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Chiwaukum Journal
Page 1 - June/July 1998
Page 2 - June/July 2003
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*sigh* Ah, the younger years. I wrote this shortly after embarking on
this adventure, back when I was 13. (Can you tell?)
June/July 1998
My first backpacking trip was an experience I will never forget.
It really challenged me and made me see things (especially mosquitoes,
he he) differently. These types of things don't happen very often to
me, so I thought I probably should write down the details of the trip-
that way I can't ever forget them completely (which is highly unlikely
considering the different things that happened). Ok, enough of that
boring stuff and now on with the story...
The Preparation
It was June 28, 1998. It was one of the first really hot days of the
summer. My mom, my sister and I arrived home after church to
discover that my cousin, Anne was already there. This wasn't much of
a surprise since we were late getting back. Anne was going to take
Kira and I to Ellensburg to go backpacking and hiking. But Kira had
decided to ditch the night before, so it was just gonna be me and Anne.
So anyway, we ate lunch and were off. While on our way over, Anne
and I made the decision to take our long backpacking trip (the one
that Kira couldn't go on) on the first week instead of the second
week I was going to be there. After arriving in Ellensburg, we went
shopping for food for the trip. Then we tried to pack it into our
backpacks along with our sleeping bags, the tent, the little camping
stove, butane, the first aid kit, and just about everything else
either of us had ever possessed. It took us, oh, I'd say about 3 hours.
When we were finally done we weighed them and were shocked. You
see, we were only planning on taking about 20 lbs. of stuff up with
us, but with the food we each had about 35 lbs. We cut back a little
and got it down to about 33 lbs. Not much of a difference, but we
later learned that even a few ounces can mean the difference between
whether you can make it or not...
Day One - The Small Mountain
Well, Anne woke me up at about 8:30 (really early for me) and we
packed up our backpacks and Sheba (Anne's energetic and loyal yellow
lab) and left. To get to the trailhead, we had to go across Blewett
Pass, and start on Stevens Pass (about 11 miles into it). We passed
through Leavenworth right before Stevens and took our last leak in a
real toilet for 5 days. We also made a stop at the Ranger Station for
trail info. (there was none) and parking permits. There was
construction stuff going on at Stevens, so our 11 miles were a little
longer than we had hoped. Right after the Tumwater cutoff thingy, we
saw the Chiwakum Creek cutoff and turned in (almost getting killed in
the process). After we parked and let Sheba out to roam, we attempted
to put our backpacks on. Now, I don't know about everyone else here,
but I'm not really used to carrying 33 lbs. on my back up a trail in
the middle of nowhere. It was a very... enlightening experience.
Ok, anyways, the first 1.5 miles was a road - most of it on private
property - but part of the trail (don't ask). It was a pretty easy
trail, considering the stuff we would see later. When we got to the
real beginning of the trail, we were glad to know that we had already
gone 1.5 miles out of the 5 we would have to do that day. Also that
day, we would have to climb 1200 ft. Which isn't that much compared
to what the second say would be like. Every time we stopped to rest,
when we got back up, we couldn't go as far before the next one. We
were almost there when we came to a campsite. It wasn't by the
creek/river, so we didn't want to stay there, but Anne let me rest
there. She decided I'd better rest because 1 more step and I would
have fallen flat on my face in the middle of the trail (which isn't a
good thing - it's also a trail for horses). I was so exhausted I
could hardly move. Anne left her backpack beside the spot where I
was resting and her and Sheba went to see how far it was to the creek.
Meanwhile I had enough energy left to swat the many mosquitoes that
had decided that I was lunch. I got out the bug repellent (since I
was so tired, this took a few minutes) and lathered myself up. Anne
came back after about 15 minutes and rested. We would stay at a nice
spot by Chiwakum Creek/River. (the river thing is added by me. I
swear, this thing was a river!!) The campsite was a 5 minute walk
downhill, Anne had said, so we were off. The Creek/RIVER was really
nice. The campsite was a horse campsite, so there was lots of smelly
stuff and a nice, convenient, and HUGE root right where I was supposed
to sleep. Anne and I set up camp, ate dinner, and were in bed and
fast asleep at 9:30.
Day Two - Mosquito Land and The Large Mountain
It was Tuesday and 6:00 AM. Normally when we go camping, we wake up
at 5 or at least 5:30, but this trip was different - and not just in
that way either. We packed up and faced the realization that we had
to cross the Creek/River thingy. The campsite we were at led to the
horse ford. Since we weren't horses, we decided to take the fork of
the trail that led to the foot bridge. It was actually wider than we
had thought it would be, but crossing a RIVER on some lousy fallen
tree wasn't exactly on my list of things I gotta do before I die.
After the foot bridge we crossed through something I will never forget.
