The Schweet! Spot

First it was ‘The Perfect Spot’ and then ‘The Killer Spot.’ How do you follow up such kick-ass adventures?! How do you improve upon absolute, killer perfection?! Well, dear readers, it’s as easy as this: You just gotta look for the Schweet! Spot. WOO!

Yep – we went on another adventure. We packed up our gear, piled it in Pauly’s truck and headed for the Pass. Chinook Pass, that is.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Seattle as we headed towards the mountains. I know that one of these days, however, we’re gonna start out an adventure in adverse conditions. The streak will end, I am sure. Whaaaatever. We’re prepared – bring it on! But in the meantime, I’m happy to report that we’ve had nothing but amazing weather for every trip.

In keeping with tradition, I made my pre-adventure pilgrimage to Mighty-O Donuts that morning. It’s very important to have a bag of donuty goodness for every journey. (And if you haven’t visited Mighty-O Donuts – DO IT NOW! Seriously. Get up from your chair, open the door and RUN to Mighty-O! Organic donuts and coffee that will rock your world… Guaran-damn-teed.) So, with donuts and coffee in hand, we drove closer and closer to what would be our schweet, schweet destiny.

Chinook Pass is a beautiful part of the state. I was born in Yakima and my family spent quite a bit of time camping in the area as I was growing up. Later on, I spent several years working in and around Mt. Rainier National Park which is adjacent to the Chinook Pass area. (The William O. Douglass Wilderness Area) I can honestly say that this area is truly one of my favorite places in the entire world. It feels like going home every time I’m there.

We were heading for the Dewey Lakes area, a spot of which I had visited many years before. However, I couldn’t remember exactly where the trailhead was, so we had to look around a bit when we got to the top of the Pass. I knew it was past the Tispsoo Lake area, but I couldn’t remember if it was just before or just after the top of the Pass. As it were, it turned out there was access to this trail on either side of the Pass – go figure. However, we found a spot in the parking lot on top of the Pass and struck out from there. Yeah, I suppose maps are a good idea, but whatever. We always seem to find a spectacular spot without them.

After we figured out exactly where we were going, we hauled out the gear and started readying our always heavy packs. And as I busted out some more of the donuts, Pauly broke out what he traditionally brings for the start of every adventure: Beer.

Come on – that’s a brilliant combination – Beer and donuts. If it’s good for Homer Simpson, well it’s good enough for us! And when we really thought about the situation, it dawned us that we are actually the Simpsons of camping! DOH! We realized that we’ve started every adventure with beer and donuts! Hey, but the donuts are organic and the beer is either imported or a local, micro brew… Come on – it’s not like we’re busting out the Bud Lite and Hostess or something - This is a high class operation! (Work with me here!) Yeah, and I’m sure our pre-hike rituals have puzzled some of the peeps that have parked next to us at the various trailheads, but whatever. It’s worked quite well for us, so if it ain’t broke…

As we started out around Noon that day, we didn’t take off from the trailhead until about four o’clock or so. We were hoping to still get some of the afternoon sun, but the whole first part of the trail had already fallen into a shadow behind the ridge. However, the air smelled amazing and there’s nothing better than a mountain breeze in the late afternoon, so it was all good. Besides, I knew we’d be hiking into the sun on top of the ridge very soon, so I enjoyed the shade while I could.

When we got to the top of the ridge, it was beautiful. What I remembered about this trail was that it traveled through some fairly wide open, sub-alpine areas. I remembered the amazing meadow areas that were at the time, filled with beautiful wildflowers. However, as this was early in the Fall, the wildflowers were no longer in season. No matter though, it was amazing to see the beginnings of the Fall colors. It was beautiful to see all the gold, red and orange plants and leaves against the constant color of the Evergreens.

I also love the sub-alpine shrubs and trees that are always twisted in some crazy shape and bent in the direction of the prevailing winds. It amazes me that a squatty, 3-foot high bush can be over a hundred years old. In the sub-alpine areas, the growing season is very short and the conditions harsh, so they usually only grow an inch or so every year. I have quite a bit of respect for those little trees. Those defiant, little, bad-ass warrior trees…

After enjoying the amazing view at the top of the ridge, we began our descent down to the lake area. As we hiked down the other side, we again lost most of the sun and began hiking though a more heavily forested area. It was amazing, though to see the sun rays streaming through the trees. That just never gets old… The hike down to the lakes didn’t take very long and soon we were at the Dewey Lakes site.

I feel that I did a fairly decent job loading my pack for this trip, but it was still damn heavy. And I know the hike down to the lakes wasn’t really that long, but I was still more than happy to take the pack off for a while. So, when we rolled into what appeared to be a campsite, we decided to take off our packs and walk up the lake shore to scout for other, available campsites.

WOO HOOOO! I felt like I was literally being swept off my feet as we walked, pack-free along the lakeshore. That feeling just NEVER ceases to amaze me – so very cool… You could be crawling up on death's door, but as soon as that pack comes off it's miracle mile time!

