Day 6 Information
Indian Bar to Maple Creek - 9 Miles
Tuesday, September 10th 2002

It is 10:40 a.m. on Tuesday morning. I have been hiking now for about an hour and ten minutes. I started at about 9:30 a.m., maybe earlier.


Panorama of Indian Bar.



Derek Rowley at the base of Indian Bar.

I left Indian Bar this morning, and as far as I know, I am on my way down towards the Cowlitz Divide, and I am pretty sure that I have gone over the main hump. Because I’ve been over a couple, I don’t know. The view of Mt. Rainier from Indian Bar didn’t exist, but just above Indian Bar is an absolutely wonderful view of Mt. Rainier. Probably the best I’ve seen the whole trip, of course I have only seen the mountain twice on my hike so far... yesterday morning at Summerland and this morning. This morning, now, I can see the whole mountain. It was very beautiful, the skies are blue. I passed the group hikers a way back. They aren’t really going fast; they are stopping and taking pictures, and stuff like that. I’ve stopped a lot too, I thought they would have passed me by now, but they are still a ways behind me. This morning I woke up at about 5:00. I was like “Cool” I'll just get up now and get ready. But then when I looked out of my sleeping bag, it was still pitch black. It was a little bit cold, and I wasn’t in the mood to get ready with just a flashlight. So I slept for another 2 - 2 1/2 hours. Then I woke up. For breakfast I had, kind of on the trail, I had 2 granola crunch bars. A peanut butter nut one, and a cinnamon. Along with a rice crispy treat and also a yogurt granola bar thing. As I hiked out of Indian Bar there were several good shots of the mountain. I think I got a good panorama.

Just before I saw the last view out of that area of Indian Bar and Rainier, I had the chance to take a great picture of Mt. Rainier. But it was where I was just passing the group of the campers, so I decided not to stop and have them pass me to only pass them again right after.


Panorama of Mt. Rainier taken from above Indian Bar.



Panorama of Mt. Rainier taken from above Indian Bar.



Panorama of Mt. Rainier taken from above Indian Bar.

Once again, I got many panoramas coming out of Indian Bar, just up until about now. I just stopped taking pictures, I am on my way down. I’ve had the view of Mount Adams with the Cascades around, which is pretty cool. When I look around I can see pretty far, which is good. The sun is hot right now. Right now I am about 5900. Temperature seems to be 70 degrees. It’s really warm with the sun it feels a lot warmer. This next section is all down hill, and then up a little. There are lots of little butterflies. I keep trying to take pictures. I got one picture of a yellow butterfly. The type I used to see in Oregon when I was a kid. I got fairly close, but then tried to get a little closer and it flew away. I did get a picture of a dragon fly, but it was turned around. Facing the other way. There haven’t been many creeks so far around here. It’s all dry for the most part. It is supposed to be a hot hike down to Maple Creek, the Cowlitz divide is known for being right along the Stevens Canyon Road. It’s for those driving between Sunrise and Paradise. So it is tough on the hiker’s morale to hear the cars speeding by while trying to hike.

It is 1:00 on Tuesday. I am on my way down from the Cowlitz Divide. I passed Nickel Creek, and have a few more miles until Maple Creek. Actually, I think this is it. I think that I am close to Box Canyon because I can see a few cars. Once I got to 2 miles before Nickel Creek, from there it was 1.9 miles all very steep, it was very hard not to run down. It was really hot, it was mostly in the trees though. Pretty much all of it. You could see the mountain every once in a while through the trees. And then from Nickel Creek it jots up about 100 feet.. I was expecting it to go continually down, but it did go up a little.


The road sign for Box Canyon of the Cowlitz.

Oh cool…. Box Canyon. Anyways, it is like 75 degrees or so. I am at 3200 feet. I know I am very close to Maple Creek, hopefully. Hopefully I can get there within an hour or an hour and a half. It should be down 200 to 400 feet, and then for the next few miles it should be almost flat. But who knows. The book doesn’t seem to tell the truth the whole time. It is really goofy.

