Mats Roing
New member
MEB and I had just waded over Dry River coming from Eisenhower Trail when we got somewhat lost trying to find the intersection to Isolation Trail.
Earlier in the day we had started with a big group from Mizpah Spring Hut over Pierce and Eisenhower as part of sli74's fantastic gourmet hiking weekend (I expect there will be a separate thread about it). We had enjoyed delicious Thai food the evening before. After Eisenhower, Little Sister, Maria, MEB and I decided to explore Eisenhower Trail instead of continuing in the driving rain towards Monroe and Washington. We soon ran into a father with two daughters who warned us about terrible trail conditions.....lots of deep snow etc. Oh well.....we decided to head down anyway.....how bad can a trail be? They made it up so it should be easier to head down for us. We were all excited to try out a new trail for us so down we went....there were some snow and water here and there......a total of ten blowdowns down to Dry River Cutoff.....and lower portion of the trail was just beautiful.....could almost go barefoot...fresh moose tracks on the trail going in the same direction as we were.
At Dry River Cuttoff Maria and Little Sister decided to head back to Mizpah Spring Hut and MEB and I continued towards Isolation and wading the river (basically just taking the shoes off and rolled up the pants). On the map it looks like the cutoff to Dry River Trail is right after the crossing.....we went up 1/10 of a mile or so but no intersection.....then back down to creek crossing....it looked like some kind of herd path going south so we went on it....we weren't convinced we were on the trail and soon we were just whacking with the river below us. When we came to a steep slide we decided to go up it......it was barely doable due to the steepness.
Close to the top MEB says - " look at the chopper!" Suddenly 100 feet above us is a military type helicopter with a red cross on the side and open door with a dude ready to rappel off. Sand is blasting our faces since we are right below it.....MEB climbs over the overhanging roots at the top of the slide and there are at least 20 people right there! I follow suit and the woods are full of Fish and Wildlife and Park Ranger people. And we happen to climb up right into the Isolation Trail intersection which seems to be the only place the chopper could get a litter up through the trees. A female Forest Ranger comes over and tells us the guy got a seizure the night before and we need to stay back until he's evacuated. The wind was intense from the chopper and at one point I lost my balance and fell to the ground and heard my finger crack.......not good....oh well.....MEB and I hunkered down at a safe distance and followed the rescue procedure for 30 minutes or so before they finally got the litter up. I don't know much about how the poor fella faired. I hope he will be able to go on many more beautiful hikes.........
The sun was shining now and we started up Isolation Trail for 1/2 mile and ran into a couple who said the trail was awful further up. They looked pretty experienced and said they spent almost 3 hours coming down from Isolation. We were thinking a bit before continuing.....we made it up to Isolation in 1hr 43 min from there.....and padded ourselves on the back
Beautiful views it was......ten pushups and we were quickly on the way down.....Indian food at Mizpah was waiting The day had turned gorgeous and we enjoyed hiking down....took a break by a creek and filled up water bottles and MEB found a great log to sit on over the water. The bad section they talked about wasn't that bad.....and we were down by the intersection where rescue had taken place four hours earlier......it was now completely quiet.....we didn't feel like wading barefoot over Dry River again so we just walked through with the shoes one.....stopped to pour out water from the shoes and squeeze out water from the socks on the other side.....then up the Dry River Cutoff......some nice muddy section on the way up and our boots got the universal brown color soon although they looked like new after the river crossing.
MEB was cruising at Mach 2 or so up the hill......40 people and Indian food was waiting for us......a great weekend it was......despite someone stole the 2nd keg from the snowdrift below the hut.....but we did have a discoball in the ceiling
Earlier in the day we had started with a big group from Mizpah Spring Hut over Pierce and Eisenhower as part of sli74's fantastic gourmet hiking weekend (I expect there will be a separate thread about it). We had enjoyed delicious Thai food the evening before. After Eisenhower, Little Sister, Maria, MEB and I decided to explore Eisenhower Trail instead of continuing in the driving rain towards Monroe and Washington. We soon ran into a father with two daughters who warned us about terrible trail conditions.....lots of deep snow etc. Oh well.....we decided to head down anyway.....how bad can a trail be? They made it up so it should be easier to head down for us. We were all excited to try out a new trail for us so down we went....there were some snow and water here and there......a total of ten blowdowns down to Dry River Cutoff.....and lower portion of the trail was just beautiful.....could almost go barefoot...fresh moose tracks on the trail going in the same direction as we were.
At Dry River Cuttoff Maria and Little Sister decided to head back to Mizpah Spring Hut and MEB and I continued towards Isolation and wading the river (basically just taking the shoes off and rolled up the pants). On the map it looks like the cutoff to Dry River Trail is right after the crossing.....we went up 1/10 of a mile or so but no intersection.....then back down to creek crossing....it looked like some kind of herd path going south so we went on it....we weren't convinced we were on the trail and soon we were just whacking with the river below us. When we came to a steep slide we decided to go up it......it was barely doable due to the steepness.
Close to the top MEB says - " look at the chopper!" Suddenly 100 feet above us is a military type helicopter with a red cross on the side and open door with a dude ready to rappel off. Sand is blasting our faces since we are right below it.....MEB climbs over the overhanging roots at the top of the slide and there are at least 20 people right there! I follow suit and the woods are full of Fish and Wildlife and Park Ranger people. And we happen to climb up right into the Isolation Trail intersection which seems to be the only place the chopper could get a litter up through the trees. A female Forest Ranger comes over and tells us the guy got a seizure the night before and we need to stay back until he's evacuated. The wind was intense from the chopper and at one point I lost my balance and fell to the ground and heard my finger crack.......not good....oh well.....MEB and I hunkered down at a safe distance and followed the rescue procedure for 30 minutes or so before they finally got the litter up. I don't know much about how the poor fella faired. I hope he will be able to go on many more beautiful hikes.........
The sun was shining now and we started up Isolation Trail for 1/2 mile and ran into a couple who said the trail was awful further up. They looked pretty experienced and said they spent almost 3 hours coming down from Isolation. We were thinking a bit before continuing.....we made it up to Isolation in 1hr 43 min from there.....and padded ourselves on the back
Beautiful views it was......ten pushups and we were quickly on the way down.....Indian food at Mizpah was waiting
The day had turned gorgeous and we enjoyed hiking down....took a break by a creek and filled up water bottles and MEB found a great log to sit on over the water. The bad section they talked about wasn't that bad.....and we were down by the intersection where rescue had taken place four hours earlier......it was now completely quiet.....we didn't feel like wading barefoot over Dry River again so we just walked through with the shoes one.....stopped to pour out water from the shoes and squeeze out water from the socks on the other side.....then up the Dry River Cutoff......some nice muddy section on the way up and our boots got the universal brown color soon although they looked like new after the river crossing. MEB was cruising at Mach 2 or so up the hill......40 people and Indian food was waiting for us......a great weekend it was......despite someone stole the 2nd keg from the snowdrift below the hut.....but we did have a discoball in the ceiling
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