Tonga Ridge

Pyracantha (I think)

Tonga Ridge - 1st week of September

6 miles
Elevation Gain: 1200 feet
Mt. Baker Snoqualmie National Forrest
Dog Friendly
Difficulty: Easy

My Mom, and later Chris' Mom and Step-Dad, visited us back in September and we took them on a few hikes. We mostly hiked with my Mom since she was here a bit longer. Our first stop was Tonga Ridge. 

Patriot Blueberry

Chris and I had been wanting to do this hike for a while. The hike starts out at a very high elevation, even though the elevation gain is 1200 ft, the highest point you reach is 5501 ft, so there isn't a lot of uphill, but you still get great payoff. Supposedly there are amazing 360 panoramas of the surrounding mountains as you walk along the ridge line. Since my Mom doesn't do a lot of hiking we figured that it would be a very good fit.

The weather had been lousy but was supposed to clear up that day. Which, in all fairness it did... right as we left. We got pretty soggy. That being said, it was still a lovely hike even if we didn't have the stunning alpine views I really wanted to share with my mom. 

Boletus Edulis

The hike itself starts off with a bit of a climb, but then it levels off nicely. You alternate between walking through forest and alpine meadows. Even with the lousy weather, sometimes because of it (above), we got some pretty lovely photos. I wish my camera was good enough to really capture the way the mist looked in those trees. 

Amanita Muscaria

We also saw a lot of incredible flora and fungi. Including a near perfect amanita muscaria (poisonous), otherwise known as the most stereotypical mushroom ever. There was also an ENORMOUS boletus edulis (edible). Seriously that SOB was huge, I should have photographed something next to it for scale. We ate several varietals of blue berries, including Patriot blueberries, which I think are very striking. We obviously did not eat these red berries, which I think are pyracantha but I'm not 100% sure. 

The real highlight of the day actually came as we were leaving. There's this beautiful rail bridge, and as we were standing there taking pictures a train passed!! Very cool, I got some pictures of the train, but I don't want to overload a hiking blog with train pictures. 

Overall, even with the weather it was a good hike. Misty and beautiful, Chris and I definitely plan on going back when the weather is more accommodating. Although be warned, according to several trail reviews and trail books I've read this trail can get pretty crowded.

For directions, additional trail reports and other details go here.

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!