It is 5:30 p.m., I got here about 2 hours ago around 3:00. I haven’t done much except for set up camp, set up my tent, got all my stuff out. I just went and pumped some water. Oh wait, I did get in the water, and it was pretty dang cold. It was very cold. It took me several minutes but I finally got all the way in. I tried to bathe a little; it was a pathetic attempt though. I don’t think I smell any better. I am just about to start cooking dinner. I met a guy a little bit ago. He was just ahead of me by about 20 feet, maybe 50. He took campsite #4, which is probably the best here at Maple creek. Campsite #4 has a great view, there’s not really anything wrong with it. It’s out in the open, and I’m sure it will be good in the morning too. He will get a lot of sun. Since I am mostly in the trees I won’t get to see much of the sun in the morning. It looks like the group is here again at this campsite. I am going to cook dinner here, and I am hungry, hungry, hungry. Tomorrow I go to Paradise, or the Paradise River Camp. The next day I will probably go up to Paradise. Get my food and stuff. I was looking at a map and realizing that I am halfway through or so, at least. And looking at the map shows that I have gone quite ways. I have gone 25 + 22 = 47 miles, so maybe not quite half way but close. I’ve still got another long section to go. I’m going to try to change my pass so that I can stay at Golden Lakes, and maybe a night at Klapatche Park, and that’s about all. The temperature is about 70 degrees. It feels really good. Altitude here is about 3000 feet. The barometer is not telling, probably because I got it wet. Hope I didn't break it.

It is about 8:20 p.m. on Tuesday, I’m at maple creek still. I’ve had dinner and reviewed pictures. For dinner I had pasta and potatoes, along with one of the crystal lights...strawberry banana. It was pretty good. I went down and cleaned out my pots and pans. I reviewed pictures for about 30 minutes. I deleted about 200 pictures I think. They were just bad, panoramas and panoramas that I had messed up on half way around so I had to start over. Tomorrow my hike is going to be about 8 miles. It is up up up, and a little bit of down. In paradise. If I can get to Paradise by 3 or 4:00, then I will probably get my food that night if I am feeling like it. Or I can get it the next day. Then the next day, if I have already gotten my food, I will just go up and do some day hikes up to Panorama point, and that is probably as far as I will hike. Most likely because I will be too tired to go any farther. No, I probably won’t go to Camp Muir. It is just too far. I will probably take my Book of Mormon and do some reading wherever I decide to go to, take some pictures, and come back down. Then I will take my trash again, and dump that off at Paradise. When I stopped on my way here to Maple Creek I stopped at Box Canyon, for 20 minutes and I talked to some guy. There was a black beetle I wanted to take a picture of. It had long tentacles or antennas that were maybe 3 or 4 inches long. But he flew away so I didn’t get that. But I did take a picture of the water rushing through Box Canyon, which wasn’t that great, but it was okay. I’m going to bed now, and I am going to try to wake up early in the morning. I have so much food. I have enough to last a very long time. With the food I have I could probably go another week without any problem at all. Maybe I could use some more granola or something for breakfast, but I haven’t even touched the oatmeal packets that I have, but I don’t really like those and that is why I want some more granola. Holy cow, I have tons of pasta and tomorrow I get 2 more packets of pasta. I’m going to have way too much pasta and tons of potatoes. I think dried food for a hiking is a lot better than fruit roll-ups. I barely have touched my beef jerky so far. I still have another 8 days, so I still have a lot to eat, but I have plenty of time to do that. I’m going to change my pass to Stay at Golden Lakes two nights. I think that will be better than Mowich Lake. If the weather ends up being great I wouldn’t mind doing that, and run up to Spray park and the next day go up to Tolmie Peak, but I don't know. I think Golden Lakes might be nicer. Plus, the last 2 days of my hike are going to be TWO 11 or 12 milers. I think I'll just take a day break there, maybe I will like that better. Maybe even instead of staying two nights at Golden Lakes I'll do a night at Golden and a night at Klapatche Park, before Golden Lakes. That might be better. I don’t know. I have 2 days to decide. The temperature now is about 60 degrees. It’s not too cold. The time is 8:30. Today is September 10, 2002. Tomorrow it will have been one year since 9/11. Altitude here is about 3000 feet. Barometer...is still broken.


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