The family headed to Southern Utah for Spring break, we spent time in Zions, Bryce and Goblin Valley State Park. While in Zions I wanted to hike Angels Landing again. I had done it in 2001 when I was just starting hiking and way out of shape.

My goal was to see the sunrise from the landing. However the shuttles start running April 1, and the first shuttle isn't until 6:30 am. Sunrise proper is at 7:10 am, but the sky starts lightening around 6:00 so I had to start on the trail by at least 5:45 to get up there in time.

I approached the park rangers to see if I could get special use permit to allow me to drive my car up and park at the trailhead, but they denied me saying it was only for extended trips, I tried in vain to explain that I was extending my start to be early but she wouldn't budge. So I dropped by a local bike shop and rented a bike in the evening at 8 when the closed and they said if I had it back by 9 am the next morning when they opened it would cost me the 2 hour rate of $18!

So the next morning I awoke at 4:45. At that time of the morning it takes me a while of stumbling around before I am fully awake. I layered up, put on my beanie, gloves and my pack and drove the car down to the canyon junction. There I jumped on the bike with my head lamp lighting a path, I pedaled down the dark tunnel that my lamp cut in the black morning. 3.5 miles later I arrived at the trailhead at the Grotto. I chained the bike to the fence and started up the trail around 6 am.

The trail is a work of engineering marvel cut out the cliff side it snakes back up refrigerator canyon before winding back on itself and then straight up the 21 switchbacks cut out of the cliff on the amazing Walters Wiggles. From there its a short hike to Scouts Landing, and you see the last half mile. Angels Landing is a narrow block of sandstone that rises another 500 feet in the air. This block of sandstone is connected to Scouts Landing by a narrow fin of stone, where steps cut across a ridge line that drops off 1500 feet on either side. The trail then ascends up the rocky ridge line of the Angels Landing to the top of the rise. Chains are placed along this entire length to provide some sense of comfort in what can be a vertigo inducing traverse. I wonder how many reach Scouts Landing to not attempt the last half mile, I feel really bad for those with a true fear of heights that go ahead despite the warning signs.

By the time I reached the chains the sky was dawning and I could see fine without the head lamp. A quick but concentrated scramble lead me to the top where I comfortably rested on the broad sandstone cap and waited for the sun to rise. It wasn't as spectacular as I would have liked, but it was wonderful to be all alone with such grand views up and down canyon. The cliff walls of the canyon surrounded me and rose above me another 1500 feet to the top of the canyon rim. I shouted a couple of times to see if I could generate an echo but the expanse was too broad and the void swallowed up my puny voice.

After hanging out for an hour and watching the light cross the cliff tops I headed back down the trail. As I did so I knotted my camera strap and clipped it on my chest. This allowed me to climb down with my hands free, but at key moments of stability be able to easily snap photos of the return. I wanted to viscerally document what it was like to climb down the chained section.


Photos of the return path :




After reaching the section just before Scouts Landing I encountered my first hiker coming up. We chatted for a brief moment before he approached the narrow vertigo fin where you get your first good view of the ascent. I paused from my vantage point and watched him contemplate the ascent. He stood for a long time looking up. Not wanting to embarrass him I turned and started down again, leaving him to face his fears alone.


As I returned I saw a father and a daughter ahead of me who had turned around. There were a few chains in an area that had some sloping where if you slipped and fell and tripped and tumbled you'd be in trouble but nothing like the chains above. However they were petrified, the father was holding onto the chains on either side of his daughter with her in the middle. I paused out of sight to give them time to make their way back, once they were down it took me about 5 minutes to travel what had taken them 25.

As I made my way back down the trail to the bike, I passed another 37 people. Glad I got up early and enjoyed the top alone. A hike highly recommended if your ever in Zion National Park.


Stats : 90 minutes hiking, 1 hour up, 30 minutes down. Hanging out on top along for an hour. 8 miles 1500 feet elevation gain.

