Sat Aug 2nd. Snowboarder BBQ

On Saturday, members of the search team for the lost snowboarders  where invited to attend a BBQ being put on by the family of one of the snowboarder's, Devlin.

Jodabaker, Kyle Millar,myself and two friends, Peter and Dan decided to attend. We decided to make it into a day and did a long loop hike and visited Goat Lake, Lake Basin,Cement Basin and finally Union Basin . By the time we got to Union Basin we where tired and then couldn't find them. By this time, we had lost Chugach, my dog, who disappeared after I had let him off the leash on a steep slope where I was having difficulty  keeping my balance with the dog tugging.
After some heinous bushwhacking we made it back up to the ridge where we found a note left on a tree giving the direction to the BBQ.

Very tired , we hiked back down into Union Basin and found Devlin's parents ( Logerdogger) and Megan who greeted us kindly and gave us hot food. Of course Chugach was there , playing with two other dogs and being fed cookies and hot dogs while we had spent 2 hours looking for him.

The family was lovely and had spread some of Philip's and Devlin's ashes in the area and we spent some time talking about the guys and listening to some of the family stories about their son.

Some interesting facts also came out in that it is now clear that they had reached the hut and a camera had been found with Philip, which when developed had pictures of them reaching the hut and riding that day.

The family also found Philip's snowboard  and it was there at the BBQ.
We left, with Chugach, after a very nice time visiting with the family.
They send their love to all those at TAY.

That was kind of Scotsman to include me in the list of those who made it to the BBQ.
The fact is that we did the huge 12 mile traverse in very nice weather and by the time we got to Union Creek we were greeted by low clouds, winds and poor vis. And after the schwack out of Union the first time I was feeling the effects of the flu I had last week catching up to me and declined to chase after Chris' farrell dog.
I would have loved to met Devlin's parents and see Megan again in a more celebratory atmosphere, but I guess it was not in the cards for me that day.
We did see some very amazing things on our traverse, Cowboys in chaps swinging picks, axes working trail maintenance, many horsemen, three beautiful Asian women with a white husky going fishing at Basin Lake, guys with Sherpa goats then I saw nothing but fog.

Scotsman restraining Chugach from getting freindly with the goats.

Thanks for the report Chris, Joe -- I'm glad to hear it was a good celebration and, personally, very happy to finally have that last piece of information. The whole story makes a lot more sense knowing that they made it to the hut Saturday night.

We did see some very amazing things on our traverse, Cowboys in chaps swinging picks, axes working trail maintenance, many horsemen, three beautiful Asian women with a white husky going fishing at Basin Lake, guys with Sherpa goats

After seeing the three Sherpa billy goats and then three beautiful Asian women with a pure white husky within a fairly short distance along the trail I was starting to think I had somehow entered some weird and wonderful parallel universe. Quite a day!

Glad you guys made it. I hiked up and spent awhile circling the ridgeline looking for tents in the meadow, my being blind in one eye was definetely not a aid in that endeavor!

Dropped in about halfway, and schwacked my way around the other way, still looking for tents. None to be seen. The dog set off, and almost participated in, a nice talus slide.

We got back up on the ridge and I said a little prayer for the riders-it was a nice mushy, non religion specific one, as I'm no Christian in the finest PNW sense, but rather a believer in the spiritual but not religious.

Figured possibly they'd called it due to weather or some such thing......took some pics and descended.

Note on the weird: when hiking in I passed a guy in full Cabela's camo carrying what appeared to be a scoped rifle over his shoulder (also camo)?? Certainly unaware of any hunting season in progress, but I whistled the theme to Frosty the Snowman while schwacking just in case. You carry a rifle, I'll carry a tune

After seeing the article on the hiker shot on Sauk (so sad), it certainly lends credence to the alternate universe theory

Anyway, I would've liked to see the pics in the camera-connect with these guys over a shared love rather than the recovery. They and their families have been in my thoughts since this weekend.

PS-My hippy prayers were rewarded by Scotsman's pea soup fog rolling in immediately after. Not saying I'm a wizard, but I'm just sayin'........

Looking at the pics, you must have got their earlier than us. The fog had settled in by the time we arrived. Sorry you couldn't find them, we had trouble as well but thanks for trying.