Red garnets in Heather Lake. Heat exhaustion.
Today with three women, I hiked to Heather Lake near Stevens Pass, WA. Blueberries were wonderful.
"I have found garnets in the Wenatchee Mountains between 4,000 and 5,000 feet elevation," Karen said. "A nearby volcano erupted 'glass' that became garnets."
Over the years, I have hiked to Heather Lake annually. Always forget how steep it is. We hiked 7 miles round trip with 1,350 feet of elevation gain. The trail starts easy, then turns into a long, extremely steep climb up and over a high ridge.
Halfway up, Karen, 71, became dizzy and exhausted with a headache. She resisted my help. I offered to strap her pack to mine or take some weight from her pack. "No."
"You have signs of heat exhaustion," I said. "Please stop and sit down. You never drink enough water. What else is going on?" It was hot in the sun.
Karen sat while I fanned her. She mixed electrolyte replacement powder into her water bottle and drank it. With low blood sugar, she also needed food. So Karen ate a vegan "sausage." In a few minutes, she felt better.
As usual, Karen ran out of water. "I don't need water on the descent," she said, then, "Does anyone have extra water?" when we got the car. Since I carry 2-3 liters of ice water (heavy), I filled her water bottle. We had a long drive home.
Turns out Karen's brand new, newfangled "straw" water purifier did not fit into her water bottle.
"We climbed up this?" I marveled on the wickedly steep descent.
We were bedeviled by aggressive deer flies. I am the only one who did not get fly bites. The other women were in shorts and T-shirts. To keep bugs off, I wore long pants and a long-sleeve shirt. Also gleefully waved around a kerchief as I hiked. Take that, flies! At the lake, it was windy enough to keep bugs off.
Looking for garnets, Julie and Karen stumbled into a hornets nest in mud around the bend. Both they and their dogs got stung. They turned down Benadryl. Poor dogs!
They returned with the largest garnets Karen has ever seen.
Photos:
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Red garnets in their natural state that Karen found.
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Heather Lake, 4,000'
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Karen swims in Heather Lake
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Karen pans for garnets in Heather Lake
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I’m an iced tea drinker, but out in hot sun walking I would be drinking water (blech). Glad she’s okay. You’re a great friend.
lazylee
Level 5
Aug 1, 2019
1
Thank you.
Great story, I'm sorry to hear about Karen getting heat exhaustion and the insect bites but glad that everyone is okay. Great photos as always, thank you for sharing.
19dacar52
Level 7
Aug 1, 2019
1
Karen was also dehydrated. She doesn't like the taste of water.
At home, Karen drinks tea (dehydrating) and vegetable water. Ick.
@LiterateHiker Its good that she has a friend like you that noticed that she was having a problem.
"Thank you for taking care of me," Karen said yesterday. "I want to keep you safe," I replied. She laughed.
"You help me with scary creek crossings," I told her. "I always tell people what a wonderful person you are."
Last July, Karen and I both got heat exhaustion climbing Rock Mountain in 100-degree heat. Rocks on the trail were too hot to touch. The next step was heat stroke: often fatal.
Even though we were 1-1/2 miles from the summit (with 1,200' more elevation gain), I insisted we descend to the shade and car.
@LiterateHiker I'm glad that you had the good sense to turn around and go back to the car.
@LiterateHiker I consume vast amounts of tea, so I would get on well with Karen, provided she also likes a pint or two of ............
.......... full cream milk
@LiterateHiker I also like going up wild hills provided I'm in hot, dry weather and can go at my own pace. I hate doing so in cold and rain.
The big problem for me is not the ascent, it's coming back down. Come to think of it, even staircases are preferable in the ascent. I sometimes take the stairs up in a building, but come down in the lift.
As a vegan, Karen does not eat milk, butter, eggs, meat, fish, seafood, etc.
@LiterateHiker No wonder she suffers exhaustion. Man is an omnivore. That means man CAN perhaps "survive" on vegetables alone, but needs a widespread diet to flourish. A few insects and grubs would help. (I like locusts and flying ants.)
Unlike gorillas, with their fat guts, man's intestines are not much use at handling leaves and roots.
In fact, until man learned to make fire and cook, vegetables were mainly useless. It was fruits and seeds (including peas, beans and nuts) that were beneficial, plus hunted or scavenged meat, insects, grubs etc.
Good tale and a fun adventure - for YOU!! Deer fly bites are the itchiest things ever. Nice batch or stones!!
silverotter11
Level 9
Aug 1, 2019
1
That was a great narrative! If you are not currently writing for profit, your talents are being wasted in my opinion.
AndrewInVail
Level 6
Aug 1, 2019
4
Thank you! Half-Irish, I'm a born storyteller. 
@LiterateHiker So that explains it - you had a passionate snog with the Blarney stone!
My 100% Irish mother was a funny storyteller. Dad had a great sense of humor, too.
@LiterateHiker 4 children, I see. Quite a good Catholic, then. 
Only my mother was raised Catholic. Mom dropped us kids off at Sunday school, shoving us into the arms of the Lord. She went back home.
Mom never attended church. Raised in First United Methodist Church (where Mom dropped us off), Dad never went to church
"Mom I decided I'm an atheist," I said at 13. "That's fine, honey," Mom replied. "I became an atheist in nursing school when I realized a woman cannot be turned into salt." We laughed.
In the 2nd photo, we were dressed up for Easter dinner at my maternal grandparents' house. We kids were born before 1963, when birth control pills were available.
"I screwed myself out of my own house," Dad joked. In 1960, we moved to a large, lakeside house in Michigan.
Jealous. I wanna go. Swimming AND panning is so much fun.
JacobMeyers
Level 6
Aug 1, 2019
2
There's an extinct volcano about 40 miles from my house, with a huge cleft on one side where an ancient lake must have run out. As a result, I can enter the crater via the cleft, and avoid a steep climb in 40 degree heat in arid tertitory. Once inside, there are garnets galore to be found, and I have a lovely stash of them in a jar. I haven't been back there for about 20 years though.
Once I took some young tourists with me and a year later I was stopped by them when they returned on holiday. "Look!" Cried the wife. She was wearing garnet earings, had a garnet ring and was sporting a garnet brooch - all featuring stones she had herself picked up from the ground. It must have cost them a fortune to have them cut, polished and set, but value is not merely monetary worth, it's a personal association, such as a link to one's honeymoon!
Petter
Level 9
Aug 1, 2019
6
Good story of a day out. I wish more people would put a narrative element into their posts, it adds a lot to the pleasure of reading them.
Fernapple
Level 9
Aug 1, 2019
2
Thank you. Half-Irish, I'm a born storyteller.
@LiterateHiker Of course I should have guessed.
those garnets will cut and polish into nice jewellery - tough hike up there to find them
ShadowAmicus
Level 8
July 31, 2019
2
The garnets are already faceted when we find them.
Polished by sand in the lake and creek.
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