DAY 1 - ARCHANGEL VALLEY TO UPPER REED LAKE
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| Upper Reed Lake |
We took our time this morning getting packed -- we didn't head out for the trail until early afternoon. Our first order of business was finding a park ranger who goes to Philip's church, as she had valuable information about the trail for us. She wasn't at the ranger station, so we had to track her down at the Hatcher Pass trail head. She told us that the way we were planning to attack the trail was backwards and much harder, so we should reverse the route. So we drove to the Arch Angel Valley trailhead and got our gear out. The park ranger showed up and told us that cars had been broken into and so we should park near the road, and she would give Philip a lift back up.
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| Our campsite |
We started up the same path as the Snowbird trail last year. I don't remember it being so uphill. At this point I knew it would going to be a long hike. My pack was unbalanced and was causing me discomfort. Also, I could already feel a hotspot on my foot, so that had me worried being so early on. The first part past the old miners' cabin was the worst -- muddy and steep. After the steep mud, it was mostly boulder hopping and the occasional steep incline. I'm learning that I like hiking when it's flat. The ranger said it'd take us 5-7 hours to get to the lake if we were good. It only took us 3.5. We made camp (on flat land this year!) and changed clothes. Then started dinner. We're not the only ones at the lake. Some other guy and his dog are setting up across the way. We scoped out the route for tomorrow. If we're right, it's a really steep, rocky sides. Almost straight up. Anyways, it's sprinkling rain now and 10:30 but still light out. I've got 1 bar of cell service and was able to update Facebook.
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| The three of us arriving at Bomber Pass |
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| On the glacier |
Day 2 was kind of rough -- definitely a long day. It was rainy when we woke up and it took me twice as long to pack up as it should have. The guy camping near us told us the route to the glacier -- although not the glacier we wanted. We worked our way up to a plateau before consulting the map and GPS. We opted to change direction, which involved lots of bouldering to maintain our elevation for Bomber Pass. Along the way we met a new friend, Bruce. He was also headed to Bomber Pass. He climbed up and the four of us continued on to the pass. The pass was pretty terrifying [ends up "terrifying" is a word I'll use many times throughout this trip]. There was a very narrow bit of dirt separating us from a long way down. To get down you had hug the rock face and leap from one footing to another. I thought I got it on film, but I missed it. Philip had a big rock fall on his hand and he thought it was broken for a few minutes. We worked our way down to the glacier where we put our crampons on and continued. Bruce and I took a less direct route, but less steep, while Rob and Philip opted for the shorter trip. I didn't see it, but Philip fell and slid about 50 yards on the ice. It ends up ice and rock treats the human body much like a cheese grater would. His arm, hands, and side got scraped up pretty badly. Rob administered some pretty awesome wilderness first aid and bandaged him up. We finally made our way to the bomber for lunch; however, when Rob went to pull his bear canister, it got loose and rolled about 300 yards down the glacier. So we relocated for lunch. Bruce left us after lunch and we continued on to the hut. Lost of rocks then tundra all the way. We made it to the hut, but people were already inside, so we're in our tents tonight. Stuff is still damp from last night, so we'll see how this goes. My toes are a little tingly from all the downhill and my right shoulder is a little sore from my pack being unbalanced. All in all, we gained 1500 ft in elevation to Bomber Pass then down 1300 ft to Bomber Hut. The lakes were beautiful, as were the mountains. Lots of mist and clouds though prevented us from having the best views. Tomorrow is Mint Hut and maybe home!
