Backpacking Waucoma Ridge

So, Keeley had a rough day at work on Friday and spontaneously decided that WE WERE GOING BACKPACKING 2 NIGHTS HOORAY! As a dutiful future husband I panic-planned a trip to appease the future wife. It turned out for the best.

So our plan that I whipped up in about 2 hours was heading back to Wahtum Lake, the site of our best hike so far this year. We really wanted to test out our new backpacking equipment that we've gotten from our wedding registry (Thanks everyone!). So we drove to the lake trailhead friday night, making it to the campsite just as the sky grew truly dark. We quickly grabbed the last open spot (Wahtum is popular) and settled in for the night. Eventually, as the drunkards talked loudly into the night nearby.

We woke up early and packed up the camp stuff into the back of the car temporarily. Since we had the whole day ahead of us we decided to take an extra hike early in the morning back to Chinidere Mountain. We were all alone up top the exposed viewpoint, treated to stellar views in early morning light.

Heading down to the lake in the morning

Closeup of Mt. Hood, glaciers visible

Mt. Adams over Tomlike Mtn

Table Mtn, to the north, the tiny speck on the further ridge is Three Corner Rock

Mt. Hood

Indian Mtn, our goal for later

Chinidere mornings

Chinidere

270 degree Panorama uptop Chinidere

We took a long loop around the lake on the way back for some extra exploratory fun. We got back to the car around 9ish, got our stuff out of the car, and began our quest to the day's true goal.

The goal was Indian Springs and Indian Mountain. Indian Springs would be our camp, and the Mountain our eventual hike goal, just a short mile past the springs. The Springs camp was about 3 miles from Wahtum lake along the pacific crest trail. The PCT is mostly flat the whole way. The trail starts down by the lake and moves westerly slowly and very gently up through the woods. We crossed a few landslides with some resident Pikas who screech and cheep as you walk by. An occasional glimpse through the trees to the Eagle creek valley (Wahtum lake functions as the genesis of eagle creek, and as you walk away from the lake the East Fork of Eagle Creek drops into the canyons below to the north). Also on the way is a nice view to the north on an exposed road, with a great view of Mt. Hood.

On the trail to Indian Springs

Spider on the trail

One last stop at the lake

Reading the map at the camp

The Indian Springs camp is not a major camp, just a few spots in the trees mainly for PCT through-hikers, of which we met many during the day. The camp has 3 spots. We took the middle one, which offered a view of the stars and less bugs than the lowest one. We dropped off our tent, sleeping bags, and any other excess weight and took a break. Then we grabbed the essentials and headed further west to Indian Mountain's summit, 1.3 miles ahead. .3 Miles from camp, the PCT opens up onto an incredible exposed ridge with a panoramic view from the Southwest to the Northeast. You can see St. Helens, Rainier, and Mt. Adams, as well as Chinidere and Tanner Butte, but most spectacularly you can see directly down into the Eagle Creek valley and to Table/Greenleaf in Washington. It's an amazing spot. You will see a lot of pictures from this spot, which I'll call Indian Ridge.

Chinidere Mtn from Indian Ridge

Mt. Adams over Tomlike Ridge

Eagle Creek Canyon

Different exposure of the same thing

Eagle Creek to Table Mtn

Mt. St. Helens through the haze

Indian Ridge

Chinidere, Tomlike, and Adams

Paintbrush close up

This tree grew in a spiral

Adams, Tomlike, Chinidere, and a Cairn

The PCT

The only thing you can't see from the ridge is Mt. Hood, because it's blocked by the ugly prominence of Indian Mountain behind you to the south. A trail splits from the PCT and goes up the mountain on an old access road. There used to be a fire lookout on Indian Mountain, but it burned down long ago. The trail is kind of miserable. The trees are tall enough to obscure most views, but not tall enough to block the beating sun. The trail is loose scree, annoying to walk on. Thankfully it's a gentle grade and the forest gets nicer near the top. After you loop back a bit to the north, pass the ruins of an old outhouse, you reach the rocky promontory uptop Indian Mountain, with probably the best view of Mt. Hood in the area.

Remnants of the Lookout and Mt. hood

What remains of the outhouse

As good as the view is of the mighty beast, trees block views anywhere else, so we headed back. On the exposed Indian Ridge there was an older man with a big can on his belt in the bushes. He was picking Huckleberries. He showed us what to look for and I ate huckleberries straight from the bush. They look like blueberries and taste way better.

Huckleberry

Our desert

Since it was about 1:30, we had some time to rest during the hot hours. Keeley took a nap and I read a book (The Hike, by Drew Magary, a novel by one of my personal sports blogging heroes, who I had actually just met in person that Tuesday night at a book signing). I jammed through the entire book in 3 hours. After that, we made friends with our camping neighbor and made ourselves dinner. Freeze dried spaghetti and meatballs. It's way better than it sounds.

When the sun began to lower we walked back up to Indian Ridge to watch the sunset. Keeley read some of the book while I picked huckleberries. The sunset was nice enough. I built a small bridge cairn to pass some of the time as the sun set.

St. Helens

Wood

Adams

Look dad, I'm an engineer!

I'M AN ENGINEER

Rainier

The sun sets in clouds behind Tanner Butte

Watching it set

Then, close to true sunset, the sun got out from behind a cloud and the whole area exploded in beauty. Second best sunset I've ever seen, and everything I wanted when we came up.

Pano on Indian Ridge

We made a fire when we got back to camp with the help of our friendly neighbor (I forgot a lighter in my panic planning) and watched it burn. Then we fell asleep. Well, she did. We only had one sleeping pad so she had that and I was on the hard ground, listening to chipmunks scatter about outside making me wake up and panic about bears every 15 minutes. The night was cold, but the sleeping bag was warm. I lived in a state of flux. I was hot enough to sweat in the bag, but the instant I touched some air I was freezing. All night. I didn't sleep well.

The next day at 7am we got up, went for a quick walk back to the ridge for sunrise views, and then packed up and headed back. We both felt terrible but made decent time and reached the car by 930. Then we headed home and took much needed showers.

All in all, a great weekend trip.