March 2025

It was a terrible idea, and I knew it. But nothing could stop me from my diabolical plans for the day. We were more than ready for this! You see it was the end of March and the news kept talking about these big storms that were going to be moving through on hiking day. They were to bring hail, thunder, lightening, strong winds, a cold front and maybe even a tornado. I couldn't be happier and I knew to get the best front row seat to the storm, we should climb up high on a mountain to experience it.

To make things even better, I checked the NWAC (NW Avalanche Center) website. The mountain was currently at a level 3 Avalanche Danger....meaning considerable. The website informed me that if I was stupid enough to go up there, that I should employ cautious route-finding and have conservative decision making skills. It stated we needed to have very careful snow pack evaluation skills. I giggled to myself when I read that. Mustard Seed Hiking was going to be all over being conservative while climbing up through snowy ravines to hopefully be smack in the middle of a thunder and lightening storm. What could possibly go wrong I asked myself with an evil laugh. "It is going to be the best of days" I said to the girls as we packed up and drove to the mountain. Inwardly I knew this was a leap of faith day and a day where I would feel God up close and personal. Those are my favorite of all days.

We had blue sky and sunshine on the drive and it really felt like spring. As I blasted music on my truck's CD player (yes I was listening to the sound track for the new Twister movie, which I felt very appropriate), I let my mind and body unwind from my hectic week. I had been working 50 to almost 70 hour work weeks lately with a lot of stress. I needed this day of adventure. I needed this day with God. As we neared the trail head, I was worried about what we would find. Sometimes this trail can be so popular you can't find a parking spot. As we came around the final corner, I found it empty except for one fancy new white SUV who was backing into a space just before us. "So we won't be the only storm watchers here today" I said to the girls with some disappointment.

The two other hikers were pulling out their gear as I was getting mine on. Based on the gear they had with them, I knew they must be planning to spend the night at the cabin in the trees up off the trail that can be rented out. My plan was to pass that cabin on my climb up to watch the storm. I realized that perhaps on my way down I could make friends with these guys and crash with them for a bit before night hiking out....especially if they started a fire in the fireplace there! I could suddenly be real friendly if a fire was involved on a snowy night I thought!! Besides, about 20 years ago, I had shared this cabin with a bunch of guys when I got absolutely stranded in a terrible storm that was almost the end of me. It would be fun to do that again I realized.

The girls and I hit the trail without sharing our plan with the hiking pair. The climb here starts off right away as there is a lot of elevation to gain. For the first mile we were under treeline and protected from the sun. Temps were suppose to be in the 70's today before the storm hit. This is one of those spring days I love on the trail. You can literally be hiking in a tank top on your upper half, but have snow pants, boots, gaiters and spikes on your lower half. It is like your body is split into two seasons and I love it! I was not wearing a hat or gloves and was sweating by the time we broke treeline. The sun was beating down on us and I instantly felt like I was burning. "Man, I should have brought a sunhat and put on sunblock" I said to the girls. My Dermatologist would not be happy with me I realized. The moment the girls found shade, Josie wanted to lay down in the snow.

The sun wasn't just frying us from above, it was bouncing off the snow beneath us. Feeling Josie's pain, I picked up handfuls of snow and stuffed some in my sports bra and sucked on the rest to cool me. It was suddenly way too hot to be climbing as fast as we were! We tried to slow our pace a bit and kept heading upwards to the peak. The farther we moved over snow in full sun exposure, the softer the snow pack became. We started to post hole dramatically and unexpectedly. You might take 5-6 steps just fine on top of the surface of the snow, then you would suddenly sink to your crotch without warning. It was exciting and each step became an adventure. I had decided not to bring snow shoes today and just spike it, but after a lot of post holing, I started to regret that decision; especially after one particularly dramatic drop that had my left ankle and side of my left foot feeling like it was on fire. My Podiatrist would not be happy I thought with a smile. I ignored the pain as Nova wanted to pose for me and the mountain was showing me how handsome he was in these calm before the storm moments.

