A sucsessful Hike.

Chris, my cousin, called me yesterday at about 1230 and invited me on a hike with him , his wife, her son and my nephew.

May 26, 2005 1030am; my dad, nephew and I are headed out to Port Angeles to help my sis move from her apartment to a house she had just bought. Coming around the corner at the Arnold Rd/S.R. 20, my dad went over the line and collided with a dump truck, fully loaded with gravel. He died an hour and a half later on the OR table. My starboard ankle was broken in three places and my port hip was fractured; I was in a hospital bed for four months. So it has been three years since the last time I have been on a decent hike.

So yesterday, we did a level 3 hike* on the west side of Blanchard mountain near my home. Going in, I was fine; my ankle was holding up and, though I was a tad slow, I made it to the bat cave - our destination.

When we got there, the cave entrance was surrounded with snow and the entrance itself was dripping with melt. The cave was nothing more than the large boulders of a collapsed cliff face and the entrance was too small for me in my current shape to crawl through; I could fit, but the required bending and squeezing was a little more than I am currently prepared for. I am pleasantly surprised that I was able to climb out of the entrance itself on my own - the rest of the group went on without me and came out the other side.

Half an hour later, we were on our way home. The trail had some very steep parts and one was just a few minutes back along the trail. It was here that I slipped and sprained the injured ankle. The skinned knee was not a problem - I'm a pretty tough cookie - but the ankle ruined the rest of the hike for me. The limping made short work of my hip and slowed my already leisurely progress to a snails pace and the sun was down before we hit the halfway mark. It was dark enough to need head lamps just fifteen minutes later. It got very cold very fast once that happened.

Finally, we reached the trailhead and drove down the mountain. Once we got back to town, we went to a Mexican Restaurant near their house and I had a burrito with ground beef that was way too salty.

This is a triumph. I'm making a note here: huge success. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction. The last time I was on this trail, I didn't make it past the first 20%; now, I actually completed the hike. I will return within two weeks to the cave and do so every week until I can crawl through the cave myself. Then, this fall, after I return from Alaska, I will summit Mount Baker in my father's memory and spread a fourth of his ashes there. We were going to summit that fall.

_{*Trails are rated on a 1-5 scale of difficulty.}

1. Nearly flat with groomed surface of dirt, gravel (< 3/8"), wood chips or similar materials. Must be wheel-chair accessable and have benches for resting.


2. Nearly flat with ungroomed surface and only local materials used to maintain passability I.E. bridges and culverts to divert streams and prevent erosion.


3. Non flat with ungroomed surface, however, must be maintained for passability. Shallow streams (< 3" normal depth) permitted across trail, however, all other debris should be cleared.


4. Technical with ungroomed surface, maintained for passability. Bridges and obstacle removal for environmental impact and hiker safety only.


5. Technical with ungroomed surface. Passability not maintained. Bridges and obstacle removal for minimalization of environmental impact only.

Heh. Twelve years and I still remember. I used to work with the DNR on the trails maintenance crew.