Pickens, SC – Hiking Trip – Day 6 – Table Rock

Posted on by rcragun

We saved our longest hike for last. Perhaps the most well-known and scenic hike in the area near our cabin is Table Rock Trail. This leads to the top of a mountain and then, just past the summit, to a beautiful overlook. Despite the trail being well-worn and marked with red blazes, we actually lost the trail twice on the way up and had to backtrack a little bit each time to find the main trail (marked in the map below). The hike is a good one with some pretty rugged, steep terrain at times.

The view from the overlook is quite impressive:

Per my watch, the hike was 6.79 miles round trip with 2,439 feet of elevation gain. With a stop at the overlook of about 30 minutes to eat some fruit and snacks, it took us just under 4 hours.

Toren ended up doing an advert for Nature Valley on the overlook:

Here are a few videos from the hike:

This is one of the small waterfalls you pass early on the hike.
This is another small waterfall right at the beginning of the hike.

We headed back to the cabin and continued our movie marathon, finishing The Hobbit series and beginning The Lord of the Rings series, each of which is almost 4 hours long. We only got through part of the first one but were committed to finish them during our South Carolina trip.

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Pickens, SC – Hiking Trip – Day 5 – Falls Creek Waterfalls

Posted on by rcragun

Our friends left early in the morning so it was just the three of us again. We opted for a hike to another waterfall – Falls Creek Waterfalls. It’s not the best name, but the waterfalls were, again, quite beautiful. Some of the trip reports for this hike suggested the trail was quite steep and challenging. That is an accurate portrayal of parts of the trail. If you’re not in good shape and willing to traverse some rugged and steep terrain, you shouldn’t attempt this trail. Even so, most of the trail was of an easy grade.

Here’s the route:

The round trip distance was 2.46 miles with 1,114 feet of elevation gain.

Here is a video of the upper falls:

Here’s a photosphere of the upper falls:

And here’s a photosphere of the lower falls:

Even though this hike was a decent workout, the hike was relatively short. We decided as a result to stop by a roadside hike on our way back to the cabin, the Wildcat Wayside Nature Trail. Meh. Probably a mistake. There is a cute little waterfall right by the side of the road maybe 50 feet from where you park. There were kids playing here as there is a nice, shallow pool below the waterfall. But this was the most scenic element of the hike. We ended up following the roughly 1-mile nature trail. It was fine. It eventually reaches a cliff face that had a trickle of water coming down it. Perhaps during a rainstorm there would be a decent volume of water coming down the cliff face making another waterfall. But it really was a trickle dripping down into a small puddle and about half a dozen young kids were playing in that puddle. The trail is pretty level and not at all rugged except for one spot where you have to work your way over some roots. So, if you’re looking for a nice, easy trail, this is the one for you.

After our hike, we headed back to the cabin, cleaned up, had a nice lunch, then began what would turn into a fairly epic movie marathon. We watched the first two movies in The Hobbit series. I have extended versions of all of these, so each movie is at least three hours long. We got through two of them the first day we started it, with a good game in between them.

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Pickens, SC – Hiking Trip – Day 4 – Rainbow Falls

Posted on by rcragun

Following the same pattern, we got up fairly early to do another hike – Rainbow Falls. This one was in the Jones Gap State Park, which does require a $6 parking fee per person (kids and seniors are less). The hike was to Rainbow Falls. Here’s the route:

Per my watch, the route was 5.01 miles round trip with just under 2,000 feet of elevation gain. It’s a fairly rugged trail at times but quite a pleasant hike and the waterfalls at the top were very pretty. Here is a photosphere showing the falls:

We didn’t stay very long because the forecast called for rain in the early afternoon. We got a little sprinkle on our way down but it was quite light.

Here are a couple videos of the falls:

These are the upper falls at Rainbow Falls.
One of the lower falls at Rainbow Falls in Jones Gap State Park.

The bottom part of the trail is the main trail in Jones Gap State Park, which follows a very scenic river:

After the hike, we headed back to the cabin, cleaned up, and then followed your daily routine – eat, play games, and relax. We ended the night with Deadpool 2!

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Pickens, SC – Hiking Trip – Day 3 – Twin Falls Trail

Posted on by rcragun

With our friends from North Carolina joining us, we headed out for our second hike – Twin Falls Trail on Reedy Cove Creek. This one was a little weird as it isn’t part of a state park, so the parking for the beginning of the trail was really just a pull out on the side of a road with room for about 3 cars is all.

The trail was pretty well-maintained and included some nice elevation gain, which was great coming from Florida where the only elevation gain we have involves stairs and buildings! The trail ends at the upper falls of a two-stage set of waterfalls. The upper falls aren’t very large but they are elongated and quite beautiful. Here are some videos of the upper falls:

The upper falls on Twin Falls Trail
The upper falls in slow motion

Just below these is the main waterfall, which is probably 70 to 100 feet tall. We were able to very careful work our way to the top and sit there and enjoy the view while we had a snack. Getting to the top of the falls where we were is a bit treacherous and I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone who isn’t sure-footed. A small slip and you’d be in trouble quickly there.

While we were at the top of the falls we saw people at the bottom who were swimming in the pool. We thought it might be nice to see the falls from the bottom and even tried a side trail off the one we had followed but it didn’t lead to the bottom of the falls. I marked that on the map. I spent some time bushwacking off that side trail to see if I could connect to the other trail but ran into two creeks and actually fell into one. It wasn’t easy hiking and I didn’t want to make everyone else have to work their way through brush, so we ended up just heading out. Here’s the hike:

The hike was about 3 miles and took us about 2 hours, but with a solid 30 minutes or so enjoying the views at the top (and another 20 minutes wandering off the trail). The total elevation gain was about 1,000 feet.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing games. Just before bed, we decided to watch a movie. The choice we came to was Deadpool, which is always fun!

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Pickens, SC – Hiking Trip – Day 2 – Raven Rock Loop Trail

Posted on by rcragun

The plan was to do a hike every morning while it was cooler, then head back to the cabin and relax, playing games, watching movies, cooking, and chatting. We also had some friends who live in North Carolina who were going to visit for a couple of days.

Our first hike was the Raven Rock Loop Trail, which is a nice ~4 mile hike that extends the Keowee-Toxaway Natural Bridge trail to Lake Keowee. There are some small waterfalls on the Natural Bridge trail. Past that, it’s a nice hike up and down some hills and down to the lake, but no additional waterfalls. Here’s our route:

Here is a short clip of the waterfall:

And another short clip of the bubbling little brook:

Our total distance on the hike was 4.53 miles and it took us just over 2 hours.

After the hike, we headed back to the cabin, got cleaned up, then made a list of food. I headed into the nearest town to buy the food while Debi and Toren got everything ready for our friend and her kids. I arrived back at the cabin just before they did. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening chatting, playing games, and cooking.

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WY-Gannett Peak

Posted on by rcragun

Summit Date

August 3, 2019

Party

Ryan Cragun and Tom Triplett (with logistical support from Mark Woolley, who almost made it)

Trip Report

Eighteen years after completing my first state highpoint (Utah’s King’s Peak), Wyoming is likely my last state highpoint – #49. While not the highest state highpoint, Wyoming is the longest hike as state highpoints go and is in very rugged terrain. As a result, we had to put a fair amount of planning into this hike.

Pre-Hike

The three of us met on July 31st to do a final gear check after having communicated for months about the equipment we would need. We were generally well-prepared for the hike with the relevant technical gear (e.g., harnesses, rope, helmets, ice axes, crampons, gaiters, crevasse rescue equipment, etc.). Tom had not picked up a few food items, but we were otherwise ready.

We also had a plan for the hike. Based on various trip reports, it looked like the “easiest” route (no route for Gannett Peak is easy) was the Glacier Trail from the east, entering through the Shoshone National Forest. Those trip reports also suggested that the hike was about 25 miles one way; 50 miles round trip. Thus, we had planned to hike about 10 miles per day, give or take a mile or two, to make for 5 good days of hiking.

Day 1 – August 1st

After a little debate about what time we were going to leave from Northern Utah for the trailhead, we eventually headed out around 5:30 am. The trailhead is just outside of Dubois, WY, which was about 5 hours away (see map below).

We stopped at the Wal-Mart in Evanston to pick up a few supplies along the way. We also had to make an emergency gas stop in Farson. We thought we’d have enough gas to make it to Lander but it seemed unlikely. Luckily, a gas station had just opened in Farson, otherwise, we probably would have run out of gas about 10 miles outside of Lander, which would have been a rough start to the hike.

We arrived in Lander around 10:30 where we topped off the gas. Mark picked up a fishing license. Tom stopped by an outfitter to pick up some crampons (the ones he had ordered hadn’t arrived). We then grabbed some lunch before heading to the trailhead, which was about an hour and a half outside of Lander. The turn off is about 4 miles outside of Dubois, WY and then roughly 9 miles on unpaved but well-groomed trails.

There were about a dozen cars at the Glacier Trail trailhead when we arrived. The weather looked great while we finished getting our packs ready. A family from France showed up just as we were getting ready to leave. They kindly snapped a photo of us before we hit the trail:

(left to right: Mark Woolley, Tom Triplett, Ryan Cragun)

Per my Garmin watch, the starting elevation was 7,598 feet. We left the trailhead around 12:50. The trail starts by working its way up and over a ridge, crosses a river, then continues along some fairly rocky terrain for about 2 miles. Miles 3 and 4 are in Bomber Basin, which is pretty level and has several wide, beautiful meadows. We got caught in a brief rainstorm here that forced Tom and me to pull out our raingear for about 30 minutes. Miles 5 and 6 are some pretty serious switchbacks that increase the elevation quickly. At the top of the switchbacks, things level out for a little bit and you actually have a little downhill to a stream crossing where we stopped to pump/purify some water. After crossing the stream, it’s a slow steady uphill across a meadow and plateau that just keeps going and going. It’s a solid couple of miles on that plateau (at least 1 1/2 until you reach Arrow Pass). You cross a pass that my watch said was at 10,850 feet and is above the treeline. After that, you start a slow descent back into another valley.

