OK, well not literally on top of the world, I didn't summit Mt Everest, but it sure felt like it after my first mountain summit. I went on a hike with some friends from NWHikers.net, Dane and Fran. We threw some choices out and we settled on Teanaway Butte out towards Cle Elum in Eastern Washington. Now a "butte" means a large hill and that is what I was expecting, it turned out Teanaway Butte was really a mountain that was the tallest at 4770 feet in the Teanaway Mountain Range located in the Wenatchee National Forest.
When we got to the trail head, we were greeted by snowmobiles. All I have to say is those things don't belong in a National Forest or Park, they are noisy and you can smell the gasoline they are burning pretty bad. We walked in the snow to the Jungle Creek Trail head at 2192 feet and headed towards Liars Prairie and snowshoed for about 4 miles climbing about 400 feet. most of it was towards the end. Once we got there we headed southeast and into the woods. I had no idea what we were getting into, Dane just told me we haven't gotten to the hard part yet! Was he right!
As we approached we started going up the false summit. Just when you think you have reached the top, surprise! There is more to climb! Here we had to hike, or should I say climb 2100 ft in about a mile. We were literally going straight up. Your leg muscles start to burn, your knees want to give up, your body tells you to stop, but you keep going. Off goes the jacket, then the fleece, then your gloves, and you basically stop there unless you want to hike nude and have t
he snow sunburn you. You grab snow to cool down take a breather and up you go. The false summit is one little mean sucker, you think you are just about to get to the summit and look up to see there is more to go. As we went up Fran and I had to catch are breaths as Dane pulled away (he was the youngest of the three of us at 22 yrs old, Fran and I were both 10 years older than him). When we got to the top there was Dane soaking in the sun. We were finally at the summit!
All I can say is it feels great! There is nowhere to go higher, you feel like you are at the top of the world. You can see for miles and miles. We could Mt. Rainier (tallest mountain in Washington) towards the south and Mt. Stuart (the 6th tallest mountain and 2nd highest non-volcanic in peak in Washington) to the northeast. You can also see the Columbia River Valley to the east.
We ate lunch and looked around and found the remains of the foundation of an old fire lookout that use to sit on top of the mountain. Fran told me once you climb a mountain peak you get addicted and she is right. I plan to do a lot more in the future. Something I was surprise at was my right knee. It sure held up and it didn't hurt, but that was soon to change.
We then decided it was time to go. We started going down and I started feeling that sharp pain in my knee when I put weight on it and bended my knee to step down. So I decided to slide on my butt for about 200 feet. Then we looked at our maps and decided to look for the less steepest descend down and we decided to follow the side of the false summit down. I don't think I been on a hike were a map was the most important tool along with an altimeter to find out how high we were to find our location on the topo map. The only time I have used a map were finding our location was crucial was on that hike to Kanim Falls last year.
We finally got near the area where we had departed the trail on the way up and I was able to find our way out to the main trail. From there on it was one long hike back. We would stop for a break here and there but I knew if we stopped I would have to keep my right knee moving to keep it from stiffining and making walking impossible. We got to the car at 6:30pm and ended up using our flashlights the final 3/4 miles. It took us about 8 hours round trip and about 10 miles.
We stopped to eat in Issaquah and I basically limped out my car. Dane and Fran weren't driving so they had beers and Dane went a step furter to numb his pain by drinking a shot of whiskey straight up. When I got home it was 10:30pm, it was the end of a long day that started at 7:00am when Fran showed up in the morning. Poor Fran still had to drive up towards Northgate. Going up the stairs took me about 5 minutes since I had to go one step at a time and I couldn't bend my knee and my left hip hurt when ever I moved my leg to go up the stairs.
Today my knee and hip pain is gone, replacing it is my sore legs and my left ankle which I had a 4th degree sprain (the worst kind of sprain you can get) 2 years ago hurting. Well that means one thing, more muscle!
I can't wait for my next summit!