DAY 3 - BOMBER HUT TO MINT HUT
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| Climbing up the chute |
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| At the top of Backdoor Gap |
Today I thought I might die! We packed camp quickly and were on the trail by 9:45. We climbed rock for a while to the foot of the Penny Royal glacier. The glacier is 800 ft up over two miles. We hit some steep spots and it was iffy with the crampons. We also encountered some snow-covered crevasses but they weren't too bad. The steep angles combined with the snow that compressed under each step terrified me. At one point, I lost faith in my crampons and froze up. I couldn't move. Philip had to talk me through the last few steps and then I lunged for the nearby rocks. We also weren't sure of the location of the pass, so we were climbing a very steep slope without a destination -- not a good feeling. We finally found our pass and man, it looked impassible. Seriously. Like how in the hell does anyone climb over that thing? I had a bad feeling. We scrambled up to the spot just shy of the pass and were up against a near vertical wall with only inches of loose dirt to stand on. A misstep would have resulted in a fall down to the glacier, and then a slide of hundreds, maybe thousands of feet, followed by a certain death. We had to work our way along the rock face from the right to left. There were gaps in the footing, and awkward positions trying to get around juts in the rocks. I froze here too. I panicked. I couldn't move forward but there was definitely no going back. I had to suck it up, grow a pair, and just leap, hoping that I'd stick the landing, all with a 40 lb pack on my back, which could easily pull me in its direction. I couldn't hang on to the rock with all my weight because they were loose. Philip and Rob talked me through this as well. As Bear Grylls says: "time for a courage pill." Once over on the left side, there was a loose, sandy chute to climb to the top. Previous mountaineers had set up a belay rope, so that was a huge help. Rob also set up a belay rope around himself which helped Philip and I up the rest of the way. I got to the top and just threw myself onto the rocks. I wanted to have as much of my body touching the ground as possible. I was exhausted and shaking from all the adrenaline. I don't have any pictures of this whole thing because, obviously, I was busy trying not to die. We took some time to snack and then took a Victory Piss off the gap and then started down the other side. While a certain death was not guaranteed on this side, a broken ankle or snapped femur was very possible as it was very steep and rocky. We covered 1700 vertical feet in about 1700 horizontal feet, which means we were on a 45 degree slope. The clouds were very heavy which made everything wet and limited visibility to about 50 feet. I slipped several times and busted up my shins. I also bent the tip of my trekking poles. It took a good 3 hours to get down the mountain, but it felt like an eternity. We were all soaked through and my boot has come completely unstitched on one side (they're going back to REI). Once on flatter ground, we found the trail and it lead directly to the hut. There were 4 guys from Connecticut already there so we shared the space. It was great having a dry place to spread out. Not climbing into an already wet tent was nice. We have approximately 10 miles tomorrow, which should be relatively flat as we're following the river all the way out to the trail head. Then 1 mile up the road to the car -- then McDonalds!
DAY 4 - MINT HUT TO HOME!
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| That rocky slope to the dip in the middle was our path |
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| At this point, attempting to stay dry was futile |
Didn't fall asleep til late because I couldn't get comfortable. It didn't help that my sleeping bag was wet from the night before. Also, the guys upstairs moved, snored, and farted a lot. Finally, around midnight I took some Advil and went to sleep. Woke up frequently. Everybody started stirring around 6am, two full hours before we'd planned on waking. We hurried and packed up and were on the trail by 7:30. Since it had cleared, we could see Backdoor Pass and the descent we'd made the day before. It was intense. No wonder it took us all afternoon. This morning we had to do some more rock hopping for about 500 ft to get to the trail level -- more wet, slick rocks. After busting my ass several times we finally hit the valley floor. It took some time and a bit of bushwhacking but we finally found the trail. Lots, lots, lots of mud, many creek crossings, and the occasional beaver dam made up much of the trail. We had about 8 miles to follow the Little-Su River to the trail head. My boots busted out so my feet were impacted with mud. At least the cold had a numbing effect which minimized the pain from the blisters. The last 5 miles were less muddy and flatter so Rob and Philip were able to move much faster. With my feet feeling like bricks, I was really having to push through the pain. We were also singing the bear song the entire time. It goes something like this: "NOOOOOOOO YOOOOOOOGIIIIIIIII!!!! NOOOOOOO BEEEAAAAARRRRS!" We made decent time and at 5 miles we saw mile markers, which gave us hope. Of course the last mile felt the longest and by the time we reached the trail head, I was covered to my waist in mud and I could barely limp along. We changed clothes and Rob and Philip walked up the road to the car while I guarded the gear. In Palmer, we stopped for McDonald's and it was so good. All in all, this was definitely an adventure. I learned that faced with a life and death decision, the body can overcome a lot of things. I also learned that a good pair of boots are worth their weight in gold.
