אבנימ

Victor 16, and Andrew his father, 44 left Friday afternoon about 3:30 pm on June 18th for an overnight hike in the Siouxon wilderness, south of Mt. St. Helens.

As we were driving north from home, the sky behind us was clear cloudless blue, but ahead it was a dark ominous grey with threatening thunderheads. A handful of drops dotted the windshield as we careened along the country roads unperturbed. A few miles after passing the Chelatchie Prairie General Store and “City Center” it occurred to me that it may have been there that we needed to turn east toward Tumtum mountain, the conical wonder. Numbered state secondary roads are not always very well marked out here, if they are marked at all. We turned back, and a brief inquiry at the general store confirmed my suspicions. The right turn put us on Healy Rd, which joins Forest Service road 54, whence we joined 57, and finally 5701 which dead-ends at the Siouxon trailhead.

We set out at around 5 pm, taking the Siouxon Creek Trail (130) west until it joined the Huffman Peak trail (129). This trail makes its descent down towards Siouxon Creek, from which we anticipated the rigorous ascent to Huffman Peak at 4100 feet. Ambling along we counted from flash to boom to ascertain how far away the lightning strikes were. I mentioned to Victor the general usefulness of a walking stick when hiking, and spotted a likely candidate which I broke off and tossed to him. He used this for the duration of the hike. As we approached the Creek, all of a sudden the trail looked disconcertingly like no trail at all. We turned about looking for something promising, following this and that hopeful mark to no avail, when Victor noticed the remains of a cable dangling from a tree, right at the spot the trail had disappeared. So it was ford the creek, swift, rocky and over knee-high. We both made it unscathed and dry, at least from mid-thigh and up, and re-joined the trail on the other side.

The ascent was slow and steady, huffing and puffing, punctuated by some flat, but with lots of hard uphill climbing. Our hope was to reach the summit and camp in some open spot with a clear view of Mt. St. Helens and the night sky. However, by 9 pm we were both pretty well done in, and made camp in the first likely spot we could find. Dry sticks ready to hand, one match, and voila, a very nice fire. Good eating, clean up, tent set, ready to rest. Note to self: acquire a camping hammock—two trees are usually easy to find, but flat smooth ground often isn’t. After a somewhat uncomfortable but nevertheless long and refreshing sleep, we rose, breakfasted on toasted bagels, and continued on to the summit.

It was a bright and beautiful morning, and though stiff and sore we made the final ascent enjoying the alpine forest with the varieties of bright little flowers, the quiet woods with the intermittent voices of songbirds, the bright sunshine on the scree-fields, and the panoramic vistas of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Hood. After passing along the north side of Huffman Peak, we proceeded on the saddle between it and Siouxon Peak, and then turned south onto Wildcat Trail (156) . This trail climbs steeply for about 400 feet, but then steadily and sharply down, dropping from 3600 to 1300 feet in about 2 1/2 miles. Uphill is rough, but downhill is also, just to different muscle groups. And then there are your feet. Victor asked if I had many blisters, to which I replied: “No, just 2, one on each foot from heel to toe.” By this time water was scarce, since we had no supply after leaving Siouxon Creek 2 miles in. So we were both looking forward to meeting Wildcat Creek below. Close to the bottom we came upon a spectacular view of Wildcat Falls. We also had some rain from the local thunderheads. So being parched, we saw water, heard water, smelt water, felt water, but didn’t taste it yet. But in not too long a time I was there with my bare feet being cooled in Siouxon Creek, of which Wildcat Creek is a tributary.

Quenched thirst, rested and refreshed, we forded the Siouxon again, and were back on the well-groomed Siouxon Trail with about 3 pleasant miles to cover along the Creek back to the trailhead. And they lived to tell the tale…