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The trip started out Friday evening at 8:00 p.m. when we picked up Ben. Next stop was Longview to pick up Laurel. There were five of us on this trip: Charlie, Matthew, Christina, Ben, and Laurel.

After a one-hour quick stop to pick up some worms (and a watermelon, cooking oil, peanuts, and more) we finally arrived at the trailhead at about 12:30 a.m. We quickly spread out the tarp next to the car and crashed after noticing millions of stars overhead.

At 7:00 a.m. the first truck came driving up the road, passed us, stopped, backed up and asked, “Are you guys camping there?”

“Yes,” Dad answered. Dad and Ben had been up a couple minutes, and the rest of us were just getting up.

“Well lookout, I’m backing in there.”

“Boy howdy!” says Ben.

There was space for him to back in beside our tarp. This actually isn’t an official trailhead, but an abandoned road up a canyon between STEEP mountains. There are several lakes up the mountains on the sides and lots of mines in the area.

Anyway, we talked to this guy and his buddy a while and found out they were headed to a mine way up the river. I had gotten directions to a closer mine which we were planning to visit from 2drx (a handle in an online forum, nwhikers.net), and it turned out this guy was one of his friends. I asked him if he used nwhikers.net forum, and he said he did. “I’m Jimbo,” he said. I couldn’t really place that name, but told him I was “McFarnell.” It was kind of neat meeting someone from the forum. After a few minutes they took off in a big hurry.

Dad had bought the watermelon as a post-hike treat, so I carried it down the road and hid it in the river under the bridge. We packed up all our stuff, ate breakfast, and headed up the “trail” about a half hour later. The road was pretty nice for a little ways, but we soon reached “Bowling Ball Alley” where a stream has run down the road and you have to walk on bowling-ball-sized rocks. It is a nice area with some BIG trees, a river beside the road, and all kinds of plants.

After about an hour of hiking, we reached the big cedar tree and memorial that is the landmark for the turnoff to the mine we were going to try and find. The memorial was for a guy who died at this spot while hiking with his son and a friend a few years back. I think he was only 55 or some odd years old.

We dropped our packs and began climbing the side of the canyon, following the vague directions I had printed online. 20 minutes later I saw the first boards from the old power house. We were amazed that we could walk right to it. There was all kinds of old pipe, boards, an engine, a trolley that used to run up and down from the valley, an ore cart, and - most interesting - the adit itself!

As described on the internet, the entrance doesn’t make one feel “warm and fuzzy.” Quite a few rocks have fallen from the ceiling at the entrance, but about 10 feet back it gets more stable with no breakdown. There was some weird contraption just inside and ore cart tracks trailing off into the distance under about 3 inches of water. I decided to go wading and Laurel soon followed. Other mine explorers have been in here, so I wasn’t too worried. We went about 200 feet straight back and then the tunnel curved left and we turned around. We got some good pictures and video of the whole place.

Back outside, Dad had found the ore cart down the hillside about 50 feet. After a few more pictures, we started heading back down to the valley.

With our packs on again, we made short work of the next mile up the valley to our turnoff. This is where it gets rough. So far we had hiked two miles, and we only had one mile to go. The problem is that this last mile is almost straight up on an old trail that is very hard to follow.

We waded across the creek and entered the brush – devil’s club, salmon berries, huckleberries, and more. Soon we were in gradual sloping forest, easy walking….it didn’t last long. Now we were really climbing, with the creek from the lake going over waterfalls on our right. This last mile took us about four hours to complete.

When we were close to exhaustion, we crested the top of a rise and were walking flat again. Soon the lake appeared – so beautiful, clear, and welcoming in the afternoon sunlight with majestic mountain peaks in the distance. No sign of anyone. There were TONS of big, black, sweet, juicy huckleberries on the hillsides near the lake. Yum!

The last (and only) time we were here, we camped at the outlet, right where the trail reaches the lake, but this time we decided to camp on a peninsula out in the middle of the lake. The access route to this peninsula proved harder than we expected (lots of brush), but it was worth it. A great campsite with views of the lake on both sides and a nice fire pit. There was a great swimming rock nearby.

We quickly unpacked and got ready to go fishing. Ben, Dad, and I were the only ones with fishing licenses, so our goal was to catch dinner before dark. We were soon out in our rafts fishing. Christina and Laurel soon followed, both in one raft, just visiting and rowing around the lake.

