It is more than likely that I am, yet again, a day late and a dollar short but man, I’m on fire tonight. I have suddenly and unexpectedly think I’ve solved some major problems at work. My Engineering team has been firefighting for so long that I failed (didn’t have any time for) to see the “big picture.” I do now and could care less that it’s 1:50 A.M.

(This is really more of a “note to self” than a real post so I apologize for the vagueness. I just wanted to record this moment and will write more about what happened on Thursday as time allows).

Sorta out of order chronologically, but I thought better late than never as this was a really fun hike…

The trail through the clouds to Mason Lake and Bandera Mountain

I received a call around 6:30 Thursday morning from my Dad saying his plane was having engine troubles and was not able to take off in time for him to make his connecting flight to Seattle. This was a bigger bummer than usual as I wanted to take him on some cool hikes I had discovered since he was last out here in 2005. Dad and I had planned on moving my fence (extending it into the rest of my yard- long story) on Thursday and then do a hike on Friday and possibly Saturday. I had pre-selected Bandera Mountain for the hike which I’d never done before but was supposed to have great views.

Dad didn’t make it out but there was no way I was giving up my days off work. I slept in until 1-ish and lounged around all day on Thursday. On Friday, Bryan and I went to Bandera. It was cloudy out but we hoped we’d be above them. Nope. As we climbed higher and higher, the clouds got thicker and thicker. There weren’t any views (visibility was maybe 50 feet above 3,500 feet) to speak of or photograph but I really enjoyed the hike. Call me crazy but I actually prefer hiking in the clouds. As much as we enjoyed the hike through the clouds, we decided at the trail junction to Mason Lake that it would be better to come back and do the summit to Bandera on a better day. The summit trail is pretty steep and not so easy to follow, hardly worth a long scramble when there’s no view. So on to Mason Lake we went where we still found some snow on the 200 foot descent to the Western lake shore.

You can see the pictures in my Mason Lake Flickr photo gallery.

Bryan’s trip report can be found HERE and his pictures of the same hike HERE.

Stats:
Distance: 7.2 miles
Time: 2 hours 32 minutes
High point: 4,849 feet
Elevation gain: 2,096 feet

Getting There:
Take I-90 to Exit 45 turning left on Forest Road 9030, cross under the freeway, and continue straight for one mile. At a split, go straight on road 9031 to the trailhead.

After last week’s disastrous Talapus Lakes hike, I had wanted to buy Amy some real hiking boots and trekking poles in hopes of getting her to come out for some more hikes with me. After Bryan and I did the Mason Lake hike (which I will post about shortly), I convinced Amy to forget dinner and go to REI.

First mistake, I forgot my debit card and driver’s license in my pack. As we decided on boots, I took her on an extended shopping spree where we picked up socks, poles, bras and water proofing gear. Though I had forgotten my debit card, I had decided to just put it on my Amex and pay it off later. I had a $10,750 credit limit and new I had a $0 balance since paying it off last October. Big mistake. At the register, I suffered my first humiliating credit card decline since college. Embarrassingly, I turned to Amy for help and she paid with her debit card. I immediately called Amex where I learned my account had been suspended and limit reduced to $100 (apparently paying off a balance of over $5,400 in one fell swoop is VERY, VERY bad) due to of a returned statement since I hadn’t changed the address since I paid it off. I called, cleared it up and they wanted reply to reapply for any credit at all. “No thanks, I’ve been a customer for 11 years without paying late once so please close my account”, I requested. They did without question. Lame. So I owe Amy $398.94. Who cares, I’m gonna have a kick-ass dividend this year!

Amy’s new Zamberlan boots

Amy had asked for a relatively short, zero elevation gain hike to break in her boots and I scoured my monstrous stack of Western Washington hiking guides for such a hike that we hadn’t already done. After hours of late night decision making, I decided on the trail that parallels the Taylor River in the Snoqaulmie Valley.

On a seemingly easy-ass trail, I broke down. i just couldn’t make the pace Amy and Sally were keeping. I didn’t feel well and sheepishly suggested that we should just turn around. I asked Amy to take Sally’s leash and I instantly began to lag behind the pair. Way behind. Instead of being a hundred or so yards ahead, I began to devise about schemes to gain time and catch up to the hike leader. I tripped. For no reason at all, I thought about the date. June 10th. 0610. AHH, a component of so many passwords and the birthday of a really good friend.

I struggled to keep up in the heat and Amy probably regretted having me along. I know Sally did! Turns out, we did 6.57 miles with a whopping 257 feet of elevation gain (thank God for GPS).

