I told you that story, so I could tell you this story". To be continued... in my next post.
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