I was using a z-ray lure and soon had several bites, but I just couldn’t keep them on! They’d jump out of the water and throw the lure. Dad was using a flasher with a worm, and that was working great. He soon caught four and gave his rig to Ben, who also caught a bunch. I was able to catch two, finally, on the z-ray. Ben caught the biggest fish of the day at about 14 inches. They were all nice, fat rainbows – there are freshwater shrimp in this lake which provide constant fish food.

We had a great meal of fish and home-dried stew, but missed having a campfire. Fires aren’t allowed at this elevation in this wilderness area. We sang a few songs and then headed for bed.

The next morning dawned bright and clear with fluffy white clouds floating overhead – a beautiful day! We had blackberry cobbler and more fish for breakfast. After breakfast we had a short church service where each of us shared a verse or passage of scripture and then we sang a few hymns.

Ben and I were planning to do a dayhike over to another lake, about two miles away, so we began getting all our stuff ready. Laurel, not one to sit idle, began weaving a basket from huckleberry bushes. Ben and I were soon ready and pushed off in our rafts for our commute across the lake. This lake has steep brushy shorelines, so rafting is the quickest and easiest way to the opposite side. Our plan was to get out on the opposite shore and give Dad our rafts to bring back to camp for him and the girls to use throughout the day – we would holler when we were ready to come back across the lake that evening.

 As soon as we started across the lake we noticed it was an unusually warm day. This was fine, except that our route would take us over a couple STEEP ridges and rough, brushy, mountain-goat country. We were going to be hot. I had a GPS-tracked map from a guy on the internet who had made this hike before, so I knew it was possible, but hard. I had attempted it once before, but turned back at the first ridge.

We soon were across the lake and started up the hillside. Let me tell you, this country is STEEP. After climbing for an hour or so, eating lot of huckleberries along the way, and crossing some scary-steep sections, we made the first ridge above the lake. We could see dad’s raft as a small dot down on the lake far below. We took some pictures, video, and yelled back and forth with those back at the lake. It was already close to noon, so we also stopped here for lunch.

I was getting a little worried now, as the day was half over and we weren’t even close to our destination. We decided to press on anyway. A short ways down the ridge we happened upon some very cool quartz crystals and an unknown piece of wire. We side-hilled along the back of the ridge, skirting a couple peaks before dropping down to another intersecting ridge. There were lots of huckleberries, which were really slowing Ben down (they were too good to pass up!). Lots of bear sign, too.

We dropped clear down into the valley where there was a small stream and Ben decided he needed to soak his feet which were hurting from all the side-hilling. I looked back up at the ridge we had just come from and could hardly believe we had been up there because there were so many cliffs. We still had another couple ridges to go and the afternoon was passing. I was beginning to believe that we probably should just fill our water bottles here and head back – Ben agreed that was the wisest idea at this point. We were both disappointed, but this hike was just rougher than we had anticipated. We agreed that next time we should get up at the crack of dawn and get moving.

 Once back up on the ridge above the lake, we noticed some dark rain clouds heading our way. “Great,” I said. “Dad’s going to be worried about that – he might even want to start hiking out tonight.” Rain is miserable on backpacking trips. It is so hard to stay dry and warm, especially without a campfire.

We found some mountain goat fur stuck in some bushes along the ridge – this is definitely their kind of territory. A little further along we found a shorter route back to the lake, but weren’t sure if it would take us all the way to the lake or if it would dead-end at some cliffs. It looked ok from our vantage point, so we decided to take a chance and headed down. The first part just below the ridge was the scariest – super steep, pine needles, and almost nothing to hold on to. Down a ways we found a cairn so that encouraged us that this must be a passable route.

Sure enough, we did find a nice way down to the lake after walking through some snow from last year (this is Sept!!!) and skirting around a big cliff. We had hollered from up above for boats, but they were nowhere to be seen. We yelled some more and cleaned ourselves up a bit in the cool lake water – hiking through brush on a hot day sure can get you dirty. Dad finally showed up with our rafts….half deflated! Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but I had asked them to make sure they were pumped up before bringing them so we could float high and dry.

I proceeded to hop into my raft and splash a bunch of water in as well. Nice. I don’t know if you’ve used a raft before, but all the water goes straight to the lowest point which is usually right where you’re sitting. Ben tried getting into his and did the same thing.

Ben high-tailed it straight for camp to dry off while I looked for a good place to get out on this side of the lake. I wanted to do some fishing before heading back, but wanted to dry out first. I finally found a place to get out to dry off a bit. I got all my stuff out of the raft, and started to pick it up to empty the water when….splash….my video camera had fallen off my belt into the lake! Nice. Luckily it was in a case and was kind of floating. I grabbed it, dried it off, put it in a zip-lock I had and back into the case. I finished emptying the water out of the boat and launched again without getting wet. I did a little bit of fishing but it was already dinner time so I headed for camp. I did lose my bait twice while going across the lake, but missed the fish both times.