Two weeks ago on an unusally stormy Saturday night, I went to the bookstore and forgot to close the garage door. When I returned home, I nearly had a heart attack when I stepped out of my car. An unexpected MEOW-MEOW! right in the face startled me and I instinctively covered my face. When I looked past my arm, I saw a drenched and skinny black cat standing on top of Amy’s Subaru Forester (about a foot taller than my Saturn Coupe) pining for attention. I quickly put down the books and called for Amy to come help. I got a towel off my bike trainer (it’s in the garage) and dried the poor guy off as he purred incessantly.

Amy took a look and said she would be back with some food and fresh water which he eschewed in favor of love an attention. After he had enough pets and was relatively dry, he took to the food like he’d never eaten before. We quickly determined he was a male (and neutered) and guessed that he’d been some family’s cat because of how friendly and needy he was. I remembered that I had seen a “LOST CAT” sign nailed to a utilitly pole a few weeks ago and ventured back out in the pouring rain to retrieve it. Amy called and sadly, this was not their cat. Theirs was a brown and black male tabby and had been gone for over five weeks. We called all of the neighbors (our cul de sac has a little directory for such things) but no luck.

For Amy and I, we didn’t even need to discuss whether or not we would care for him- kicking him out simly wasn’t an option, but we knew we couldn’t bring him in with the already tenuous dynamic between our three other cats and Sally, our dog. So we made a little bed for him which he instantly took to and made sure he had fresh water and some quality dry cat food. We would leave one of the three garage floors open just enough for him to fit under. The next day, he left while we were at the grocery. I didn’t say anything but I was silently sad. I kept checking the garage every couple of hours for him but he did not return. I went to bed hoping he had found his home or another safe place. Around 2 am, I went downstairs for a snack and checked the garage one last time. I found him all cuddled up on the bed of blankets we had made for him and I felt really relieved. I woke Amy to tell her and she was happy too.

He seems to love his new digs. He now has a warm, safe place to sleep and a constant supply of good food and yet can cruise the neighborhood anytime he wants. Bentley is surely jealous. He has fattened up sufficiently and his hair has begun to grow back.

A name? Well, we haven’t named him yet because we’re afraid we’d become too attached (too late!) but we better get working on that because he doesn’t appear to have any other plans. And that’s just fine with us.

The summit marker for West Tiger # 3

The summit marker for West Tiger # 2

The summit marker for West Tiger # 1

Sweet Jebus that was a hard hike. Possibly the hardest 2 1/2 hours of my life. After work, I drove home, changed and headed to High Point Way for one last training hike up Tiger 3 before my Dad gets here on Thursday. West Tiger 3 is a doozie, especially the shorter but steeper unofficial “cable-line” trail.

Something possessed me tonight and I managed to make it to the summit of West Tiger 3 in 49 minutes. I wasn’t in good shape though. I had caught two girls (much younger and at least 125 pounds lighter than myself) about half a mile from the top and went all out in a futile effort to pass them. When I got to the somewhat exposed East side near the top, I was spent. Sweat dripping in my eyes had made my vision blurry and my heart rate was in the 190’s. One last push and I ashamedly beat them to the top by inches. Since I didn’t want to act like I had given my all, I decided to go on to Tiger 2. Most hikers stop at the summit of 3 and I knew I’d have some peace and quiet to recuperate from my effort. When I got to the top of summit 2, I said, “hey, I haven’t been over to summit # 1 (also the highest of the 3 elevation wise) and made a dash for it. While descending 2 on the way over to 1, some trail runners passed me. Not wanting to look like a loser, I (and again, ashamedly) started trotting along with them. Though they beat me to the stop of 1 (good lord, that’s a long stretch to the hut!), I finished only seconds behind. And damn near lost consciousness. I had made it from outside the Tradition Lake trailhead to the summit of West Tiger 1 in 1:23:00 (3-2-1 in 1-2-3, lol). We chatted for a bit and I explored the “hiker’s hut” at the summit while I pondered my trip back down in the dark.

The “Hiker’s Hut” at the summit of West Tiger # 1

A good training hike, indeed. You can see more pictures in my Flickr Tiger 3-2-1 photoset.

Trail data:
Total distance: 7.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 3,930 feet
Time: 2 hours 39 minutes

Getting There:
I-90 exit 20, High Point Way. Turn right and follow this road until it dead ends at the Tradition Lake trailhead. Gate closes at dusk so if you’re going to be on the mountain after dark, I recommend parking in front of the gate and walking the half mile to the trailhead.