Ron’s Hike for Discovery Weblog

Sometime during my teenage years I read the book “The High Adventure of Eric Ryback: Canada to Mexico on Foot“, 17 year old Eric Ryback’s account of his 2650 mile journey from one end of the Pacific Crest Trail to the other in 1970. The book inspired me to want to also take that same journey someday. Since then, life has gone on without thinking much about that until my recent hiking activities with Hike for Discovery. These one-day adventures have got me thinking about that dream that has long lay dormant – that someday I might attempt to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s become my favorite day-dreaming topic at work! ) Whether I ever really hike the PCT remains to be seen – it’s a BIG commitment not only in dollars, but time. Most thru-hikers do it in 4 – 6 months depending on how hard they push themselves. However, I can now say that I have at least hiked 5 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. Only 2645 miles left to go!

Because of potentially stormy and windy weather this weekend, our planned hike on Granite Mountain was changed due to the exposure we’d be facing. Bad weather would have made it a miserable hike from what I understand. So we hiked a less exposed section of the Pacific Crest Trail north from Snoqualmie Pass to the “Kendall Katwalk”. Like last weeks hike to Snow Lake, this hike was simply spectacular and afforded breath-taking views. The weather was a mix of mostly clouds, a bit of sunshine, a little rain, a few gusts of wind, and even a couple of light snow flurries.

The trail began in old growth forest near the Alpental ski area, and climbed approximately 2000 feet to the crest of Kendall Ridge, 5-1/4 miles away. Along the route were spectacular views of Red Mountain and I-90 below. From the ridge, the trail rounds Kendall Peak to an overlook with views of Chikamin Ridge and Alta Mountain that I could sit and look at all day. We couldn’t take time to sit too long however, because the highlight of the hike was crossing the Kendall Katwalk, a short section of trail that was blasted across the granite face of a very steep cliff. It was pretty thrilling to walk across it! We lunched on the other side, sitting on the edge of the cliff before hiking back to the trail head and heading home.

This is the end of our training hikes. ( Two weeks from now is our main hike on the Wonderland Trail on Mt. Rainier. I am so looking forward to that. On Friday Sep 12th we travel to the White River Campground in the northeast corner of the Mt Rainier National Park. The LLS provides dinner Friday evening, then we’ll get up early Saturday morning for a full day of hiking. There are three hikes of varying distances to choose from. I’ve chosen the longest hike that goes from the campground to Indian Gap, about 18 miles round trip. Saturday evening, the LLS is hosting a celebration dinner for us to commemorate a successful fund raising campaign. Sunday morning there is an optional sunrise hike that we can go on and then we’ll pack up and head home bring to an end this wonderful experience. I’ll have full details and pictures for you upon our return!

Although the “official” fund raising for the LLS ended on August 29th, we’ve been told that donations can still be made either via check or via the on-line donation link on my website for a couple of weeks after the big hike. If you would like to make a donation yet and have not done so, now would be the time! Thanks to all of you for your support and gifts. None of this would be possible without YOU!

Happy trails!

Ron