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Pain Management

Battling Migraines

I am writing this down, for the same reasons people have written stuff down from the beginning of written language, so I don't forget. If I wrote it down on a physical piece of paper, I'd just loose it, this way its out there, but at least in a there I can find it. :)

Stacey gets migraines. This past weekend she could feel one coming on. Here is how it progressed. Saturday I took Miles out with me to I took Miles out the Middle Fork, while Sofi and Kiah went to ask out Christian Rennie to Girls Choice Dance for Kiah's first date just after her 16th birthday. Stac took a phenergran suppository Saturday evening to get rid of nausea, help her sleep and hopefully the pain would subside. Sunday the pain continued and she stayed home from Church, with the headache getting progressively worse. By Sunday evening she was throwing up and the pain had got to a 8 or 9 on a 10 point pain threshold and so we did what we always do : go to the Emergency Room.

The Emergency Room's response is to give her an anti-nausea medicine, usually phenergran suppository or zofran combined with a heavy narcotic like dilaudid or demerol. This numbs the pain and knocks her out, causing her to be very drowsy, sleepy. Unfortunately the narcotics are in such high doses she is out of it for 24-48 hours. We went home Sunday night, but at home the headache came back, she threw up again during the night several times. Monday I stayed home from work, and she made an appointment to go see Dr. William Kinnish her primary care physician. While in his office she ended up throwing up again. Since his office is adjacent to the Emergency Room he sent her back to the ER. I joined Stacey there, where they went through the routine of administering the same medicines along with an IV to hydrate her. After a couple of hours they sent her home, where unfortunately the headache returned as did the nausea, she threw up several times through the night. Tuesday morning she threw up several more times, but the nausea finally stopped and her headache gradually subsided.

Stac has had migraines for over 10 years. She used to get them in California and we traveled to UC Davis to see a neurologist and had the gamut of tests to rule out brain tumors and other causes. He had diagnosed her with tension headaches, which never really seemed identify a cause. When we moved to Seattle she started seeing a neurologist in Seattle, Dr. Sheena Aurora. Stac had a series of migraines last year from March through summer, but hadn't had one since last August. I put calls into Dr. Aurora's nurse triage line all day Tuesday, and got a call back in the late afternoon from the nurse who said she'd have Dr. Aurora call Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning Dr. Aurora called and Stac made an appointment to go see her in the morning, I accompanied her to try to get answers and a better understanding.

Its always nice to meet professionals who are the top in their field. Dr. Keenan was one of these, you could just tell she was top notch and she specialized in headaches. She explained the following :

A migraine is a headache with severity that it interrupts daily life activities. For Stacey at their peak they involve intense pain, throbbing and often nausea. They often correlate with her menstrual cycle. They can be trigged by tension, and or stress. Additional contributing factors can be high blood pressure. Stac's family has a history of high blood pressure, and she has been treated with high blood pressure medication. Migraines are caused by neurological and inflammatory response in nerves in the brain, sometimes called an excitability factor. The problem with narcotics is that they shut off the receptors, they numb, but the headache remains you just don't know it. Not only this but they are just physically numbing, staying in your system for days and they can have rebound properties where the headache and pain rebounds. There is however a drug specifically designed to stop the migraine process : DHE or Dihydroergotamine. There are two methods of intake, intravenously or subcutaneously via an injection. There is also a nasal version known as migranal, though its not as effective in its delivery. There is also a drug called topomax which is a neuro modulator and can decrease the excitability that leads to migraine conditions.

So our plan of attack for headaches going forward is :

• Get Stac regular massages to reduce tension
  
• Start Stac on topomax

If she feels a headache coming on

• Take a dose of migranal on day one
• If they headache continues the next day or blows up to a migraine then she should during office hours call the pain clinic and one of Dr. Aurora's nurses will administer the same day a dose of DHE and something for nausea
  
• Once we have demonstrated the effectiveness of this, Stac can self-administer DHE via an injection at home

So basically the ER is the last resort, only in the case of after office hours and even then we should have them inject DHE not narcotics.

