PNW GGG ~ pocos pero locos

It was a very nice 1st PNW GGG: the chance to meet several PNW hikers, very good weather and an easy location, especially from Portland and Seattle. I got to the campsite on Friday, beating Ian who probably had the longest travel time of anyone. We mostly hung out around a large fire pit and talked. A few set up UL shelters, but most of us just set up car-camping tents, including Diane's 2-room Mega Mansion (but she did she up her Camo Duplex).

Several of us headed for nearby Mt. Ellinor on Saturday. The peak was socked in by clouds, but it was still a great hike and one I've had on my list for a while. Sunday was a slow morning, before everybody trickled out by noon. I just had my iPhone and didn't take any campsite pics but below are a few from the hike up.

A big thanks to Ian for organizing this!

Up the Mt. Eleanor Trail. Michael in the background.

Looking back at Lake Cushman.

Baby Mountain Goats!

Another pic of a baby mountain goat.

A break in the clouds on the way down.

Edit: Ha! They are all upside down. Anyone know how to correct this?

A sampling of photos. Goats, goats, and more goats. Most pictures are actually of the hike Ned, Ella and I did afterwards. The last two show the trail up to First Divide and up and over to Home Sweet Home Camp.

Steve with the goats

Michael (me) with the goats

Stone Mountain in background

Map of hike

Crude report now. I'll refine the report and post pictures later.

After going to a couple GGGs in Northern California, I was motivated to get one going in Washington. Dale started a thread and got the conversation going, the torch was handed to me, and I started scouring the internet for a suitable campsite.

Finding a Henry Coe/Pt Reyes equivalent here in Washington proved to be easier said than done. I wanted a large enough campsite that would accommodate all of us but also required a hike in and out. Long story short, never found it and pulled the trigger on a group campsite at Skokomish campground near Hoodsport, Washington. I had never been there before, and it was not a short drive from where I lived to recon it, so I swiped the card in blind faith.

Put out a couple fires Friday morning and hit the road. For reasons I can't explain, I mistakenly assumed that I would hit Highway 18 and I-5 at the right time to miss the traffic. I was wrong. Very wrong. Two hours were added to the drive which made me arrive fashionably late.

Daryl, Laura, Steven, Katherine, and Eve were already there as I pulled in to the campsite. We
were soon joined by Ned, Michael, and Ella. Then Dianne and Bill arrived. Later Rod.

12 of us would complete the party. Pocos pero locos… and the laughter began.

Lovely night of sitting by the campfire swapping backpacking stories. I decided to treat the group to some Flat Cat Gear brownies.

As a backstory, I showed up to Pt. Reyes this year without coffee as I left the container on my kitchen counter. This time, I left my dry baking pan on the kitchen counter… next to my coffee. Bummer. No brownies.

I ran into town the next morning to try and find something to improvise with. I found a rectangular disposable baking ban and ended up reshaping it enough to make it work. Final product wasn't pretty but tasted fine.

We all started gearing up for day hiking. Steven, Ned, Michael, and Ella jumped in the truck with me and we headed for the lower Ellinor Mountain trailhead. Daryl and Laura hiked another trail although I've forgotten the name. Katherine and Eve took advantage of the fact that we were near a beautiful lake and went kayaking, I believe. I never heard what Rod got into that day.

Ellinor Mountain Trail starts out easy enough from the lower trailhead with a gentle 1200' climb spread over a ~2 mile hike to the upper trailhead junction. WTA website indicates that from the lower trailhead to summit is a bit over three miles. I wasn't cussing enough to say that we climbed the next 2000' (according to map and altimeter) in a mile, so I suspect it was closer to 4-4.5 miles each way. Not a big deal but good to know if you plan on hiking it.

Steven and Michael hiked on ahead while I trailed behind. Ned and Ella nursed an ankle at the midway point. About 1000' below the summit, we saw the first herd of mountain goats. I parked on a rock for a while, broke out my telephoto lens, and enjoyed watching the babies jump around and roughhouse with each other.

