Trail Review: Ingalls Creek Trail - Part 2

Continued from Trail Review: Ingalls Creek Trail - Part 1

Suckers.

Nothing happened. The only injuries I sustained were the bug bites. Which, to be fair, I'm moderately allergic to, and they made my legs swell to the point of bruising, and that is definitely a new experience for me.

Here's a picture of my legs at the end of Day 4 (they actually continued to get worse until the following night).

Those rings around my ankles are not dirt, they are just swollen bug bite rings! As of today (4.5 days later) they are all bruised and awful. They don't itch anymore but it looks like I have lesions on my legs. Not. Nice. Anyway, back to the story...

Up until this point in the hike I would give Ingalls creek maybe an 8 out of 10 on picturesqueness. It was okay, but nothing particularly special. The sub-subalpine meadow where we set up camp at the end of day 2 was definitely pretty, but only enough to make it an 8 instead of a 7.

We decided to tidy up our camp, and have me just carry one backpack with as little as possible in it, and then on the way down stop at our campsite, have some lunch and rest up a bit before starting back down in earnest. This was absolutely the right decision and I would absolutely recommend doing that rather than trying to pack all your gear up and down.

First view of Day 3

So we started up towards Stuart Pass and the lake and it got increasingly gorgeous. The light on the mountains was stunning and it really showed off the depth and cragginess of the area. We hit this gorgeous meadow, and had to stop for quite a while. I really wanted to spend some time taking photos, but more than anything Chris had continued to feel bad, and it really came to a head on day 3, he actually puked a little ways up the trail and was feeling pretty bad, both physically and just in terms of morale.

We didn't end up going to the lake proper, half because we had a dog, dogs are not allowed at the lake so we would have had to go to it in shifts, and we honestly couldn't find it. There was really no signage directing us toward the lake, and the only trail aside from the one that lead up to Stuart pass seemed to peter out in the middle of the field. So we decided to take the trail that headed toward Stuart Pass to see if we could find the lake, or at least see it from the top. I think we probably would have been more inclined to do a bit more searching if Chris hadn't been feeling so bad and I hadn't been concerned about how long it was going to take us to get out.

Panoramic of the south end of the meadow

We never did find the lake, which I'm still a little bummed about.

Ingalls Peak

I won't be very sad about it because seriously that meadow was bananas! I wish I could spend the rest of my life there... If it wouldn't be illegal, and a complete bitch to get supplies to. I could swear I took pictures of Mt. Stuart, but I can't seem to find them, I thought Mt. Ingalls was more striking anyway, but it still would be nice to have them.

About half way up Stuart Pass, Chris looked at me and I could tell he was just done. He asked if we could turn around. I really wanted to see how much farther it was to the top so I left him in some shade and we each set a timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes more walking I was going to turn around and come back to him, no matter where I was, and if I wasn't back in 1 hour Chris would come find me. I took the dog with me, so that if I got hurt I could send him back to Chris.

Now, I would normally not ever, EVER, recommend doing this. It's not good to split up (think of every horror movie you ever saw). As it is, I have some reservations about Chris and I hiking just the two of us. If something happened to Chris I would have a very difficult time getting him out, regardless of the terrain, but I really didn't want our trip not to have an end.

That's Glacier Peak (we think)

Endings are wonderful things, especially when it comes to hiking. It completely boosts your morale,  and makes the trip back better, there are 3 ways it does this: 1) You typically get to see something beautiful 2) You have a sense of accomplishment, which is simple enough in concept but I can't overstate how important it is and 3) you know that from now on it is, quite literally (most of the time), all down hill.

I hiked for about 10 minutes and I was at the top. I took some pictures, and some deep breaths, turned around and went back down to Chris to try and get him up to the top. Which I did, and he felt better for it. I've very glad I did because these pictures (left, bottom) were definitely worth the slight risk. I think it definitely improved the rest of the day for Chris as well, which was good, because all told on day three we ended up hiking about 12 miles. It was especially difficult getting started again after striking camp.

One pooped pooch!

The rest of the trip out was uneventful. We were able to do the whole thing in about 72 hours total. I would (and very well might) absolutely do this again, and encourage anybody. I think it's a great multi-night trip. You could try and do it in 3 days and 2 nights, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are in good condition and don't let bugs and overgrowth discourage you.

Multi-Night Menu and Mushroom Stories

Not that kind of mushroom...

