Washington had a hot summer and many wildfires. In fact, we almost broke a record for consecutive days without rainfall. That is why today when I read about Australia’s addition of pink and purple to their weather map codings, it reminded me of the time I hiked Bandera Mountain (in the Snoqualmie Pass) during one of our hottest summer days. Wildfires were happening in nearby Cle Elum. If you check out the video at the end of this article, you will see a hazy sky.
Bandera Mountain starts off on the Ira Spring Trail. Ira Spring was a nature-loving photographer who did a lot for trail protection in Washington State, and he loved lakes, so it is fitting that one of the branch-offs of this trail leads to Mason Lake. The other connecting trail is the steep ascent to the 5,200 ft Bandera Mountain Peak. Littered with dry, dusty rocks, and a hillside scattered with long stalks of unflowering Bear Grass, the Bandera Mountain Trail wasn’t the most exciting idea when it was 90+ degrees out!
Before the hike, I alerted my mom that I would be hiking in bear country. Just short of sending her a picture of the “Beware of Bears” sign at the beginning of the trail, I let her know my place and asked for her support, as I would be going it alone.
I continued on and saw a few hikers on the trail. First, when I passed a mountain creek that ran over the trail, there was an Asian couple knelt over the stream collecting water for some reason or another. Then there was a couple making out in front of me at one bend in the forest. I’ll tell ya, their shorts were so short and their backpacks so big, that it looked like they were naked. Ha! All of these instances reminded me that I was alone and miserably hiking uphill into bear country. Great.
I finally got to the switchbacks and unfortunately, these were along a barren hillside closer to the sun then I wanted to be. I originally imagined there would be beautiful white, puffy stalks of Bear Grass to distract me, but all of the flowers were dead and dried out at this point. Then there appeared a well-manicured stone stairway out of the hillside and grudgingly, I followed it—up, up and up! It was quite the workout!
More evergreen forest appeared once I reached a certain altitude, and then a funny thing happened. As I walked along, taking my time to reach the forest’s edge, I heard: “Groowwwwu!” I could only see about 10 feet of the trail in front of me before it curved and entered the shaded forest. I immediately stopped in my tracks and prepared to fight. The next moment—an aged hiker appeared around the corner, and what do you know, he sent out another BELCH. It was the happiest moment of my life. I may have still had to hike 15 more minutes to reach the peak (as he told me upon questioning), and I still had the entire journey down. But, I didn’t care. God was on my side.
Upon reaching the top of Bandera Mountain, I gorged myself on the loads of blueberry bushes, and sat down to my favorite trailside snack of 2012 (and also my Thanksgiving meal contribution)—yams! This was the view!
Ashley Crane is on Twitter. Follow her at @WildAshC
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