Date: 2015-08-27
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

I was not looking forward to today. It was to be our longest mileage day and we had to climb Mt. Albert. My body was fatigued and my attitude was not much better. But you don¢t get home by standing in one place, so off we went. The hiking was very pretty and we had some good views. I was intrigued to see some of the rhododendron tunnels I had read so much about. What I wasn¢t seeing or hearing were birds. I expected to see multitudes of birds. With effort I saw maybe 4. Where is all the wildlife? No deer either. Not a single bear, which was fine with me. Mice, chipmunks and a couple of squirrels occupy these woods. That was it. I have more wildlife in my back yard in a residential area!It was about 6 miles to Mt. Albert. The whole hike there, I was dreading it. I had read that there was a ¢bad weather¢ route around it, and while the weather was superb, I was praying that my companions might be interested in going around instead of up. Sigh, it was not to be. Instead they talked me into taking a nice 30 minute rest. Before the climb the trail comes out to a forest service dirt road. It was the perfect spot to take out your ground cloth, stretch out flat on your back and really rest. Then it turned into a yoga session. Shutterbug, instead of joining in, decided to take a video of Wild Thang and me doing our leg and low back stretches. Pretty soon we were all laughing, until a pickup truck came roaring around the corner and we scrambled safely off to the sides. Guess he was driving up to Mt. Albert and was in a big hurry! Rest time over, we loaded up once again and started the climb.Not knowing what to expect, except something steep, I was delighted to find it was a rocky, boulder climbing kind of trail. I like that kind of climbing, because it is slow, and you have to think and plan your route. It was even slower, because again, I began to feel dizzy (altitude) so had to rest a bit. Eventually the fire tower at the top came into sight and Shutterbug and Wild Thang practically raced up the steps to take pictures of the view. I busied myself clinging to the legs of the fire tower for security as I peered every once in a while at the view. Did I mention I don¢t like heights? It was all I could do to wrap one arm around the steel leg of the tower while fishing for my camera with the other to try and take a picture. I gave up and decided to rely on Shutterbug¢s expertise, as that is why she has that trail name. Soon they came down, and fortunately it was truly all downhill to Long Branch Shelter, our camp for the night.Long Branch shelter is a fantastic spot. It is off the trail a bit, downhill of course, but it has the most beautiful cascading stream nearby for the water source. The shelter is relatively new and was very inviting. We were the only ones there, so Shutterbug and I actually set our tents up inside the shelter and Wild Thang hung her hammock close by. With the door of my tent near the edge of the platform it would make it easier to swing my poor cramped up legs out of the tent in the middle of the night to stand up and stretch. After dinner, we all did some leg stretches and then took turns working on each other¢s legs and back muscles to ease the strain of the day. You couldn¢t ask for better hiking partners! Off to bed and thanks to Wild Thang sharing more of her electrolyte drink mix, I got through the night in relative comfort, managing to get about 5 hours of sleep.