Before we left Dr. Aurora talked about how she had been trying to change the world for 15 years, but had failed to reach primary care physicians. They don't care. Some of this has to do with the fact that headaches are very common ailment in our society and are often overlooked. Migraines are a special form of debilitating headache. Much of physicians apathy is not intentionally, they just have so many other issues to deal with, colds, weight, flu etc. And its so much easier to just write a prescription for a narcotic. However Dr. Aurora has found great effect by leveraging patients educating their employers and health care plans, because individuals with migraines understand their impact and can lobby to employers and health care providers to pay for treatments that prevent. For example she recently spoke at Starbucks to lobby the human resources to have Aetna for individual overrides to pay for botox injections as these have been shown to also prevent migraines. I think I'll try to set something up at Amazon.

It was good to go visit with a real specialist with deep knowledge in her field. I feel like I have much more educated understanding, and we have a plan. And with a plan we can attack the pain and maybe win a battle or two.

My Morning Commute

Small feats of Endurance of a Middle Aged Man

As I stepped outside, the temperature was surprisingly warm despite the 5:30 
am hour; the full moon hid behind some high spurious clouds. I hitched up my 
pack and started running...

The other day I was reading of Matt Hart's 100 Mile Ultramarathon in the Tetons, and I had this idea pop into my heard that if he could run a 100 miles (and 40,000 vertical feet), surely I could run to work. Such logic is nonsense of course, but I decided I'd give it a go. On Tuesday I schlepped me a change of clean clothing to work and returned home that evening without my pack or laptop. Tuesday evening I laid out my running stuff, threw in my pack a pair of normal shoes, a minor detail I had overlooked the day before and some water and a couple of cliff bars (the nectar and mojo variety).

5:15 am the alarm went off and I got up, brushed my teeth and got dressed. Off we go. I was surprised how right out of the gate, my lower calf's started aching, this has been occurring at work on my street runs during lunch as well, but never bothers me when I run on trails. I have also noticed that this aching is exacerbated when my legs get tired and I shuffle vs. rolling my heel to toe as I run. I have been chalking it up to the difference in how hard the street is vs. the trails, but it could also be that I need a new pair of shoes. I kept on going and after a couple of miles, the aching had faded and I had settled into a comfortable rhythm of breathing and leg moving. For me its all about pacing, not going too fast or burning out, I suppose its the same for the professionals as well only their pacing is much faster. I also find this is one reason why I don't enjoy formal racing with competitors is that in face of competition, I have hard time pacing myself.

I rarely hike/run/bike with music. Its a moot point to make now since I can't find my i-pod, but I generally enjoy the time to think; I enjoy the rhythm of motion and the surroundings. Long distance road running is a bit different, its fairly boring. And after a while its a matter of keeping the mind busy. Given the early hour the road I was on had little traffic and I started off counting the number of cars that passed me on the left as I ran with the traffic. As a car approached me from behind, the headlights made my shadow lengthen out in front of me and then my shadow rapidly passed me as the car passed. The passing automobiles left me with a distinct savoriness, as I could taste the exhaust as they blew by me. I got to where I could distinguish the the piquant of a bus on diesel from the bouquet of early 1980s Ford Panel van. Newer cars had little emissions and almost no discernible sensation. This contrasted with one of the reasons I love running trails of the lowlands; on the trail the abundance of flora inundates you in an oxygen rich environment. You can almost taste the pure clean oxygen which almost overwhelms you.

Approaching the one hour mark I felt great, I was nearing the top of the hill on Newport way, as I started down in to Bellevue the sky began to lighten. By 2 hours and 15 minutes I was onto Mercer Island. I stopped on "the lid" (the grass covered concrete area that is over the freeway) to take my shoes off and re-tie them a bit looser, and take out the tiny rock from my right shoe that had been bugging my big toe for the last 8 miles. By 2 hours and 45 minutes I was on the I-90 bridge. The sunrise was breaking across the sky, and I began to feel the fatigue set into my legs. Now it became a mental effort to not stop, to not walk up the hill, to not walk for 5 minutes, to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. As I approached the ramp up from the water to the Seattle side, I put my head down and just focused on one foot in front of the other. It was now a matter of endurance and mental stamina more than anything else.