The plateau to Arrow Pass that never ends!

Mark goes to the Wind Rivers (the mountain range that Gannett Peak is part of) every year with family, so he had warned us about the bugs. They weren’t horrible, but they were bad enough in the lower valleys that Tom and I had already put on our bug head nets and gloves to keep them off us. We were also wearing long pants and long shirts. Above the treeline, the bugs were not as bad. That fact gave us an idea – why not camp right at the treeline on the other side of Arrow Pass to minimize the bugs? We could see from the pass that the trail dropped down into the trees just before dropping steeply in elevation. We could see some spots that looked like they would work.

Just before we got to the pass, we also ran into two other hikers – Jason and Joe – who were busy flying a drone. Jason was carrying a 75 to 80-pound pack with tons of camera gear. We stopped to talk to them for a bit then continued toward our desired campsite.

Sure enough, as we approached the treeline, the bugs started back up. We worked our way to the left of the trail and eventually found a spot that was nestled at the top of the treeline and was nice and flat to set up camp. We quickly set up the tent, got a fire going, and cooked dinner, which was dehydrated meals in bags. Mark also informed us that he wasn’t feeling very well. He had a dry mouth and felt like he was going to throw up. That wasn’t a good sign.

After dinner, Tom prepared his bear cannister while Mark and I set up our bear hangs before turning in for the night. A light rain started just as we were climbing into the tent.

Per my watch, we started at 12:49 and did 10.22 miles over 6 hours and 40 minutes. Here’s a chart of the elevation gain:

Elevation chart on Day 1.

Day 2 – August 2nd

Thinking we only had to cover 10 miles on day 2, we didn’t rush to get ready in the morning. We got up around 7:00 to 7:30, made breakfast, and slowly broke camp. We didn’t head out until 8:54.

From where we camped, the trail drops pretty steeply into a valley filled with mountain lakes. Mile 2 put us at Double Lake. Star Lake was at mile 3. Just after mile 4 we could see Honeymoon Lake, which you can see from the trail, but the trail doesn’t get very close to it. Just after you see Honeymoon Lake, there is a series of switchbacks going down. This drops a lot of elevation quickly.

Tom and Ryan with Honeymoon Lake in the background.

At the bottom of the switchbacks, we were running short on water (we hadn’t pumped since the day before). We found a small stream and decided to pump there and then have lunch. It was around mile 5 for the day and wasn’t a great spot. The mosquitos were really bad. Had we continued for another mile, we would have hit a great spot on the side of Dinwoody Creek (marked on the map below) that has beautiful views of the river and nice places to sit, plus fewer mosquitos and plenty of places to filter water.

Stop here for a break. It’s beautiful and the bugs aren’t as bad!

After lunch, we continued on, eventually crossing a river at Down’s Fork.

The trail was pretty flooded at this point, which meant some creativity in trying to avoid the water, but it was generally doable. From then on, the trail largely follows Dinwoody Creek, which is a beautiful, glacial river.

Just before mile 10, we found a spot where the creek widens and flattens out. It was late in the afternoon at this point and we were hot. Right at that spot (marked on the map on day 4 below), there is a nice, sandy beach on the side of the river. When Tom saw it, he immediately decided he was getting in. He stripped down and walked through the river. The side closest to the trail is only ankle deep, but on the far side it gets deep enough to dunk yourself under (maybe 3 1/2 feet). It’s freezing cold, but a good break on a hot day. (NOTE: There is a trail here that stays close to the river. Don’t follow it. Stay close to the mountain. The one that stays close to the river eventually goes into the river. The actual trail skirts the side of the canyon and avoids all the marshes.)

Stop here for a swim or a bath. It’s cold, but refreshing!

When we hit the 10-mile mark, we began to wonder how good the descriptions of the trail really were. We should have been about 5 miles from the summit of Gannett Peak at that point (we had gone 20 miles), but we couldn’t see the peak or the boulder field where we were supposed to spend the night. We had marked key indicators on our maps and Mark was using All Trails on his phone and could see that we still had miles to go. Given how Mark was feeling (and I was getting tired), we were getting a little worried. At 11 1/2 miles, we saw a camp across the river. We paused there and Tom went to see what it was. It’s an outfitter camp called “Camp Cowboy.” They take people up the mountain on horses. We found out from them that they had clients who had summitted that day. They camped at the boulder field, got up at 5:00 am, and made the summit by 10:00 am. But they didn’t tell us how far the boulder field was.

With the weight of the packs bearing down on us, we continued on. We crossed mile 12, then mile 13. By that point, it was close to 5:30 and both Mark and I were getting tired. Tom was willing to keep going, but it didn’t seem likely that we were going to make it to the boulder field that day.

As luck would have it, around mile 13, we took a bit of a wrong turn that walked us right through a beautiful campground. It was on a rise that had great views of the canyon. On the top was a ring of pine trees in a circle about 30 feet in diameter with a very nice, level spot for a tent. We eventually decided to make camp there for the night and came up with a plan for the next day.

Given how Mark was feeling (still quite sick), he had decided he was not going to try for the summit. Tom and I would leave most of our gear at the campsite with Mark and take just our technical gear, food, and water, and try to summit as fast as we could, returning to the camp hopefully in time to break camp and do a few miles back out on day 3. We couldn’t tell for sure at that point, but we thought the base of Gannett was only a couple miles away, which would go quickly with light packs.

So, we set up camp quickly. While Mark cooked dinner, Tom and I emptied our packs and repacked them for our summit attempt. We enjoyed a nice dinner, got everything situated, then hit the sack.

We covered 13.67 miles in about 9 hours. Below is the elevation chart for the day and the map:

Elevation chart for day 2.

Day 3 – August 3rd

The plan for our summit attempt was to get up early (5:00 am), head out by around 5:30, and move quickly. Thinking we only had a couple of miles to get to the base of the mountain, we figured we could be on our way up by 7:00 or 8:00 at the latest. We figured we could make it to the top in 2 to 3 hours, then get back off the mountain and ideally be back to our camp by early afternoon, late afternoon at the latest. We laid all of this out to Mark, who had our Garmin satellite communicator. He could start worrying if we weren’t back by 6:00 pm. We didn’t think it would take us that long to get back to our camp.

We were wrong.

We got up at 5:00 and headed out at 5:36. We made good time. We did our first mile in 26 minutes (just 229 feet of elevation gain), the second was just 24 minutes (150 feet of elevation gain). But we still were not to the boulder field. The third mile took us another 26 minutes (341 feet of elevation gain). At that point, we had crossed a couple of rivers and were climbing.

The fourth mile was 30 minutes with 417 feet of elevation gain. By the end of the fourth mile, we could finally see the boulder field.

We were way off in our estimate. The base of the mountain was about 5 miles from where we camped.

After 4 miles or so at the base of the boulder field.
The boulder field from above it.

Hopping across the boulder field took us close to 40 minutes. We paused to figure out a route up the mountain as well. Luckily, we spotted four climbers on the mountain working their way up a chute, which showed us where we needed to go. But we had no idea how they got there. We studied the mountain for a while and figured out a route that seemed to align with trails we could see, but it was definitely not the standard route up the mountain.

Tom on the glacier just as we were headed up to make our switchback. The summit is behind him.

Below is a photo of the summit from the top of the boulder field. I drew in two routes. In green is what we think is the standard route up the mountain. It heads to the left, cuts around a jut of rock, then works its way up to a ridge before getting on the glacier and working its way up the chute and over the bergschrund (snow bridge), then following the ridge to the summit. In red is our route. We cut up the face, crossed a snow patch, then ended up on the glacier. We roped up and put on our technical gear and did a switchback up the glacier. Just as we were finishing our switchback, two guys came up the ridge on the standard route and passed us. It’s much faster to climb the rocks on the ridge.

Follow the green line up. You could follow the red line down if you want to glissade on the glacier.

Where the red and green lines meet, it’s time to get on the snow. You cut below the sharp, jagged peak there and then work your way up the first chute which is where the bergschrund is. Basically, there is a crevasse at the bottom of the chute that is often covered with a snow bridge. When we crossed it, the snow bridge was really soft and had almost melted all the way through. If it melts all the way through, getting over this spot would be quite challenging.

Me by the bergschrund. Tom shot this while standing on the snow bridge.

The chute is also quite steep, probably a 70 to 80-degree grade in spots. We short-roped our way up it. After we made it to the top of the chute, we followed a fairly clear trail that tracks to the top of the snow just below the ridgeline. You have to cross a couple of vertical ridges running down the mountain, but from the top of the chute, it’s pretty much a long, slow hike about another half mile to the summit, which you can’t actually see in the photo above (it’s hidden behind the snow-capped part of the mountain).

While we made good time before the boulder field, after the boulder field, our time slowed dramatically. The rough terrain and elevation really slowed us down (plus, we didn’t bring enough food – a few packs of gummies, some M&Ms, and a few granola bars). We finally arrived at the summit around 1:00 pm.

From our camp to the summit was 7.5 miles, 4,410 feet of elevation gain, and it took us 7 hours and 20 minutes. Here’s the elevation chart:

My obligatory panorama on the summit:

And Tom’s traditional handstand:

We chatted with some folks on the summit for a bit, ate a little food, and took a break for about 30 minutes. We snapped photos and I even got a signal on my phone, so I texted Mark that we’d be late and texted my wife that we had made it.

Summit photo with me (left) and Tom (right).

