Silver Tip Peak

Things we did well or maybe even better on this adventure camping trip:

• We brought a real sleeping bag! On our last camping adventure, we brought a 5'6" ultralight sleeping bag and two $5 Fred Meyer fleece throws and ended up bringing our friend Zac, which meant no real sleeping bag, three people and a dog, also no sleeping pad and a 4' x 5' tent... this time we at least had our good extra wide sleeping bag, a small sleeping pad, and no third person! 
• We brought tea candles! It's no camp fire (burn bans all across Washington) and it's no camp stove, but with four tea candles in a metal dish with another metal dish balanced on top, Tim was able to heat up his spam and cheese for dinner, and warm spam and cheese in the dark is always better than cold spam and cheese in a tiny tent. 
• We brought navigation! I printed off a stack of maps, including detailed driving directions, satellite maps, and topographic maps as well as a decent compass, Tim downloaded an excellent GPS app for his phone and a stack of digital maps, and we brought along our emergency Spot GPS for back up and tracking our trip after the fact. 
• There were trails! Well, mostly trails. When we started off after Tim finished work, we hiked out what was a nearly flat decommissioned road until it was too dark to see and we found a spot to pitch our tiny tent. In the morning, we continued on the flat road to the ghost town of the Monte Cristo mining community from the early 1900's to the other side where a steep but good trail lead the rest of the way up to Silver Lake near the top of Silver Tip Peak. From there we headed up mostly deer or daring human trails, but the trail to Silver Lake from Monte Cristo was a delightful surprise. 
• And that last section without a trail leads me to our final plus: we brought rope! That last section without real trails was a bit of a steep scramble; over 700 feet of elevation gain in about half a mile, sometimes using high altitude shrubs as handholds and largely sledding on vegetation to get back down. There was one particular spot with steep drop-offs and bad footing where having a rope to guide our decent was a real asset. 

Making dinner: yum fried spam over tea candles and Easy Cheese with oysters on crackers!

The entrance to historic Monte Cristo, much like Juneau's Tredwell

Very old US property mining cabins

A reminder to enjoy the artifacts.

View of the mountains hiking from Monte Cristo to Silver Lake

Getting near tree line! Quite the climb

The beautiful Silver Lake, surrounded by blueberries. We continued past and climbed up to this view.

The view from our final destination on the far side of the ridge far above Silver Lake looking out over the valley that guides Silver River to Highway 2

What we will do differently next time:

• Wear hiking boots, not boat boots
• Get a camping pad wide enough for two
• Bring the camp stove
• Have a tent long enough that Tim doesn't touch both corners sleeping diagonal
• Plan a better trail
• Make Tilly carry a heavier load
• Go somewhere with fewer other hikers
• Bring more TP
• Don't spill the Easy Cheese all over the inside of the pack
• Bring a good flashlight and a lantern
• Bring clean clothes too
• Way less heavy of bags, particularly the daybag setup

The best perk was finding delicious blueberries at the top and being able to bring a jar home for our pet caretaker.