Reaching the top of hill near Pac Med I crossed the freeway and ran down through the International District to arrive at work. 3 hours and 9 minutes 16.16 miles. Time to go to work.

Route :

Griffith 2007 Christmas Letter

Welcome to the Griffith Family Christmas letter for 2007. We continue our tradition of writing in the third person and sending electronic greetings in this holiday season. As always keep sending us your seasons greetings however you compose them, we love hearing from you. This year seems to have flown by, perhaps looking back they always seem to. It was a year of enjoying the great outdoors, (as summed up by our family photo this year), and a year of family gatherings, for weddings, funerals and reunions.

(pardon the formatting, but scroll on down for the rest of the letter)

Family
	In January Mark spent a week as a vegetarian, paying off what will hopefully be his last sports bet. Later the family gathered in Boise where my sister Jeni got married, her and Sean increased their family size to seven kids in total and they now drive a M.A.V (Mormon Assault Vehicle) for transport. We continued to have snow storms, even down at our lower elevation and we got out often to play in the snow up in the mountains. Miles fascination with trains continues; in February we visited the railroad museum in Snoqualmie, Miles loved riding the train out to Snoqualmie Falls and climbing around on all the old trains that were lined up on the tracks. In March as the snow melted and the spring began thawing we went on several hikes as a family on Cougar Mountain, jumping in mud puddles whenever we could. For spring break in April we did a family backpacking trip to Shi Shi Beach on the wild coast of Washington, twas a magical time on the ocean. In May for Memorial Day we drove over the North Cascade Highway, seeing the grand mountains with the snow retreating for spring. Stac and the kids finally convinced Mark to get one of those old timey photos taken, despite his reluctance for costumes. In June we visited Cannon Beach in Oregon, later that month my Grandfather Lindquist passed away and Mark flew to Logan as the family gathered for his funeral on Stac's and Mark's anniversary. Later in June Sofi, Kiah and Mark went on our annual Daddy Daughter camp out to Cooper Lake. For the Fourth of July weekend we drove to Utah, where we celebrated Stac's parents : Roy and Emilies 50th wedding anniversary. We then drove down to Provo for a family reunion, where we played at Seven Peaks water park and in Provo Canyon. Both Stac and Mark got matching copies of Harry Potter and read the final chapters of the series along with the rest of the world. In August the family went on a camping trip to Ross Lake, we had to drive 40 miles down a dirt road through Canada, and then boat in 20 miles. We loved the solitude and beauty of the back country lake wilderness. We didn't have much luck catching fish, but we had a great time jumping off the dock and swimming in the lake. September brought the return of school and a fall with more rain than we wanted, but we did get out picking tons of huckleberries, from which we made jam and still enjoy in pancakes (frozen). October we visited the Puyallup Fair where we gorged ourselves on fair food, and sadly following her husband, my Grandmother Passed away. The entire family drove down gathering with extended family once more for her funeral. Halloween was a grand time as usual, and we enjoyed getting together with friends and picking pumpkins. Just before October closed Mark went camping with Sofi and Miles. What was to be a rainy event, turned into a snowy trip full of memories that included whining and crying. In November we stayed in Issaquah for quiet Thanksgiving, we fried up some awesome potato donuts and reveled in the annual Turkey bowl, though the adults lost to the youth. December brought the first major storm of the season, our neighborhood fared much better than last year, however central Washington was ravaged by floods. Mark and the young men helped with the cleanup in Centralia. And the holidays approach, for our heritage its a Christmas season, where amidst all the consumerism we try to remember why and what we have to be grateful for.
Mark
	Mark continued his work with the young men in his church, they went on many outings : winter camp out, biking and camping at Ancient Lakes, Father and Sons camp out and Ross Lake canoeing High Adventure. In the fall Mark got a new calling with the church teaching early morning seminary (Sunday School) to high school kids before school. This means no more beard, shaving regularly for the first time in 15 years and waking up at 4:40 am. Last year Mark went a 1000 miles under his own steam, this year he attempts to do the same, but this time with no biking, on Christmas Day he has 29 miles to go. In pursuit of his getting out goal, Mark went on countless hikes (ok actually it was around 137) including some memorable longer outings : Guye Peak, Denny Creek carrying Miles, an attempt to climb Mt. Adams. While in Utah he climbed to the top of the Wellsville mountains, which he has dreamed of doing since he was in Jr. High and stared up at them every day walking to school. During their family reunion he hiked the 15 mile Timpanogos loop with his family along the narrow trail to the summit and back. Mark signed up with Summit for Someone to climb Mt. Olympus to benefit inner city children, it was an spectacularly amazing trip, where he witnessed one of the most fantastic sunrises. Superlatives don't do it justice, nor do the pictures. Much thanks to all those that donated to allow Mark to take this amazing journey and help get kids into the outdoors. In September Seth and Mark set out for Mt. Daniel and Cathedral Rock, only to get snowed on, but it made for some amazingly beautiful photos. October was another thru-hike to the Enchantments with Kyle, again in snow but with beautiful blue sky. Mark continued working at Amazon for the Fulfillment By Amazon team, (see a day in the life)where he works hard and engages in push-up contests. He had the opportunity to travel to Japan and then China, visiting Beijing and climbing the Great Wall was a dream come true after studying Chinese history in university. In November Mark turned 40 this year with a forest fire of candles and his wife gave him a helicopter ride for a present. Middle life has found him in better health than in his 30s, here's to 50! As the year closed, Mark ran 22 miles on Christmas Eve day only to return to his car to find it had been broken into and his Bible, wallet, cell phone and camera had been stolen. At least he has everything else, but he's bummed that he wont have his camera for a while. Mark is looking forward to a better 2008 and a new camera.
