Date: 2010-03-31
To: Prep and conditioning hikes
Miles today: 0.0

The last few days have been packed and the next few will be just as packed. I have been spending every minute either getting ready go, conditioning hiking or working hard in the yard. Two days ago a huge truckload of wood chips was dumped in my dirveway. I had been wanting them for more than a year but I did not have them in my plan to spread before leaving. Regardless, I have moved almost half of them and they do make the yard look better. I will not get them all moved though. Tomorrow is the last good weather day before I leave and lots of other yard work has higher priority.Saturday afternoon I went up Poo Poo Point with Pam. We even got to see a hang glider take off from the point. That was fun. On Sunday afternoon I went up Mt Pete twice giving me a 6 mile hike and 2,000 ft elevation gain. That was a wet one. But I used the umbrella and stayed mostly dry. Interesting observation: if the wind is blowing a little or if I walk fast going downhill, I run into raindrops that come in under the leading edge of the umbrella. Only parts of me got wet though. Certain parts of me stick out more in front than other parts. HA! I dried out fast though.Today I was planning to go up Tennerife but missed the turn off from the Mt Si trail. One should look at the map before going 1.5 miles when the turn off is at .7. Oops. So I just continued on up Mt Si. Washington has gotten some storms the last few days and I was surprised to find so much snow. Washington has really had the best weather in the whole country this winter but winter seemed to come just this week. Kathy and I have been hiking most of the winter and a month ago there was almost no snow on Mt Si, ditto for Tiger Mountain in the middle of winter and for most of Tennerife when we went up that trail too. So I was surprised to find more snow than we had seen all winter. As I went up the trail on the the icy snow I wondered how it would be going down and if I should really go on but I really wanted to get the conditioning hike inas it would be my last chance before leaving. Ah, Winkle, you said I was wise. maybe not.It was beautiful in the snow and I did make it to the top. I enjoyed myself and enjoyed talking to a number of other hikers including an aspiring PCT Thru hiker and a hiker preparing for Denali and also a woman several years younger than I am. But on the way down about a mile from the top I took the most spectacular fall I have ever had, although I did not hurt myself at all. Thank you, God!!!As I started to slide in the slushy and slippery snow I did not want to hurt the knee and so just fell over like a dead tree. That protected the knee but resulted in landing on my back, head down, sliding down a very steep part of the mountainside. Yikes!! I managed to get turned sideways and stop about 30 ft down. No body parts were hurt at all and the pack was not damaged. I did not even break my glasses which were in my pocket.I climbed back up the steep slope, helped a bit at the last by a pasing day hiker. Then I continued three miles down to the car. I had thought about hiking a bit more somewhere but after the fall decided I should not push my luck and went home and moved some more wood chips.Now I am very tired and ready for bed. Not many days hence I will be on the AT. I am glad I am in one piece and life is good.