Not So Sasse 4.11.14

I had a stressful week highlighted by having to fix a car in the rain. Not having a garage sometimes is a problem. I didn't have a choice since  the windows kept rolling themselves down randomly. Not wanting to have a wet interior and a car that seem possessed fix it I did. Since the weather was clear and crisp I thought I would head out and enjoy the sunshine. I went out to warm up the car and found some very Gusty East winds. After getting the kids together and heading out the door we were greeted with some very substantial limbs down in direct path to the car. It really shows that life can change in  a matter of moments. I was so thankful that the events timed out the way they did it didn't even bother me when I found one of the branches had made direct contact with my hood leaving a sizeable dent. I dropped the kids at school and headed East.




     The plan was to do Howson Peak above the Salmon La Sac Road. I have been up the trail that starts right across the first snowmobile parking area. The trail stats as an old road until reaching the creek crossing where it turns into a most pleasant trail. The trail switchbacks up the steepish grade. I hoped to continue on the ridge trail until going over Howson and then to continue West to meet with the NW tending ridge that leads back to the trail below closing the loop. I had been up the NW ridge on a previous trip so I new it would be an easy descent. After around 2000' of climb my Plantar fasciitis started flaring giving me some trepidation about going too much further. Soon I was nearly under Not So Sasse. from this vantage I could see how long the ridge traverse was going to be.   Not wanting to but too much mileage on my gimpy foot I changed plans and started up to NSS summit. I had been there once before and I remembered the stunning views of Lemah/Chimney Rock along with many of the peaks to the North.  The going is open and pleasant as I made my way up to the ridge above me. Once reaching the ridge I easily followed it East to the Summit where some views of Mt Stuart loomed over the rest of the area peaks. The wind started to get quite gusty taking a bite out of the suns warming rays. I feared the descent to be painful but for the most part it was manageable. Soon I found myself back at the car.

Approx 6 miles 3400' of climb 4 hours car to car

Crossover Butte 4506' 11.04.14

I had hoped to head up to do this last week but life again had other ideas. I made it over the Snoqualmie only to find traffic at a standstill amidst the construction. As I patiently waited I heard some unpleasant sounds that I hoped weren't being emitted by my car. I was hoping that it was the truck behind me but when saw smoke coming from my engine bay I pulled over to survey the issue. Lucky for me I was in one of the few spots where there was actually room to pull over. I could see my fan belt was a molten mass of burning rubber but I the engine was idling fine. I was thankful hoping that my issue wouldn't be too serious. I was able to call my wife to come get me and she arrived at the same time as the tow truck. My AC compressor had seized which in my research didn't seem to be too expensive to fix. Too bad for me that anything Audi related is not cheap to fix.


Anyway with my car back in order I was off to finish what I had started the previous week. I also am contending with a stained plantar fasciitis coupled with the fact that  I have to drop my oldest off at school and I wanted to be home to  big her up since it was her birthday today.  The plan was to do both Crossover Butte and Cabin Mt further East. I exited towards Stampede pass finding some rather large potholes on the lower portion of the road. I took a left at the first junction finding much better road conditions. Soon I was at the spur road I wanted. I drove a ways up the road in order to hide my car since I saw quite a few people already which surprised me. I found a nice spot to park a short ways up the road. The weather was much better than what I expected but I had all my rain gear on just in case. I walked the road for a short ways until it quit climbing and I turned into the very wet brush. I zig zagged up the slope trying to avoid the areas of densely packed trees. Soon I crested a small point and I continued on the summit ridge to the summit. Since there wasn't anything to see other than the inside of  a cloud I headed down the road that leads to the summit. I gave up continuing when the rain and wind picked up considerably. I rejoined the mainline and headed back to my spur road. I was able to make it in plenty of time to pick up my daughter and have a memorable birthday evening.

Approx 3 miles 1:10 car to car 800' of climb