Stac
	This is Stacey and once again I am not writing in the 3rd person. I refuse. This year as Mark mentioned above has gone by very fast. It seems that just yesterday we were celebrating New Year's Eve with friends here at the house, eating yummy Chinese fire pot soup. This year I have watched my oldest baby go to High School, be in a play (that I would never have dared to try out for when I was in High school)and start learning to drive. I watched Sofi turn 8 and be baptized by her father and start 3 grade. I've watched (and experienced first hand) Miles run a million miles a minute. He does not stop. He keeps me going, makes me laugh and I relish all the time I have with him before he too goes to school (I have another year and a half with him because of his late birthday). I continue to be impressed and in awe of Mark's dedication to experience all the beautiful wilderness that surrounds us. I know that he receives peace, serenity and happiness while hiking, running and climbing and that makes me happy. I'm waiting for the kick in the pants that will get me up and doing even a small fraction of what Mark does in a week. I continue to read all the time. There is never a lull in between what I read. I still knit hats like crazy, especially during the cold months. I've learned to Crochet from my friend Heather and I keep making baby blankets for all the babies that have been born in our ward. Being at Mark's Grandma Lindquist's funeral this past summer made me appreciate my family even more. I still have my parents around. They visit us each Christmas, they came to Sofi's baptism and we see them every summer for two weeks while we visit Utah. We have good health, happy and kind children and at times peace in the home (when the kids aren't fighting,when the house is clean and we are all together eating dinner). Wishing you all the peace and happiness that you deserve this coming year!
Kiah
	Kiah is a beautiful mature 15 year old this year, she is finally in high school and happy to be there. Seems that the further she gets in her teenager years the longer it takes her to get ready when we go some place. She is a diligent student, always organized and on top of her homework. (Where she got that from her Mom and Dad always wonder since they were never like that in high school). She has almost completed her Drivers Ed class and has been bugging Mom and Dad to drive at any chance she gets, she won't be able to go solo until she turns 16 next year. Kiah was involved with the high school musical production of Singing in the Rain. It was a big time commitment and a lot of work, but she loved being on stage and learning her lines and the dances. Kiah really enjoyed being with her cousins this year at our family gatherings. Kiah and Stac went on a mother daughter trip to San Francisco this fall and had a great time reconnecting with the bay area that we left 4 years ago. Next year brings full on driving and dating, so we are sure its going to be an interesting one for both us and Kiah.
Sofi
	Sofi is in 3rd grade this year, she is a great little student and everyone in class wrote nice things about her in a class project, describing her as the "best jump roper in the 50 states" and "the nicest person at school". Sofi's got lots of spunk and is cute as a button. She will occasionally humor Dad by going on a hike with him and Miles, but is a bit leery after the snow camp out where she almost led Miles in a mutiny. She turned 8 this summer and was baptized. She is slowly moving away from dolls into clothes and music. She is quite the snappy dresser and always gets compliments on the outfits she puts together. One of her big wins against Dad this year was convincing him to not steal all her Halloween candy. Sofi could do crafts 24/7 if she could. The minute she gets home from school she wants to make something or show Stacey what she learned in school that day. She came home before Christmas break and asked us if we knew what "Roy G Biv" was. We said no. She then told us it stands for the colors of the rainbow, Red,Orange,Yellow,Green,Blue,Indigo and Violet. She loves to tell us stuff we can't remember anymore. She on occasion loves her siblings and plays (until someone gets hurt) with Miles really well. She is a strong willed kid, with a bit of an attitude that makes her who she is. Our beautiful,Strong,Curious and Determined child. She is going to be one fun teenager!!!
Miles
	Miles turned 4 this year, he is still into trains, especially Thomas the Train who he dressed up as for Halloween and who Miles got to see this year at a special event. He is also really into Transformers, this year his number one present he wanted for Christmas was Bumble Bee transformer. He has declared that he no longer gives kisses to anyone, that phase of his life is over for at least the next 12 years. He is full of a fantastic amount of energy, keeping Mom busy at home. He'll start pre-school in January for which Mom will be grateful. Miles best friend is Maggie Rennie, though they can be quite a handful together, this year at the church Christmas Party while chasing each other around Maggie ended up with big gash in her forehead and 11 stitches. Miles is always ready and willing to go hiking with his Dad. They went on many hikes together this year, one memorable outing was when Dad skipped work and they went hiking up Denny Creek together, where they "rock climbed", hunted pirate treasure and visited the land of ice and snow. They also went camping in November up to Talapus Lake, where despite the rain they managed to stay dry and have a great time. Stac and Mark look forward to his continued intensity and excitement for life, and hope we can keep keeping up with him.

