Joe Know?: Mt Adams Adventure

It's been almost a year since the last time Ky and I went for a backpacking trip, so we decided it was about time to checkout the "Around the Mountain" trail around Mt Adams, it was spectacular. But like any worth while vacation, it was somewhat of an adventure.

Since we wouldn't be leaving work early to start our vacation I planned ahead and did all of the "packing" and route setting and the general what-nots. One of those typical things would be to figure out how to get to our destination. Since I knew where Mt Adams was and I knew where I wanted to car camp before the hike, I just grabbed the GPS coordinates and figured I would let the Garmin show us the best way there.

We grabbed a quick dinner, pizza and a strong beer (12% alc), at the Walking Man Brewery in Stevenson WA. With this little bit of beer in the system I blindly followed the GPS North, it wasn't until I saw my first sign for Cougar WA and an INCREDIBLE view of Mount St. Helens from way too close (sorry no photo) did I realize we were not taking a short-cut to Mt Adams.

"Fortunately" a fire closure stopped us before we got really off track, but the long and the short of the lesson was that we were going to be setting up our base camp in the dark. We decided our vacation was now Barker worthy and said oh well as we pulled off the side of the road and set up our camp.

The next morning was cold but not as cold as the following, and the weather was grim at first but it quickly improved. After 7 miles of hiking and one incredibly tired dog we struck camp at Horseshoe Meadow, ate some lunch and took a nap. More eating and napping along with fire and good times ensued before off to bed. As previously mentioned Sunday morning was terribly cold (high 30's) so we were very motivated to hit the trail back to the car, which was a good thing considering the angry storm that was quickly coming.

The hike was a blast and we saw some incredible views. So without anymore jiber-jaber the photos...