Ruckel Creek--AKA beauty and the beast

Ruckel creek hike yesterday (in the gorge, another nice decently-steep training trail). We had a beautiful day for the most part, warm enough for tank top--woo-hoo!

Flowers were blooming along the side, and no rain to speak of. 

Great views of the river up and back.

And the best group of fellow hikers anyone could ask for.

The crew--smiling @ the top of the trail

Eric in the Rock Pit

All of the above were the Beautiful parts of the day.

Enter: The Beast!

Challenging trail, made tougher on my part by the decision to break in new mountaineering boots. Good news: I made it up and back, and we were on a 5 hour training hike instead of a 2-day climb. Bad news: it hurt, and I think my feet broke more than the boots. (Scroll all the way down for photo of blister fun IF YOU DARE).

All in all though, a good day,  and I loved the trail.

The Tally: 
Mt Rainier                          17 mi      9,000 ft elevation gain
Training Hikes So Far       79 mi     27,100 ft elevation gain


FUNDRAISING: Up to 65% of my goal! Keep track of my progress or donate HERE. Only 9 more days until the final deadline!
























































The beastly blisters. Could be worse, can't see bone yet!

In a word: Ouch :(

Nesmith Point

Glad to be back to one of my favorite trails in the area today: Nesmith Point in the gorge. I'm pretty sure this is the first trail I explored after moving to Portland six years ago. Good challenge, and on a clear day beautiful views of the Columbia River.

Beautiful views on a NOT clear day too!

Almost didn't make the hike today, woke up about 30 minutes AFTER I was supposed to leave (oops). Pulled it together and ran out the door and drove like mad to reach the trailhead just before the group (missed out on the pre-hike meeting and carpooling, but that's ok). It's probably good I didn't have time to look outside before leaving since the rain looked less than inviting.

Turns out the rain was just as wet as it looked. By the time we reached the top all were soaked to the bone. Fortunately temps were decently warm so we didn't get too chilled, but I was definitely glad for all the dry layers in my pack!

Feeling refreshed with a snack and dry clothes we headed back down. The rain continued but seemed somewhat less drenching. And the fog cleared enough to see the river.

Fun hike in spite of the rain. I love the group of people I've been hiking with, such great attitudes no matter what the trail conditions are or how tough the climb is. Good training for the rest of life!



The Tally: 
Mt Rainier                          17 mi      9,000 ft elevation gain
Training Hikes So Far       70 mi     23,400 ft elevation gain

Nite Hike

Late last night (or early this morning, depending on how you look at it) we headed up to Mt Hood for some night hike training. During the Rainier climb on summit day we will start hiking in the wee-dark hours of the day, so this was a good way to experience a little bit of what that will be like. 

All I could see--The Moon and the Next Step Ahead

The path from Timberline to Silcox Hut isn't terribly challenging physically, but is a good taste of what nighttime snow hiking is all about, and practice putting on crampons by the light of a headlamp.

We were blessed with a beautiful night, three-quarter moon beautifully visible. Windy but pretty warm.

Break near Silcox Hut

Bright lights and shadows

Timberline on our way back down

While I'm not super happy with the quality or artistry of these photos they give some idea of what it was like up there. 

Good to practice midnight hiking and gearing up in the dark so it's not so foreign on climb day. Tomorrow we head out to the gorge to tackle Nesmith Point (one of my favorite trails). Stay tuned for more on that tomorrow!

The Tally: 
Mt Rainier                          17 mi      9,000 ft elevation gain
Training Hikes So Far       61 mi     19,700 ft elevation gain

Salmon Butte

Yesterday as Portland was enjoying it's first 70-degree day of the season we headed up to the Salmon Huckleberry Wilderness just South of Mt Hood. Such a nice warm spring day at the trailhead and the first few miles up the trail. Soon reached a bit of snow on the trail, and farther on fairly significant amounts. That's where things got interesting! Sunny spring days are great, but they tend to change hiking conditions. Tromping through soft knee to thigh-high snow while being pelted by fist-sized snowballs flung from tree-tops above soon gets cold and tiring. Since nobody had been there before us we all took turns breaking trail. Almost every step buried my legs, and there were several times I was certain I was going to be stuck in the snow until the spring thaw finally melted it all away. After a great group effort and clambering out of more sinkholes than I could count we reached the final stretch. The last 500 feet (horizontal, not vertical) took us about 20 minutes to "snow swim" through (our new term for it). 

Once we reached the top though I immediately forgot about how exhausted I was; so awestruck by the sensational view. Totally clear skies where we could see miles and miles of beautiful forests and mountains. Everything from Mt Rainier in the north to the Three Sisters in the south was spread out before us. Wow. 

Mts. St Helens, Rainier, and Adams

Mts. Adams and Hood

Mt Jefferson

Short break later and we headed back down. By this time the soft snow had turned into a slushy-like consistency that was even less stable underfoot. Plunge-stepping down the hill proved to be much faster than the upward climb, but still tiring. When we descended below the snow-line my shaky legs were glad to finally be on solid ground. 
This was the most challenging training hike thus far for sure, great preparation for the climb in just a couple of months.


FUNDRAISING UPDATE: I've reached the half-way mark! Final deadline for donations is June 3rd, so you still have time to donate. Check out my fundraising page HERE, or e-mail me at tonirenee79@hotmail.com for more details.


The Tally: Equivalent to making the summit twice!
Mt Rainier                          17 mi      9,000 ft elevation gain
Training Hikes So Far       59 mi     18,700 ft elevation gain