Hike Report - Wallace Falls - 11/29/2008 (First of a series! =)
Hike length: 6 miles
Elevation gain: 1200 ft
Time in: 1hr 50m (Ouch)
Time out: 1hr
Guidebook difficulty rating: Moderately Difficult (wtf?)
My difficulty rating: Easy
Trail rating: *** (Typical forest hike, with some nifty waterfalls at the end)
Pack Weight: ~28Lbs (swapped out my leaking 40oz canteen for a 27oz)
Headed out to Gold Bar this morning to hike Wallace Falls, mostly as a test of a lot of things that were issues on my last couple hikes. I'm amazed at how non-rural that area feels to me, I clearly got spoiled by the Olympic Peninsula, where rural really means no people, not a house every .25 miles. Parking is now free (yay!), so I got my pack on and headed out at about 10:40am. The first mile was the worst (despite being the easiest), mostly due to not having been hiking or done much leg/cardio exercise for a while. Once I got used to the pack weight things got a lot better. Amusingly, the "hard" section at the end (last .4 miles or so) felt the easiest to me, probably because I'd finally gotten back into the swing of hiking.
Not a bad little hike, especially since its one of the few I can reach with my poor little Miata in the wintertime. It starts out on an ugly railroad grade, but moves into forests running along the edge of the Wallace River for the duration of the hike. You get glimpses of the river from time to time, and I imagine there might've been one decent view out over the cascades were it not raining. The three waterfalls in the last .75 miles of the trail are obviously the whole point of it, but if you find forest slogs boring, and don't like waterfalls, its not much of a hike. :P In typical Cascade fashion, it felt amazingly busy to me for being a rainy Saturday after Thanksgiving. Probably passed 20-30 other hikers. I miss the Olympics.
The good:
The bad (and how to fix it):
The road to Wonderland:
This is the first hike I've done since deciding I wanted to tackle Wonderland next summer. I set the bar pretty low for this one: Just finish it in my current state with basically no training. Surprisingly, I'm actually in much better shape than I expected. Even though it doesn't hit any of the appropriate muscles, obviously climbing has been good to me.
That said, this hike is half the difficulty of the easiest day of Wonderland. And The Enchatments' Asgard Pass goes up twice the elevation in half the distance. However, if I can rip this one out without any unexpected issues, and sans a couple of the expected ones, I feel pretty confidant I'll be ready come summer.
Next hike: I'm hoping I get my REI credit card (yay 15% dividend) in the next week or so. I hope to get a pair of trekking poles, new smaller bear can, stove and a few other missing essentials. That should bring me pretty close to full pack weight, so I plan to find a relatively easy and flat (but hopefully longer) hike to get used to the full weight pack and learn how to use the poles. Maybe Boulder River or something in the Issaquah Alps, since it has to be something I can reach in the winter.
So one short easy hike out of the way, but it did everything I wanted it to and then some.
Pictures:
As always, click on the image for the full gallery, but its not much to look at this time around.
Elevation gain: 1200 ft
Time in: 1hr 50m (Ouch)
Time out: 1hr
Guidebook difficulty rating: Moderately Difficult (wtf?)
My difficulty rating: Easy
Trail rating: *** (Typical forest hike, with some nifty waterfalls at the end)
Pack Weight: ~28Lbs (swapped out my leaking 40oz canteen for a 27oz)
Headed out to Gold Bar this morning to hike Wallace Falls, mostly as a test of a lot of things that were issues on my last couple hikes. I'm amazed at how non-rural that area feels to me, I clearly got spoiled by the Olympic Peninsula, where rural really means no people, not a house every .25 miles. Parking is now free (yay!), so I got my pack on and headed out at about 10:40am. The first mile was the worst (despite being the easiest), mostly due to not having been hiking or done much leg/cardio exercise for a while. Once I got used to the pack weight things got a lot better. Amusingly, the "hard" section at the end (last .4 miles or so) felt the easiest to me, probably because I'd finally gotten back into the swing of hiking.
Not a bad little hike, especially since its one of the few I can reach with my poor little Miata in the wintertime. It starts out on an ugly railroad grade, but moves into forests running along the edge of the Wallace River for the duration of the hike. You get glimpses of the river from time to time, and I imagine there might've been one decent view out over the cascades were it not raining. The three waterfalls in the last .75 miles of the trail are obviously the whole point of it, but if you find forest slogs boring, and don't like waterfalls, its not much of a hike. :P In typical Cascade fashion, it felt amazingly busy to me for being a rainy Saturday after Thanksgiving. Probably passed 20-30 other hikers. I miss the Olympics.