Due to fog, the summit was anticlimactic. I'm sure there's a great view on a clear day but we were out of luck. As I neared the summit, I saw Michael and Steven below looking for the right trail, which was admittedly difficult to discern in the talus and scree. I was able to point them in the right direction from my vantage point and continued my final push to the top.

I ended up taking the same incorrect route down that Steven and Michael found themselves on. Scratched my head, thought I was on the right path, realized that I shouldn't be headed to a sheer cliff and certain death, scratched my head some more, minor bushwhacking, heard the click/clacking of trekking poles of other hikers, followed the sound and found the right trail.

We returned to camp and enjoyed another lovely evening in front of the campfire and acting silly.

Spent the next morning lounging around in camp and getting our gear ready for the drive home.

Made a better decision to jump on Highway 12 to head home and was rewarded with beautiful views of Mt. Rainier for my efforts.

Final thoughts-

This is the first GGG I've ever hosted and the first one that I'm aware of in the Pacific Northwest. It can be as complicated or as easy as you want it to be. I opted for simple.

Even though there were no presentations or agenda per se at Pt. Reyes this year, everyone seemed to be pretty self directed and kept themselves entertained. I used that as my inspiration to not set anything resembling a schedule for this event other than a start and stop time. I thought that worked fine. Conversations about gear will invariably happen and I was able to check out a couple items that have been on my mind. I always had my doubts about how comfortable it would be to wear a cuben fiber poncho, but after trying one on, I was sold and plan to order one in the future.

I think we were all in agreement that next time, we'd prefer a group campsite that requires a hike in. There were a couple suggestions thrown around but we're still on the prowl for a 2016 PNW GGG location.

Skokomish group campsite was fine. Not great. Not horrible. It suited our purposes for this year but I see little reason to return to that particular campsite, although the surrounding area is wonderful.

Rod was kind enough to bring some MYOG rain kilts, and other items that I will discuss and show pictures of later. Katherine also gave a presentation on how she carries her favorite wriggly 40 lb piece of gear which I'll also share later as well.

Thanks again to those who made it. Sorry to those who didn't but we're very much looking forward to seeing you at the next one.

Ian,

Thanks for the great write up and sharing what happened.

Glad that you were able to pull off your 1st GGG and for the PNW!

Always great to make new friends and the amazing thing is to see the various collections of lightweight gear that people have.

I find it amazing that even though we are all reading the same articles and forum comments on BPL, it is rare to find two people using the same gear setup.

Just goes to show that there are a lot of different solutions about how and why to go lightweight.

Pretty special when you can take relationships from the online world into the real world.

Anyway, congrats and hope that you are able to have another GGG next year.

Looking forward to seeing more photos.

Note: Doug might be the only BPLer who has made trips to all the GGGs that pop up around the country….maybe someone needs to make a special merit badge for him to put on his pack? :)

Tony

Thanks Tony!

I met a total of zero BPLers prior to making the 800 mile drive to Henry Coe the GGG before last. I somehow missed you that year.

Best advice I can give to people who are on the fence is just go! In all likelihood, it will exceed your expectations and isn't hostile environment, unlike what the forums would lead you to believe on some days :) I don't blush in saying that these are friends I'm more than willing to drive 1500+ miles in a single weekend to laugh with. Great great crowd.

We are all very different people but there seems to be a common thread among us that transcends backpacking. Certainly no shortage of humor. I'll let all the philosophical types sort that one out.

Edit: I only claim partial responsibility for gramatical errors on sleep deprived posts

for a moment i completely did not recognize myself in Steve's Zpacks poncho. Who knew CF had the added property of turning us invisible!

These photos and the ones in my previous post were taken by my wife, Laura. That's why she isn't in the group photos in my previous post.

Any chance you could identify the people in the group shot?

Far left is Ian. next to him, I assume, is Daryl (who, for some strange reason, isn't wearing a foam top). Far right is Steven Paris. I assume that's Michael G next to Steven. I assume that's Katherine next to Daryl. Don't know/recognize the rest.