For dinner we had fish and another pot of stew along with leftover cobbler. Laurel had packed in some dinner rolls and homemade huckleberry jam, so that was a nice addition. Half way through dinner Dad decided it looked like rain and wanted to head for the valley – he didn’t want to have to try to walk through all those huckleberry bushes and steep slopes after they were soaking wet. It was already getting close to sunset, so we put it in high gear and got everything packed up. We left the lake right at sunset.

We didn’t get very far before it was too dark to see. We finally found a flat spot on the side of the mountain and made a quick lean-to for the night. It was still really warm and never dropped below about 62 all night. It did sprinkle a bit, but not much.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast of dried fruit and continued on down the mountain. After losing and re-finding the trail a few times, we finally arrived at the valley floor, crossed the river, and took a long break. After filtering water, we headed back down the abandoned road towards the car. The hike down the road seemed longer than it had two days before. We arrived back at the car at 12:30 p.m. where we enjoyed crisp, cold watermelon fresh from the river.

We spent the rest of the day fighting traffic to get back home. We entertained ourselves by looking at digital pictures and video of the trip and visiting. It was a really fun trip and a great success. The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is awesome country and I’m looking forward to next time!

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This year’s annual Farnell family backpacking trip was to the Pasayten Wilderness in northern Washington state. We headed out from our house at about 7:30 on Monday, August 13th, 2007. There were 9 of us this time, ranging in age from 5 to 63. Our spirits were high, itinerary was planned, and packs were full.

We chose the Pasayten this year for several reasons, including lunker fish, campfires allowed, and numerous good trip reports we had read. Campfires are very important to us - how else can you BBQ fish, fight off hypothermia, and have a true camping experience? This wilderness is right on the border with Canada, just east of the North Cascades National Park. The scenery and terrain varies widely, with high rolling tundra to the east and jagged peaks and cliffs to the west.

Our first stop was REI to pick up a parking pass, map, and extra clothes for those who forgot theirs at home! The Seattle REI is quite impressive.

Next we had a beautiful drive over the North Cascades Highway. We stopped for the night at Klipchuck campground where some good friends were camp hosts. We had our last (motor)home-cooked dinner and breakfast before heading into the backcountry on Tuesday.

Shortly after leaving the trailhead we were walking through recently burned forests - charred, black trees and logs all around. It was quite interesting and made some nice pictures. Soon we left the forest and entered a wide open area of rolling hills of grass with a few trees here and there - almost like tundra.

Day after day we headed west, getting further and further from the car. The weather was awesome. We did forget our big tarp at our first camp, which we were pretty concerned about since it could rain, but we didn’t want to walk back 9 miles to pick it up. So we continued on without it…

This area was heavily mined in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and while we were off trail we found an old road, trail, shelter, and lots of cans and bottles around. We love going off trail and found some nice secluded areas. 19 miles out, we came to a tungsten mine complete with restored cabins and lots of equipment lying around. The cabins are rat infested and not inviting to spend the night in. Little did we know that these cabins would look much more inviting later on during our trip.

As we continued west, the landscape changed from grassy tundra to more rugged peaks and mountains. We saw quite a few people - way more than we expected - and some pack horse packers, dogs, and even a llama. We never found a lake without fish in it, and Dad and Suzanne even caught some nice golden trout!

Our food was good - but even good dried food gets old after a week or so. For breakfast we had things like oatmeal, granola, logan bread, dried fruit, and even cobbler; for lunch we always had trailmix and/or a granola bar; for dinner we had a variety of one-pot soup/stew things like split pea soup, black bean chili mac, vegetable soup, spaghetti, chicken noodle soup, etc. All of our meals were home-made with many home dried vegetables and fruits. Planning and making the meals at home is half the fun! The most popular meals were bread-on-a-stick and apricot cobbler!

By day five we were 30 miles from the car and having a great time. We had bushwhacked to a couple off-trail lakes, only to find secret horse trails right to them. Needless to say, the hike out of these lakes was much easier on the horse trails.

The evening of day five we were off trail and had our first rain shower. It lasted about 10 minutes and stopped just long enough for us to get our two remaining small tarps up. After the shower we all gathered around the fire and ate bread-on-a-stick hoping for no more rain. We went to bed around 10pm watching the stars fade in and out behind the clouds.

