Ahhh, a Trailmaster's "work" is never done...my "office" for the last several weeks has been the great outdoors...its where some people find their respite from the daily grind of cubicle life and where others challenge themselves to reach new heights. After my dad's visit to Ptown and summitting Mt Hood at the end of June, my cousin Peter from Chicago came out for a visit...our crowning achievement? Sitting atop the rim of Mt St Helens...a 12 mile round trip slog covering approximately 5,200 feet in elevation gain (summit is at 8,300 feet). A little factoid that I heard a while ago is that airplane passenger cabins are pressurized to about 8,000'ish feet above sea level...so, if you have ever flown in an airplane, then you can sit atop the su
mmit of Mt St Helens and breath just fine...I guess there's one small difference...your legs and lungs are your engine!Steve Sr. and I climbed Mt St Helens in September 2006, so this was my 2nd trip up to the rim...however our crew this year were all 1st timers (Peter, Nate, Devon and Sarah).
We were greeted with snowfields from the get go...and then dry land...and then more slow...and then more dry land...it was a loooooong way to the top (about 7.25 hours to get up)...but the coolest part (other than the summit that is) was glisading down those snow fields that we hiked up...the videos below on Youtube of my cousin Peter learning the ropes will give you a birds-eye view of a how to leverage mother nature to descend in a "low impact" way :)
Glisading Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpLVvaI7BjA
Glisading Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9K0T3wB988
Sitting atop a summit like Mt Hood or Mt St Helens is hard to beat, but there are hikes closer to sea level that still test your legs and lungs, but offer a much different view in our nations last frontier...the
Wilderness. That's right, no mechanized equipment allowed here! Basically, the only thing that woman/man should leave behind in Wilderness areas as her/his footprints...and even those should be kept to certain areas. You'd think that having been in Portland for 6+ years that I would have hiked many if not all of the trails around the area...well, I was introduced to a gem tucked away in the Mt Hood Wilderness area called Ramona Falls...the water cascades down the 120 foot waterfall like silk. It was simply amazing...
I'll miss hiking in the Pacific Northwest, but I've read that Japan is covered in mountains too...Mt Fuji (Fuji-Yama to Japanense) to name one. The Trailmaster is taking his "work" international!
Mt St Helens Album - http://picasaweb.google.com/steve.papp/StHelensYama_July72008
Ramona Falls Album - http://picasaweb.google.com/steve.papp/RamonaFallsJuly192008
