There are lots of hikes that don't really challenge. Those are the ones that are a nice walk in the woods or a peak you've been to before. Maybe it's a nice hike with the kids.
Then there are the trips that tell you to bring your best. And sometimes your best ain't good enough. I've had a bunch of trips like that. Mt. Hood comes to mind. Twice. Or when we bailed after the east summit because holy cow that was too hard in the snow. Routes that challenge you are necessary to keep it interesting.
That's what this trip was like. It had just enough of that special something to make it a challenge. It wasn't super long. It wasn't hard to navigate. The conditions weren't terrible. We weren't beat up from previous trips. But if any one of these had been different we might not have made it to the top. Like the time there was thigh deep snow. Or the time there was a huge moat below the summit block. Or the time it was brutally hot.
The question you should ask isn't, "Did they get to the summit?" but "WHY THE HECK IS EVERYTHING PURPLE?"
You knew this was coming, right? This is officially part one of the Purple Trilogy. It says so in the headline. What's the deal? Don't get me wrong, I love purple. I'm a UW Husky through and through. I'm all about purple mountain majesties and some of my best nights in the mountains have involved purple-tinged sunsets. But this purple was weird.
You know how when you look at something bright your eye holds that image for a bit? And how if it's slightly off center and you try to look at it, it keeps moving away? That's what this purple was like. Dead, bleached trees lying on the ground were purple... until you really looked at them. Rocks were more violet that they should be. Even the fog was puce. (I don't actually know what "puce" looks like, but when I saw it in the thesaurus I knew had to use it.)
Worse than kind of seeing purple was the fact that it doesn't show up in most of the pictures. Tinkham certainly didn't see it. Half way up the mountain I wasn't sure if I actually saw it. I was relieved when Eric admitted he saw it, too. But what causes it?
WARNING: SCIENCE!
Like any good trilogy, there will be at least two more installments. With luck we'll figure the whole purple thing out by the time we're done.
