Glissading

After a fitful night's rest, we cooked breakfast, packed up camp, and backtracked just a short ways down the gravel road to where we turned off for the drive up to the Green Mountain trail.

There was another group of three people at the trailhead when we arrived. They were hiking the same trail as us and they had telemarking skis strapped to their backs and were wearing their boots. They were going to have a wonderful time carving through the snowfield. And they were certainly going to earn it; The trail rose to a peak and fell 3,500 ft over a distance of 7 miles.

Scott is very plugged in to the hiking and mountaineering community in the Cascades and I found that he beat me to the punch in recording our beautiful and challenging ascent! (Thanks, Scott!) Read about it by clicking here:

http://www.wta.org/~wta/cgi-bin/wtaweb.pl?ab+7+reports+display+time+

(Select "Jun 11, 2006 by Little Wonder")

We passed through forest, meadows, and eventually snow on our ascent of the mountain. We all donned our gaiters once we hit the snowline. The hike really tired me out, but it was totally worth it once we could clearly see in all directions at the peak. Mt. Baker and Glacier Peak glistened in the distance. Instead of hiking down, Scott taught Jill and I how to glissade! (Essentially, glissading is sliding on one's butt through the snow while using an ice axe - or in my case, a hiking pole - to one's control speed.)

On our return from the mountain, we stopped for cool treats at a DQ. It was early evening by the time we returned to Scott and Jill's. We all took turns showering while unpacking, reorganizing, and cooking dinner. We relaxed in front of the TV for a bit while contemplating upcoming plans and workweeks. Jill *might* find time to join the group in 1.5 weeks on the kayaking trip to the Broken Islands group off the west coast of Vancouver Island. I had introduced Matt and Dawn to Scott and Jill a couple of years earlier on a previous trip to Seattle. We had a "small world!" moment when we realized that Jill and Scott both knew the other kayakers, Kook and Ethan, that would be on the trip.