July 12th Hemlock Camp to Vista Ridge

The day has definitely taken on a cooler edge with a significant drop in temperature and overcast skies. Wore my rain jacket because it was drizzling from time to time. We hit the snow close to the 5000 foot level and then lost the trail completely near Suiattle Pass, which was socked in with some icy mist. John pulled out his GPS to give us a point to shoot for. We had a hard time picking up trail on the other side of the pass as well but finally made it down to Miner's Ridge. Had lunch on an exposed part of trail that was rather windy, which helped clear the mist, and the sun doing battle with the clouds managed to come out for a brief moment to reveal a vast swathe of forest running down Miner's Creek canyon as far as the eye could see. Along the forest trail all kinds of ferns were growing, trees had Spanish moss hanging from their branches and moss covered rocks and stumps. It reminded me of the Saturday morning kids program, Land of the Lost. A feeling of something primeval. The main obstacles here were blowdowns- trees lying across the trail because they'd been toppled by high winds. Little ones you can just step over, bigger ones take some small maneuvering, but the giants form a wall that you must go around. Heading down switchbacks to the Suiattle River we entered into an area where lush, chest-high vegetation closed in around us. Wet with drizzle, walking through them left us soaked from the waist down, the rain jacket keeping me dry above the mid-section. When I reached the river, I couldn't believe my eyes. Utter carnage! Boulders littering the river bed, huge trees strewn here and there, and mountainsides fully eroded. The force of the deluge in flood stage must be cataclysmic. Lucky for us it wasn't in this monstrous stage but much tamer. We found a log crossing as obviously no bridge had survived. I crossed first. Now, log crossings can be tricky because the water rushing below your feet makes you feel like there is some sideward movement of the log itself, so focus must be taken off your feet and placed at the end of the log, which is stationary. This removes the feeling of side motion. So, that's how I cross. Walk, Stop, Refocus and Repeat. When I got to the other side I took a few pictures of John starting his crossing. While I was putting my camera away, I looked up and saw that he had just hit the water. As he explained later, he got a sense of vertigo and simply lost balance. Well, I drop the camera and race along the riverbank to where I know there's a bend and find John washed up in the shallows. Shocked from the fall and chilled by the glacial meltwater and a rough but short ride down the whitewater, he was having a difficult time finding his footing among the slippery, rounded stones, so I grabbed his arm to steady him and helped him onto the gravelly sand. Taking some time to assess the damage, on the positive side most of the gear he was carrying had remained dry, but on a less hopeful note, due to the strong current and getting snagged on the rocks, the waist belt and right shoulder strap had been torn off the attachment at the bottom of the pack. We spent about an hour and a half jerry-rigging the straps with some paracord and it seems as if it will do for now. John also spent some time getting dry and warm again after such a dunking. What remained of the afternoon was spent climbing up from the river to our camp on Vista Ridge.

Log Crossing

The Suiattle River

Floodplain

19 Miles