Sahale Peak - Quien Sabe Glacier, June 2000
This trip almost never made it off the ground. First there was engine trouble with Scott's Land Cruiser. Fortunately we were only 10 minutes from home and we were able to quickly re-pack our gear into Chris's car. Then, a few miles outside of Marblemount, Chris's timing belt quit. It was about 10pm at the time and we were fortunate to hitch a ride back into Marblemount at that hour. Once in town, we arranged to have the car towed to the Honda dealership in Burlington and negotiated with the locals to give us a ride to the trailhead, some 20 miles up the Cascade River Road. Chris also arranged to have his dad pick us up on Sunday afternoon.
Annoyingly, during all this ad hock planning and negotiating, we were being continuously heckled by a crazy-eyed, Jesus look-alike who had obviously consumed way too much acid at some point in his life. After what seemed like an eternity, we were finally dropped off at the gate (near Eldorado trailhead) and proceeded to mat down some tall grass on the side of the road for our tent. By morning the weather had deteriorated, bringing occasional showers. We met several returning parties on our way up to the trailhead...all sporting long faces. Reports of continuously foul weather did little to bolster our enthusiasm. Still, we decided to go and I endured the next few hours trying to reassure Chris to keep going as I felt confident that the weather on Sunday would improve. (more...)
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