As we've looked back, the year has indeed flown by, we look forward to 2008. We hope and pray that your new year finds you well, in good health and good company.

The Griffiths

Mark, Stacey, Kiah, Sofi and Miles

Potato Donuts

A tradition from my youth, my Grandmother Lindquist would make Potato Donuts. Here is the recipe for future generations.

• Mash together
  
• 5 medium size potatoes - peeled and boiled
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 1 cup of milk
• In a seperate bowl whisk together
  
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
• Mix ingredients with
  
• 3 tablespoons of baking powder
• 4-5 cups of flour
• Roll out Donuts
• dough will be very gooey
• spread flour out on rolling board or table
  
• roll out the gooey dough adding more flour as you go
• cut donuts with mason jar ring or cup
• deep fry in oil
• Donuts and holes can be rolled in sugar
• Donuts are better the day after
  

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The Magic Accordion File

Conversation overheard in Tullys

I was at a Tully's today sucking on the free wi-fi while working. I sat behind two guys talking over coffee. It was a Real Estate discussion between the Mentor and the Protégé based around how to be a successful Real Estate Agent. I am an incessant multi-tasker and I jotted down what I overheard and I thought I'd pass along the free advice, in case any of you are looking for a career change.

Go to Rite Aide and buy a accordion file, organize according to days of the week. Fill with contacts. Review them every day and move them from one day to the next.

