Why do people hike in the winter? Is it because it’s winter and it’s beautiful with the snow and crisp air. Or do folks get out in it because it’s winter and that’s just how it is and staying indoors for the entire weekend is way worse than going out in the cold, frozen forest?
I can’t speak for other people, but I’m feeling pretty good about today, even though I didn’t sleep much yesterday.
I left the apartment at 5:49 and reached the Renton park n’ ride by 6:20 to meet Ambrose. I went to college with Ambrose in 2017 and he was in a couple clubs with me. We had just run into each other on Ingalls peak a month before and got reacquainted as Mountaineers. Now we’re carpooling to Ranger Peak for a chill day hike.
The original plan was to hike up to Norse Peak, popular because it’s on the Boundary Line List. A list of the bulgers that line the Mt. Rainier National Park. However, Mark (our lead) decided it would be better to go another time because today was going to be the opening day at Crystal Mountain and it would probably take about 3 hours to get to the trailhead.
Ambrose, I and another hiker, Laurel, were at the Greenwater Country Store by 6:40am. Shelby, the assistant lead for the day was saying how she was watching cat videos to stay chipper as we rolled up. It was maybe 35 degrees and we were all suffering a little bit. It would turn out Shelby was a fan of Bodega Cats, a popular Instagram channel that documents cats sitting on certain products at a unnamed convenience store.
Even though it was a mile or so further down the road, we started from the Camp Shepard trailhead because it would add enough mileage to make the hike worthwhile. We debated whether to bring the snowshoes because the snow at the top probably wasn’t going to be more than 1’. Shelby mentioned that it was probably a good idea to bring them instead of being sorry and needing to turn around because we hadn’t. There wasn’t any snow at the trailhead, and no precipitation to indicate needing to bring a rain jacket.
We started up, and a couple hours later started hitting snow at about 4,200ft. We continued up through downed trees and branches over the trail. Before we knew it we were at 5,200ft cresting the saddle to the ridge that connected to the summit.
The snow was only about 1.5ft deep on the ridge to the summit. But the team wanted to turn around since there wasn’t much to gain by continuing over the fallen trees. We returned to the saddle for lunch. As we settled, the couple we had played back and forth with passed us down. They had a toto with them name Sadi. Now Sadi was tucked in the owners backpack so only her head was sticking out.
During lunch I chatted with Shelby about languages and some folks are just better at learning them. I also surmised that adults have a harder time because we probably prefer to spend time bullshitting rather than learning new languages. I mentioned my incredible influential teacher, Mrs. Steele and how she not only inspired many years of students, but also raised a completely fluent Chinese speaking son by only speaking Mandarin at home. Shelby had a similar story with her brother. Apparently he and his wife only spoke Chinese at home with their sons. The incredible moments you can create by connecting with someone in another language truly is priceless. But in order to do so it takes hundreds of hours of dedication. So if those moments are worth it, then it’s worth investing the time to learn the language.
There had been almost no precipitation all day, and some blue sky was even poking through. We were having a great day. On the way down, I had a chance to get to know Laurel, the other hiker in Ambrose’s car. It turns out she’s a genius and is a PhD in Physics. We chatted about her focus, which was on Graphene and how she was using this material to create models that could simulate superconductors. She studies materials that are in quantum states and has even proven certain Black Hole theory, SYK model, using twisted bilayer graphene (specifically called ‘twisted electrons’.
Leave a Reply