We kept climbing higher and higher tackling some really difficult steep runs in deep, soft snow. Every now and then I would turn to look behind us, wondering where the other hikers who had started at the same time as us were. I couldn't even see them and wondered what on earth was taking them so long. But I was happy for the privacy as we grew tired and needed to take more frequent breaks. I hate feeling like a wimp on the trail and didn't want anyone seeing how many breaks we needed as we climbed! Even the Wolf kept needing to rest which is not like her.

Of course, Josie came to anytime she thought she heard something and wanted to look for movement. She becomes very, very intense if she thinks there is any sort of prey out among us. Sadly, for her, the only thing in this stand of dead trees were woodpeckers.....and from the sounds of it, a whole colony of them lived here!

Other than the intrepid woodpeckers, there was no sound on the mountain today. When we held still, we were immersed in the sounds of silence. I think that is one of the things I love the most on the mountains. Sometimes all you hear is rock fall or wind. Sometimes you hear nothing at all. It draws me in like a moth to a flame. I am not sure why I love silence so much, but I think it must be because I am surrounded by so much noise in my normal day to day that I simply revel in the absence of all sound. It is a salve to my soul. But I broke the silence by continuing to ascend, crunching down through the snow beneath my boots.

As we climbed higher and higher, I finally started to see clouds rolling in to the side of the mountain. We had purposely started our hike late today to make sure we could be in the middle of the storm. The weatherman estimated it would hit about 3pm in the afternoon. That, is indeed, what time it was as the clouds banked and darkened near us.

I needed no further encouragement, but started to climb faster toward the peak. Between us and that peak was a steep ridge that would need to be cut. I knew from hiking this trail in the summer that the ridge trail is single file at best, but covered in snow, it would be more challenging. When we were about halfway out across it, I started to remember the phrase "conservative decision making and cautious route finding". I looked above us at the huge wall of soft snow we were undercutting. I looked below at the long slide it would become in an instant. I thought about turning around for a moment. "Nah", I said to the girls, "we have a goal to make and a storm to watch. Everything is just fine. Let's throw caution to the wind!!" But as we moved into more gullies and ravines, the girls were keeping a watchful eye on the snow. It was as if they could sense the avalanche danger too! What good girls I hike with I thought.

I was growing more and more excited as the storm clouds started to grow even darker and seem to surround us. We were getting boxed in and I couldn't wait to see what happened! Even the girls grew excited as we could all feel the storm down to our very bones. It is strange how much of our senses are tuned for danger. God gave us great abilities in our own bodies, but so often we humans choose to shelter ourselves with comfort so we never get to experience these gifts. The more the girls and I practice and become in-tune with our abilites, the stronger they become. This is discernment at its best and I was ignoring every warning bell going off in my head today!

It was at this point, that we felt the change. Suddenly our calm peaceful spring day was turning on us. Wind instantly slammed against us. No longer were we going to experience the sounds of silence. The temperatures dropped and I started zipping up layers. I kept stopping to just enjoy the beauty of the storm and feel every moment of it. We were still sinking in the snow with every few steps, climbing higher and feeling as if we were on a stairstepper from hell during certain runs. I was sweating like crazy from the exertion still, but at least now I no longer felt the need to stuff snow down my shirt to cool off. Before long, we made it to the cabin and shed. I looked back and still could not find the other hiking pair anywhere. I climbed down to peer through the windows that weren't covered by snow. I could see plenty of firewood in the entry alcove. Oh, how I suddenly wanted them to hurry up with the key to get in!!!