Then we headed back down. My watch was almost dead and I didn’t have anything to charge it, so I didn’t track our time back down, but we did pretty well considering how technical it was.

Tom just above the bergschrund on the way down. We short-roped this section.

We did take advantage of the fact that we had been on the glacier already and slid down a few spots:

That helped. But I was moving pretty slow on the boulder field on the way out. My reconstructed knee (ACL) was hurting and I didn’t want to aggravate it. We made it to the end of the boulders around 5:00 and had 5 miles to go to get back to our camp. It didn’t help that the upper valley is so beautiful that I stopped a few times to take pictures and videos:

We made pretty good time, but still missed our 6:00 pm deadline for when Mark could start worrying. We got back to our camp around 7:20. Mark had a fire going and quickly cooked us dinner as we described the adventure.

Our campsite was great. Occasionally, however, our fire decided to do its own thing.

Meanwhile, Mark had a nice, relaxing day exploring the area. By the end of it, he was feeling much better:

Mark at the campsite enjoying the scenic views.

Day 3 total distance traveled was 15 miles – 7.5 to the summit and 7.5 back to our base camp.

Day 4 – August 4th

Having a better sense of the route, we knew about how much hiking we had to do the last two days. We figured we didn’t have to get up super early and had to do about 11 miles on day 4 to get to Double Lake, where we wanted to camp. We ended up getting up around 6:30 and broke camp around 9:00 am.

The upper canyon is definitely the most beautiful part of the hike:

A couple of miles down the trail from our camp we returned to that beautiful spot in the river and took a bath – our first in nearly 4 days.

It’s too small to tell (on purpose), but that’s me, all the way across Dinwoody Creek, naked, slathered in soap, taking a bath. It was freezing cold but felt amazing to get clean.

We made pretty good time on the way down, stopping just a couple of times to pump water. We even made good time up the switchbacks by Honeymoon Lake. We made it to Double Lake by about 3:30, which was the goal.

Mark brought fishing gear and wanted to try his luck fishing. By 4:00, Tom had taken refuge in the tent (the bugs were really getting to him at this point).

Mark and I went out to see if the fish were biting. I actually followed Mark out without him knowing. I figured it would be a nice view while I read a little on my phone and shot some photos of Mark fishing.

Mark fishing on Double Lake

But that all changed on Mark’s second cast. I heard him grunt on the second cast and asked him if he’d caught something. That’s when he told me he caught a fish on his first one but had already let it go. He caught a fish on his second cast, and third, and fourth. Basically, the first 20 times he cast his line, he caught a fish about 16 of those.

Then, for the next two hours, it was about every third cast we caught a fish. Mark got tired of casting and asked me to cast. I was enjoying the view:

Panoramic view of Mark fishing on Double Lake

But I eventually agreed and ended up catching two of the three fish we kept and ate for dinner.

Our catch!

While we were excited to have something other than dehydrated food for dinner, we didn’t fully think this through. We had a way to cook the fish (on a flat rock on the coals of our fire), but we didn’t have a plate. Enter flat rock number two. Also, Mark broke out his fish seasoning, which he hadn’t told us he brought with him. The mountain trout was amazing!

Tom enjoying his fish.

Just as we were finishing up dinner, the temperature dropped a good 20 degrees and we realized a storm was blowing in. We quickly cleaned up our camp, doused the fire, set up our bear hang with the remaining food, and got into the tent. Sure enough, a good storm blew in. The rain wasn’t too heavy, but the heaviest on the whole trip and the wind was pretty strong. My super light, 3 man tent held up well. It was only about 7:30 when we got in the tent, so we ended up playing Risk on Mark’s phone for about an hour (Tom won) before going to bed.

Total mileage for the day: 10.38 miles in 6 hours. Here’s the elevation chart:

Elevation chart for day 4. The sharp incline is the switchbacks by Honeymoon Lake.

Day 5 – August 5th

We also didn’t plan to rush to break camp this day knowing that we had to do about 11 miles or so to get to the trailhead with most of it being down hill. But none of us were sleeping that well on the mountain, so we ended up waking up around 6:00 am (Mark and I are usually up before that at home as well). We broke camp at 7:30 and made pretty good time. It took us just 5 hours to cover the 11.26 miles from Double Lake to the trailhead. Here’s the elevation chart:

Elevation chart for Day 5. The peak is Arrow Pass.

We were off the mountain around 1:30. We drove straight to Lander and stopped at Gannett Grill for lunch. Here’s our route on Day 5:

Concluding Thoughts:

First and foremost, people need to realize that this route to Gannett Peak isn’t 50 miles round trip. If you add up all the miles, it was 31.39 miles from the trailhead to the summit (that probably includes about 1 extra mile of me pumping water and such while my watch was tracking distance). The distance on the way out is probably a more accurate approximation of the exact distance since we didn’t stop as much: 29.14 miles. In other words, the eastern approach to Gannett Peak via the Glacier Trail is really 60 miles round trip, not 50 miles. To do this in 5 days, comfortably, you should plan to hike at least 11 to 12 miles the first day (to Double Lake) and the same distance the second day (to the boulder field). The boulder field is a nasty place to camp. Unless your into rock falls and no vegetation, it’s not particularly beautiful, though it is surrounded by imposing mountains. I’d suggest camping at the boulder field on the second night, summiting the morning of the third day, then hiking down about 5 miles to our campsite to enjoy the views there. Then the hike out is about 11 miles each of the last two days.

If you’re into fishing, definitely take your fishing gear. Double Lake was incredible. Most of the fish were really small (maybe 8 inches), but we managed to catch two 12 inch fish and a 10-inch fish that we enjoyed for dinner. It still wasn’t a meal, but two fish probably would have been for me.

I hope my description of the route up the summit is helpful. We screwed that up and it would have probably saved us 30 to 45 minutes or more and probably cut some distance off our ascent.

Obviously, the lighter you can pack, the better. I was carrying a 55-pound pack for all but the summit day. That’s too much for me. If you can get your pack to 40 pounds, you’ll be much happier. We ended up hiking out food, but we probably should have eaten it.

That leads to my next point. I was running a calorie deficit the whole hike. While I snacked and ate three times a day, I was burning a lot more calories than I was consuming. I started the hike weighing about 165 (usually closer to 164). I ended the hike at 155. I lost almost 10 pounds. I didn’t have much of an appetite, but I should have eaten more.

Finally, visiting all of these states to hike state highpoints has been quite the adventure. I’ve spent weeks of my life on this and thousands of dollars. But it has been worth it. I have amazing memories and crazy stories. I’ve secured friendships and made new friends. It’s been a remarkable journey.

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WA-Mt. Rainier

Posted on by rcragun

Summit Date

July 31st, around 6:30 am

Party

Ryan Cragun & Tom Triplett

(plus our guides – Travis and Matt – and two other clients – Drew Herdener and Olivier Colle)

Trip Report

While I do a fair amount of hiking, mountains like Mt. Rainier are really at the upper end of the types of hikes that interest me. Given that it is snow-capped and covered with glaciers and I have only climbed one such mountain before (Mt. Hood in 2016), the most logical approach to climbing this mountain was to hire guides.

For anyone interested in hiring guides, there are three main companies that guide on the mountain: RMI, IMG, and Alpine Ascents. Since I used Alpine Ascents on my previous climb like this and had a good experience, I decided to use Alpine Ascents again. I think that was the right call as will be made clear in this trip report. I’ll note one other thing for others considering climbing Mt. Rainier with guides. Most of these companies list their hikes almost a year in advance and the hikes sell out quickly. If you’re interested in climbing Mt. Rainier, I’d strongly encourage you to sign up for the newsletter for the company you want to go with almost two years before you plan to hike Mt. Rainier. You’ll then get a notification when the hikes are listed on their website so you can book your hike. If you wait until even 6 months before the hike date, it’s likely the hikes will all be sold out.

Pre-Hike Day

My trip began with a flight to Seattle on July 28th. With flight delays and such, I ended up arriving the same time as my hiking buddy, Tom. We then hopped on the train from the airport into Seattle and finally caught a bus to get us to our hotel, the Marqueen Hotel, which is just a block or so from the headquarters of Alpine Ascents. Our hotel room wasn’t ready so we grabbed a bite to eat then headed to the Alpine Ascents office with all our gear.

We had a gear check at 2:00 pm. The gear check involved going through all the equipment we brought based on their gear list and then renting any remaining equipment we needed. Given the technical aspects of the climb, crampons, harnesses, ice axes, helmets, and avalanche beacons were all required gear (along with standard cold weather clothing and such). The gear check included some instructional videos about climbing on Mt. Rainier. By the time we had our packs largely ready, the gear check took us at least 2 hours.

We still needed to pick up some food for the next few days – mostly snacks, but also some more substantial food as Alpine Ascents provided breakfasts and dinners but not lunches on the mountain. (As one of the guides said at one point, “There are no lunches on the mountain, just constant snacking between breakfast and dinner.”) We found a nearby grocery store, stocked up, then headed back to the Marqueen Hotel where we had dinner and finished getting everything ready.

Day One

We met back at the Alpine Ascents office the next day at 4:45 am. We left our suitcases with anything we didn’t need to take on the hike at the office, put our packs into a trailer, then hopped on a van. We had 8 clients to begin with, two of whom drove themselves from Seattle to the trailhead. The rest of us rode in the van. We stopped at a bakery on the way to grab breakfast. Then, just outside of the Mount Rainier National Park we stopped to pick up our three main guides – Robin, Matt, and Travis. (Our fourth guide, Towner, was already on the mountain at Camp Muir.) For this climb, Alpine Ascents likes a 2 to 1 ratio of clients to guides.

