Mt. Adams Trip Report - 7/6/01

“This camping trip was in honor of Nomad & Meerkat getting married. They are both long time posters to tt, but after meeting each other, they haven't visited tt for awhile.

This is the list of tters that attended their camping wedding reception, Lookingglass, Tekky, Alpine, Trailartist & SARboy, strider & his friend Erin, Nomad's friend Tom, Chinachas, and Freedom. Freedom flew in from Sacramento, CA to hike with everyone.

We camped at Peterson's Prairie, and day hiked from there to Sleeping Beauty Peak in the Gifford Pinchot National Forrest, west of Trout Lake.

The hike was steep all the way up. For me, it was a thigh burner. The views from the summit were of Mt. Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and the Goat Rocks Wilderness. The snow-capped mountains were joined by miles of evergreens. Needless to say, the views were spectacular, and the weather was perfect.

After we hiked, we went back to camp. Strider, chinachas, and Erin returned from their trip to the Goat Rocks Wilderness, and joined us on another outing to explore lava tubes, and natural bridges. The temperature in the cave was approx. 50 degrees.

We returned to camp for cocktails. It was a full open bar w/hard liquor, wine, and champagne. Next was dinner, and as usual, there was an over abundance of food. Everyone brought a steak to barbeque. Tom made corn in the wood burning pit, and it was delicious. We also had beautiful big bags of packaged triple washed lettuces, baked beans, skillet fried potatoes, hummus, three-bean salad, fresh baked pastries, brownies, and a chocolate frosted chocolate cake. I hope I didn't leave anything out.

Next came more cocktails, while sitting around the campfire. We shared stories, information, looked at the stars, and spotted satelites, and laughed a lot until 12 midnight. Atleast that's when I clocked out.

The next day, everyone ate breakfast, and we talked some more. When LG & I left, it was being decided if the crew were going to do another hike or do more caving. We left at 11am, because it was a 5 hr drive home. It would have been 4 hrs, but we took the scenic route.

Fellow Sleeping Beauty Peak hikers, please fill in the gaps or your views on the hike. I will have the pictures up in a day or two.”

“Now there's a unique reception! It sounds like a wonderful weekend for everyone involved.”

“We've all been e-mailing each other about the this trip. It's all been wonderful. This PNW group is the best.”

“A good time was had by all! The trek up Sleeping Beauty was a workout. Didn't realize how much of one - until I saw the photos that Lookinglass took of me at the top - I must've lost a couple liters on the way up! The views were totally awesome. The intro to caving was very cool too. (Not afraid to admit I've never been in a cave without handrails and electric lighting before.) The food and company were uniformly excellent - as always. Great group of people - and all excellent cooks. I'm afraid I over-indulged and didn't get to sample Dead Guy's corn on the cob though. :o( Maybe next trip :o)

All-in-all, I can't think of a nicer way to congratulate a very nice couple on the launching of their lifetime adventure together.”

“The plane has landed back in Sacramento... :o(

Thus meaning the return to the evil "workplace" Tuesday.

Thanks for a wonderful time everyone!”

“Yikes..is this me? posting? been a while!

First of all... where are the pics lipstick?