Backpacking food is always tricky. I wish I was a little bit more adept at foraging just so I didn't have to carry a bunch of crap with me. Luckily I'm not stupid. Relying on foraging is not only a TERRIBLE idea, because there's no guarantee you will find anything, but it's not very environmentally conscientious to tear through an area and pick everything in sight. Ruins it for everybody else. Plus there's that slim chance you'll mix up Queen Anne's Lace with hemlock or something. Not good.

Even if you're thinking to yourself "Allison, don't be ridiculous I've been picking and eating wild stuff my whole life, that wouldn't happen to me." Well imaginary conversationalist, let me tell you something. Where I'm from in California there is a mushroom (amanita calyptroderma) commonly known as a "creamy top" or coccora that is (supposedly) very tasty. They are very close in appearance to another variety from Italy called Caesar's amanita which is also edible. So far everything is great, people from Europe and people who are fairly familiar with California fungi see it and think "Mmmm, tasty!" 

Here's where the trouble starts. There are two other types of mushrooms that are almost, almost identical to the creamy top (Amanita phalloides anAmanita ocreata). One of which is known, rather fondly, as the Death Cap (Amanita phalloides). Every 3 or 4 years some mycologist (person who studies mushrooms) would come out, and pick a creamy top and kill himself and his whole family. My point here is that relying on foraging is not smart for a bunch of reasons, but the foremost in my mind is, that even experts can make mistakes, and it's much better to eat a cliff bar if you're not 100% certain about something. Even if cliff bars are almost certainly flavored tree bark that's been masticated and regurgitated by a herd of camels.

Yeah, that's totally how they are made.

That tangential ramble brings me back to food for overnights. I won't discuss ultralight food because despite my dislike of carrying food, I am not at the point where I am willing to only eat dehydrated food.

For our overnight trip to Ingalls Creek this past weekend we are brought the following:

Breakfast: Instant cream of wheat, individual shelf stable creamers, raw sugar and instant hot apple cider

Snacks/Lunch: Almonds and dried cherries (some of which will be going in that cream of wheat), Cliff (Mojo) Bars

Dinner: Boil in a bag rice, instant Indian food from Trader Joe's, and vacuum packed chicken/tuna, freeze dried soup

You'll notice we only snack during lunch, we really don't like to stop and have lunch. It's one thing to snack on short breaks, but I don't like chilling for too long, otherwise I have a hard time getting started again. I feel like most people I know are similar in this way, 

If you want to read more about Coccora click here!

Trail Review: Ingalls Creek Trail - Part 1

Ingalls Creek Trail - July 19-22nd

Lower Ingalls Creek

32 miles
4,544ft of elevation gain, highest point 6,500ft
East of Snoqualmie Pass; I-90 Corridor
Dog Friendly (except for Ingalls Lake)
Difficulty: Intermediate
Someday I am going to learn to carry a topo map, and I think if nothing else this trip will be the catalyst for me actually doing that. I'll get to that though...

So congratulations to me, this was my first multi-night backpacking trip and it was AWESOME.

The original plan was to go to Image Lake, however there was some concern about snow on the trail and the road being out 11 miles before the trailhead and we just did not want to have to deal with it. I realize that dilemma could have been solved by a simple call to the correct ranger station, but Chris and I hate the phone, so we went with a simpler back up plan. Ingalls Creek to Lake Ingalls and Stuart Pass.

Our first view of the mountains, wait a second is that.....

Ermahgerd, it's Mt. Doom!!!

We started out on the trail about midday which was a mistake. I think Chris and I have become totally spoiled by always hiking on the west side of the Cascades because no matter what time of year it is it really rarely gets hot. Ingalls Creek trail is on the Eastside and it might as well be a completely different state. It actually reminded me a lot of the Sierra Nevada: dry and scrubby with a lot of pine and fir trees. We had to stop fairly often to get water and cool off. We ended up stopping about 6.5 miles in at Falls Creek Campground.

This campground was wonderful for the first night because it was really well protected from light and heat exposure, which was really great since you never sleep too well the first night and it let us sleep in a little.

Day two was pretty rough, there had been a forest fire fairly recently so the next 4 miles were almost totally exposed and the brush started to get REALLY bad. Not far into the hike we had been warned by a couple we met that they had actually planned on going farther but turned around because the trail was so overgrown.

I don't know what it is about hiking that makes me think that everybody around me is a total wimp, but it does. Every time somebody warns me about trail conditions I just think to myself, well they're obviously big babies. To some extent I think I'm right, I mean, if I drive two hours to do some hiking, I'm going to do it. Unless it is actually impossible, not even dangerous, but IMPOSSIBLE, I will try. This was no different. When the couple we met told us about the overgrowth, I thought to myself, it's can't be THAT bad, besides I grew up in the woods, I'm used to trail blazing. Which is all true, what I forgot it how completely exhausting trailblazing and even walking on overgrown trails can be. Not to mention painful.

