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There were 8 of us packing together today.

Brian, my good friend from church, a professor of Bible at Cascade College, who holds a Doctorate Degree and one of the most highly respected men I know, is an avid hiker who often goes with me on these mountain adventures. This will be Brian’s 4th or 5th trip into the Goat Rocks.

Andrew, the only minor in our group is my “grandson of the heart”, a great young man who enjoys the mountains and the adventures of the trek. He has been going with me here for 3 years, having grown to be a strong hiker and fun to be with. He loves the mountains and the August snow.

Josha, the only female on this trek is a young lady who is studying to be a physical therapist and wants to work with kids some day. She also holds a degree from Cascade College. (I must admit, I enjoy hanging out with “smart” people). She is like a daughter to me and loves the mountains. She is a marathon runner and loves backpacking. This will be her 3rd trip into these mountains.

Pat, my brother two years younger, has discovered backpacking and enjoys the high mountains like me. This will be his 4th trip into this area. Pat lives in Oklahoma. Besides his day job in a fabrication shop as an inspector supervisor, he owns a Pecan farm on old Route 66, outside of Vinita. He loves to fly out and hike with me at every opportunity. Pat has been having knee joint problems and is uncertain about this trip.

Chris, Pat’s son, is a first time backpacker. He also lives in Oklahoma, works in an industrial shop as a supervisor and believes he is in good enough condition to do this hike. He, like the rest of us, is completely unaware of how physically demanding this trek is going to place upon him.

Marvin, my brother-in-law has flown out from Missouri to go with me on this trip. He owns a campground on the huge Lake of the Ozarks but has found the time to slip away from his busy August season to take this trek. Marvin was my co-leader when we brought my Boy Scouts of Troop 49 across 70 miles of the William O. Douglas Wilderness and the Goat Rocks Wilderness in 1996. It was our first time to view this magnificent scenery as we hiked the Pacific Crest Trail 2000 for 11 days between Cayuse Pass and Walupt Lake, Washington. Marvin had heart surgery last year. Although his heart doctor says he is stronger than ever, he feels a little apprehensive about putting too much stress upon his newly repaired heart.

Shannon, Marvin’s son-in-law, is also a first time packer, but is very anxious to get started. He is a hard worker who has his own trash hauling and clean-up business in Missouri, who feels strong and in good shape for this trek. Shannon is also there to keep an eye on “Dad” just in case there is a problem. This will be a good bonding time for them, as well.

I make up the 8th part of this group. My name is Mike. I work for a Mechanical Contractor as a Service Manager and small projects manager. This will be my 9th year to backpack into this wilderness area since Marvin and I discovered it in 1996. The draw of these mountains is nothing I really understand. Each year it changes and I discover something new and different. I also enjoy sharing it with others by bringing people into this area who have never seen it before. Besides the scenic mountains and a myriad of wild flowers that seem to scratch a short life out of a dry, rocky outcropping, or thrive in lush spring fed meadows, we have viewed wildlife of Elk, Deer, Bear, Shaggy Goats, Marmot, Pica, and birds of all kinds. The scene is ever changing from frozen lakes; snow in the campsites, crossing snowfields and glaciers, hailstorms, rain to hot and dry and looking for that next stream to refill our canteens.

None of us have ever hiked the Lily Basin Trail even though we’ve often passed the trail marker at Snowgrass Flats. This day will be a new treat for all of us. The trail takes us ever upwards, through dense forests of Douglas fir, Red Cedar and shrubs of all kinds. The trail appears to be drier than I had thought, but we still carried plenty of water with us. It was not a steep trail, yet it climbed steadily upward. We enjoyed occasional views of the magnificent Mt. Rainier and Packwood Lake as the trail meandered along the tops and north faces of little known mountains. Along the other side of Packwood Lake is the trail we will be coming down on our last day. It seems so near, yet far away at the same time.

As we topped one of the summits our trail intersected with Angry Mountain Trail and we began to catch our first glimpse of patches of snow in the higher mountains. We began to emerge from the heavier forests and into patches of smaller shrubs, grass and fields of flowers. We occasionally passed a wetland where yellow and white flowers thrived with the beautiful Indian Paint Brush flowers of brilliant colors, more brilliant than I had ever seen before. I couldn’t take enough pictures. Every other one looked more colorful than the one before. Small Bumble Bees swarmed the bright yellow flowers franticly, as if this was the last day they could collect the sweet nectar.

