It's President's Day weekend and so we decided to take a cabin trip. There were a number of people who were originally planning on coming, but it ended up that me and my dad (Richard) were the only ones who could come. We went up on Friday February 18, 2011 and came out on Sunday February 20, 2011.
The morning we were heading up we heard it was snowing in Milton-Freewater, so we figured there would be snow at the cabin as well.
We are at the end of the road with packs on ready to go!
The weather on Friday was beautiful. There was fresh snow, probably 3" or 4" at the cabin, and it was a pretty sunny day. The cabin was a balmy 36 degrees when we got inside, and so instead of our PB&J for lunch we decided to have some egg sandwiches which were nice and hot! It was too nice to stick around indoors so after lunch, we hit the trail and started going up river.
Richard enjoying and soaking up the sun in the meadow
Nolan by the South Fork of the Walla Walla sporting my new Pendleton Wool Shirt
Richard by the S. Fork of the Walla Walla
After we got to the Bear Creek Trailhead we headed up by the ranger's cabin, and then cut through the brush and swamp to get back to the trail. We went just a little ways further up the trail to the place my dad saw his cougar a few years back. After he shared the cougar story, we started heading back to the cabin. Somewhere between where he told me the cougar story and the Bear Creek Trailhead we saw cougar tracks!!! The snow was from last night, so any tracks were less than a day old. Below you'll see a couple pics of the cougar's paw prints. It looked like the cougar walked so the backfoot landed in the same place as the front foot, so there weren't any good single tracks.
First Cougar Paw Print Sighting
Looking Down River On the Sunny Friday
The Snow in the Meadow Sparkling in the Sun
Pictures of the snow covered trees across the river. Taken from the meadow
After we got back to the cabin, we closed the bear door and working on warming the place up. We also filled the cistern with water, now that I know all the tricks from talking to the Greg Widner. I packed a rapid charge battery charger, which added a good bit of weight to my pack. And I eventually got one of the generators running and I let it sit on the charger for close to an hour. Unfortunately it didn't increase the charge at all. I have no idea of the generator was a little low on voltage, or if the battery was in bad shape or if the charger wasn't working properly. Whatever the issue was, I was not packing that thing back out! I'll have to try it again next trip.
Richard making dinner of his Famous Fried Potatoes and frying up some salmon steaks
Food always tastes good at the cabin. My dad attributes it to the clean air you breath up there. I think its the special flavoring cooked into the cast iron pans over the last 27 years. Either way we always eat well! After dinner we went upstairs to play some ping pong, and got about 30 minutes out of the lights. I've decided that the solar panels need to be relocated and I need to spend some more time with the battery charger and generator...
The next morning it has snowed a little bit more and it was cloudy.We tried out the waffle iron but it didn't work so well, so we moved on to plan B which was blueberry pancakes with some bacon and eggs! After a good hearty breakfast of probably twice as much food as we really needed, we started up Mt. Blalock. The weather forecast had said sun, but it was a cloudy day and we'd had a little more snow overnight.
We started up the trail, and just before we crossed out of Widner's property at the top of the forrest we saw more cougar tracks. They headed off the trail eventually and it looked like they went down the ridge to the left. When we got a little further up we saw a bunch of white tail deer. The were going back and forth looking all around like they were spooked. Then again maybe it was the beeping sound the camera from all the pictures I was taking... You can click on each picture to get a bigger view of the deer.
These are a bunch of pics of the white tail deer we saw as we were just getting out of the trees. The last two pics show the huge white tails the deer have. The last shot also shows one of them in mid air jumping. See if you can find it!
Herd of elk on the move over on the ridge to the West
Pic's just before 2nd base camp. We were completely surrounded by clouds, sometimes the wind came up and it was like we were walking Into Thin Air!
This rock is even more comfy in the snow!
A couple snow scenery pics. The frozen fog looked cool on the needles.
More snowy pics, this time on the way down the mountain.
After we made it back, with no new cougar track sightings, we had some nice "hot soup" aka Shin Ramen for lunch. Then we relaxed a bit and then went outside to work on the wood situation. We moved the new wood that we'd cut down in the meadow earlier this year over to the front porch to help it dry. Then we chopped a bunch more small stuff and kindling to restock the wood racks. After that we had a dinner of spaghetti, bread and peas. According to Richard, peas are the perfect veggie for spaghetti.
That night we didn't have lights upstairs so no ping-pong that night, so we closed the bear door and warmed the place up to like 85 degrees before bed!
The cabin in the snow on our way home, and my new wool shirt again! ;)
My dad's favorite place to take a picture. This is below the 10th ford where the trail is high above the river
We saw these tracks on the way down in a number of places. My boot is in the picture for a size reference. Our best guess is wolf.
My dad on the trail out. Notice the gloves are different. I gave him my mitten that you could flip back so you actually had a chance at pulling the trigger if we met that wolf or cougar on the trail.
