Let me back up a bit.
Since we had a long weekend with the 4th falling on a Friday, Ryan canceled his plans to trek to Horne Lake on Vancouver Island and instead booked the weekend with me at our cabin in Mazama. He decided to take me up the South Early Winter Spire on a moderate yet classic route.
We parked at the hairpin on Highway 20 and then made the two hour trek up a scree gully filled with water falls and forest obstacles. See the towers behind me? We climbed the left, taller one.
The hike was no burden on my aerobic system - but little did I know how infrequently I use those muscles!
But we were getting closer. And despite having to bush whack in a couple sections, we made it to the apron of our climb a few hours later.
There's quite a bit of snow around - making for a steady trickle of water falls throughout the hike. The water was COLD and we tried to avoid it as much as possible. Sometimes you could only hear running water, dashing underneath big pockets of snow. We didn't risk crossing them and face collapsing a snow bridge. No, we're not big risk takers. :)
Around noon we started to gain some serious elevation and get closer to the start of the climb. The first section is a class 2-3 rock scramble and we opted not to rope up. It was pretty easy slab climbing.
Look at our little car! It's starting to get smaller!
Ryan hamming it up! Don't let that silly face fool you - he is trying to kill me!
Getting closer and closer to the summit.
The views kept getting more and more stunning on the way up. Not to mention the early morning cloud cover burnt off revealing a fantastic view of the Cascades.
Finally - at the summit - nearly 3,000 feet later we took in the most amazing view. What a way to spend the 4th of July!
Our hike down took an additional two hours. Trip time from car to car - 12 hours. That's a long day out!
Never mind that I could barely walk the next day, yet mustered up enough energy to ride the pass from our cabin - a solid 3 hour ride with 3,000 feet of climbing! I could barely move that night. And then on Sunday we did another ride with some climbing at Fun Rock.
Like I said, my hubby tried to kill me this weekend and I loved every minute of it.
2 comments:
Wow!
Definitely more fun than gym training, and good prep for the Portland AVC.
AMAZING! This is perfect training for two intense weekend of racing. Clear your head and fill your soul.
P.S. The word verification for me below is "oudlbuma." What a fun new word!
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