A fellow Cascadian and I have found ourselves planning full moon outings for the outdoor club of which we are both members. In recent months we have added more ambitious outings to our repertoire. Last month's full moon adventure took us to Hex Mountain, which was a grand time and perfect conditions for views and moonrise!
This month's adventure took us to the shores of Bumping Lake. Although this hike was not an ambitious climb, we decided it would be quite an adventure to spend several hours on the lakeshore enjoying the full moon display (in spite of the weather) to the absolute fullest! Of course, we wondered if the moon would, in fact, even show its face at all.
Bumping Lake is an ideal location to enjoy a full moon because the skies are vast. The lake is walled by American Ridge and Nelson Ridge on two sides, with views of other peaks and even the top of Mt. Rainier to the west. Because Bumping Lake is a reservoir, the lakeshore recedes in the winter and exposes plenty of space for wandering and exploration. In the snowy winter, it's an easy snowshoe and on this afternoon and evening we found our feet wandered for 6.5 miles. We crossed small creeks, and snow covered logs over bigger streams. We mazed our way around the stumps which disappear when the reservoir fills in the spring and summer months. It's a very picturesque display to see the dark and rotting stumps scattered randomly about against the white, snowy landscape.
The icy lake was spectacular this night! As it had been very cold for a long stretch, the ice was thick, yet had buckled (I assume in the recently warming temperatures). The buckled ice against the freezing lake, with the snow covered mountains as a backdrop, made it seem like we were in the Antarctic.
The afternoon greeted us with sunshine at times, dark clouds rolling overhead at other times, and gently falling snowflakes here and there. It wasn't too terribly cold and, fortunately, we experienced no wind. What a treat!!! Knowing the temperatures would fall after dark, the strongest one of us hauled wood in his pack for building a fire. Once we found our perfect full moon viewing site, we dug out snowy benches, footrests and a fire pit. What a delightful way to spend the evening! Our fire was hot and the apple wood made for great marshmallow roasting coals! We enjoyed giant campfire sized marshmallows and hot chocolate, the warmth of the fire and views of the full moon for almost 3 hours.
I had watched a Bill Nye movie the day before while teaching a 5th grade science class about the moon. Bill Nye reminded his viewers that in the olden days people thought that if you spent the night outside under a full moon you'd become a lunatic (derived from the word "lunar", which means moon). This is where we get terms like lunacy, loony, lunatic...
So, when I mentioned this little known fact to my trail comrades, we agreed we were all lunatics and expressed our lunacy by howling at the moon whenever it revealed itself from behind the slow moving clouds. Ow...Ow...OOoooowwww!!!
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