The good:
- I went on the hike! I slept like crap, overslept, and it was raining, so I nearly didn't go. I'm glad I did though, it was much needed. =)
- No foot pain! My fractured metatarsal in my right foot didn't bother me at all. I think its finally healing. If I avoid things that stress it (DDR, traditional pushups, planks, etc), and hope my new softer-soled climbing shoes don't bother it, I think it won't be an issue anymore.
- Minimal knee pain. I was most worried about this. I switched back to superfeet from my orthotics, and realized when I first felt a little pain on the uphill stretches that my stance was too narrow and it was making my knees travel outside the centerline of my feet. Switching that seemed to make it go away. I did tweak a tendon in the rear of my left knee on a steeper part by putting all my weight a little too much on the outside of it, but that went away quickly.
- Pack weight didn't bother me at all. This was also a big worry, since I often forget how much of a difference it makes. This is what killed me on mine and Heidi's Elkhorn hike. I'm only at partial pack weight, but I think if I make sure that I'm at least packing 30 Lbs for my day hikes, I should be fine.
- Despite how out of shape I am, the hike felt easy once I got used to it.
The bad (and how to fix it):
- I get winded way too quickly going uphill. This is a no brainer, I started smoking again a few weeks after Heidi left, and because of proximity to Thanksgiving (sister and brother-in-law smoke), I didn't think I'd be able to quit until after that. Since I was smoking until Friday noonish, that's a lot of it. (Quit now, staying quit now) Also, I need to start using my elliptical trainer more often. Hoping to start that on every non-climbing morning, or possibly every morning before work.
- 50mm lens too long, 10-22mm lens way too short. I don't know what to do about this. I think I might just get a compact that can live in my pocket for general purpose trail pictures, and drag the SLR out for stops and camp/evening photos. Changing lenses while hiking is a pain, and a long zoom lens either sucks or is heavy. This way I could just carry the 100mm Macro, and one wider lens (to be determinied).
- SLR is heavy. Switching to a compact would help so I don't have the 20D bouncing around on my neck, but if I decided to mostly have it packed, I might switch to a Rebel body. I mostly prefer the 20D for its ruggedness, but if its not out on the trail, I don't care as much, and the Rebel is 10oz lighter. If money were no object of course. :P
- Glasses fog up constantly, especially with rain jacket hood on. Need a new prescription anyways, and I've been talking about getting contacts for a while, so that's probably the best bet here. I ended up just taking them off for most of the hike.
- I suck at photography in forests. Need to go hiking with Vanessa and Todd and see if Todd can give me some pointers. :P
- Cliff bars are gross. REI gave me a couple samples. Yuck. Need to find an energy rich snack that doesn't taste like ass. Trail mix works I suppose. =)
- Mud/water on the back of my hiking pant legs is nasty. I should've worn my lightweight synthetics, they shed stuff better than my cotten hiking pants, and I don't need to worry about warmth unless I'm setting up camp somewhere. Also, need gaiters.
- Sweaty wicking fabric + leather seats is disgusting. Next time need to bring a change of clothes. (I'm a dumbass)
- I miss Heidi. Other than a forced march up Si when Heidi was mad at me to clear my head (it didn't work), every hike I've been on in over 3 years was with her. In part, that's my main reason for the drive to solo backpacking, it forces me to be comfortable in my own head again, and it makes something that was ours mine again. So, solo it is for now. Unless I fall madly in love with some intelligent, athletic and attractive girl who challenges me, puts up with my shit without getting annoyed, and wants to rock climb and distance hike. Any takers? No? Huh. Then I guess 2009 is the year of solo trekking. :P
The road to Wonderland:
This is the first hike I've done since deciding I wanted to tackle Wonderland next summer. I set the bar pretty low for this one: Just finish it in my current state with basically no training. Surprisingly, I'm actually in much better shape than I expected. Even though it doesn't hit any of the appropriate muscles, obviously climbing has been good to me.
That said, this hike is half the difficulty of the easiest day of Wonderland. And The Enchatments' Asgard Pass goes up twice the elevation in half the distance. However, if I can rip this one out without any unexpected issues, and sans a couple of the expected ones, I feel pretty confidant I'll be ready come summer.
Next hike: I'm hoping I get my REI credit card (yay 15% dividend) in the next week or so. I hope to get a pair of trekking poles, new smaller bear can, stove and a few other missing essentials. That should bring me pretty close to full pack weight, so I plan to find a relatively easy and flat (but hopefully longer) hike to get used to the full weight pack and learn how to use the poles. Maybe Boulder River or something in the Issaquah Alps, since it has to be something I can reach in the winter.
So one short easy hike out of the way, but it did everything I wanted it to and then some.
Pictures:
As always, click on the image for the full gallery, but its not much to look at this time around.