I spent July 18th through 21st doing trail maintenance in the Mount Margaret Backcountry, an incredibly beautiful area located in the northern portion of the Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument, just north of Spirit Lake. This was my first time visiting the area and also my second BCRT with the Washington Trails Association, the first having been a log-out on the Duckabush River. Although I did move a log and trim a tree, the focus on this trip was rebuilding trails:
It’s definitely a less glamorous line of work than using a two-person cross-cut saw but it’s just as important. At several locations between Bear Camp and Mount Margaret the soil above the trail had collapsed onto the trail itself, making it unacceptably narrow. Another section had become hollowed out from water running down the trail so we put in a new foundation of rocks (“quarrying” them from a rock pile at the base of Mount Teragram) and a new layer of soil to raise and flatten the surface of the trail.
I learned that those round logs that sometimes sit diagonally across the trail are called “water bars”. As their name suggests they’re used as a barrier to encourage water to flow off the trail, usually via a drain which is installed just in front of them. Water bars are typically backed up by some vertical posts to keep them from becoming dislodged and rolling down the trail (we actually found one that had rolled off the trail and down a steep slope into a seasonal creek bed).
We only carried in tools (and by the way, carrying an axe in your hand for five miles of uphill hiking is a hell of a shoulder workout) so we were a bit short on materials. Fortunately there was a large stand of sun-bleached snags on the saddle between Mount Teragram and Mount Margaret. We scoured the ground for fallen limbs of the proper diameter, cut them down to size, added pointy ends, and used the back side of various tools to hammer them into the ground. Assuming these trees died in 1980 during the eruption then they’ve been “baking” for almost 30 years which would explain how incredibly hard the wood was – we didn’t have any problem driving the sharpened branches like stakes through hard-packed trail dirt.
Route
Gaia folder:
https://www.gaiagps.com/public/UhH7zdXojlccRcqmO7WA10yo
We started at the Norway Pass trailhead, hiking in 4.5 miles and gaining 2,500 feet of elevation along the Boundary Trail before reaching Bear Camp which was to be our home base for the next four days. After that we made day trips west along the Boundary Trail, stopping at work sites during the day and then checking out peaks in the afternoons.
The entire group summited Mount Margaret and I did my own little scramble to the top of Mount Teragram.
Gear
LighterPack:
https://lighterpack.com/r/datqki
Sadly, this was my last trip using Gossamer Gear pack liners. The crew needed a bag to haul dirt in and I (unwisely) offered them my pack liner. Turns out dirt is pretty damn heavy since it ripped the bottom of the bag wide open almost immediately. In hindsight repurposing the one thing that keeps all your down gear dry was a pretty bad idea but fortunately someone had an extra trash bag on hand. I have since replaced the one liner with a pair of nylofume 52L liner bags from Litesmith. I had always felt that the one bag just wasn’t roomy enough to hold my quilt and extra clothing should it actually start pouring since you lose a decent amount of space twisting and folding up the end down. With two bags I’ll always have enough space and I have a back up in case one bag fails. I’ll admit this is overly cautious for peak Washington State backpacking but if I ever go out in wetter shoulder season weather it should come in handy. Initial impression of the nylofume is that it’s somewhat crinklier of a material but otherwise functionally equivalent to the polyethylene of my previous liners.
This was also my last trip with my Acurite window thermometer. Its primary feature is the ability to remember minimum and maximum temperatures for a 24-hour period which is really handy if you’re trying to calibrate your gear and need an accurate overnight low. However, the thermometer proved to be increasingly unreliable and on this trip it reported a below-freezing overnight low even though it clearly had not come anywhere close to freezing. No point in dragging along 34 grams of doesn’t-work so it’s been banished to the unloved gear bin.
Not so sadly, this was the end of the road for my Big Agnes Insulated AXL Air inflatable sleeping pad. After several trips of being reliable it decided that it no longer wanted to hold air for more than a couple hours so I found myself re-inflating it two to three times every night. This is the same experience that Person B had with it after several nights on the Appalachian Trail so my guess is that it just starts to develop leaks after a certain amount of use. Coupled with the fact that it just isn’t warm enough I finally got fed up enough to order a replacement: the Therm-A-Rest ProLite Apex in regular wide. It’s almost twice as heavy and packs down a bit larger but oh my is it ever warm and comfortable. Unsurprisingly, not once when I was unable to sleep while laying on the AXL and feeling the cold creeping up from the ground did I ever think to myself “I may be cold and tired but at least my pad is super light!” Function and comfort always come first with weight being a close second consideration. I’ll have more to say about each one once I get to my end-of-season gear reviews.