The Paradise parking area was where our hike began and our car ride ended. Here, our guides took over (previously, other staff from Alpine Ascents had been providing us with instructions). They went over our plan for the day. We then geared up, splitting up the food from Alpine Ascents among our packs. We had one issue with a backpack (a missing buckle) that the guides were able to solve with a buckle hack. Otherwise, we seemed to be ready to go.

Ryan and Tom before the hike started at Paradise.
Ryan and Tom before the hike started at Paradise.

I will note at this point that I had some issues with the big backpack. I do a lot of hiking, but most of my hiking is day hikes with, at most, a 20 to 30-pound pack (if I’m with others, I usually carry their water as that amount of weight doesn’t affect me). The big backpack I have is a 65+10 liter pack. It’s a bit on the small end for hikes like this. I also have a sleeping bag that is a bit older and therefore a bit bigger than most and didn’t have a compression bag for it. Finally, I probably over-packed slightly on gear and food. All told, I’m guessing my pack weighed closer to 50 to 60 pounds. I had not trained with a pack that heavy and it was a bit of an issue for me.

The hike started on the paved trails at Paradise and followed those trails up until the paving disappeared.

some of our team on the lower trail
some of our team on the lower trail

It then continued on unpaved trails until we hit the Muir snowfield. Just before we hit the Muir snowfield, we lost our first hiker. One of the people on our hike had broken his ankle a couple of years before and he wasn’t sure whether he was going to be able to do the hike but wanted to try. Turns out, he hadn’t completely healed. The pain was too much given the weight of our packs and the pace at which we were hiking. He pulled off to the side and told a guide. He was led back down to the trailhead where he waited for the Alpine Ascents group that was coming down the mountain so he could get a ride back to Seattle. (Sidenote: When he called his wife to let her know, she reportedly – according to one of the guides – said, “I told you so. You’re a pussy.”)

Once we reached the Muir snowfield, we stopped and switched from our hiking boots or shoes into our mountaineering boots with a hard shell (that we’d be using with crampons) since we’d be hiking the rest of the way to Camp Muir in snow. The views of the glaciers at this point were pretty cool.

We could see this waterfall from the Muir Snowfield.

Returning to my pack issue… I was doing fine on the paved and dirt trails with the heavier pack. It was a bit uncomfortable, but not a serious issue. However, once we switched to hiking on snow, the weight really started to get to me.

We hiked for several hours up the snowfield, which, once you are on it, really doesn’t seem like it is ever going to end. We started hiking around 10:30, covered just under 5 miles (4.79 per my watch), and it took about 5 hours and 15 minutes.

With my heavy pack and the trudging in soft snow, I struggled. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a pretty strong hiker and I was one of the first to make it to Camp Muir right behind the guides. But, when I arrived, I was exhausted and, mentally, was wondering whether I was going to be able to complete this hike. Without the very heavy pack, I would have been fine. But those extra 20 or so pounds really got to me.

We arrived at Camp Muir around 4:00. We had a couple of hours to get settled into the shelter that would be our home for the night. Camp Muir is an interesting place. It’s clear that it is an established camp that serves as the launching point for most attempts to summit Mt. Rainier (in fact, RMI makes their summit attempts from Camp Muir, not the Ingraham Flats, adding an extra mile to the summit attempt). The camp sits largely on a rock outcropping that separates the Muir snowfield from a glacier, though a number of people actually camp on the glacier. There were a number of wood and rock buildings used by the forest service and the professional guide companies. There are also several toilets and a few other buildings. (I use toilets here in the sense that they are actual toilets, but, they are not the most sanitary toilets you’ll ever see or use. There are a lot of people at Camp Muir, toilet paper and wipes are at a premium, and where the human waste goes is, well, a bit of a mystery. Don’t expect 5-star accommodations and toilets at Camp Muir, but be glad you have something to sit on.)

I took a photosphere at Camp Muir that helps illustrate what it is like:

After what I thought was a fairly grueling hike up the Muir snowfield, I was happy to take a couple of hours to organize my gear inside our hut. Alpine Ascents provided some basic air pads and we were able to put our pads on top of those then lay out our sleeping bags. Given our numbers, we all basically had room to spread out a bit. Here’s a look at the inside of the hut:

We stayed in a wooden hut with shelves for bunks the first night at Camp Muir.
We stayed in a wooden hut with shelves for bunks the first night at Camp Muir.

My buddy, Tom, really can’t sit still. He somehow managed to get connected with the forest service people and was helping them install some new solar cells and wiring in a building they were working on by the time we were supposed to go to dinner.

We had really amazing burritos for dinner. At dinner, our guides went over the plan for the next day and rounded out the evening with advice on getting as much sleep as we could and trying not to wake up our fellow climbers by going to the bathroom in the middle of the night. After dinner, we all headed back to the hut and went to bed. Given the challenging hike that day, I slept pretty well.

Day Two

Alpine Ascents’ approach to climbing Mt. Rainier (in this 3-day package) is different from RMI’s approach (but the same as IMG’s, with whom they share the hut and some other equipment). On day two, after a hearty breakfast, we spent the morning in snow school, learning how to walk in crampons, how to walk roped together, how to use ice axes, and how to do self-arrests on glaciers. Tom and I had done all of this before on Hood but it was a good refresher course.

Before snow school, we made sure we had all the stuff we were taking up to our high camp on the Ingraham Flats. If we wanted to leave some stuff at Camp Muir, we could. I had already pulled out the food for the entire group, which dropped my pack weight by 6 to 10 pounds. I also left my hiking shoes and my inflatable pad at Camp Muir in order to cut some more weight from my backpack (about another 5 to 8 pounds). With that weight gone, my backpack was probably closer to 40 pounds and was a much more comfortable weight for me.

After a quick lunch, we geared up and hiked the about one mile to the upper camp at Ingraham Flats. It didn’t take very long – close to an hour. However, it did involve crossing some areas with fairly active rockfall, which was when most of us realized that this hike was pretty serious.

This was also a chance to get a sense – both by Tom and me but also the guides – who the stronger hikers on a rope line were. It turns out, there were several strong hikers in our group, but perhaps the strongest (even stronger than Tom and I), was a Microsoft employee from France, Olivier. He was less experienced than Tom and I but, physically, he was moving well and seemed quite comfortable on the mountain. We didn’t know how many people we’d have on a rope team the next day when we attempted to summit the mountain but we wanted to make sure we’d have a solid team and Olivier seemed like he’d be a strong team member.

We were also dealing with another issue. The previous two teams from Alpine Ascents had made it to Ingraham Flats but had not summitted Mt. Rainier because the route that had been established was too dangerous. Basically, a massive ice fall had collapsed onto the trail up above the Disappointment Cleaver and more ice was hanging over the trail. Teams from RMI had pushed right over the fallen ice, which really wasn’t being held up by anything and could collapse at any time. They were also walking under the ice that was hanging over the trail as well. For Alpine Ascents, that level of risk was unacceptable as it basically put clients and guides into a very dangerous area not for a minute or two (like the rockfall we crossed this day) but for about 20 to 40 minutes. That was too dangerous.

Our guides were constantly talking with other guides about the trail. We didn’t overhear all the conversations but could tell that our odds of making it to the summit were pretty low. In fact, after dinner on the first night, I asked our head guide, Travis, what our odds were of going up to the summit. He didn’t answer at first, but when I gave him some numbers, he finally nodded at around 10% to 20%. That was a bit of a downer for most of our team, but we were still going to get to go up to Ingraham Flats and potentially to the top of Disappointment Cleaver (which is a rock outcropping you climb on the way up). 

Our guides split up in the morning. Two – Robin and Towner – stayed with us for snow school training while the other two – Matt and Travis – headed up the mountain to see how dangerous the current trail was for themselves and to see if there was a way around the dangerous ice fall.

After we arrived at Ingraham Flats, we had a couple of hours to just kind of hang out. I had a book on my phone and a backup charger for my phone, so I sat and relaxed, reading and resting. Some of the other clients tried to get some sleep. I also took this photosphere of the camp, which shows just how amazing the views were there.

Around 6:00 or so, Robin and Towner called us to the mess tent for dinner. We enjoyed some turkey burgers (again, we ate pretty well on the mountain) and talked. We could actually hear Matt and Travis coming down Disappointment Cleaver but couldn’t see them. We finished dinner and were all wondering whether we were going to go up the mountain the next day. About 20 minutes after we finished dinner, Matt and Travis returned to camp and we headed out of the mess tent to hear the news.

They actually did a very good job of leading us on. Travis started at the beginning of their adventure that day, explaining that they found the dangerous section of the trail and it really was an accident waiting to happen. He wouldn’t want to cross it himself let alone with clients. He and Matt then tried to find a route around that section. They had several false starts, found an okay route, then ran into an almost vertical wall that they were able to cut some steps into, had to walk along the edge of several crevasses, and did a lot of searching, but… By the end, they had carved out a trail that bypassed the ice fall and would allow us to go the summit. It took Travis a good five minutes to get to the part we all wanted to hear – we had a safe route up the mountain. We all cheered – at least, as much cheering as you can do when you’re standing on a glacier and it’s really cold outside.

Our guides gave us the last advice of the night. Try to sleep and don’t set an alarm. They would wake us up when they thought it was the right time to start up the mountain – somewhere between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am. The idea is to make it up in the dark while the ice is solid so you reduce the risk of ice melting and falling. We all headed to our tents and tried to sleep – most of us to little avail. I know I managed to get in a few hours because the time passed pretty quickly.

Day Three

Our guides ended up waking us up around 1:00 am. We had a quick breakfast of hot drinks and oatmeal. We also found out at breakfast that one member of our group, Ford, had decided he didn’t want to continue. He was feeling okay but was realizing that this kind of hiking was really not for him. He opted, instead, to stay at Ingraham Flats and wait for us to return. One of the guides, Towner, would stay with him.