We continued our climb beyond the cabins and up the trail, eventually getting to where we were post holing with every step. Over and over I would be standing on top of the snow one minute and then buried up to my waist the next. It was becoming harder and harder to climb back up out and get on my feet. I would slither on my stomach to get out of the hole I was in and fight to stand, sometimes instantly plummeting into a new hole the moment I reached my feet. My groans eventually turned to more colorful language, especially when I realized that one of my crampons was missing from my boot. "We cannot descend this trail without my having both sets of spikes on!" I told the girls. That would truly be a death wish. I was kicking myself that I had not put an emergency pair of spikes in my pack in case of this exact situation. This is not the first time I have had spikes ripped off my boots. "What was I thinking?" I grilled myself. I had every other type of emergency gear in my pack, just not more spikes! We had to find them, there simply was no choice! So we started to back track, carefully checking each deep hole where my legs had punched down searching for those blue spikes. Thankfully it only took a few tenths of a mile before we discovered them at the bottom of a deep hole. I struggled to get them back on while sinking in deep snow.

The trail was becoming impossible and I didn't want to risk losing my spikes again. So we decided to head back to the cabin and surely find our new hiking friends with a fire going by then. The thought warmed me inside and out. It would be nice to take a quick break in the cabin to read a bit by the fire until the storm really broke lose. But as we made it back to the clearing where the cabin was, I found it still empty and locked up. I looked as far down the trail as I could see and there were still no hikers. I sat on the little sign sticking up out of the snow to wait. Perhaps they took a different trail afterall, or maybe they gave up when they realized how hard the trail was due to the climbing post holing. Eventually giving up on the idea of a nice warm fire, I decided our best view point for the storm would be to drop down a couple of ridges down to a nice exposed expanse with views of not only the peak we were on, but also Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams. We quickly dropped down and set up our little camp.

I placed a waterproof blanket on top of the snow, dug out my 500 page paperback I eas in the middle of and laid on my back to read as the winds whipped my hair and I started to feel the dark clouds pressing down on my very chest. Nova was all ready for the storm in her new green March hat.

The anticipation to experience the moments of this storm were overwhelming. But suddenly Josie sat bolt upright and told me that humans were coming. She was far more concerned with humans than the storm. After what felt like forever, I started to hear them too. They were moving slowly towards us. I mean really, really slowly.

By the time the hikers reached our little storm watching camp, they were shocked to see us just laying in the snow reading with impending doom all around us. They seemed very concerned about making it to the cabin before the storm really unleashed itself and I think didn't understand our exposed comfort.

I was more shocked to realize how slow they had been climbing. I asked if they ran into trouble. They had not. All I could think was how on earth we had been able to climb all the way far above the cabins, explore deep snow post holing terrain, lose and find a crampon, make it back to the cabin for a long break hoping they would show up for a fire, and then descend down as far as we did and had been laying and reading for an easy 20-30 minutes before they even made it up to this ridge, especially when we all started at the same time!!! How was that even possible I wondered??? My brain just couldn't understand it.

But after a brief chat about the incoming storm and snow conditions, I figured it out. As we lay on our blanket on the ridge, we watched them continue to ascend to the cabin. Watching them move was surely slower than watching paint dry. I have never seen anyone move so slowly in my life. Well, except maybe my husband. That man does not move fast at all. I can't stand to be stuck behind him in the hallway!! It is all I can do to not shove him out of my way. But I digress. You can see the paint drying hikers in this photo making their way up in slow motion. At least we had broken a bunch of trail for them and should have made things easier I thought.

I read several more chapters in my book before my hands started to get too cold to turn the pages. I also was having trouble feeling my feet and my butt cheeks had frozen long ago. I needed to get my gloves on and pop some pocket warmers into my gear before my body temperature got too low to enjoy the storm. I packed up my backpack and put on my extra puffer coat and warmers. Luckily today, I had battery heated gloves with me and I sighed as I stuffed my frozen fingers into them. By the time I was geared up for night hiking, the storm was fully over us and it was glorious! In the distance I watched the setting sun light up Mt. Adams before it and the other volcanoes disappeared into the clouds.

