Jen's Journal

Imagine my surprise when just after midnight Jon nudges me and opens up the tent to expose me to not only the biting cold glacier air, but the most amazing starlit night over the towering Mt. Baker. "Wow", and "Damn am I tired", were my first two thoughts as I roused myself enough to stumble outside for my "morning" cup of coffee and some delightful instant oatmeal. Looking into the darkness you could see a couple climbing parties already making their way up the mountain with the headlights lighting up the glacier around them. We left camp at around 4:00 as the morning light was sneaking into the sky, at the point were a headlamp was just becoming unnecessary.

We climbed over crevasses, up 55 degree slopes, and over ice fields. We reached the summit of Grant's Peak at 9:00am. 30 other climbers made the ascent that morning, including this guy....

I didn't see his parachute in a crevasse or stuck on a rock so I am assuming he made it off the mountain alright.

We stuck around the summit long enough to chomp on a bagel and some trail mix. We arrived back at our tent around midday, and slathered on sunscreen in an attempt to make up for the fact we'd been baking on the ice for the last 3 hours. With extremely rosy cheeks the rest of the day was spent in a jovial stupor somewhere between sleep and semi-consciousness.

This morning we returned to the car and headed toward the Anacortes/Sidney ferry. By far the highlight of this drive was in Anacortes were we saw an anti-war rally on one side of the street, and a pro-war rally on the other. There were megaphones in the hands of both parties and a blaring pro-America country music being played by the "support Bush" station wagon. I got caught taking a picture of the pro-war gurus and they waved. Jon reciprocated by honking the horn and giving the ole thumbs up.