Rain City Story

Lost

(Rattlesnake Ledge as seen from higher up on the Rattlesnake Mountain trail just before the storm rolled in.)

Halfway to the Rattlesnake Mountain trailhead on I-90, I noticed some pretty serious clouds hugging the mountains and decided to head back home for a raincoat. For once, I can say, "good call Michael" and not be sarcastic. I'd been to Rattlesnake Ledge about half a dozen times but decided to sweeten the challenge with a climb to the Rattlesnake Mountain East Peak (3,522 feet). Just before you reach the famous Ledge, a sign points to various, less traveled peaks on the mountain and I turned left to go to the East Peak.

The trail goes from about 8 feet wide to about six inches in a matter of feet but I was armed with a decent topo map and pretty fierce desire to reach the top of this mountain. Though it was clear and warm in Downtown Seattle, a pretty strong thunderstorm had rolled in on this mountain and at this elevation, all precipitation was in the form of snow and hail. I pushed on but worried in my head that the trail was narrow and everything looked the same. Instead of moving at around 3-4 mph, I (and I'm guessing here) slowed to about .5 mph. Every 20 feet or so, I had to ask myself, "is this the trail?" and I was blown away by how dense the forest was up there. I traversed blow down (a fallen tree in my path) after blow down and I began to doubt every step. About 40 minutes into uncharted territory, I came upon a serious blown down and couldn't see where the trail resumed. I stepped up on the fallen tree that was probably thrice the age of my parents but still couldn't see where I was supposed to go. The trees were so dense that I couldn't look to the sky to make sense of my direction. So I stopped to pull out the map and I the pages I had scanned in from my guidebook.

I re-read the trail description and studied the map (no compass though). Just as I was ready to fold the packet back up, a huge clap of thunder almost knocked me off the massive log. By the time my heart rate had recovered to allow me to exist in the aerobic world, a huge cloud had rolled in and (I swear) two inches of hail had fallen. This new hail had completely, and I mean completely obscured what little trail existed. I could no longer see where I had come from or where I was supposed to go. Shit. Not cool. Thank God I brought this jacket I thought as I changed into it. In a few minutes, I was soaked and not feeling all that well. Food? check. Water? Check. Cell phone? Check. Calm, clear mind? Shit. "Ok, just stay calm and think this through", I thought. But my legs were tired from the relentless climb and I knew I had less than two hours of daylight. I also knew that it was supposed to be clear out tonight meaning it would likely get VERY cold up on the mountain without shelter. One way or another, I had to find my way down. Since the mountain was so steep and I knew that the Cedar River Watershed was due east of Rattlesnake Mountain, I figured that I only needed to go down to reach civilization.

After about five minutes (that seemed like 120), I tried to retrace the path I had taken. I'm normally pretty good making mental markers but nothing looked familiar and the hail has falling hard enough to actually hurt. The cloud I was walking in had grown denser but I followed my instincts and tried to keep heading DOWN.

Then I came upon a blow down I thought I recognized. "FINALLY!" I actually screamed out loud. But a few feet later I ran into some brush so thick that I knew I hadn't done through it. Dammit. So I retraced my steps (thanks to the two inch hail that had accumulated revealing my boot tracks) back to the place that I had started. I went left (east) instead of right and eventually came to a place that looked like a human had cleared debris (aka, a trail) and followed it. KICK ASS. One familiar turn led to another until I reached the sign just before the ledge. I let out an audible "whew!" and continued down the normal Rattlesnake Ledge trail.

Lessons learned? Buy and bring a decent GPS, it's just not worth guessing when the technology exists to be precise down to the inch. Also, bring a compass. These things are like $30 and I took and orienteering course, learning how to use one. And finally, stay more calm. I handle stress at work much better than I handled it today. If there's anything I'm good at, it's staying calm during stressful situations. Cool heads always prevail. They do indeed.