Life inside the headnet, or the Seven Fingered Jack

 Last year I spent about 1.5 weeks in a body of rock called the Seven Fingered Jack pluton.  It’s a funny area because unlike most of the North Cascades, the majority of Jack (as we like to call it) is not very rugged.  This is both a good and a bad thing.  Good, because travel off trail is pretty easy. Bad, because rounded hills don’t often result in bedrock showing through, this exposed bedrock is called outcrop. Mapping rocks without looking at outcrop is generally termed bullshit (obvious exceptions in places like the Himalayas).  Some of you may find humor in the fact that the area Kyle and I went on this trip was near Cougar Mountain.  If this doesn’t amuse you, don’t worry. 

Last year I described some of the wonders of this region: participating in the mosquito buffet (you are the buffet), the delightful trails carefully maintained by dirtbike travel into a delicate, blister-enhancing V, the dust baths, the lack of exposed rocks.  I won’t go into this again.  This year we did get very lucky that the Awesome Rangers of Awesomeness at the Entiat Ranger Station let us go through a locked gate and 12 miles down a rather rugged dirt road to access a trailhead- thus saving us about 2000 feet of elevation gain and loss and 4 miles of hiking (one way).  This doesn’t sound like much until you’re hauling 50-60+ pounds of rocks out of the hills. Thanks rangers of awesomeness!! 

The Crapsite

Dirt roads, hunh? Perhaps I should describe the car we are driving? A Chevy Sonic. It was red, some of that is showing through now.  Clearance on a chevy sonic? About the height of a pinecone.  Nevertheless we drove very slowly down this rough road and made it! Aw yea! We worked for about 5 days via backpacking, staying in a burned out dry meadow.  This campsite, chosen in a vain attempt to avoid the bugs, we named the Crapsitebecause it was so crappy- dry (no water, had to carry in each evening), dusty, bumpy, no good place to cook, and (this is the best part) buggy! 

The Tyee Lookout and the view.

Despite these minor trials, the scenery was really, really beautiful and as long as you were moving, you would never guess how many mosquitos were waiting to sample your bloody wares.  The outcrop was medium to not so great, but we hiked a lot of miles, which is our thing.

After the backpack we did a final dayhike up the Tyee ridge.  As a special treat, on Tyee mountain the USFS has preserved one of their Fire lookouts. You can’t go in, but you can walk around the deck and imagine how awesome it would have been to be there on a beautiful summer evening. At least we did.

Kyle and the Sonic. He's showering with our nifty solar shower.

We had a special surprise waiting for us after the dayhike- a lukewarm shower provided by our new  solar shower.  It’s essentially a big black bag that holds 5 gallons of water. You leave it in the sun and it heats up- ta da! Hot shower.  So way to go us for being clean.

Now we’re in the wacky Bavarian town of Leavenworth, where we’ve had drinks, eaten food made from fresh ingredients, and washed off. Tomorrow we meet with Bob Miller, mentor, committee member, friend, MS thesis advisor, and geologist extraordinaire for the FINAL trip of my PhD field research.  It’s almost all over but that Fat Lady getting on stage and airing out her pipes.