Here is how thick the brush was, I am in both of the pictures below, standing on the trail:

In the one on the right I simply just lifted the brush out of the way.... Yeah, pretty damn thick.


Between the brush, the heat, and Chris feeling kinda poorly we probably only did another 6-7 miles on day two. This was starting to get me worried, it meant that between days 3 and 4 we were going to have to do at least 18 miles, which would normally be completely fine, but I was definitely concerned about our pacing, especially since day 3 would also include some elevation gain.

We camped on the edge of this beautiful meadow with a bunch of pretty gorgeous views (up-right, left, bottom right) and had a spectacular view from our tent (Up-Left). Aside from our first view of the mountains while we were walking through the fire section, we had been in lowland and there hadn't really been much to see. So it was wonderful to get out in the meadows and sub-subalpine areas. There were also tons of wild flowers and blooming fire-weed that was out all over the place during day 2.

The only other remarkable thing about day 2 was that the bugs came out in force. I had brought bug spray with me, but these biting flies we're like "DEET? What do you think we are? PUSSIES?! NOMNOMNOMNOM."

I went to sleep and during the night I had this dream: I got badly hurt, to the point that Chris couldn't stretcher me out. He would have to leave me to get help, I kept telling him to go slow and not rush, so that he wouldn't hurt himself in the process. As soon as I finished telling him he sprinted away.

I didn't know then how prophetic that dream would be...

Link to Part 2!

Backpacking Gear List

I love packing for overnights. They’re less stressful when it comes to packing because you don’t have to agonize over every ounce and cubic centimeter of space. This list is pretty exhaustive, I’ve divided up the list by what each individual should have and then things like sunscreen etc. that only one person needs to carry. That being said I would almost always recommend that for every 2-3 people you have secondaries of these items. There are some items that it’s good to have different people carrying. For instance when Chris and I hike one person carries the water filter and one person carries the first aid kit which has iodine tablets. That way if we lose a pack we have a way to sanitize water. Other things we typically split up are fire-starting equipment and food, which can be a pain on multi-days when we’re both unpacking to put stuff in a bear bag. However, I feel better knowing we won’t have all our eggs in one basket if something were to go wrong.

This list is a good starting point for multiday trips as well, you’ll just need to adjust the amount of food and spare clothes you’ll need. As long as we’re on the subject of clothes, and since I can’t think of a better place to mention this, let’s talk about when you’re sleeping. I have a 30 degree bag, which if you're a girl you know means you're not comfortable after about 38-40 degrees. So for early season hikes, or when I know I'm going to be somewhere that's going to be particularly chilly during the night I have to bring extra clothes to sleep in. For me this is sweats, a long sleeve cotton thermal, slipper socks and a sweater. I can shed a layer if I need to but I don't sleep if I'm cold.

My trip for this weekend got cancelled so I won't have pictures. The next time I'm packing for a trip I'll take some photos. Also as I continue to post gear reviews the items will link to examples.

Gear List
Sleeping bag and mat
Water Reservoir or at least 2 one QT bottles,
Multi-tool
Food
Clothes: I always bring 1 more pair of socks and underwear than I need
Mess Kit
small flashlight/headlamp (we also keep one in our tent as a backup)
Backpack cover or large garbage bag

Tent (make sure you have your poles, stakes, etc.) and footprint/tarp
3 kinds of fire (ferro rod, butane torch, lighter, matches in waterproof container, magnesium rod etc.)
50 ft of 300 lb test cord
First aid kit
Compass
Map (if needed)
Water filter and iodine tablets
Stove and fuel
Cooking pans
Toiletries (Small Hand Soap, Small Toothpaste, Toothbrush, Comb, Floss, small Fast-Drying Camp Towel)
Sunscreen/Bugspray
Bear Bag (we just hang an OR Stuff Sack from a tree)
Garbage bag

My dog carries all his own stuff except for his water. This is possible as long as long as your dog is big enough, they really don’t make packs for dogs under 25lbs, here’s a list for your buddy

Dog Gear:
Dog Backpack
Food (don’t forget to put in bear bag at night, even if there aren’t bears it’s good to seal this guy up in case of raccoon etc.)
Treats
Poop bags
Toys
Cloth travel bowl

Sweater (if needed) for when you stop