At midnight it started raining again, and this time not just a shower. We got all our packs and the kids under cover (with two small tarps) and three of us sat up the rest of the night keeping the fire going. At 7am we decided this was crazy and headed around the lake to a natural cave I had found the day before in a rock slide along the side of the lake. It was drippy, but not as wet as outside. We carried our fire over in the cooking pot and got it going in the front of the overhanging rock. We sat here and waited, hoping this storm would blow over soon like most mountain storms.

All day it rained. It stopped for the night, but we stayed under the rock just in case. We took turns keeping the fire going. Let me tell you, sleeping under a rock isn’t the most comfortable thing to do. Sparks burned holes in our clothes and sleeping bags while the smoke almost suffocated us. The rocks under us were hard and cold. Still, it was better than shivering out in the rain and risking hypothermia.

The next morning we decided to begin the long hike out, rain or shine. Shortly after sunrise the rain resumed. Around noon, after a half day of hiking, the rain turned to snow! A little over 10 miles and we were back to the mine with the cabins and woodstoves. What a welcome sight!

We made some new friends at the cabins, as they were popular in the rain! One gentleman had a llama and a dog with him, and he offered to leave his dog with us in the cabin overnight to fight off the rats. We gladly took him up on the offer! He and his son were sleeping in a tent nearby. We slept very well that night due to lack of sleep the previous two nights.

The next morning the sun came out and the storm broke up into scattered showers for the rest of our trip. We hiked 13 miles that day, eager to get back to civilization after being wet and cold for so long. Our tarp was not where we left it, but some horsemen loaned us a tarp for the night so we were ready for the rain - which never did come that night anyway.

We were planning on a nine day trip, but on day eight we decided to head out early. It was an easy six mile hike, and we stopped in the burn to pick morel mushrooms. That was a blast. Dad says they sell for $18 a pound, so we may have picked over $500 worth!

All in all it was a great trip. We are looking forward to next time. Maybe we can go to the John Muir Wilderness down in California next year!

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May 12, 2007 - The trip started out with Dad and I wondering where Ben was. He was supposed to meet us at the Clover Valley Church, but he didn't show up. We decided that maybe he had driven up to Jacks to meet us there, so we left a note at the church and headed for Jacks. It turns out that Ben had gotten busy working and lost track of time. Eventually he saw that he had a message on his cell phone - it was from my Mom - letting him know we were waiting for him. Luckily, he found our note at the church and met us at Jacks a while later.

Little Red River is a gated cave, so we picked up the permit and gate key and headed for the mountain. The sky was cloudy, but we did catch some glimpses of the mountain on the drive up.

As we neared the cave, there was a gate on the road that was half open, but there was a sign that said, "Winter Recreation Area - Road Closed to Wheeled Vehicles." It was obvious that lots of cars had been driving through, but Dad didn't want to risk getting a ticket, so we parked here and started walking. As we hiked toward the cave, we passed the time chatting about different things. As we climbed, we began seeing signs of snow until there was snow on the road itself.

The trail through the woods was a bit of a challenge to navigate with lots of down trees over the trail. Snow depth varied from 4 feet to patches of bare ground throughout the woods.

Ben had never been to Little Red River Cave before, so this trip was mainly for him. He had tried to visit the cave twice before, but always ran into something that ruined the trip. His first attempt was about 12 years ago with some of his friends, but when they reached the trail they met a party coming out who told them the cave was gated. They did not have a key, so turned around knowing they wouldn't be able to enter the cave.

His second attempt to visit the cave was with me a year-and-a-half ago. This time we had a permit and key in hand, but when we arrived at the cave the gate locks were missing! The cave was unlocked. The permit specifically says to stay out of the cave if the gate has been tampered with, so we were not able to explore the cave that day either. We reported the missing locks to the Forest Service and they replaced them within a few days. So this was Ben's third attempt to visit this cave, and we were hoping for good luck this time!

We soon saw the open lava flow ahead and emerged from the trees near the cave entrance. After putting on our cave gear and unlocking the gate, we entered the cave. We took the side passage around the big drop and worked our way back dropping down 8 feet and then 10 feet using a rope. The cave was quite dry compared to when I visited last November!

We were soon in a large room with lots of red, baked dirt. There was quite a display of sand castle type formations from all the dripping water hitting the dirt. Off to the right, we found a tree mold of a stump in the ceiling, and then a mold of a log down the side of the cave.