That left us with three teams – Tom and I with Matt, Olivier and Drew with Travis, and Leli and Thomas with Robin. Leli also noted that she wasn’t feeling all that well and suggested that she may not be able to make it all the way but she was going to try.

After our quick breakfast, we geared up and headed out around 1:45. We made decent time crossing the Ingraham Flats to Disappointment Cleaver then worked our way up the Cleaver. Our first break was at the top of the Cleaver at the spot where our guides had forged a new trail. We stopped there and Leli indicated that she was going to keep going but was feeling worse.

After that first break, we were off the trail all the other hikers were on, forging a new trail. Luckily, Matt and Travis have great mountain sense and had a clear sense of the trail they had blazed the day before. We could tell that there wasn’t much of a trail, so we tried to help make one as we went and Matt dropped flags to help guide us on the way back. Once we reached the very steep section that involved connecting ourselves with a carabiner to a fixed line, Leli indicated she had enough and didn’t think she could make it back down that section. Her team turned around while the rest of us continued.

The new section was a bit rugged but the more exciting aspect was that we could tell we were climbing on some pretty crazy stuff as there were several spots where our headlamps disappeared into darkness and other spots where we knew we were hiking along a knife’s edge or ridge with steep drops on either side. But, in the dark, we really couldn’t tell what we were climbing. That may have been best, since it was pretty crazy terrain, as we realized on the way down. Here’s a photo from the new section showing me on a ridge with a crevasse on the right on a steep drop on the left:

Part of the new section with steep drops on either side.
Part of the new section with steep drops on either side.

The two teams continued through the new section, then reconnected with the standard route and took one more break fairly high on the mountain. After that last break, the guides said we were going to push from there to the crater. Not knowing how far that was, we all agreed.

Just below the crater was a particularly steep section. I was just behind our guide, Matt, on my rope team, with Tom behind me. Our guides had said that we had to be able to push at a certain speed and, if we couldn’t, then they were likely to turn us around as we had to be off the mountain at a certain point. With my much lighter pack, I was able to move pretty fast. However, that last really steep section was brutal. There were three or four times on that section that I was struggling to catch my breath and it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other to keep up with Matt. Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who was struggling to keep the pace – Tom said he did as well. But, I wasn’t going to say anything about a quick break because we were so close to the summit and I didn’t want our guides to turn us around.

It was only about 20 to 30 minutes of the grueling pace on that steep section before Matt called out that he could see the crater. Another 5 minutes or so and we dropped into the southeast side of the crater where we took a solid 10-minute break. From there, all we had to do was walk across the crater, climb up a small section of loose rock, and we’d be at the summit. Here’s a photosphere from inside the crater where we took our break:

After a 10-minute break or so, we left our heavy packs on the far side of the crater and walked to the summit (a 20 minute walk). Given the forest fires in the area, the view wasn’t amazing. And the summit really just looks flat, as you can see in the media below. It was also very windy and very cold. We stayed long enough to snap some photos then headed back to the shelter of the crater. Here’s the summit in a photosphere:

Here’s a video panorama of the summit.
Tom (left) and me (right) on the summit

Just as we dropped into the crater, I started to notice that I felt a little… funny. It was as if about 10% to 20% of my brain had shut down. I was also having a hard time focusing on anything except what was directly in front of me (e.g., tunnel vision). Given what was happening to me, it took me until we got to the summit before I realized that I was actually suffering from altitude sickness. It was very mild and I was still able to function, but not as well as normal. This was the first time I had ever experienced this. I wonder to what extent it was related to the quick rate of our ascent. We had started the day at just over 11,000 feet and had climbed to almost 14,400 feet in 5 hours. Those 3,000 feet made a difference for me. I had been to higher elevations (e.g., Mount Whitney in California) without similar symptoms. I’m not entirely sure if it was the pace or something else, but I did let the guides know that I was feeling some of the symptoms of altitude sickness as we were walking back across the crater. They both agreed with my assessment and smartly said, “Well, there’s only one way to treat that – we’ve got to go down.”

I felt like I was moving a little slower gearing back up, but once we got back on our ropes and started walking, I was able to keep up. About 20 minutes from the summit, my symptoms cleared and I was fine again.

We pushed a good pace down from the summit until we reached the new section of trail. On the new section, our guides asked us to help “kick in” the new trail so the next group from Alpine Ascents would know where to go. We spent a good 45 minutes along the new section with the guides shoveling and the clients kicking in steps and trails with our crampons and cutting what we could with our ice axes.

We stopped one more time just above the cleaver for a quick break. On a typical hike of this distance and this elevation gain (but at a much lower elevation when it less technical), I would probably consume fewer than 500 calories (I don’t need a lot of calories). To this point on our summit attempt, I had consumed 3 Snickers bars, among other snacks, which was over 750 calories (probably over 1,000 with everything else I had eaten). We were moving fast enough that I knew I needed energy. We made one final push down Disappointment Cleaver and then to our camp. Here’s our route from Ingraham Flats to the summit and back:

At the camp, the other two guides had been busy. They had dug out a new location for the mess tent as they have to move it every few weeks. It is on a glacier which is moving down the mountain, which opens a new crevasse regularly. So, they have to move the tent or it will go into the “REI crevasse” with all the other gear people have lost in there. However, we used the new tent location for something else first. Leli and Thomas were engaged and had hoped to get married on the summit. Since they had turned around, they opted, instead, to get married at our high camp. Honestly, the high camp marriage with Mt. Rainier in the background was a better location. The top of the mountain was kind of flat and, because of wildfires, didn’t have a great view. Plus, it was super windy and you couldn’t hear well. At our high camp, there was no wind.

Travis, the lead guide, had gotten registered as a Universal Life Church minister just for this. He performed a really sweet, mountain themed wedding ceremony for Leli and Thomas with the rest of us looking on as the guests. I even got to be the ring-bearer. The wedding was a great way to cap off our time on the mountain.

After the ceremony, we took about 20 minutes to get all of our gear loaded up into our packs again so we could head down. I also wrapped up my toes, which were getting blisters going down the mountain. We moved quickly from Ingraham Flats to Camp Muir where we took another break to eat some snacks, get a drink, and load up the gear we had left at Camp Muir. Most of us also took advantage of having a toilet again (above Camp Muir, you are issued waste bags; you carry your solid waste off the mountain). Here’s our route:

Our stop at Camp Muir was pretty quick. With all of our equipment, we then started the descent on the Muir snowfield. My pack was lighter than on the way up as most of my food was gone, but I was also going down the snow, not up, which was much, much easier. I did my best to boot ski with Robin as much as I could and we made very quick time down the snowfield. There are spots on the snowfield where you can even sit and slide, as Tom did:

Tom sliding down the last section of the Muir Snowfield.

We stopped at the bottom of the snowfield to change out of our mountaineering boots (which was nice, since I developed two blisters under each of my big toes coming off the summit). We then pushed down to the lodge and parking area where Alpine Ascents had a van with a trailer waiting for us. We also had some fresh clothes there (we had largely been wearing the same clothes for the last three days). We changed and then grabbed one of the complimentary drinks Alpine Ascents had waiting for us. Here’s the route from Camp Muir to Paradise:

From there, we stopped at a restaurant just outside of the National Park for a late lunch/early dinner with our crew and the guides. It was nice to celebrate with all of them what we had done. After our meal, Alpine Ascents took us back to Seattle to their headquarters where we returned our rental equipment and said our goodbyes. Tom and I had another hotel lined up for that evening. We checked into the hotel, took much-needed showers, and did our best to clean up before collapsing into our beds for a deep (but short) sleep before our early flights home the next morning.

I’ll end with some brief thoughts on the hike. This was a tough hike. Without those extra 20 to 30 pounds in my backpack, I think I would have been fine on this hike. But hauling a 60 pound pack up the Muir Snowfield did come close to breaking me and I’ll admit that. Better packing and training with a heavier pack would have helped with this. I spent about an hour in the tent the second night meditating and using positive psychology and affirmations to convince myself that I could climb Mt. Rainier with the lighter pack. This is also a pretty technical climb with some really dangerous parts of the mountain. If the route was laid out and not at all dangerous, this would be doable with crampons, axes, and helmets. But, not knowing the condition of the route, the best way to do this hike is with good, reliable, and cautious guides, like those of Alpine Ascents. RMI was willing to take too many risks. I like climbing mountains, but see no reason to take such extreme risks. What’s the point of climbing these mountains if you don’t live to tell about the adventure? 

This is definitely a hike that requires the right gear and solid preparation. It’s a beautiful, invigorating hike, but not for everyone.

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Salkantay Trek

Posted on by rcragun

For my work, a colleague and I decided to propose a new travel study course that would involve a combination of our interests – sociology of sport (hiking, specifically) and exercise science. Our original course proposal wasn’t approved, but our International Programs Office agreed to fund us to scout out a trek in Peru to improve our application and fill in details for the second time we propose the course. As a result, a colleague (Abe) and I spent a week in Peru in August of 2018. We spent a few days in Cuzco acclimating before heading out on the (Super) Salkantay Trek which covers about 34 miles (64 kilometers) in 3 days, ending in Aguas Calientes. The following day we took a bus to Macchu Picchu. This post is a brief summary of the trek.

We flew from Tampa to Miami on a Saturday afternoon and then from Miami to Lima that evening, arriving around 9:30. In retrospect, we should have spent the night in Lima and then caught a flight to Cuzco the next day after getting a good night’s sleep. Instead, we spent about 5 hours in the Lima airport (me trying to sleep; Abe pacing the airport) until our 3:50 am flight to Cuzco. The travel agency that arranged our trip included an airport transfer to our hotel which, unfortunately, wasn’t ready when we arrived at around 5:30 am. So, we kind of slept on couches in their lobby until our room was ready around 8:30. By that time, daylight was upon us so we went out exploring in Cuzco. We spent a couple of days in Cuzco exploring the city and the cuisine while acclimating to the elevation (Cuzco is at just over 11,000 feet). We visited some museums, tried a few restaurants, and even did a trial hike up to the Temple of the Moon, Q’Engo Chico, el Cristo Blanco, and Saqsaywaman.

