Sunday, October 12, 2008

Huckleberry Hike

I met up with my parents for a weekend on one of their favorite hikes - Goat Mountain near Mt. St. Helens. Beautiful place, with mountain vistas everywhere - but truly amazing amounts of huckleberries! Mom and Dad hike here every fall, bringing every Nalgene they own and returning with liters of berries.

I'll let the pictures do the talking, but there was one unusual event that took place before we went to bed. We camped on the ridge just off the trail, and were just making dinner in the failing light when a big orange-clad bear hunter with a bear gun showed up, lost! He had come up to hunt bear with friends (great), had headed out by himself from their camp, and gotten disoriented and lost. Apparently he'd been lost for ages wandering back and forth on the ridge, no food, no water. We hooked him up and gave him directions as best we could. Nice enough guy, but jeez get a clue....

Old dead trees in the Mt. St. Helens blast zone

The moon was incredible this evening

Yes, that is a half liter of Knob Creek.

Nice picture of Mom and Dad with the moon and Mt. Adams in the background!

Alpenglow on Mt. Rainier

The ridge we were on was insane. Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Rainier just in your face, and Mt. Hood off in the distance.

No pictures of the berries, but I think we brought out nine liters!

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