Yes this was defenatly a great car camping trip.. with lots of new adventures.
I for one have been hinting to Nomad to take us caving for a while now..and i finally got my way! Thanks to him and his caving comrad Tom. Lipstick covered the first part pretty well..as we all get pictures up it will be a bit clearer as to how great the weather was and the views and the whole darn thing.
After Lipstick and Looking glass left we slowly lost a few more... Chas took off to do the honey-do's at home, and Strider and DeadGuy (aaron) left as well. Tekky took off and that left Alpine, Freedom, Nomad, Meerkat, Tom, SARboy, and myself. I finally convinced them to take us to another cave..having had my appetite for them started with the two icecaves and the briges cave the day before. This one was supposed to be a lot bigger and it sure was.. we all packed up and followed Tom over a rutty dirt road and then attempted to follow him as he carefully picked the most obscure and non trailed rout about the brush and undergrowth.... he would stop..take off his hat for a sec..wipe his brow, mumble, look around, don the hat again and take off in another direction..the whole time Nomad is mumbeling about Tom's immediate death...lol...well after a bit of zigzagging we found a "sorta" trail and then the cave intrance..i think it was all a way to keep us from remebering how to get to it again... (didn't work with me! I have spent too much time mushrooming off trail to be fooled by that ! I would not say the same thing for the rout in the cave though... Tom later proved that it is a darn good idea to look behind you as you enter different rooms...i on the other hand stared at the ceiling and floor alot.) So this cave we finally entered was defenately more complex than the others we had explored. There were alot of side shoots and cross roads. The forst thing i notiiced on the floor were some droppings that i was informed were from Bushy-tailed pacrats. But we did not get to see any of them.. just there little fertile gifts. This cave had a pretty smooth floor so the gowing was a little easier...not too many boulders to manuever about. We went on through the first main room .. ignoring a few side shoots.. one side shoot though..was really tempting.. you would have to do a bit of climbing to get up there... maybe another time....we were led back further into the cave... splitting off at various junctions. We got to see some ceiling formations..and some really neat Floor formations called rock roses. We also got a taste of lights out. And this is when we were told of the importance of three sources of light..yepers .. be near impossible to find your way outin such a complex cave with out any light. Then it was up to the rest of us to lead the way.. out.. i took off pretty confident ..untill i got about two rooms back.. oops.. this was the place i had been staring at the neat shelf in the ceiling... hmmm. Freedom on the other hand seemed to remember...thanks freedom. we did a bit more side shoot exploration and then took off towards the entrance where i proved that i don't remeber how to use my timer on the camera.. so i will not be in the group shot that i took. When we made it outside again..it was way too hot. Time for something cold to drink... Tom took off on his own (probably had had enough of us goof balls) Tjhe rest of us went on into Trout lake where we got icecreams and drinks and sat out on the benchin front of the store..SARboy and I rescued the last too kittens that were sitting out there...free..and took off down the road.. gifts for my mom..who has been wanting a couple kittens for a while... we are now keeping the for a few weeks till we head on down her way.
Great trip...great food...great drink...and great company... enjoed seeing old friewnds and meeting some new ones... hope it happens again soon!In the mean time I have got to get to know soe cavers up my way.. with Tom and Nomad being pretty far south of me.. i just don't know how i will get to go caving again anytime soon.. defenately not byourselves though... Proved to myself i was not ready for that....lol...oh damn.. did i just find another hobby? do i need more gear? yippy!”

“Sounds like a wonderful trip gang. Pictures????

Trailartist, don't feel bad. I did the same thing with my camera on the Lost Cove trip:-( I still can't find the darn manual.”

“it sucks , don't it?

did i mention SARboy and i inhereted three flamingos? one who claims to be Freddie himself! His twin and there little winged friend..lol... three flamingos in MY garden! oops..OUR garden...tehe get in trouble for that one!”

“Well, Im pretty new around here, but that sounded like one awsome trip. Congradulations what a wonderfull way to start your life together to cool...”

“And then there was the Preamble...

On the 4th, Dead Guy and I headed into the Southern section of Goat Rocks Wilderness. Past Walupt Lake, up and across the PCT to Gertrude Lake for the first night. From there, North on the PCT to Sheep Lake. Third day was a dayhike up to Cispus Pass, which required some work on fairly steep snow. China Chas wandered up the trail Friday while we were up at the pass, and there was ice cold beer (miracles do happen) waiting at the end of the dayhike. Saturday, it was out Nannie Ridge, back down the hill to the cars, and off to the car camp hoot near Mt. Adams.

Great weather, great scenery, few bugs, sunsets and moonrises... gooood company, and beer in the snowbank 5 miles in. Not a perfect trip, but very very close.”