Here’s the route we took:

Despite having spent a day in Cuzco, we could still feel the elevation as we hiked and knew it would take a little while to acclimate to this elevation.

In the afternoon on our second day in Cuzco, we met up with the rest of our group for the (Super) Salkantay Hike at the headquarters of G Adventures and met our guide, Ever. There were 16 of us total: 3 from the US, 1 from Canada, 2 from Switzerland, 2 from Denmark, 2 from South Africa, 2 from Wales, and 4 from England. We had a briefing session, had a chance to rent any gear we needed, and then were given duffels that would carry our sleeping bags and pads and any extra gear as we would only have to carry day packs during the day. Porters (using donkeys) would carry the duffels, tents, and food from campsite to campsite. Having just completed a serious climb of Mt. Rainier in Washington, this seemed like a walk in the park – let someone else carry all the heavy stuff and I just have to get myself from point A to point B every day. Elevation aside, I wasn’t expecting a particularly challenging hike.

On August 6th, we got up around 5:00 am, had a quick bite to eat at our hotel, then hopped aboard a bus that drove us out to the beginning of our hike (stopping for a more substantial breakfast on the way). We started hiking around 10:30. It quickly became apparent that we had different levels of hikers in our group, with several quickly falling behind. I tried to stay at the front as I didn’t want to get caught behind a slow hiker. Our guide, Ever, set a pretty good pace. About 30 minutes in, we started to have light rain and everyone donned their rain gear (for many, this was just light ponchos; luckily, I have complete rain gear for hiking – top and bottom). As we continued, we started to gain some elevation. The rain also started to get a little harder. As we got higher up in elevation, the rain started to transition into sleet. Eventually, it became snow. Basically, we were caught in a snowstorm on our way to Salkantay Pass, which is over 15,000 feet in elevation.

We continued our ascent and the snow got thicker. We stopped about an hour from the pass for lunch. The porters had set up a tent on about 6 inches of snow for us to dine in and had already prepared hot water so we could have tea and hot chocolate. They also made us a hot meal (soup and chicken tenders with rice). It was still freezing cold in the tent but we were largely out of the wind. I was generally warm with all my layers on (except for my hands in my light gloves), but there were many in our group who were much less prepared (one guy was in shorts the whole time). Additionally, one member of our group was slow enough that they had her ride a horse part of the way up the mountain.

After lunch, we continued up the mountain, eventually making it to the pass where most of us huddled behind a large rock to get out of the wind as best we could while we waited for the rest of our group to make it to the top. Our huddle reminded us of a bunch of penguins trying to avoid the cold.

A bunch of people in our group huddled together for warmth.

We stayed on the summit until everyone had made it to the highest point of our hike then began our descent down the other side. It didn’t take long before the wind died down. Then we descended below the snow line and were hiking in mud and light rain. We hiked until just after 6:00 pm when the first wave of us made it to the camp for the night just as it got dark enough to warrant headlamps. It was very cold and raining at the camp but the camp had some buildings with tin roofs (where we ate and the porters slept) and our tents were already set up. The stragglers took another 30 to 45 minutes to arrive in the dark with flashlights.

Here’s the route from the first day of the hike:

Per my watch, we covered 8.84 miles. Our starting elevation was about 12,562 feet; our peak elevation was 15,175 feet (highest I’ve ever hiked). The total elevation gained during the hike was 3,006 feet.

We had about 45 minutes to get our sleeping bags and pads set up before dinner. At dinner, we once again had warm drinks (which were a delight) and ate well. The guide also laid out the plan for the next day, which was the longest hiking day.

We went to bed around 9:00 but the hot drinks worked a number on our bladders. Abe got up to pee four times. I had to get up once, around 10:00 pm, to pee. Given the urgency, I didn’t put my pants back on and was caught in someone else’s headlamp in my underwear taking a piss. When you got to pee, you got to pee!

We were up again around 5:00. We packed up and were met with warm water to make tea and hot chocolate or coffee again. After our meal, we finished gearing up and getting ready for our longest day of hiking. Here’s a photosphere of the campsite:

Since we arrived when it was nearly dark, we really couldn’t see the amazing mountains that surrounded our campsite. In the morning, we had a few breaks in the clouds and realized just how amazing the location was. Alas, we only saw it for about 30 minutes before we headed down.

We had a lot of hiking ahead of us – all day. However, it was also all down hill. As we descended, we crossed from a high altitude mountain region into a wooded area and eventually into the rainforest. It was actually quite interesting as our guide said that we would know when we were in the jungle when we saw bamboo and palm trees, both of which I have in my backyard in Tampa, Florida – I guess I live in the jungle.

I tracked our hike from morning until we stopped for lunch (when I had to recharge my watch). Here’s the route:


We did 6.58 miles before lunch, descending about 4,000 feet.

We stopped for lunch for a bit over an hour. I made the poor decision to take my socks off to air out my feet to try to prevent blisters only to get bit about a dozen times by black flies in the 5 minutes I had my socks off. Terrible idea. My feet itched nonstop for the next three days!

Anyway, after a yummy lunch, we hit the trail again (though, at this point, three members of our group opted to take a van down to our campsite for the night). We hiked through a beautiful area surrounded by mountains and began passing plantation after plantation – corn, avocado, passion fruit, and squash were the major crops. We even stopped at one to break into a passion fruit:

We were hiking next to the Santa Teresa River for most of the afternoon. There was a road on one side of the river but people lived on the other side. In order to cross it, they built cable bridges and would pull themselves across, like the man in this video did:

Towards the end of the day, I was getting tired. It wasn’t hard hiking like the day before but we just kept going and going. We finally reached our campsite just as it was getting dark around 6:00 pm after hiking another 10.53 miles. Here’s the route:


Our campsite this night was basically at the far end of a town, La Playa Sahuayaco, and even had a small bar near our campsite (where we could get beer and pisco sours, which we, of course, got). There was also a hot shower here. We had another 45 minutes to set up our sleeping bags in the pre-arranged tents before dinner. After dinner, our guide explained that our porters would be headed back over the mountain the next day to prepare for the next group of hikers and from here on our gear would be transported by vehicle. He also explained what our hike would be like the next day – a steep climb up a mountain until we overlooked Macchu Picchu followed by a steep descent then a bit of a march to the train station where we’d catch a train to Aguas Calientes and spend the night in a hotel.

Our third day of trekking was as described. We had a relatively steep ascent up a mountain but it was definitely worth it. On the way, we stopped at one break area that had a pretty cool rope swing that allowed you to swing out over the mountain:

It was a short distance after this that we made it to Mirador Llactapata, which is an Incan ruin as well as a lookout spot over Macchu Picchu.

We stayed here for a bit then began our descent down the mountain. It was close to two hours of a steep descent. At the bottom, we crossed another rope bridge then walked for a bit to a train station where we had a late lunch then boarded our train to Aguas Calientes. After three days, we got to take a shower and sleep in comfortable beds. It was nice getting back to civilization. Total mileage for the day: 8.59 miles.

Our total mileage from the hike: 34.54 miles spread over three days.

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Greece – Mount Olympus

Posted on by rcragun

Traveling all the way to Greece for a week-long colloquium for work without taking any time to do some touristy stuff seemed like a waste of a flight across the Atlantic to me. When I thought of what I’d like to do if I had a few extra days in Greece I, of course, thought about visiting some ancient Greek ruins or various museums. But then I thought about hiking. I then had the thought, why not climb Mount Olympus? When the thought initially occurred to me, I wasn’t sure what such a hike would entail nor whether Mount Olympus was the highest peak in Greece. It turns out it is the highest peak and is a hike within my abilities.

After spending a week on the Island of Lesvos for work, I caught a flight back to Athens, picked up a rental car, and headed toward Mount Olympus. I found some information online about climbing Mount Olympus, but not a lot (see here). The information I found online was sufficient to tell me roughly what to expect and where to start. But I didn’t find distances or GPS routes online (though there are maps available).

What I found was that the standard trailhead is Prionia, which is basically just a restaurant at the end of a road out of Litochoro.

A view of the restaurant in Prionia from the trailhead showing the rugged mountains in the background.
A view of the restaurant in Prionia from the trailhead showing the rugged mountains in the background.

With that information, I plotted a route on my phone and headed out of Athens. I also read somewhere that the tolls in Greece were crazy. Turns out, that’s pretty accurate. From the Athens airport to Litochoro I paid €27.65 in tolls (it’s roughly the same going back). So, be prepared with a fair amount of cash if you’re going to drive to Litochoro for this hike. (Another note: You need an international license to rent a car in Greece. You can get one here.)

Another thing I found online was that there are a number of lodges or refuges on the mountain where you can spend the night. If you’re planning on climbing Mount Olympus in a day (which would be a pretty serious hike, see below), you may not need to reserve a night in one of the lodges, but given my itinerary, I needed to do so. I arrived in Athens early in the morning (around 8:00 am), made it to the Prionia trailhead around 2:45 pm, and knew I wasn’t going to summit that day. So, I booked a bed in Refuge A for that first night (and possibly a second, since I didn’t have a good sense of how long the hike would take). Most of the refuges have websites (Refuge A and the others).

Just as I arrived at the trailhead it started to rain. I stayed in the car for about 30 minutes getting my pack and gear together. And since I don’t climb big mountains without bringing raingear, I also donned my raingear and put the rain cover on my backpack. However, just as I got out of the car, the rain stopped. I kept my rain pants on for about 20 minutes but then took those off as well. It was humid but actually quite beautiful just after the rain.