Continually following up contacts them until one of 4 things happen :

1) They sell the house
2) They decide not to sell the house and keep it
4) They list the house with you
5) They list the house with someone else

Always follow up is not a hard fast rule of once a week, depends on the rapport you build with the individual. Its a tightrope not enough to be in their face but not enough for them to be let off the hook

Avoid being always at the point of planning and never at the point of doing

Great days to follow up with people are on Mondays after open house when they are frustrated

offer to do open house : money in the bank!

I am a big fan of taking away objections

The difference between myself and Mike is that Mike wants to "close the sale today and take no prisoners". I prefer to "kill them with kindness, and instead of getting 1 transaction because I beat them to death, I get 15 transactions over the next month"

I don't ever lose, I out-last. Its when you quit, you lose.

If you don't have fun, then what the &%*$# is it all about. I work so that I can play. There are people that live to work, I work to live. Most people I find that don't have work life balance don't have passions. I am passionate about fishing. I take my boat 45 miles out to sea and I catch big fish.

I don't ever want you to lie to me, If you lie to me I can't help you

Dawn Patrol in the Alpine Lakes

This was a record breaking Dawn Patrol, two brand new members, there just aren't that many people who are willing to wake up when its dark and start hiking. One of the main reasons I get up so early is because you always have the trails to yourself, another is so I can get out and get back without missing too much time from my family. Clark Thomson from church and Adam Kramer from work joined me. We met at the Target parking lot at 6 am and headed out for Exit 45 on I-90, Forest Road 9030 and Talapus Lake. Last year during the winter storms the road washed out, they noted at the time it may take upwards of two years to clear and I was worried they wouldn't re-open, but was excited to read it was clear again. I drove the 4 wheel drive, thinking the road repairs might require it, but was happy to see a regular car could make it fine. In fact when we left, there were 10 cars in the parking lot, but we were the first to arrive.

We set off in the dark our headlamps making halos on the trail. Just past the sign marking the border of the Alpine Lake Wilderness, where the sign points right to Talapus Lake, we turned left crossing Talapus Creek and reaching the north shore of the lake just as the light was beginning to brighten the sky. Fog settled around the trees and a light mist was falling. We put away the headlights and began hoping the boulders up the large talus field that spreads out above Talapus Lake. We climbed and scrambled up the rocks following the natural draw of the landscape that followed the outlet of Island Lake. The back of Bandera mountain rose to our left and we arrived at the bowl below the ridge the forms the lip of Island Lake. Here the boulder field steeply raises to the tree line. We followed the creek till things got really steep and then via vegetable belays made our way to the top and down the lake.

The wet drizzly rain continued to fall, adding a moody mystique to the woods. We made our way north from Island Lake towards Rainbow Lake. We came upon the first small tarn and I was taken a back by the strange scene. The tarn appeared to be full of milk, and had a watery reflection. A couple of pokes on the surface confirmed that the water had frozen solid and then an inch or so of water lay on top. Last weeks cold weather resulted in the freezing and the warmer rain had not thawed the frozen mass but lay on top. We made our way to the left of the tarn and tromped through the grass and the snow. We arrived on a ridge looking down on Rainbow Lake, traversing along the edge of the lake we rejoined the trail and headed east climbing up the ridge below Pratt Mountain.

We made quick time along the fairly flat trail heading east toward Olallie Lake. As we walked we passed a group of 7 or 8 who were heading west. Passing the Pratt Lake turn off, we jogged down the trail towards Olallie and passed several other parties. We paused at Talapus for a photo of the lake in the fog and then made our way back to the car. Back at Target we bad Clark farewell and Adam and I went to Chipotle to gorge ourself on yummy burritos. (I had the bowl). Looking at the map later this evening, I wonder if anyone has ever been to Lake Caroline, or Hatchet Lake or Derrick Lake. Always more lakes to explore, and always a future dawn.

Stats : 4 hours and 40 minutes, 8 miles and 2069 feet of elevation gain.

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