Pat, Marvin, Shannon and I took it easy hiking this trail so as not to tax Marvin’s body too much. We all kept an eye on him, ready to retreat at the first sign of difficulty. Shannon was like a mother hen watching over her brood, instinctively protective, ready for anything out of the ordinary. He still managed to breathe in the freshness of the mountains and bask in the awesome views of the glaciers on Mt. Rainier, to the island in the middle of Packwood Lake. He was having the time of his life. Brian, Andrew, Josha and Chris were yards ahead of us and would occasionally stop to let us catch up with them. It was obvious that they were much stronger hikers and we were slowing them up. I think we were taking too many pictures and that slowed us up more than our age. At one place where they waited on us, we approached and began taking in the scenery as we rested a moment. We looked down into the grass and watched a large Mole dig his way in and out of the hillside.

We snacked on trail food along the way, so we had no official stop for lunch. Towards the late afternoon the steady climb of the trail was wearing on our knees and the thinner air taxed our breathing. We still had not crossed any streams or found any springs of water to refill our canteens.

A few miles later, we rounded the trail only to find the leaders waiting on us at a trail intersection. As we approached, Brian told us that this intersection was not on the map and was wondering which trail we take. The right fork wandered off downhill into a valley, while the left fork continued along the hillside towards a ridge. I suggested we take the left fork because we had to cross that ridge. If we went down into the valley we would have to come back up again and that would take extra work. I wasn’t certain how much farther we had to go to reach Goat Ridge, which would be our camping site for the first night. The problem became clear. Clouds were dropping down off the surrounding mountains at an alarming rate. I wasn’t sure what it was all about unless it was a storm approaching. The temperature was dropping and the sun had settled down behind the mountains. There might not be too much more daylight if the clouds continue to come in and cover the trail. Besides that, we might not want to be camping on a high ridgeline if a storm was approaching.

After an hour or so, we came upon a stream where we refilled our canteens and water bottles with fresh clear water that we ran through our water filter. As we came out of the ravine where the stream flowed down the mountain, it became quite clear that the weather was changing for the worse. I wished that half our crew would stop and wait on us to catch up because we might need to make other plans for the night. Shannon said he could run on ahead and catch up with them if I wanted. I told him to go ahead and have them wait on us and perhaps take the next available campsite for ourselves. It turned out that they were only ahead of us a hundred yards or so and was waiting on us in an available campsite. We decided to stop there and camp for the night. We can’t be more than a couple of miles from where we would be camping anyway. Besides that, we had a magnificent view of the mountains, patches of snow, and Heart Lake down into the valley below us. Now we understood where that right fork of the trail descended to.

We began taking off our packs and locating our tent spaces. We noticed a herd of about 30 big shaggy Goats grazing above us on the side of the mountain. It was a beautiful sight. Soon the tents were up and the cook stoves were boiling water, getting ready for the evening’s meal. It was getting colder and the wind was picking up. Andrew came over and was shivering in his T-shirt. I asked if he had a jacket and he told me he had left it in the car. Lucky for him that Brian had an extra jacket which he lent to Andrew. The fog continued to roll in like smoke from a forest fire.

Marvin looked tired. I went over to him and asked how he was doing. He said he was doing okay but very tired. I suggested that I would be okay with camping here for a night or two then turning back instead of continuing on to the planned end of the trek. I wanted to give Marvin the option of making the call so as not to make him feel like he was wimping out on the plan and causing all of us to miss out on the adventure. I would tell the others to go ahead as planned and we would meet them at the Packwood Lake trailhead in 2 days. Marvin thought that this was a good plan as long as I was okay about it. I assured him that I was.

I called a meeting of everyone and told them the situation. Pat said he would stay with me because he was feeling the pain, too, and wouldn’t mind a shorter trip. I suggested that Chris, Shannon, Brian, Josha and Andrew continue on because the scene ahead of them tomorrow would be more than awesome. Yes, it would be strenuous but well worth it. With half of us being strong hikers and half of us being old men, we were okay with this plan. Brian suggested we sleep on it, so we did.

........to be continued.........