TMax
New member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
- Messages
- 589
- Reaction score
- 85
Hikethe115 and I met at a park-n-ride off route 87 to carpool up to the Daxs at an unreasonably early time given the fact that we had both been on the road late the night before. Hikethe115, who at some point in her hiking career vowed never to return to Allen, was good enough to help me bag my #43. We arrived at the parking area to an overcast and gray sky. (Oh please don't make me hike in the rain again!!). Started to load full packs to do this overnight trip when it started to sprinkle. Hikethe115 assured me it would pass quickly. Hefted on our packs and headed up the trail. It started to rain seriously. Pretty quickly I started to whine seriously
. Along with the whines came some choice language about how sick and tired I was of hiking soggy... I made the statement that if it hadn't stopped raining by the time we got to the herd path, I was turning around and going home! Within moments the rain stopped and the sun came out. Thank-you mountain goddess... The trail is in relatively good shape although a little tight with blackberry bushes growing in. There was lots of mud but nothing unmanageable. We made OK time up to the herd path which is so easy to follow at this point. It's marked much of the way with yellow "discs" (made out of all sorts of things including coffee can tops) and signs that say ALLEN. Hmmm...could this be the way? Walking along trying to avoid the increasingly deep and thick mud we looked for the spot where we would cross over to State land so we could set up camp. Found a great spot, set things up and ate a quick lunch. The day had cleared up nicely with the unfortunate consequence of allowing the bugs to emerge, the worst of which were the deer flys, they are even more evil than black flies! Where the waterfall is (just below where you start the serious up) we met up with four women who were on their way down. One of whom reported that this was her sixth time up Allen and it was the worst conditions she'd ever seen (she used the word treacherous repeatedly). We filtered some water and headed up with some trepidation... Maybe with this "warning" we had expected a nightmare which made the reality seem not so bad. Everything was wet and slippery and the water levels were high but with care and concern it was no real problem. We met two men coming down who had no comment about what to expect ahead, hmmmm... We followed the trail without difficulty and just before where you have to cross the slide to enter the woods on the left we ran into a couple that had stayed on the right side. They were not happy saying that the trail was in really bad shape. We crossed over (on a sketchy section...) and headed up. The trail here was fantastic compared to everything else we had been on. While quite steep it was relatively dry and contained none of that slippery slabby stuff. Once on the summit we dropped off the other side for the view, ate some trail food and then climbed back down. Just below the summit we ran into two guys heading up with very little gear. We chatted briefly then continued our trek. We were both concerned about climbing down the slide but we made it without even one fall between us (gotta be a record!!!). The two guys came past us right near the bottom, moving along quickly. We trekked back to our camp, ate a quick dinner then climbed in the tent for a much needed night's sleep. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. It rained most of the night with scattered thunderstorms passing by. Just enough to interrupt sleep. Up in the a.m. to wet-wet-wet and didn't even bother firing up the stove. Quick power bars for breakfast, load up all the wet stuff and then walked back out. The trails were wetter and muddier than on the way in which brought out some more of my colorful language . Met a group of three women on their way in and offered them our best as the day was looking shaky weather-wise. At the gate across the road we saw two packs piled on top of each other with a note on top that read "NO TRESPASSING MEANS NO TRESPASSING." There were fresh 4-wheeler tracks and we made up stories about what might have happened... did two hikers do something so foolish as to leave their packs on the porch of the landowners camp? Where were the hikers?? At the trailhead, we checked the register and saw that two people had signed in the day before for a multi-day trip but had already signed out. We figured it must have been the guys who passed us on the slide. We wrote down their phone number and called. Sure enough, they had stashed their full packs while bagging Allen with the plan of picking them up on the way back and heading off for the Lake Colden area. When they came back and found their packs gone they had to scrub their trip. Hopefully they got back up to the gate to retrieve their gear. I was glad to have Allen done but couldn't help but smile at the fact that the women hikers had the male hikers outnumbered 2:1 on this mountain!!! Thanks Dawn for doing this hike with me and haniging in there with my bratty anti-rain whines!
. Along with the whines came some choice language about how sick and tired I was of hiking soggy... I made the statement that if it hadn't stopped raining by the time we got to the herd path, I was turning around and going home! Within moments the rain stopped and the sun came out. Thank-you mountain goddess... The trail is in relatively good shape although a little tight with blackberry bushes growing in. There was lots of mud but nothing unmanageable. We made OK time up to the herd path which is so easy to follow at this point. It's marked much of the way with yellow "discs" (made out of all sorts of things including coffee can tops) and signs that say ALLEN. Hmmm...could this be the way? Walking along trying to avoid the increasingly deep and thick mud we looked for the spot where we would cross over to State land so we could set up camp. Found a great spot, set things up and ate a quick lunch. The day had cleared up nicely with the unfortunate consequence of allowing the bugs to emerge, the worst of which were the deer flys, they are even more evil than black flies! Where the waterfall is (just below where you start the serious up) we met up with four women who were on their way down. One of whom reported that this was her sixth time up Allen and it was the worst conditions she'd ever seen (she used the word treacherous repeatedly). We filtered some water and headed up with some trepidation... Maybe with this "warning" we had expected a nightmare which made the reality seem not so bad. Everything was wet and slippery and the water levels were high but with care and concern it was no real problem. We met two men coming down who had no comment about what to expect ahead, hmmmm... We followed the trail without difficulty and just before where you have to cross the slide to enter the woods on the left we ran into a couple that had stayed on the right side. They were not happy saying that the trail was in really bad shape. We crossed over (on a sketchy section...) and headed up. The trail here was fantastic compared to everything else we had been on. While quite steep it was relatively dry and contained none of that slippery slabby stuff. Once on the summit we dropped off the other side for the view, ate some trail food and then climbed back down. Just below the summit we ran into two guys heading up with very little gear. We chatted briefly then continued our trek. We were both concerned about climbing down the slide but we made it without even one fall between us (gotta be a record!!!). The two guys came past us right near the bottom, moving along quickly. We trekked back to our camp, ate a quick dinner then climbed in the tent for a much needed night's sleep. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. It rained most of the night with scattered thunderstorms passing by. Just enough to interrupt sleep. Up in the a.m. to wet-wet-wet and didn't even bother firing up the stove. Quick power bars for breakfast, load up all the wet stuff and then walked back out. The trails were wetter and muddier than on the way in which brought out some more of my colorful language . Met a group of three women on their way in and offered them our best as the day was looking shaky weather-wise. At the gate across the road we saw two packs piled on top of each other with a note on top that read "NO TRESPASSING MEANS NO TRESPASSING." There were fresh 4-wheeler tracks and we made up stories about what might have happened... did two hikers do something so foolish as to leave their packs on the porch of the landowners camp? Where were the hikers?? At the trailhead, we checked the register and saw that two people had signed in the day before for a multi-day trip but had already signed out. We figured it must have been the guys who passed us on the slide. We wrote down their phone number and called. Sure enough, they had stashed their full packs while bagging Allen with the plan of picking them up on the way back and heading off for the Lake Colden area. When they came back and found their packs gone they had to scrub their trip. Hopefully they got back up to the gate to retrieve their gear. I was glad to have Allen done but couldn't help but smile at the fact that the women hikers had the male hikers outnumbered 2:1 on this mountain!!! Thanks Dawn for doing this hike with me and haniging in there with my bratty anti-rain whines!