It was !!!MOSQUITO LAND!!! The whole place for about 2 miles was all
marshy and wet. Therefore the mosquitoes were everywhere - even worse
than at the creek. We were climbing a little, so we got tired more
easily, but we couldn?t stop because every time we did black swarms
would be all around us and they wouldn't leave us alone! I was
spending most of my energy swatting mosquitoes, rather than saving it
for the 3000 ft we had to climb. Finally Anne had an idea. We
already had our bandannas on our heads and were in long-sleeved shirts.
Anne had bought ponchos for us in case it rained and we put those on
over our clothes. Then we put our bandannas over the ponchos and
covered our nose and mouth. The mosquitoes still swarmed, but at
least they couldn't get to us. We stopped at a waterfall - this was
Glacier Creek/River, not Chiwakum Creek/River. After lunch, we
searched for a bridge across the waterfall. We did find it. It was
on the other side of the creek/river and stacked neatly. We had 2
choices: 1) ford the creek/river a little downstream from the
waterfall or 2) go across this foot-wide tree thingy that was about 7
feet above the water. We decided to ford it. That was an interesting
experience in itself, but the worst was yet to come?
After fording Glacier Creek, Anne, Sheba, and I stared at the
mountain we had to climb. I had 1 thing to say about it - no way!
Uh, no. I don't think so. Ok, ok, so that was 3 things. Anyway, we
decided we?d better get going. The trail up was steep and we still
had around 33 lbs. on our backs. It was overgrown and we still had
to cover ourselves. (we had taken off our ponchos since we were out
of mosquito land and just used sweatshirts - even tho it was 85-90
degrees) But it wasn't just the fact that there were plants
everywhere that made us put our sweatshirts on. We found out that
there was stinging nettles all over - the hard way. A little more
than halfway up, we saw something we had hoped we wouldn't. The trail
had been taken out by a huge rockslide. The only way across was
right over it. The only solid rocks were the huge almost boulder-like
ones. It was an extremely life-threatening experience - especially
since the only way down was almost vertical and if you slipped, you
slipped all the way down the mountain. Either before or after the
rockslide, I'm not sure which, we ran out of water. This was a bad
thing. This was a very bad thing. This was just plain bad. We went
about a quarter of a mile without water and when we finally found a
stream, it was all muddy and not very big. A ways after that one, we
finally found a clear stream. We were so thirsty that we just put
our hands in and drank - completely forgetting the iodine, which would
take about a half hour anyway. Anne got my water bottle out of my
backpack and I got hers and we filled them up. Sheba decided to lay
in the stream and cool off while we did this. It was only about
1.5 - 2 miles till we got to Chiwakum Lake. At our first site of
Chiwakum lake we were relieved. Anne was feeling sick and we needed
to rest. The total time it took to get to Chiwakum Lake was 7 hours-
for 4 miles. It took us a while to find a campsite next to the lake,
where we could get water. All the others were at least 150 ft above
the water and we decided we didn't want to do any high-diving that
day. Besides, even if we did, the water wasn?t deep enough and we
would probably break all the bones in our bodies. If that didn't kill
us, we would have died in a few minutes from hypothermia. Anne
decided that she wanted to rinse off in the water since we HAD been
hiking for 2 days. She waded in and I after her. When she was in up
to her thighs, she let out a quiet yelp and her face held a look of
shock. Once she could move, Anne ran out of the water as fast as she
could. I think I was out before she was. Back on shore, we looked
across at the snow on the opposite shore. I don't think either of
us will ever do that again! Anyways, that night we went to bed at
8:30. That was because we were so exhausted we couldn't have stayed
up much later anyway.
Day Three - Larch Lake and Cup Lake
Day three was an easy day. We only gained 1000 ft. and it was only
to keep us occupied. That night we were to stay at Chiwakum Lake
again, so we only took one backpack and it was only with our lunch,
snacks, the map, a few extra clothes, and other misc. stuff. A total
of about 10 lbs. and we traded off. There had been snow on the
opposite side of Chiwakum Lake from where we had camped, so there was
even more snow as we hiked up. It was only 2 miles to Larch Lake -
an 800 ft hike, and .2 miles - a 300 ft. climb - to Cup Lake from
there, so it was a pretty easy hike. We went thru the Ewing Basin, a
really beautiful valley, I guess it was. At one point we lost the
trail because of the snow. We ended up following this small stream
thingy, thinking it was the trail. The stream was in kind of a ditch
thingy that looked man-made, so we followed it. We made it to Larch
Lake and found icebergs floating in the water. It was pretty cool.
Anne decided that we probably wouldn't go skinny dipping in THIS lake.