Me at the trailhead just after the rain stopped.
Me at the trailhead just after the rain stopped.

As noted, I wasn’t sure of the distances but had seen that the hike from Prionia to Refuge A (Spilios Agapitos) took one person 4 hours. Since the refuge doesn’t allow people to register after 8:00 pm, I knew I needed to get there fairly quickly. As a result, I pushed my pace a little bit and didn’t stop for many photos along the way. I also turned on the hike tracking app on my watch so I’d have a better sense of what the mileage actually is.

On one website I saw that about 10,000 people attempt to climb Mount Olympus each year. That’s a big enough number that I didn’t expect the hike to be all that rugged. It turns out, the elevation gain on the hike is pretty impressive (about 1,000 feet per mile) and the trail is pretty rugged (not everywhere, but most of it is quite rugged). This part wasn’t so rugged but very beautiful:

This is part of the very pretty forested area on the lower portion of the hike.

It took me just under 2 hours to travel the almost exactly 4 miles from the Prionia trailhead to Refuge A. Here’s the route:

And here are some additional stats from my tracking device:

 

As this screenshot shows, the distance was 3.93 miles (basically, 4 miles) and the elevation gain was 3,670 feet, which I’m rounding to roughly 4,000 feet. In other words, 1,000 feet of elevation gain per mile, which is pretty substantial elevation gain. You can see some of the ruggedness of the trail in the photo below (which also shows the E4 trail markers that you follow all the way to the top of Skala):

Me in front of an E4 trail marker and a particularly rugged portion of the lower trail.

About two-thirds of the way to Refuge A it started to rain again, lightly. I ended up putting my rain jacket back on for the last third of the hike. I arrived at Refuge A around 5:00 pm. Never having stayed in a lodge like this in Europe, I wasn’t quite sure about the protocol. But the owners were nice and helped me get checked in and settled. It was €13 for a bed for the night. They also had lots of food, snacks, and other supplies. The refuge has a bunch of beds in various rooms (I was in the biggest which had about 20 beds in it), two dining halls, places to store gear, and restrooms. The water is ice cold and the toilets are holes in the ground.

The toilets at Refuge A are like those in Japan – a hole in the ground. You squat over them.

It’s not a 5-star resort, but it works well as a refuge. (I later realized how they got all the supplies up there – donkeys.)

Once I got to the refuge and got settled in, I realized I had quite a bit of time (lights out at 10:00 pm). I had planned for this and brought a book on my phone to read. I ordered a drink and hung out in one of the dining rooms reading. Around 7:30 I ordered dinner (the portions are huge, so I ordered about half of the regular size). They technically have wi-fi in the refuge but it wasn’t working. They also have outlets so you can charge devices if need be. I was able to get a cellular signal in one spot outside by a tree (everyone seemed to know where the one spot was) so I could let my wife know I was fine. Otherwise, I just hung out and read until it was time for bed.

Knowing I would be in a room with a bunch of other people, I brought earplugs. It was the right choice. Several people were snoring. With my earplugs in, I couldn’t really hear them. I also brought some Zzzquil just in case and popped a couple of those in to make sure I could fall asleep. (FYI, the refuge provides you with blankets, but you’ll need your own sheets. I found some lightweight sheets on Amazon that I brought with me.)

I set an alarm for 6:00 am the next morning which is when the lights come on. It turns out, I didn’t need it. A bunch of people were up right at 6:00 getting their gear ready to go which woke me up as well. I quickly packed up, ordered some yogurt and honey and a banana for breakfast, wolfed it down, and hit the trail. (FYI, if you plan to return to the refuge after going to the summit, you can leave stuff at the refuge. I didn’t think I was going to so I took all my stuff with me. This would be a nice way to drop some weight from your pack, like my flip-flops – which you need in the lodge as boots have to stay in the lobby – my towel, and sheets. That probably would have cut about 5 pounds out of my pack.)

Two other guys were headed out about the same time I was. They actually beat me to the trail while I was stretching, but I quickly caught up to them and they let me pass. From what I could tell, the people hiking to the summit from the lodge were generally pretty skilled hikers. The two guys I passed did a good job of keeping up with me over the next mile or so as I ascended toward Skala (the third highest peak in Greece and the launching point to Mytikas, the highpoint). I didn’t see them much after that point. I made it to the summit of Skala around 8:45. I had been hiking in fog for much of the time, but just below the summit of Skala, the fog broke and I had generally clear skies but clouds below me. On the summit of Skala I got my first real glimpse of Mytikas.

This is the view of Mytikas from Skala. The fog was rolling out just as I got to the summit of Skala.

Here’s a photosphere from the summit of Skala:

Not knowing how long the clear skies would last, I quickly swapped out my helmet for my hiking poles, slipped on my gloves, and started following the red blazes over the Class III section of the hike.

The red (and often yellow outlined) blazes are pretty close together, which is good when there is fog.

I had read that this section is a rock scramble that is somewhat technical. That is an accurate description. There are several spots where you are, in fact, climbing or descending near vertically. However, most of this section is not particularly dangerous and primarily requires slow, careful stepping, with about 1/3 of the time using both hands and feet. Follow the red blazes carefully and you’ll be fine. There are anchors in several spots for ropes but they are never really required. My sense, however, is that this section of the climb would be an ideal location to practice using ropes and harnesses for those who are new to technical climbing.

It took me about 30 minutes to get from the summit of Skala to the summit of Mytikas. There is one spot that is a false summit about 2/3 of the way there. Don’t make the mistake I did and get up your hopes until you see the flag waving on the top of the summit.

This photo shows one of the blazes with the false summit in the background.

I arrived around 9:15. There were clouds below me but no clouds around me, offering me pretty clear views of Skala and the surrounding area. I had a quick snack then shot some photos and videos.

Me on the summit of Mytikas.

Here’s a photosphere of the summit:

My tracking device indicated that it was about 2 miles (2.1) from Refuge A to the summit of Mytikas. It took me about 2 and a half hours to traverse that distance.

Here are the elevation and distance data from my fitness tracker:

I didn’t stay long before I headed back to Skala. As I did, fog started to roll back in. I ran into the first group of people attempting to make the summit behind me about 2/3 of the way back to Skala. It was a group of four and two solo hikers all working together (all were from the UK I believe; I’m fairly certain I was the only person from the US in the refuge the night before). One woman had gone only about 100 meters from the summit of Skala before she turned back. The steepness of the area freaked her out and, knowing her limits, she didn’t want to go any further. I mention that only to illustrate that this hike really isn’t for everyone. It’s steep and somewhat technical. Don’t be overconfident as it is a serious hike.

By the time I got back to the summit of Skala, the fog had rolled back in and I could no longer see Mytikas. I swapped out my helmet and hiking poles and headed back down the trail. I made pretty good time going down. I stopped once to put on my rain jacket as it started to sprinkle below the summits. I also stopped at Refuge A for a snack and to air out my boots for a couple of minutes. I had told the owners of Refuge A that I might stay a second night depending on the time it took to climb Mytikas and the weather. But, given that everything had gone well, I opted to hike out that day and go do some other stuff in Greece. I tried to target arriving at the Prionia trailhead at 1:00 pm but missed it by about 10 minutes.

I did stop regularly to take more photos and even some videos as the hike is quite beautiful. This shot shows how steep the mountain is (and the fog that seemed to be ever-present):

This photo shows the mountain is steep and you are regularly shrouded in fog or mist.

There are also a couple of water fountains on the hike like this one:

Presumably, you can drink the water. I didn’t. But I think it is supposed to be clean.

I restarted my tracking device on the summit of Mytikas to get a sense of exactly how far it is from Prionia to the summit.

Here is the rest of the data from my fitness tracker:

Basically, it’s about 6 miles from the trailhead in Prionia to the summit of Mytikas. It took me 3 1/2 hours to descend from the summit to the trailhead.

Some final thoughts about the hike…

This was a more rugged, demanding hike than I originally thought it was going to be. I figured the trail would be pretty even and well-worn. The trail is generally pretty clear (not always) but it is quite rugged. The elevation gain is pretty substantial (over 6,000 feet total). And the technical section at the end to reach Mytikas is serious. Even though it doesn’t require ropes, it’s not an easy section, especially if there is fog or it is raining (I probably wouldn’t do it in the rain). This is not a pleasant day hike for someone without experience. This is a grueling, 12-mile round trip hike for experienced hikers. You should budget plenty of time for bad weather and the possibility that you’ll have to turn around and try to summit a different day.

I did leave Mount Olympus with a greater appreciation for why the ancient Greeks would have believed that is where the gods lived. During the two days I was in the vicinity of Mount Olympus, I never once saw the mountains without clouds covering them. The idea that the gods live on a mountain shrouded in clouds makes a lot more sense to me. Mount Olympus is nearly constantly shrouded in clouds. I also can’t imagine ancient Greeks trying to climb Mount Olympus. I’m sure they were rugged and tough, but if they only had sandals or primitive boots and not a lot of experiencing climbing at those altitudes, it seems unlikely they would have ever climbed to the top. I think I understand why mountains were so mysterious and mystical now – they were impenetrable fortresses literally shrouded from view. Today, of course, we can penetrate those shrouds but that would have been virtually impossible 2,600 years ago.

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Greece Trip – Metochi

Posted on by rcragun

Thanks to my work on nonreligion and atheism, I was invited to participate in a week-long colloquium (May 13th through May 20th) in Greece by LeRon Shults in which I would serve as a “subject matter expert” helping LeRon and his team develop computer models to better predict who joins atheist organizations. You can learn more about LeRon and the project here. There were about 16 people who attended in total, with about half of them being subject matter experts like myself. We spent about 6 hours each day developing the models and thinking very carefully about the many factors that contribute to changes in atheist identity and affiliation.

