Granite roof top of Borneo

On the day I slid down a waterfall in Uvita Costa Rica, and plunged into the cool refreshing pool below, I committed to doing something each year that scared me.

I've revised the annual goal. It's not really that something has to scare me; instead, something has to challenge me physically and mentally, to count; something that sets me at the edge of my comfort zone.

For example, since that waterfall watershed I bought and house a pet snake. I gave a webinar to over 100 people. I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. I biked across Canada. I hiked 100 miles around the base of Mt Rainier.

I continue to push myself for my love of mountains and mountain culture. It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. Mt. Kinabalu was another challenge.

We woke in the sunrise in Kinabalu National Park with a clear view if the mountain. After a decent breakfast at the Balsam Cafe, we took a mini van 5km uphill to the trailhead, where we were issued our permits on colorful lanyards.

The downhill to the Carson Waterfall was a tease. It was nothing but uphill after that. Warm uphill, steep long stairs, well maintained trail with rest stops with modern toilets (likely the modest mostly Muslim Mayla culture for covering up means a nature pee is frowned upon.)

I could feel the altitude most just 400 meters from the Laban Rata rest house, and struggled to arrive at the  Himalayan style bunk house (10k) with a smile. In fact, the shortness of breath was nearly panic inducing and I was holding back tears, as I entered the place. Maybe it was the motivational and mountain life quotes on the pinterest-style gallery wall, but I actually weep, some, with joy at arriving.

A buffet dinner at 4:30 and then quick to sleep. At dusk, I felt the bunk beds rattle. While Mt. Kinabalu experienced a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in 2015, setting off a landslide and rockfall that killed 18 climbers, this was simply my bunk mates admiring the sunset, pulling back the little curtains and oohing and ahhing.

The alarm went at 1:30, giving me time to get to the bathroom and take supper before pushing off at 2:30. The two hardboiled eggs from yesterday's lunch made for a great line-avoiding meal, with Sabah tea.

Again, it's straight uphill. Staircase of dipterocarp hardwoods, rope handles, fade into shear granite slabs above the Sayat-Saysat checkpoint.

The exposure was a shock to me, almost scary, and it took a while to shake it off. In the dark, not clear of the consequences of a fall, and wind knocking off my weary balance. Even with earplugs, my Houdini jacket fluttered like helicopters on my shoulder. It was deafening and disorienting. The ropes are heavy and I straddled them in some places hoping to make it all easier. Then I zigged and zagged.

Then, sunrise and the last 100 meters of hand -over -hand scrambling to the summit. I had a wee glimpse of alpine glow, before cloud cover obscured St. John's Peak. Swirling winds. Othorgraphic clouds up from the ocean. And drifts like a paraglider, curved light, and lofty, swooping looping over our descent.

Imagine a glacier, from 13K to 10K, yet no ice and no crampons. Just smooth granite and some ropes. I would have been more confident and comfortable with crampons and an axe. Then a grueling down hike that pounded the quads so much that three days later, despite yoga and walking, still hurt on every little staircase.

But, again, I found joy in the mountains. During the descent I sat for a while listening. The wind roared through lowland trees. Frogs, and birds, sang to me.

The Wonderland Trail--14 days and a dozen vingettes

In an effort to challenge my writing, in addition to my hiking, I plan to write about the two weeks on the Wonderland Trail, not as a day by day play by play, but as thematic vignettes. I created the following few working titles for each upcoming vignette. Click on the bold title to read more. 

Goats in the Gap: Wildlife

Blurry on Purpose: Photography

Out of the Mystic into the Mist: Weather

Funky with the Mist on: Wildflowers

Braids like Ropes: Hair and Hygiene

Cairns and Crossings: Trail conditions

Moss Grows on the North Side of our Bones: Being here

That Tree has a Beard: Fellow Hikers and the game of Telephone

The Vaccinium debate: Trail food and nomenclature

On the Up and Up: Elevation

Intense: Shelter

Stay tuned for photos and snippets, wisdom and wit from The Wonderland.  

Permit, rations, and bicycles--A prologue

If being at the ranger station 2 hours early was good for friend, Jaal insisted that being there 3 hours early was even better. We left Tacoma at 3 a.m. Jaal drove in the dark and by 4:30 I pulled my sleeping bag to the bench and front of the Rangers station for two more hours of sleep, having driven to Tacoma at 9pm, and only returned to Seattle the night before, at midnight, mind you, from a trip East.

Mount Rainier National Park Longmire Wilderness Information Center

The pre-dawn light was beautiful and at 6:30 our first fellow hiker joined us on the stone stairs. Diane was from Chicago, and had stayed the night with her mom in the Longmire Inn, walking over with her full pack, ready to go.
I noticed she had Red Fraggle strapped to her pack and asked her about it. "Family rule", she said, "Never hike alone. So I always bring a buddy." She is a pre-K teacher and this would be her second attempt at circumnavigating Rainier. Her mom would help her drive around rations, while day hiking for a few days.

When the doors opened at 7:30 on Thursday morning, we were first in line. Ranger Rachel helped us with our permit, 20 minutes of problem solving and clicking drop-down menus from a clunky 90's computer program. Finally, we had something. She smiled. Our dream plan, the one we had submitted in March, was to start at Mowich and go clockwise for 14 days. Ranger Rachel switched the trail head start, and our direction, to give us nearly all of our camp choices, and help us meet our goal: to hike around the mountain, to go slow, to enjoy The Wonderland Trail. Plus, our permit would start Friday. That gave us the whole day to mellow into things, drive our rations around, and communicate our logistics to others at home. In planning more, we headed back into the ranger station to look at the relief map and trace our route up and over bumps and blue river lines. I also noticed a night skies program for Friday night at Cougar Rock Camp where we'd be staying. Opportunities await!

