Mt. Ellinor

Finally!! I am posting about this! Sheesh.

I can't believe I have lived at the base of the Olympic Mountains for most of my life, yet have never done the famous Mt. Ellinor climb until now. Several weeks ago, Dale came home from work and said that he and a group of his co workers were planning to do this hike at the end of August. "Can I go too?? Can I go too?? Can I go too??" I begged like a little kid. I didn't want to be left out of this fun adventure.

Eleven of us went. I was not the only tag along. One of Dale's co workers brought his son, and another brought his sister.

We met at the trail head, bright and early. The weather was iffy. Not raining, but definitely foggy and cloudy. We did end up lucking out as the rain held off, surprisingly, until we got into our cars to go home. But I am getting ahead of myself.

For some reason, I had it in my head that climbing Mt. Ellinor wouldn't be that hard. Not because I think I am so in shape that I can ascend a mountain while filing my nails, but because it is part of a national park and the trail is maintained by the Forest Service (miss you, dad). Why I made this connection, I will never know. Like, hello, you are climbing a mountain.

See the two tallest peaks? Ellinor is the one on the left. (I did not take this beautiful photo)


Here we are at the trail head.





The trail starts out innocently enough. It's very beautiful.





We took several breaks. The trail may be pretty, but it is (duh) all uphill.


The exposure on the this photo was way off, but I kinda like it anyway.





Have you ever seen purple pine cones?


About mid way, you go through this strange rocky section. You can still make out the trail here as the rocks are stacked to make steps.





Here it gets pretty steep and we were about to go up through the cloud cover.
We stopped to refuel before the hike got harder.




That's the trail that winds up the hill behind me. Steep, huh?


This is my favorite trail mix. It has bits of dried ginger in it...and oh, how I love me some ginger... I, personally, am not sold much on powerbars and such while doing lots of physical exertion. This stuff is great. The chocolate chips give you quick energy, the dried fruit provides energy for the long run, and the nuts give you the protein to help rebuild muscle. Yes, I do treat myself to a little sugar in times like this.


Dale's hair from all the moisture in the air.


We had a nickname for these steps: The Dalai Lama Stairs




We finally reached the summit. Just shy of 5000 feet elevation. Woohoo!
As you can see, we were surrounded completely by clouds, so instead of a view of Seattle, Shelton, Hood Canal, the ocean, and the Cascade mountains, we pretty much had a view of...uh...not much. Lotsa white.

Here's Dale with his buddy Alex.




While we had lunch, the chipmunks did do. They will almost eat out of your hands, but they are pretty skiddish.



Dale took these LOVELY shots of me eating a banana.




I was a little disappointed that we didn't see more mountain goats. We only saw these, from far away.



So as we're hanging out eating, my lens cap somehow turned into a wheel and rolled down the rocks, landing somewhere between Mt. Ellinor and Mt. Washington. We could see it, so I attempted to retieve it.



This next photo shows my priorities:
1. Very Most Important- not loosing my grip on the beef jerkey in my right hand.
2. Also Important- not falling off the mountain.


Alex ended up being the hero of Operation Rescue Lens Cap



Here we are!!