Exactly 7 years ago tonight I was huddled in a one man bivy tent alone in goat rocks on my fourth scouting mission. I thought I was in the middle of doing the dumbest thing I have ever done, and for me that is something. I was stuck hunkered down in an Ice storm, freezing rain then snow then rain then hail but mostly freezing rain. I had been hiking most of the day from the East side to somewhere near McCall basin, much elevation gain, and I was spent. I had planned on hiking all the way through to the West Side where I had left my vehicle and got a ride from a friend from Packwood. I had only seen 3 other hikers on my way up, an older gentelman just a couple miles in and a couple young women a couple miles below where I was hunkered down who had invited me to camp with them. Not me though I was going to the top, I never said I was smart. Once I got above the tree line visibility was near zereo. The trail was gone and the ridge was running the wrong way from the map. Other than that and the freezing rain everything was going great. I was starting to get pretty wet between the rain and sweat and knew I better pitch tent and hunker down or I would be in trouble so thats what I did. No dinner or nothing, I was spent. Having never used this bivy before I figures I better drape my space blanket over it because If my sleeping bag got wet I figured hypothermia would be a given. I have never had cramps so bad as trying to change out of my wet close in that bivy after that hike, I'm pretty sure the echo's from my screaming ane still floating around up there. When I woke up there was several inches of new snow on a layer of Ice about a half inch thick. There were tracks within 100 feet of my tent from deer, elk, coyotes, and bear, all going down hill. The water bottle I had next to my tent was frozen solid and the one I had in the tent next to my bag was half frozen. As I was chipping the ice off my space blanket there was a goat a couple hundred yards above me wathing like he could'nt belive what he was seeing. The weather had cleared though and I could tell where I was, within a quarter mile of the crest, so off I went. When I hit the crest and looked down towards egg butte there were goats, elk and a grouse. One look at the next section of trail was enough for me though, its a ledge across a long section of cliff. The cliff was covered with ice and the ledge of course looked worse. You can however get cell service from there and thats what I did. I called my buddy and told him to pick me up where he droped me off. When I talked to the old gentelman on the way down He said he had hiked in there every year on Labor day weekend for years and that was the worst weather he had ever seen. He showed me the ice in his water bottle so I showed him mine, still solid. I made record time getting out of there thats for sure.
Out of time, more latter
