WL 5.52 : Fox = New BFF

This last trip to the mountain did not go exactly as planned… not that it even was planned. It was a split second decision: on our way to the Yelm Starbucks to go do homework, we caught eye of the mountain in its beaming splendor and couldn’t not go up. So almost as quickly as Starbucks busted out our drinks, we busted out of town.

Our “plan” was to get to the park, rent some one-dollar snowshoes from the mountain, hit a section of the Wonderland trail by Paradise, where it would be relatively

flat, then head home and get back to studying. However it didn’t quite go as we had anticipated. On our way up, the part of the trail we left off at was clear enough to “normal shoe” on, but we decided to continue on to Paradise to maybe try out some snowshoes anyway. The one-dollar snowshoe rental was part of a guided ranger hike, which hadn’t yet started, and the other snowshoe rental was a good eight bucks. Snowshoeing, negative.

On our way out the visitor center we saw a fox and a very foolish man trying to feed it. We took lots of pictures of the fox, and became friends with him/her. Then he/she followed us (in the truck) down the road. Probably expecting food. Loren suggested taking him/her home, but I felt that stealing a fox from a National Park might have us doing time. But we probably spent at least half an hour, maybe more, with the fox.

Loren found her old car at a trail head.

Finally we thought it necessary that we at least touch part of the Wonderland trail. So we drove down to where we thought we left off, got in a huge fight about which way we were supposed to go and did something like this:

A little ridiculous. But we have an incredible sense of place in the Longmire area. And will now be prepared for next time, whether we snowshoe or normal shoe. Life on a mountain… if only.

- Karina

As they say, "if you can walk, you can snowshoe!"

It has been a long time since we've hit the mountain. We are thirsty for the mountain air and the sweeping views of glacier and stone - especially after a long fall semester of classes and sometimes frustrating living situations. So, to satisfy our dry mouths, to flood our drought with some good ole' mountain, we set out to drive up there and play in the snow last Sunday. After several days of spectacular weather and beautiful sunrises and sunsets during my commute, the mountain went into hiding, shrouded in typical western Washington winter weather - cloudy, rainy/snowy and cold. We decided not to brave the driving conditions, or expend the money on gas, let alone the precious 'study' time before finals, for just a possibility of a glimpse of the mountain.

Thus, we decided to fill some of our study-break time this week with mountain trip planning, utilizing our two new maps: one mini, gore-tex, waterproof, tear-proof version of the standard National Park Service map, including the Wonderland trail elevation profile map and six other must hike trail highlights. The other is a National Geographic, waterproof, tear-proof, topological map with a highlighted Wonderland trail that includes mileage along the trail, as well as all the backcountry camps and ranger stations.

After admiring the maps, we decided that we need to get out and go snowshoeing soon - and to further that desire we watched the snowshoeing tutorials on REI.com. Of course now we are experts in the sport, and ready to hit the trail as soon as possible... right?! We did put some good thought into it, picking a part of the Wonderland trail that is both accessible and relatively flat to begin with. We've looked into renting snowshoes at either REI or on Ft. Lewis, or borrow, for free, ones on the Mountain itself. We might even try to make it to a snowshoeing seminar at REI sometime soon. The goal: to get on the mountain by the end of December. Snowshoeing by the end of January. To be continued...