CraigGoodwin2
Mount Spokane Vista House Under Stars
I've long wanted to spend some time at the top of Mount Spokane under starry skies and I finally got the chance Sunday night. If you could drive to the top it would be an easy outing but they close the upper gate at dusk and chase everyone from the top so it requires camping below and hiking 2 miles in the dark.
It was cold and windy but magical up there with a new moon and manageable light pollution, although you can see the bright glow of Spokane on the horizon in this photo.
The trip down was more adventurous than planned because at 1 a.m. the road became an obstacle course of spooky glowing eyeballs lit up by my headlamp. I got comfortable with the bright still eyes of the deer, but it was the dimmer, wide-set eyes, peering at me lower to the ground that set me scurrying off the road and down the ski slopes to hopefully avoid what I'm sure was a bear, or a cougar, or a rabid hybrid of both cougar and bear that is indigenous only to Mount Spokane. (Your imagination does weird things to you when hiking in total darkness.) Thankfully I made it back to my car before the "bougar" could get me. Next time I'll hunker down in the Vista House until dawn.
Mount Spokane Vista House Under Stars
I've long wanted to spend some time at the top of Mount Spokane under starry skies and I finally got the chance Sunday night. If you could drive to the top it would be an easy outing but they close the upper gate at dusk and chase everyone from the top so it requires camping below and hiking 2 miles in the dark.
It was cold and windy but magical up there with a new moon and manageable light pollution, although you can see the bright glow of Spokane on the horizon in this photo.
The trip down was more adventurous than planned because at 1 a.m. the road became an obstacle course of spooky glowing eyeballs lit up by my headlamp. I got comfortable with the bright still eyes of the deer, but it was the dimmer, wide-set eyes, peering at me lower to the ground that set me scurrying off the road and down the ski slopes to hopefully avoid what I'm sure was a bear, or a cougar, or a rabid hybrid of both cougar and bear that is indigenous only to Mount Spokane. (Your imagination does weird things to you when hiking in total darkness.) Thankfully I made it back to my car before the "bougar" could get me. Next time I'll hunker down in the Vista House until dawn.