Hmmm. This is fun. I'll further guess that's Diane (sans leopard skin tights) in the middle wearing the green/blue, and perhaps Bill on her right (our left) in the blue jacket? I'm also gonna guess that Rod is the one in the back with the dark ball cap, just because he kinda looks like a Rod (unlike Ian, who looks like a tool, there's a difference).

Changed my mind, I'll instead say the guy in the dark ball cap is Ned. So Rod is behind Katherine and Bill (if that's Bill)?

How many did I get right?

Sounds correct (by the end). Although you missed, Ella, Ned's daughter, who is standing in front of him. And little Eve (Katherine's daughter) who was being uncharacteristically shy right as we were taking the group photo.

yep, Rod is behind me on your right, w/no cap.

A few images to add to the mix.
And another puzzle for Doug I – can you match the shelters to the persons?
Note: some folks put up two shelters.

Lake Cushman

Shelter #1

Shelter #2

Shelter #3

Shelter #4

Shelter #5

Shelter #6

Shelter #7

The Shelter that 8 New York City

Shelter #9

edit to add captions and reduce image size

Okay, this is much tougher!

But what the heck.

1. Ian

2. Daryl

3. Ned

4. Ian? Michael?

5. Katherine

6. Rod

7. Michael

8. Diane

9. Diane

Of course, I didn't account for Steven. I assume he wasn't simply using his bivy again. Hmmmm.

Very good! Your only miss is similar to the group photo.

Doug is very good at idying people and tents. It's almost like he was there. Kind of spooky.

Could he have possibly been hiding/observing from some nearby vantage point (e.g. the large sanican)?

^^^ Now THAT"S community!

"Doug is very good at idying people and tents. It's almost like he was there. Kind of spooky."

LOL!

My thinking:

1. Ian has mentioned his BigBlobMid before, so I assumed this one belonged to him.

2. This was the only tent, other than 8 and 9, that was all buttoned up. I thought that Daryl was most likely to be the sort who kept his shelter buttoned up during the day, so guessed it was his.

3. Process of elimination, one of the last guesses, I assumed this was Ned's because it had room for two.

4. Both Ian and Michael had mentioned (in the original PNW GGG thread) bringing a Hexamid of some proportion for display. This one has nothing in it, so I assume it was brought for display purposes. I can't tell if it's a duo or tri, so didn't know which one to tie it to.

5. The shoes on the pegs looked a bit small, and the shoes next to the shelter seem to be the same pair Katherine is wearing in some of the above photos (complete with faded yellow soles).

6. This was a solo shelter (and one of my favorites, still sorry I got rid of mine), and Rod was scrunching up something yellow in one of the above photos, and this had yellow scrunched stuff in it, so guessed Rod.

7. Michael is wearing a blue shirt with thumb loops in one of the above photos, and a white shirt in another, so I assumed this was his.

8 and 9. Y'all gave this one to me, since Steven mentions in this thread Diane's mega-mansion and her camo duplex.

'Twas fun trying to figure it all out!

So which ones did I get wrong? Can't figure it out from Katherine's clue.

Daryl lent me some drive-through-the-heart-of-a-vampire style stakes to pitch in the gravel. Stuck eve's (least favorite) shoes over the ends so we didn't injure ourselves on them. Hadn't used that tent in nine years.

Doug (Sherlock),

I can't tell you which ones you got wrong. Not sure myself.

You are good….very, very good. Ian should hire you as his assistant now that you are retiring.

I forgot to add that Katherine put her back-strap system to the test shortly after the photos (posted higher in this thread) were taken of her and her daughter Eve.

After a couple of beers she strapped Ian to her back and hopped over the fire a couple of times.

I didn't get an actual photo of her doing it but I can tell you Ian looked scared. I think he might be afraid of fire. "fire bad" says Ian.

Geez, Doug, you didn't have to sit up on that hill with the scope, you could have come down and joined us, there was plenty of food and beer!

I don't wear the leopard tights in the summer, too warm. I wear my leopard shorts instead.

"I wear my leopard shorts instead"….with matching gaitors. Pretty cool looking and I think they scare the mice away.