Ben was quite impressed with the cave, and every few moments we would hear him say, "Wow! Beautiful…"

We continued on, walking through nice-sized passages with sandy-pumice floors. Cave slime was on the walls, and we noted where people had written names and dates of when they had visited. It sure takes a long time for the slime to regrow over that graffiti!

We came to a large room where I boosted Ben up into an upper level in the ceiling on the side of the cave and then he crawled over and poked his head out over the main passage, maybe 20 feet above us! Kim L. had showed me this a couple years ago on my first trip.

After helping Ben down to the main passage, we continued on finding the first lava fall shortly. The two lava falls in this cave are two of my favorite features! Basically, the lava tube just noze-dives downwards for about 30 feet, levels off for a little ways, and then dives again for another 40 feet. The falls can be climbed without ropes due to cauliflower AA lava. This area is very cool with some neat formations on the sides of the passage.

We climbed over some breakdown and found what I think was a Grylloblattid (cockroach-cricket, according to Caves of Mt. St. Helens). I snapped a few pictures of him and we continued on.

We soon reached the red river that the cave is named for. It is more like a small stream, but it is definitely red! The water seeps in through the wall in various places, and has stained the wall and floor with bright, orange-red stripes.

We soon reached the end of the cave, where there is a shallow lake and the cave is filled with water and sediment. Who knows how far it goes under all that!

On the way back to the entrance, we stopped in the area where the wall is stained red and I played with my camera and slave flash trying to get some cool pictures. Dad and Ben were soon bored, and Ben was saying he was hungry, so I finished taking pictures and we started the long uphill hike out.

We wasted no time and were soon outside and headed back for the road. We hitched a ride on the back of a snowmobile trailer and saved ourselves about a mile of hiking back to the car.

We had a great day in one of Mt. St. Helens best caves!

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This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Men's Retreat hosted by Ocean Park Community Church. Pastor Marty asked me to help out with music by playing piano, so that was a privilege and enjoyable as well!

I've attended this retreat for about 13 years (??) or so, only missing twice in that time I believe. This year we had western author Stephen Bly as one of the main speakers. Before each session, Mr. Bly would read us a couple of his Cowboy Poems, which were quite funny and made sure everyone was awake. He spoke on seeking God first, what Jesus' servants would do, and repentance.

The other speaker was Vern Wilkinson, the NW District representative for Village Missions . He spoke about Biblical manhood. He also shared about Village Missions and his vision for expanding their ministry in Alaska.

The weather was some of the best I ever remember at a Men's Retreat, with sunny blue sky on the beach! Several of us went clamming, and everyone caught their limit.

Jeff, Dad, and I did a harmonica/jaw harp trio as a special feature during talent time, which was fun. We played When the Roll, I'm Gonna Sing, and Swing Low. The food was great, although we didn't get much fresh fruit. Cookies were available all the time.

Friday night Pastor Marty showed the movie "Facing the Giants " which I had never seen before. It is a very well done movie with a strong Biblical message in it. All the actors in this movie were volunteers, unpaid, and from the same church!

All in all, it was a great weekend!

Great Food - Stephen Bly

Walking Back to the Cars After Getting 75 Clams!
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Once again, on January 26th, we went down for Mt. Bachelor's annual "ski free day," which is a canned food drive where each skier donates three cans of food in exchange for a free lift ticket. This year we had a total of 16 people in our group - nine from our church and seven other Christian friends from the area. We car pooled in two vehicles. Thanks to Jon and Christina for driving.

We left the park-and-ride at 3:30 a.m. for the 4 to 5 hour drive down to central Oregon.  Conversations on the trip down helped the ride go faster.  The day dawned bright and clear, the perfect day for skiing! We arrived at the mountain at 8:30, greeted by bright, white snow contrasting beautifully with the amazingly blue sky. Lifts were scheduled to open at 9 a.m., so we scrambled to get everyone ready to "shred Mt. Bachelor." 16 people is a lot to get organized with skis, boots, poles, snowboards, coats, snow pants, goggles, helmets, gloves, canned food, cameras, and more everywhere.

We all had a wonderful day of skiing/boarding with awesome views of the surrounding mountains and countryside. We had one first-time skier and several second-time skiers, who were all doing awesome. I did go over a big jump a little TOO fast and busted my goggles from the resulting face-plant, but nobody had any serious accidents. There were some comments from other skiers about the "crazy-hat-guy" and the"skier in a skirt."

We arrived back at the park-and-ride at 9:30 p.m. and all headed our separate ways. It was an awesome trip once again. You all should join us next year! 

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