A matter of time

For example, I just thought of the ideal day in the mountains. I would start with a drive on the road up to Hurricane Ridge where I’d drop the shuttle bike (Orange Crush) at the Mount Angeles trailhead. Turn around and drive back down to the Heart o’ the Hills Campground. Park the car and begin the hike up the side of the ridge to Lake Angeles.

It would be a 10-mile trip, all of it uphill, most of it over pretty steep terrain. It’s been on my mind lately to climb Mount Angeles and the thing about climbing mountains is, no matter the lengths you may go to avoid the fact, sooner or later you’ll have to go uphill. It’s a good trail though, pretty well used, so it certainly seems straight-forward. Then, after a stop at Lake Angeles, after the climb is done and once I’ve made my way back to the parking lot at Hurricane Ridge, I can hop on the Orange Crush and bomb back down the mountain to my starting point. Tires flashing around the corners, spraying dirt and pebbles over thousand-foot drops, literally flying down the tight mountain turns.

Ah, but there’s a problem with the plan. I got off the phone not long ago with the Park information desk and the very personable woman on the other end of the line gave me the bad news in the nicest possible way. It seems the Hurricane Ridge road is closed on weekdays for maintenance (see, I was thinking maybe next Tuesday), and, more importantly, the snow has begun to fall. For the plan to work, there are a few facts that would have to be changed. And they are unlikely to change before next summer.

Timing really is everything.