Yakima Skyline Trail — Friday, May. 18, 2001

Central Washington > Yakima

Camping on the Victoria Day long weekend is a tradition in Canada. Even those people who only camp twice a year pick this weekend to visit the woods. In BC where the government feels that no highway needs more two lanes this means escaping the city is an adventure in itself. We chose to take our chances at the border and looked for some place in the great state of Washing to pitch our tent. We monitored www.weather.com by the hour looking for a little sunshine. As of Friday afternoon showers were predicted for the mountains. We eventually chose the Yakima Rim Skylinetrail as it was going to be sunny there and it offered views of the big volcanoes if this cleared up. The border took an hour to cross but we were in Seattle in less than two hours. We stopped briefly at Snoqualmie Falls where it was drizzling (as predicted). Once we crossed the Snoqualmie Pass and arrived in Ellensburg the sun came out however another weather related phenomena caught us by surprise - gale force winds. Our pleasant little camping trip wasn’t looking too good. We reached the elk fence and drove for two miles along a rough dirt road barely manageable by our twelve year old Corolla. A the parking area there were shot gun shells all over the ground and a small A-framed steel structure riddled with bullet holes. We never saw a single animal on the entire trip, just birds & insects. The trail up to the rim was nice; there is still an abundant amount of flowers although they seem to be just past their peak. Once we reached the rim the views were remarkable although somewhat tarnished by the dam and the highway. The wind at the rim was tremendous and deathly cold, perhaps not as bad as Camp Muir but they had a certain Katabatic quality about them. There looked as if there would be no place you could pitch a tent until we came across a sheltered ledge at Twin Springs Camp and happily dropped our packs. We hiked onward to the summit of peak #3208. Unfortunately clouds obscured all the big volcanoes. On the way back we took a few pictures of the unique lichen covered hoodoos that stood out from the sides on the canyon. We only saw a few other people, one guy had the right idea, he brought along a kite. The next morning we packed up and headed back to the car. As we crested the ridge we saw Mt. Adams as clear as can be silhouetted against a perfectly blue sky. Karen slowly turned to her right and was struck with an epiphany. When this happens, there is nothing that can stop her. To be continued…