Getting Lost

Saddle Mountain, Washington
Jun 2, 2016
3 min read

I tend to go on solo hikes often, and I think nothing of trekking into the woods with only my water bladder, trekking poles and sneakers. After this hike... that will never happen again. I started the hike with the intention to check out Aldrich Butte on the Washington side of the Gorge near Bonneville Hot Springs. A mild 4 mile hike, that ascends 1070ft. At a crossroads in the trail between Aldrich and Table Mountain, I choose poorly. I was feeling spry on my first hike of the season, so I thought it would be good to challenge myself right out of the gate. Foolish little blonde girl...

The first 3 miles were a relative breeze, a gradual elevation gain, distinct trail laid out in front of me and minimal rock scramble. It was the next 5.3 miles of pure hell that taught me a lesson. At the 'Heartbreak Trailhead' (appropriately named), the trail continues straight up 1 mile with an elevation gain of 1,600ft over the longest, most treacherous boulder scramble I've ever seen. Did I mention that I started this 6 hr hike at 2:00 PM in sneakers? Idiot. After I somehow managed to scramble/crawl up the boulder river, I knew I was close the the summit. My legs were on fire at this point, but I MADE IT! I had been using Alltrails app to navigate my path and when I went to shoot some photos, I realized that the navigation had almost completely drained my battery. At 6% battery life on my only source of navigation, and the realization that it was now 5:15PM, I decided to descend as quickly as possible.

I continued to follow the loop path now solely relying on trail markers. The farther I went, the more and more overgrown the trail became. After about 1.1 miles down an incredibly steep hill, sliding down a river of mini boulders, with a cliff to my right, I realized that trail suddenly ended. There was a massive rock slide ahead, but the trail disappeared. I could see the large river boulder I had climbed up, on the other side of the crevasse, but I had no way to get there. The sun was sinking lower and lower. I had no other choice but to navigate my way back up the 1,200 ft rock scramble to the summit and descend the boulder river.

Fuck. My. Life.

It was brutal and frustrating and incredibly painful. I summited the peak again and basically crab walked on my hands and knees down the river of wobbly boulders. My inappropriate footwear made the scramble down the boulders even more challenging and I found myself rolling and twisting in ways that my limbs shouldn't, but thank god there were no sprains!

At this point the sun had set behind the mountain and the critters were starting to shuffle about. I knew I needed to hurry. At every chance I got, I was running to try to make up for lost time, and panic was starting to truly set in. My feet and legs were in an incredible amount of pain at this point, but I needed to push on. I had eaten my only small snack, my water bladder was now empty and it was getting cold and almost dark. Long story short, I finally fricking made it to the trailhead parking lot. With shaking legs and arms, I reached into my bag for my car key, fantasizing about the moment I could sit down on those heated seats. At that moment I realized that the pocket I had zipped my car key into was pulled open and my car key was nowhere.

After this epic succession of errors I learned a few things:

Never take on a challenging hike solo, bring extra food, make sure you have enough water, bring something to light a fire in case you do get stranded, DON'T RELY ON YOUR DAMN CELL PHONE to save you, bring an emergency blanket, make sure someone knows where you are.

I am so lucky I didn't have a serious fall or twist my ankle, or have to spend the night, unprepared in the woods, or die (which I later found out a girl had done on that same hike the year before)....

At least the view was spectacular!