After eating lunch, we set out in search of Cup Lake. There was no
trail, so we had to go by the map. I was tired, but we finally
decided to climb this cliff thingy to see if Cup Lake was in a tiny
Valley that we could see part of from where we were. This was another
life-threatening part of our trip. It wasn't completely vertical,
but it seemed really close. We could still climb it, if that helps
any. The problem was that the only way up that we could tell was over
another rockslide - it was either that or go across melting, slippery
snow. We chose the rockslide. Anne left the backpack back at Larch
Lake. We only had the map and a water bottle, which we tucked in the
sweatshirts we tied around our waists. At the top we stared down at
Cup Lake. It was almost completely covered in snow and ice and it
wasn?t really big at all. Here in Seattle, we would call it a
"Stormwater Storage Pond" or a "puddle" when it's been raining for a
month straight (he he). Anyways, our elevation was over 6000 ft and
we could see everything - including the far-off mountains around
Wenatchee. It was so cool! After a while we faced the realization
that... wait a sec! We hafta get down from this thing, don't we?!?!??
I decided that I wasn't going to even try to go back down over the
rockslide thingy. Anne decided she wasn?t either, so we had to choose
our path carefully around the few trees that were there and hold on to
shrubs and grass to stay on the mountain. At 1 point we had to cross
a patch of snow that went all the way down. Even Sheba almost slipped
at 1 point. Finally we made it back to Larch Lake and then To
Chiwaukum Lake.
Day Four - Down From The Mountain, The Mountain, The Mountain...
...far from the world I know...The way down was fast(er). We had to
cross the rockslide again. Let me tell you this - everything looks
worse on the way down. I froze right in the middle of the rockslide
and I couldn't move. Anne had to take her backpack off and come back
over to calm me down. I ended up having to take my backpack off and
leave it in the middle of the slide and Anne had to go get it. She
told me later that she thought that I was going to panic and push her
down the rockslide. That would have not been good. Anyways, it only
took us 3 hours to get down. It had taken us 7 hours to get up, so
we were making really good time. We forded the RIVER again (a few
days of 90-degree weather don?t just leave all the snow on the
mountain).Then we had to go thru the dreaded Mosquito Land again. We
went thru that thing (2 miles) in 45 minutes. That was pretty good
time too. By the time we got to where we had stayed the first night,
we decided that we didn't want to stay there again for 2 reasons: 1)
it's a bad campsite. and 2) we saw these really dark thunder clouds
coming our direction and heard thunder. If it rained, that
creek/river would raise really fast and wipe us out. We stayed at
the spot where I had rested the first day. After setting up camp, we
raced down to the stream to get water before the storm. Anne and I
both decided that 4 days without a shower was WAY too long and
attempted to wash our hair and wipe ourselves down a little. Then we
had to go back down to the creek to get more water. The storm was
coming in quickly, so we hurried. Oh, by the way, we got water in a
5 gallon water bag - not full, of course - so we didn't use the water
in our water bottles for cooking and stuff. We ate dinner and got
into our tent early. Sheba stayed outside for a while and Anne and I
talked. Then all of the sudden Sheba, who was behind the tent,
started to growl. At first I thought it was thunder, but Anne
insisted that thunder doesn't last that long (duh). Sheba wouldn't
stop, so I carefully unzipped the tent and, peered over it to see
what Sheba was growling at. It was a deer and Sheba was attempting
to scare it off by growling. I raced into the tent so fast that Anne
was freaking out cause she thought it was a bear. I looked around
frantically and didn't enlighten her till I had grabbed the camera
and was back outside the tent and taking a picture. (which didn't turn
out very well, by the way)
She was like, I totally thought that was a bear!!? It was funny!
Anyway, that night we stayed up till 11:00 talking about everything
from what my dad will be like when he's old to where fashion can go
next and the end of the world while the storm raged on. Oh, yeah, I
also figured out that I had gotten 91 mosquito bites the whole trip.
It wasn't really a surprise since my forehead (24 bites) and shoulders
(31 and 24 bites) were swollen to the point they looked like they
were about to explode. Anyway, it only thundered till later at night
when, as Anne told me later, it poured down hard for 3 hours straight...
Day Five - The End
When we woke up, the tent was soaked and there was a little sitting
water at our feet. After packing up it only took us 2 ½ hours to go
the last 5 miles of the trip. The last 1.5 miles, it rained. We were
glad to be back in a REAL car with REAL heat. After searching the
car for any loose change so we could go to McDonalds, Anne drove back
onto Steven's Pass. It was July 3rd and we were in Leavenworth - a
bad combination. Since Leavenworth is a TOURIST TOWN, the traffic was
really bad. We finally got our McDonalds and got out of that
interesting traffic hazard. When we were going over Blewett, we could
see that there was a huge thunderstorm right over Ellensburg. It was
raining really hard, too, making it hard to see the road. Anne said
something like, well, James and Grandpa won't be able to get much
done on the roof THIS weekend. Right as we were getting out of the
car at Anne?s house, Grandma Blanche knocked on Anne's window and
yelled, "hurry up!! You're room is flooding!!"
It didn't look like we were going to get any of our much-needed rest
THAT day!
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