Employing the patented McCarty start, which is similar to the alpine start but instead of trekking out at midnight we left Lake Stevens at 10am, we arrived at the Heather Lake unscathed - our under-britches only slightly streaked after avoiding a cluster F caused by a Pontiac TransAm trying to do donuts on the road to the trailhead. Not really, but some dude in a Jeep Cherokee almost opened his door into the radiator of Cody's rig. Snow makes people in the PNW demented, I swear.
The forest road up to the MP trailhead was blocked at Heather Lake. It can't be THAT far up to Pilchuck, right? Wrong.
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| "How far's this hike again?" - Cody Brooke |
Especially on snow shoes.
Our spirits remained high for the first 4 miles until demoralization sank in at the sight of a cross-country skier (who siddled up behind and scared the living feces out of me, I might add) who benefited from our tracks nearly the entire way up. Although, making fresh prints in the 4-foot-deep snow made me feel like one hell of an American.
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| Fresh tracks up to the MP trailhead |
A little higher up the demoralization turned to unbridled exhaustion based on a) the fact after 4 hours we hadn't even reached the MP trailhead yet and b) the damn skier was on his way down, coasting past us.
About that time, Cody died. Cause of death: left abductor muscle strain.
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| Cody dying |
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| Pat not dying |
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| Ixtapa being awesome |
left was sore, right was (and still is) strained
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