As we hiked along the shore, there were some great areas that we came across, but none so lovely as a groovy campsite, tucked back in the trees. Tucked back in the trees and in a nicely sheltered area, but still within view of the lake and surrounding ridges. Yep. We had found another amazing spot. Crap. But we still had to go back to the other site and get our packs. So much for that flying feeling… :)P

After we hauled everything into the area, we again dumped our packs and began to contemplate where and how we were going to trick out this fabulous spot. And in our contemplative state, we felt we needed a bit of inspiration… AKA, Tequila. Yes, we had packed in the obligatory beer for our dinner enjoyment, but we also took care to bring along some tequila AND some whiskey. Platypus bags are a fabulous invention. They allow you to easily pack not only ONE fifth of alcohol, but TWO. HA! Yep. Never let it be said that you can’t bring a party into the middle of nowhere…

When we agreed upon a spot for the tent, we began setting everything up. Now, maybe I’m using the word ‘we’ a bit liberally, but I WAS there while the tent was being set up and I DID hook up a few of the clips, etc. However, it was Paul’s tent and he’s pretty much a tent-constructing master, so I felt more like a tent apprentice than anything. Hey – I ain’t knockin’ it, though – Who wouldn’t want a master tent-constructor on the trip?! Duh. But one day soon, I will complete my training and I will amaze the world with my tent-construction skills. Make that, MAD tent-construction SKILLZ. Yeah.

After the tent was set up and tricked out, the disco ball had been hung and the tunes were flowing from the iPod, we set upon busting out the dinner goods. And now, please let me bring to your attention, one of the STARS of our journeys…

TINY CHEESE GRATER!! (TCG ™) Yaaaaaay!! WooooHOOO!!! We LOVE you, Tiny Cheese Grater!!! (Insert fanfare *here*) And remember: It’s not the size that counts! ™ Vote for Tiny Cheese Grater!!

Ohhh, Tiny Cheese Grater, we MISSED you! As you may remember from the last adventure, we didn’t bring along any cheese. (Gasp!) Therefore, we had no need for the services of Tiny Cheese Grater. (Say it isn’t so!) However, we learned the error of our ways and I can officially say that we will NEVER again take a journey without the accompaniment of our beloved, Tiny Cheese Grater. ™ He is with us to the end! And will be featured in many of our upcoming adventure pics as it was decided that he’s also kind of the ‘gnome’ of our camping adventures. Check out Paul’s camping pics to see Tiny Cheese Grater in action. http://www.flickr.com/photos/p_d_gibson/

After we busted out TCG ™ and a little more tequila, we started in on dinner. Paul had brought all the fixings for a faaaabulous, Mexican feast and that’s what we were about to enjoy. Yes, indeed… Mmmm – Tortillas, avocado, veggies, CHEESE, hot sauce, TEQUILA… Yeah, it was really good. And with the glow of the disco ball/candle lantern and the fine mix on the iPod, it was turning into a very enjoyable evening.

Many funny things had happened by this time (just add TEQUILA), but one of the more notable occurrences was Pauly’s experience with the spider. We were hanging out around the cooking area when Paul noticed a rather large spider crawling by his Thermarest chair. It was a pretty damn big spider and Paul was not happy when it took a turn towards him and scurried under his thermarest. Hey, who would be happy?!

As Paul was attempting to remove the spider from under his chair, the iPod was doing its job pumpin’ out the jams. The iPod had been set to ‘random’ mode, but the song that started playing at this moment couldn’t have been MORE appropriate. As Paul continued working on the spider relocation project, a Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars tune was playing… “Where are the spiders?” was the lyric that caught both of our attention. No way!! It couldn’t have been more perfect! OR more funny! Bahahahahaha! Okay - Not that I wished a spider onslaught on Paul or anything, but it was pretty damn funny…

It was also at this time when we hit upon what would be the name of our current camping extravaganza. Yep – we had already used ‘Perfect’ and ‘Killer’ – what were we going to name THIS adventure?! We threw around a few suggestions – Fabulous, Awesome… Sure, these were great words, but none of them seemed to quite fit. Then Paul came up with the definite winner… This trip was SWEET! And after we rolled it around for a few seconds, we decided to add the ‘schwa’ sound and make it SCHWEET! Yes!!! This spot was totally SCHWEET!! Yeah…

After we finished eating, drinking some more beer and TEQUILA and marveling over our SCHWEET spot, we decided to take our party down to the lakeshore for a while. There was a great spot to set up a Thermarest and that’s exactly what we decided to do. So, with Tequila in hand, off we went…

Okay. There are beautiful spots in this world and then there are CRAZY beautiful spots. The lakeshore spot where we set up was most definitely in the crazy beautiful category. Wow.

It was completely peaceful and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We also couldn’t see the moon, so the stars were particularly visible and bright. Not only where they visible and bright, but they were spectacularly displayed in the perfectly calm reflection of the lake. And as I paid closer attention to the reflections in the lake, I noticed that the surrounding ridges were also reflected in the lake. It was just truly amazing and nothing could really describe it better than actually sitting there yourself and experiencing it firsthand. Just absolutely amazing… We sat there for quite a while, enjoying the vibe - not saying a word... I really think that I could’ve sat there all night.

I could’ve sat there all night UNTIL we started hearing the crazy-ass X-Files noises that started going on in the surrounding woods.

“Did you hear that?! What the hell WAS that??!!?”

Seriously. It was a crazy sound! And we kept hearing it!! It sounded like a screaming woman, off in the distance… I don’t know – maybe she was being abducted by aliens or something… All I know is that it was quite a disturbing sound. ACK! As we sat and contemplated the fact that maybe WE were next, it finally started to dawn on me what it might possibly be.

As it was the Fall and there are many herds of Elk in the area, I’m guessing it was probably the Elk calling to each other as they do at this time of the year. Ummm, at least that’s what I was telling myself it was. I’m serious – it was either that or a crazy, screaming woman being abducted! What would you decide??! Yeah – bugling elk. That’s what it was. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it.

But regardless of the bugling elk theory, we decided that it was time to pack things up and head back to the campsite. It was also finally starting to get a bit cold, so it was time to find the warmth of our sleeping bags. And maybe a little more of the tequila… >:-)

And with this, I will bid you adieu. I’ll be back with tales of Day 2 in the near future. I super swear.

Your Pal,

TRJ ™