Lastly, this was the last trip for my Lightload Towel. It just doesn’t have enough substance to it for use as a washcloth or for serious water absorption. I have since replaced it with a PackTowl Personal which actually looks and feels like a real washcloth but synthetic-y. I’ve noticed that synthetics are not nearly as absorbent as cotton (water seems to bead up/roll off of synthetic towels).
Lots of last-trips for gear, apparently. Now on to firsts:
I used to carry a lot of separate single-use packets in my first aid kit for various maladies: a burn gel packet for burns, an anti-sting wipe for stings and bites, an antibiotic ointment for cuts and scrapes, etc. Then I read about how antibiotic ointments are just as good as flushing with water or using petroleum jelly, so I switched to petroleum jelly which can also work for chafing and as a lip balm (but is no good for burns). Then I read about balms in general such as Green Goo First Aid Balm which can be used for burns, cuts, dry or cracked skin, chafing, bites and stings, poison ivy, fungus, and a ton of other things. If true, it’s sort of a wonder drug for first aid kits. This was my first trip bringing it and although I didn’t ever have a reason to use it I can say it was very nice to have a significantly less cluttered first aid kit.
I’ve owned an Ursack AllMitey since September of 2018 but I hadn’t really had a chance to seriously use it until this trip due to either a lack of trees or bear canister requirements. It was lightweight and convenient to tie to a tree although without any evidence of bear mischief I can’t personally vouch for its effectiveness. It also has the nice property of collapsing down as you eat through your food. Definitely a significant improvement over a bear canister for multi-night trips.
Other notes:
Since this camp had a composting toilet I brought toilet paper in a zipper bag. After some moist nights the toilet paper wasn’t exactly damp but it wasn’t 100% dry either. I’m wondering if a dessicant such as a little silica packet wouldn’t be a bad idea.
One night at dinner we had a conversation about how cold it needed to be before you could see your breath. It turns out the answer is roughly 45F. This little piece of trivia might come in handy if you need to estimate temperature and you don’t have a thermometer handy.
I’ve noticed that there’s been a significant amount of tape residue buildup inside my hiking socks. I need to figure out a way to dissolve it so I can get my socks back to pristine condition.
Campsite
As mentioned earlier we were camping at Bear Camp, which offers a couple platforms for tents but not enough for the entire group and we also had to leave one of the platforms vacant for another permit holder. So, I ended up camping off by myself on a little slope above a snow patch. In the picture above Mount Rainier is barely visible but on the final evening it was clear as can be. Otherwise the view and location were pretty unremarkable.
Food
I’ve been meaning to keep better track of not just how much food I bring and whether it’s enough but what specific items I’m bringing and whether I enjoy them or not. For this trip I measured the total weight correctly (good) but didn’t break out individual items (bad). However, I did note the following:
I ordered a sampler box of AlpineAire freeze dried backpacking meals earlier in the season and I’ve been trying to take a different combination on every trip. The three dinners that I had on this trip were all pretty good:
- Veggie Burrito Bowl
- Three Cheese Lasagna (with two McDonald’s ketchup packets)
- Kung Pao Chicken
One of the crew members was rocking Fritos bean dip and tortillas for dinner and I was incredibly jealous so I’ve now added this to my backpacking meal repertoire.
Photography
SmugMug album:
https://turigrinos.smugmug.com/Adventures/2019/Mount-Margaret-Backcountry/
One lesson that I just cannot seem to learn: always take the camera! I was on the ridge overlooking our camp when a herd of 20+ goats wandered across the opposite ridge. I tried capturing them on my phone but the resolution and lighting were too low for the shots to turn out. The only disadvantage of my current camera-to-shoulder-strap attachment system is that when I don’t have my pack on I don’t have a good way to carry my camera. Although, without my pack I also don’t have my ten essentials or other goodies and the Osprey Levity is lighter than day packs I’ve owned previously so I guess there’s not really a good reason to just always wear it when I’m away from the tent.
Other than that the first three days were cloudy with lousy views and light but the fourth day was just incredible. It’s frustrating taking mediocre pics just to have them and then having to go redo all the shots once the sky has cleared up. Still, I think I managed to pull some pretty decent ones despite having to do trail work and not really being able to wander around too much.
I’m continuing to experiment with handheld bracketing (+/- 2EV) and then merging the photos together in Aurora HDR. The quality is amazing but sometimes it makes the photos look a bit too flat:
Admittedly the lighting is really poor but this picture is just a jumble, there’s not enough contrast for any one feature to stand out. It’s difficult to figure out what you’re even looking at aside from the mountain range in the background.