This past weekend, I took a short excursion into the Cabinet Wilderness of Western MT with Howard Ashby, my faithful four season backpacking pal. We left Thursday from Spokane and got to the trailhead on Cedar Creek about 5pm. We made it about 3 miles up the trail which starts at 2880 and goes to 7560 on Dome Peak. We hadn't hiked long before we started to get some snow. The wind kicked up and the daylight was virtually gone from the beginning, given we were hiking up a narrow canyon that runs north-south. We had hoped, hikers always hope for more than they can get, but we had hoped to spend the first night at the Lower and maybe the Upper Cedar Lake. The going was tougher and we were later than we wished. We chose to camp along the trail, abeit steep, rocky and heavily timbered everywhere we did find a small flat spot to pitch the tent and build a little fire for something hot before we crawled into our tent. Day two we were on the trail at 8 am and made the lower lake at 10:30. We set up a campsite and headed off to bag Dome Peak. It was breathtaking and the higher we got the more intense the wind and the lower the temps. I had 21 degrees at about 2:30 on top with gusts up to 20mph. The wind chill was dangerously low. We got off the mountain about 4:30 and made a hot dinner of speghetti, read some scripture and fell fast asleep. Sat was another early up and on the trail by 9:30. We had a great adventure and managed to get home in one piece and enjoy the comforts of central heat and indoor plumbing once again.
My take aways:
God's creations are immense and wonderful.
The commandments are my friends.
Enjoy the journey.
Converse with the scriptures.
Pray like a patriach.
Hope ya know we had a (good) hard time.
1 comment:
what an adventure! good thing you don't visit the loo as much as I do! freezy!
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