By now, the winds were wicked and trying to blow us off our feet. Hail started to pound us from every direction. We finally started to see the dark clouds in the distance light up with lightening and far away booms of thunder rumbled. I begged the storm to come closer. I yelled for it to pound right over us. I wanted lightening strikes to hit on either side of the ridge we were standing on until my nose hairs burned. I jumped and screamed for the storm to bring me his worst!!! But then I looked at the girls who were both saying "EXCUSE ME??? WHAT????" This was apparently not part of their plan for the day. "Seriously guys?? Don't be storm party poopers!!"

Huge rain drops were now mixing with the hail and I could barely keep my camera lens clear. After waiting for a bit longer, while bribing the girls with jerky treats to stay with me, I finally realized that the thunder and lightening were not going to come any closer. There would be no tornados. I tried not to be disappointed as we still had an awesome day. I would surely have another chance to be struck by lightening or die in an avalanche. Nova was starting to shiver, so we needed to get moving.

Now going down a mountain is the fun part! We had spent hours climbing up and up, struggling with each step. Down was Josie the Wolf's favorite thing in the world when there is deep snow. We were going to glissade together as far as we could. The girls are pros at this and knew just what to do as I laid on my back on the first steep run and used my arms to propel us down at a ridiculous speed. Josie always likes to be in the front when we glissade. Nova likes to sit right next to me so we can look at each other's goofy faces. She always smiles when we get going really fast and every time I almost wet myself laughing at her. Josie seems to think that Nova and I are chasing her so she stays on her feet and trys to go faster and faster, not realizing that she is tied to us and pulling us even faster after her.

The glissading runs on this mountain were so long that she started to glissade backwards just watching us. Then she realized that she wanted to come back up to me and jump in my lap and ride me like her own personal Wolf Sled. Unfortunately she is so big, that only her front legs could fit in my lap. So then she started to push with her back legs and before I knew it, I had become a Wolf Skateboard on snow. We laughed and laughed and each time we got to the bottom of a run we tumbled and rolled together into a giant pile of human, dog and wolf arms and legs laughing and laying in the snow until we could get up to do it again. The mountain was like a roller coaster of glissading runs. What was funny to me was that this was actually not the first time the three of us have glissaded in a thunder and lightening storm. Now that is Mustard Seed Hiking for you I thought!! Classics never die.

I think we must have had a solid six separate glissading runs to get down to where we would have to hike the rest of our way out. It surely was the most fun of the entire day! The ice from there to the trailhead was not nearly so fun going down as it was coming up. Thank God I had both spikes on I thought. As we got to the trailhead and I found all my clothing wet down to my underwear, and I changed into my dry clothing, I wondered if the other guys had made it to the cabin yet. But then all thoughts of them were gone, when I found my body temperature down to 93 degrees and got my truck stuck in the ice, even in 4 wheel drive, all tires spinning in place. All that rain and hail had not done good things to the trailhead! I debated hiking back up to the cabin to enjoy a night by the fire afterall, but found the girls already asleep in the back seat. After some jockeying around, I did eventually get my big off road tires to get some purchase on the thick ice covering the trailhead parking lot and made my way down to the main road off the mountain. It was a terrific hike and it was just what I needed to give myself a fresh start and find my reset button. Nothing like a day of adventure to pull you out of your own head space.

Just for fun I will share some extra pictures with you! These are from our final glissade before hitting the road to hike out, I decided it was safe and easy enough that I did not need my hands to steer us and could hold my camera instead. I tried to take some photos of the Wolf being goofy as we went down the short run. When she realized it was the last one, she wanted to climb up and do it some more, but Nova voted no.....and what Nova wants, Nova gets. (I know, I know.......you are never, ever suppose to glissade with your ice spikes on.....but what can I say, I am lazy and apparently a rule breaker. Don't send me hate mail!!)

The pain that you've been feeling, can't compare to the joy that's coming.

Romans 8:18