We left Longmire for Carbon River. It didn't take long to start noticing the cyclists climbing up hill to Longmire. After a huge peloton, I realized today was RAMROD. 155 mile bike tour around the mountain. Closer to Eatonville, I noticed 4 women cycle -touring in our direction. I rolled down the window and cheered them on as we passed them. Then not too long after, they walked into the Eatonville bakery, where we were having second break fast. These gal friends from Texas and Georgia were on a week long tour from Spokane to Seattle. This was their fourth annual trip of the kind, traveling domestically and riding for a week together. Of course, we talked and talked about touring and warm showers, and my transition from tarmac last summer to dirt and wildflowers this summer. Being from the south, they didn't find the heat to unbearable today. The hottest part of the day was yet to come.

Me and the gaggle of gals riding from Spokane to Seattle.

The volunteer ranger at White River Ranger Station taking our cache.

Cashing are food at the Carbon River Ranger station and the White River Ranger station was pretty easy. We were happy to learn this morning that park rangers would actually be driving them up to are pick up location (Sunrise, and Mowich Lake) due to limited space. We had thought would camp Thursday night at the White River campground, but by the time we had stopped in Enumclaw at Taco Time and for huckleberry ice cream at Wapato Woolies in Greenwater, all the first come first serve car camping sites were full. So we looked at the map. We found a very small campground just 0.4 miles off of the road halfway between white River and Stevens Canyon. We walked back into the Ranger station and ask for a permit, got it and headed back down the road.

As we packed up to head into our overnight camp, we caught the tail end riders for RAMROD. I cheered them on with Allez allez!, and high fives while running along side them through the car pull-out. One rider said her Garmin was reading 99 degrees Fahrenheit. I knew exactly how she felt, having been there a year ago, crossing the Canadian Rockies with the tarmac reading 42 degrees Celsius. I've been there knowing that just a little encouragement from a stranger can go a long way for motivation. I was motivated by these riders for my own dirt and wildflowers adventure.

And just like that, after months of planning, and a day of logistics, and a 15 minute hike, by quarter to five pm I was sitting along Chinook Creek resting in the shade and enjoying the nature, the stillness, and the beauty of Mount Rainier National Park. From my mossy seat, in a rock carved just for me, I really couldn't help but think it ironic that I ran into four cycling women and a plethora of RAMROD riders today of all days. As if I was being reminded to take all the lessons from the spokeandstories adventure into this one.

Deer Creek Falls

Shi Shi Beach, Olympic National Park

the forested trail

Friday -Sunday: August 9-11, 2015
An early morning start, got us on the 7:10 Edmonds Ferry. Smooth, yet winding roads to Neah Bay, a parking shuttle on Makah Nation land, and then we geared up. Of course, I knew someone at the trail head, which was great, as we needed another bear canister and I borrowed it from Salmon Bay science teacher Joel.  I failed to redistribute all the food into other's packed, and waddled off with the most weight. We were on the trail by noon.

The 2 mile trail through the forest was cool and lovely, with a few damp spots that on our return out would be downright muddy. The trail dumps into the National Park boundary, just as it drops off the ridge to the beach.

Lisa, Amy, Denise, and Ange enter ONP

At the park entrance: No pets, weapons, or wheels.

Descending the trail to the beach. 

 Exiting the forest is so fun that each gal got a reaction photo shoot, as this was a dream trip for Amy.

Denise

Lisa

Ange

Amy

The sky was full of fog we hoped would burn off as we walked blindly southbound on Shi Shi beach.

Amy in the bright gray day. 

fellow beach campers return from fetching water.

We were getting tired. :)

 We ended up in an awesome campsite, that held some wonderful treasures of rock and flotsam art in store for us.

stacked cairns

Amy on the found hoverboard

yup. a baseball box.

beach glass and rock treasures. 

 We took a walk to Point of the Arches on Friday afternoon, admiring the rock art and other beach trash art and games.

beach buoy volleyball

heading to the Point of the Arches during low tide

tide is out and the fog is in

the perplexing phenomena

 On our return we hit the fresh water source. This stream runs out of the Olympic forest to the ocean. The water is rich with tannins and a golden brown color as a result.

interesting rock crumbling

everyone has a camp job. i'm the photographer. ;)

okay, they are too! 

Saturday morning we headed out again for a longer hike past Point of the Arches, and around the next two headlands. The weather was grand mix of fog, mist, and full on rain. We were prepared with smiles, and jackets. The rain didn't stop us from seeing cool critters: whales, otter, eagle, crab, anemone, seals, and sea stars!

this ocean otter was hanging out for while

see Ange's selfie! 

the colors of the sea weed was brilliant. My favorite was the iridescent pink. 

 Back at camp we rested, drank wine in the afternoon, and watched for more whales. Their spout was the first sign, but then we saw them breach, often in pairs.

We also took some time to fly the kite, on the theory that if I brought it, I'd have to use it! 

Sunday morning we woke to brilliant sunshine.

these folks made coffee in the sun with a view! 

Our neighbors down the beach left early, and left their tent-prints in the damp sand. 

 We packed out and hiked north again. 

bring the tripod, use it! 

heading north

the northern headland of Shi Shi Beach

We drove to Seiku for lunch. It's the salmon fishing capital of Washington and the place was packed with boats and boys. We sat down to lunch at the Bay Cafe and nearly doubled the population of women in town. :)

 It was fun trip. Thanks for letting me crash, Amy!