Skills Hike 2008

The skills hike this year was like summer and monsoon season at the same time. Sunday we all carpooled in three cars and ate lunch at the Talapus trailhead. We hiked to Talapus Lake and played for a while, then hiked on to Olallie Lake to camp for the night. We ate dinner at Olallie and then had some fun around the lake. We caught a snake that stunk for a while but then slid into the lake. After dinner we went to bed with thunder, lightning, and rain. In the morning it had stopped raining, but it was foggy. Some of us went to the nearby river in the morning to get water. We stayed a long time and caught over 30 crayfish and then returned to camp. We had breakfast and then tore down camp to head back out on the trail.

On Monday, we hiked to Pratt Lake for lunch. The whole time the food was great. We all cooked and nothing was burnt. At several of the lakes we caught frogs which was really cool. It was drizzling slightly so hiking was nice and cool. We ate lunch under the trees and then hitched up and left. The way to Lake Tuscohatchie was nice and then it cleared up so we could swim. After a little while it got foggy so we stopped swimming and got dressed. We all ate dinner and then went to our tents. We woke up Tuesday morning and ate oatmeal. It was a long start and we didn't leave for a while but the the weather was good for the last part of the hike up to Lake Melakwa (Chinook for mosquito).

Tuesday afternoon at Melakwa was sunny. We all sat down by the lake or on the 6 FOOT SNOW!!!! It was amazing being able to learn and teach skills in the hot sun and snow. Some of the guys found some large tree branches and we made our own poles for the dining fly. That night, dinner was great. We all ate outside but the the rain and winds started up so we went to our tents after cleaning up. We had a good time in our tents until we fell asleep. Wednesday, we spent most of the day in our tents except for meals and when one of the families hiked up for a visit. We also had to move our tents because the first morning at Melakwa, we woke up in big huge puddles (lucky for us, our tents didn't leak). It was rainy and windy but we still talked and had a great time in our tents. Thursday morning, we got up early and packed our things. The trail back to the Denny Creek Trailhead was like a river but we still hiked fast to our warm cars and the best food ever at XXX Root Beer Drive-In in Issaquah. - AMG

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