The colloquium took place in what was formerly a monastery on the island of Lesvos called Metochi. Metochi is actually an annex to a larger monastery called Limonos. The larger monastery is connected to Metochi via a 1.5 km hiking trail through the surrounding hills (see below for more details). Metochi has, in recent years, been taken over to some degree by Agder University in Norway (where LeRon works). Agder University updated the former monastery, modernized it, cleaned it up, and now largely runs it as a quasi-owned university extension site. Metochi still has other guests (no monks), but many of the people who visit Metochi are affiliated with Agder University. Here’s a photosphere of Metochi’s courtyard:

We would typically spend about 4 hours working on the project in the morning, have lunch, then take a break in the afternoon to either relax or go explore (the same time many of the people on Lesvos where taking a nap). Since I prefer exploring over relaxing, I typically used the afternoon break to go hiking or do something else active. Here’s a rundown of what I did while I was there.

May 14th

This was the first free time I had and I was itching to go for a hike.  Living in Florida, there are no hills or mountains to climb. Being nestled in among some hills, I really wanted to get out and climb something. One of the other subject matter experts and I hiked to the Limonos monastery, walked around there a bit, then came back. Here’s a photo of the monastery from the trail:

Limonos monastery from trail to/from Metochi

And here’s the route from Metochi to Limonos and back:

May 15th

LeRon arranged to have a local bike shop owner come out and rent us bikes. There are a couple of towns that are pretty close, including Kalloni, Dafia, and Skala Kallonis. One of Skala’s claims to fame is that it was a temporary home of Aristotle where he studied biology. I biked to Skala with a few other people, walked along the beach, then sat and chatted with one of the subject matter experts I know fairly well.

Here I am at Aristotle’s beach (it’s not actually called that, but there is a statue of him about 50 meters from here):

me at Skala Kalloni beach

Here’s the route:

May 16th

The day I arrived I noticed that there was a hiking loop that could take someone to all the monasteries linked to Limonos. I saw the information on a board right in front of Metochi.

Information board on the Limonos loop hike in front of Metochi

This is a close-up of the loop itself.

The board indicated the loop was 9 kilometers and suggested it would take hikers about 3 hours. Since my afternoon break was just 3 hours, I figured I’d have to do the hike faster than that – ideally 2 hours, but 2 1/2 would still work. I managed to do the whole thing in 1 hour and 46 minutes (skipping a few extensions of the hike along the way). My route was 5.52 miles (or 8.88 kilometres), which is pretty much the route they laid out. The hike is pretty good. There is some elevation gain (533 feet) and there are parts that are really beautiful. The route from Metochi to Moni Panagias Mirsiniotissis through Dafia is actually not that great. It’s really just a hike on dirt roads and then through a town. However, the route from Moni Panagias Mirsiniotissis to Limonos in particular and then to Metochi is quite lovely. I’d recommend just hiking from Metochi to Moni Panagias Mirsiniotissis and back.

Here are some photos of the route:

The route is fairly well-marked by these red diamonds. There were a few spots where the distance between the diamonds was pretty far and I wasn’t sure I was going the right way but I managed to stay on course for the most part.

I’d recommend hiking down to this point if you only do the northern half of the loop as it offers really impressive views of Moni Panagias Mirsiniotissis, but this is as far as I would go. Just past this you’ll be walking past the garbage dump of Dafia which is much less impressive.

Most of the route from Limonos to Mirsiniotissis is actually a beautiful rock trail like this. It’s gorgeous!

This is a shot looking at Skala bay from above Metochi (after leaving Limonos). You’re just leaving the olive groves at this point.

Here’s my route:

And here are some of the stats from my hike so you have a better sense of the elevation gain and my speed compared to your own:

I was moving pretty fast as I had to get back to my seminar.

 

May 17th

This day was a scheduled off day. LeRon arranged for a bus to take us to Petra which is a bit of a tourist town on the coast where we got to do a little shopping, have lunch, and walk around for a bit. I walked around with another subject matter expert and even visited the chapel that stands on top of a massive rock in the middle of town. You can see the top of the chapel in this photo:

The Panagia Glykofilloussa in Petra

Here’s a photosphere from inside the chapel:

Petra is a cute little town with small, winding streets and nice places to shop.

After Petra, we went to the Lifejacket Graveyard (informal name) where thousands of life jackets from refugees have been dumped on the island of Lesvos. The original aim of putting them there was to keep them out of sight. However, as the life jackets piled up, they became an impromptu monument to the thousands of refugees – both those who survived and those who did not. It’s a very somber experience to visit.

One of the tougher aspects of visiting the graveyard is when you see kids lifejackets, like this:

One of the many kids life jackets at the Lifejacket Graveyard.

 

Here’s a photosphere of the Lifejacket Graveyard:

After the Life Jacket Graveyard, we went to the castle in Molyvos. We arrived just a few minutes before the castle closed but I managed to run through most of it. Here’s a shot of the castle near the entrance:

Molyvos Castle

And here’s a photosphere from near the top of the castle:

From there, we walked down into Molyvos. I ran into one of the subject matter experts after leaving the castle and he and I wandered through Molyvos before finding a bar on the beach and ordering a few drinks. We chatted for a couple of hours before heading up to the restaurant where we had dinner reservations. The restaurant had a stunning view and the food was amazing!

The sunset from our restaurant in Molyvos.

May 18th

Metochi is surrounded by hills that are covered with large boulders. Seeing those large boulders and hills day after day but not finding any hiking trails to climb the hills, I finally decided that I was going to go off-trail and see if I could climb one of the hills. That was a terrible idea. Despite donning some of my hiking pants, my gloves I brought for hiking Mount Olympus, and all my other gear, I still had exposed arms and my neck and face were exposed. The hike started with me wading through thick underbrush. Two minutes in and I was covered with burrs, had encountered multiple thistles, and I had lost a fight with a stinging nettle bush. Ten minutes later, my arms were covered with red bumps where one of the plants I had encountered had started an allergic reaction. I made it halfway up the hill, fighting my way through thorns, thickets, spider webs, and a variety of other plants, each of which really wanted to cause me serious pain. By 20 minutes in, I gave up. I’m not one for quitting, but it was the smart choice this time. I still had to work my way off the hill and down to a trail, which meant wading through some more vicious plants (seriously, everything had thorns). A scant 45 minutes after I started, I returned to Metochi covered in burrs with dozens of bumps on my arms. Hiking off trail in Lesvos is a bad idea.

May 19th

On the last day in Metochi, I hopped back on my bike and rode with a few other individuals down to Skala again. This time, I wore my bathing suit and spent a good hour and a half wading and swimming in the bay with another subject matter expert as we discussed various research projects. We got some lemonade at a cafe on the beach afterward, then rode our bikes back to Metochi.

Waiting for our drinks at a beach bar in Skala Kalloni.

Some concluding thoughts on Metochi

I really didn’t know what to expect when I was told we’d be holding the colloquium in a refurbished monastery. I was thinking I’d end up with a small cell (6 feet by 6 feet) with a tiny bed. It turns out my room was fairly spacious. It did have three beds in it (a single and then a bunk bed), a small desk, and a closet for clothes. With the room to myself, it was spacious. It also had a nice window overlooking the hiking trail. Bathrooms were shared (there were four on my floor) as were showers (there were four of those as well, but I often used the outside showers, which was refreshing in its own way). The room and facilities were kept clean but they did occasionally smell. The restrooms and showers were cleaned every day, but the plumbing is still a little wonky. We lost water there once (and power a couple of times). Throwing toilet paper into a trash can instead of the toilet took getting used to, but when in Greece…

The rest of the facilities at Metochi were also good. We used a couple of other rooms for our workshops and seminars. There was a large seminar room that could accommodate 40 or 50 people with two projectors and screens. The room I spent the most time in was just off that room and could hold about 8 people. It had a TV for projecting someone’s computer. There were other rooms for meetings but I never went into those.

The food was pretty good. All the food was served in the dining area, which was very unique. It was like a cave with a curved ceiling and walls. We ate in there the first night but the rest of the meals we got our food there but ate outside on the picnic tables. We had the same salad for lunch and dinner every day (cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, and some oil and herbs) and breakfast was typically the same as well, but the main dishes were varied for lunch and dinner. I enjoyed the food.

The one thing I didn’t love was the bugs. Obviously, being in the middle of nowhere, you’re going to be closer to nature. But I have never seen so many moths in my life. Every bathroom had like 10 moths in it at any one time. I’m sure I inadvertently killed dozens of them just by showering, closing doors, etc. They were everywhere. There were also lots of flies whenever we would eat outside. Every meal I spent a good amount of time swatting flies off my food. A fly every now and then would have been fine – that’s life. But this was a lot more than that. There were other critters, but the moths and the flies were the annoying ones.

Ending on more positive notes… I took a black light a colleague lent me and went out scorpion hunting a couple of nights. In the rocks right outside the front of Metochi I found a scorpion both nights I looked. Scorpions are there, they just hide well during the day. I also found an injured one right in front of some of the rooms (someone must have stepped on it unknowingly as it tried to climb into someone’s room after the sun had gone down). In short, there are scorpions. Check your shoes before you put them on.

I loved how there were chairs and tables all over the place at Metochi. I learned a really valuable lesson going there. Being isolated like that – with no TVs or other distractions – made for a lot of time to contemplate. I think I now understand why they called it the “contemplative life” for monks and nuns. Removing all the regular distractions (we still had internet, but we were encouraged to just get together and chat) gave us a lot of time to think. Of course, thinking too much can be a little scary at times. But I found the experience beneficial. In my busy day-to-day life, finding time to just sit and think is rare. I should do that more often.

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