Adventures with Bushtits

Well, nobody can say we were woefully unprepared yesterday. Which was a good thing, as it turned out.

We were blessed with great weather for our hike up the Heliotrope Ridge Trail to Coleman Glacier/Mt. Baker, and made good time going up. Fifteen of us set out, starting the hike at about 9.15 a.m.




The raging torrent...

The next to last creek was a bit tricky (Kathy fell partway in), and so four people turned back. It was really intimidating - the flow was strong, and we were crossing barefoot, boots tied to packs. You got the sense that if you fell the wrong way, you'd be swept downstream, over ledges and small waterfalls, with little chance of being able to stop yourself, let alone be rescued by anyone.


The rest of us carried on and were rewarded by spectacular views and cool breezes from the glacier.




We ate lunch on top of the lookout, which is the outcropping in the distance













View of Mt. Baker from the lookout



Coleman Glacier



















View down the valley - glacier to the right











After lunch, we headed back down - after only an hour and a half, the raging mountain torrent had become faster and deeper, so some of us decided to hike further up, to cross there. Which was when things got a little tricky - one of us badly sprained her ankle a little way up. What followed was an amazing exercise in teamwork as everyone worked together to get her off the mountain. The first, huge problem was to get her across the river. First her ankle was immobilized, still in its hiking boot - thanks to Dom and Marco who had the forethought to bring well-stocked first-aid kits. Then a crew of guys of either side of the creek used to a rope to help ferry her across. (Even with the aid of the rope, Kathy managed to fall in again, this time a bit more thoroughly - the joys of wet shorts and water-filled boots!)

A little more first aid and Jesse went on down to try to get search & rescue to help. The decision was made to start carrying our wounded trooper out - huge effort by Dom. Marco and Dan, who took turns doing a two-person carry (not to mention Marco, who for awhile heaved her over his shoulder and packed her down). Eventually, we decided to try a space blanket Kathy had stuck in her pack at the last minute. Using that, we were able to carry her down the trail, with 4-6 people carrying. We were joined partway down by a couple of great guys: Brent Fawcett from Mission, and Joe Smith from Ottawa, who in spite of having logged a strenuous morning ice-climbing on the glacier, immediately started taking turns on the blanket. Sometimes our patient was able to hop, using Suzanne as a crutch - that got us across a couple more streams, which were a lot less difficult.

Near the end, we met Justin, a volunteer park steward, who was hiking up to see how were we were doing. It turned out that he and his co-volunteer stayed wll past the end of their shift to do what they could. S&R for Mt. Baker is volunteer, and comes mostly from Bellingham. So does the resue helicopter, which was on standby. They ended up cancelling the helicopter once they heard from various hikers who went down ahead of us that we were making slow but steady progress. (Good thing too - the only place they could land was the glacier, so we would have to have dragged our victim back up, and we'd never have made it across that torrent a third time.)

Anyway, we made it down in 2-1/2 hours. Marco turned out to have banged up his elbow fairly comprehensively, judging from the swelling. He did that getting across the torrent with the rope while hanging onto the injured party.

Nobody can anticipate accidents like this, but we had everything we needed to deal with the emergency (although handles on the space blanket would have been nice). If we'd had to stay put, we had warm clothing, extra food, and fire-starting matierals. And we had each other! So, good going everyone.

Unexpected highlights:
- Getting ourselves out of trouble - there was no cellphone service - in fact, we couldn;t set a signal until just before the Huntingdon/Sumas border crossing
- The awesome view from the top - has to be seen to be believed.
- Suzanne saying "Thanks, sweetie," to the US border guard!