Got up early this morning and chatted with my hapless companion Jeff while packing. He is a physics and calculus teacher with a masters in Geology. He seemed an interesting character, but I was pretty sure he isn’t interested in doing my kind of mileage. Besides the bugs were biting and he still hadn’t got out of his tent by 6:30, so that settled it.

I took a quick picture of the mosquito bog next to our camp site. Nasty.

The first couple hours was flat, slightly downhill to 5k. Then it was time to do some climbing which would eventually top out at 7.5k. Ran into this guy in the lowland area. I guess it was a quayle…dunno.

Trail Chicken

All morning I was running into SOBO’s. They kept gushing about the spectacular views up ahead, but so far it was just trees and mosquitoes. Around 12:30, I could tell something good was coming

Then, there it was.

First Pass

Gigantic bowls with snow fed streams turning into creeks which turned into rivers. It was just amazing. Honestly there is no point in writing about it, I’ll just lay out the pictures and videos I took.

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After all that fun it was getting pretty late. I walked the knife edge along this path

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The trail in that picture took a little over an hour to cover, after which I dropped into one of the bowls. Got mobile service for a few minutes and chatted with Alice until it dropped. Also got a load of text messages from Stormtrooper. He thinks he will be at Whites Pass on Friday. Looks like I’ll be seeing him soon.
I found a nice flat sheltered spot at the edge of the tree line. Setup my tent, talked to a few SOBO’s who were passing by, and crashed. What a day.

 

 

Today I’m walking around Mt Adams. Kind of excited about this, because the trail is finally going to get up to 6k. But first, I need to do some climbing. The morning starts off normal.

Then passes through another old burn

Then it turns into a wildflower windfall. Honestly I just kept taking pictures. Reds, yellows, blues, whites, oranges. Butterflies of various colors flying around. It was gorgeous. Here is a bunch of pics.

Flowers

Starting to get some good views of the surrounding area. Here is Rainier off in the distance

Then some more flowers

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I passed a popular camp site that was loaded to the gills. Nobody was there, I think they must be climbing some summit trail nearby.

Run into some lava poop mixed in with the fields.

 

Papa and John and I have been lapping each other all day. They take a break and I pass them. I take a break and they pass me.

Eventually, I just fall in behind them and we hike together for a while. They are a little slower than me but not so much that it throws me off. We spend an hour chatting a bit. Papa is from a little town North of Sacremento. John is from Cost Mesa in Orange county. They are cousins who did a big chunk of the PCT in 2019. They plan to finish Washington, then go down to the high Sierra and do the chunk they skipped because of snow in ’19. They are solid hikers.

So it turns out to be serendipity that we were hiking together, because up ahead is a nasty water crossing called Adams Creek. We talked to a SOBO hiker who told us there are three sets of logs upstream that we can stitch together for a dry crossing. Here’s what that bad boy looked like.

Adams Creek

Looking at the video, it really doesn’t capture how deep and fast running this thing was. Honestly it was scary. I was clearly off my game, because I thought I was taking videos of the guys crossing, but failed to press the button. Only thing I got was John leading the way across the first log. That water under his feet is about 3 feet deep (I checked with my poles). Falling on any of these spots would probably have resulted in a SAR call.

After that, we paused for a bit to let the adrenaline rush wind down. We were all laughing and relieved. Hope I never have to do this again.

I walked with the guys for a bit longer. Then they stopped for a break. They said their goal was Lava Spring at 2250 which is short of my goal. So I said goodbye and kept charging on my own. Rest of the day was mostly good views, flowers, and nice trail.

Made it into Goat Rocks Wilderness and camped in a mosquito infested nightmare of a tent site at around 8pm. I figured this one would suck, but it puts me in the right position for the big climb tomorrow.

While I was drifting off to sleep another section hiker showed up asking all sorts of questions about the trail to Walupt lake, how heavy my pack was, and various other random things. I’m sitting in my tent doing my best to help this guy, who must have donated a pint of blood to the mosquitoes while we were talking. FInally he asks if he can setup near me….which is a silly question to a thru-hiker. If there is room, then the answer is always yes. I fell asleep to the sound of him slapping mosquitoes inside his tent.

Did 28 miles and almost 5k of climbing today !

Up and out at a little after 6. Bye bye Blue. I did my usual pre-breakfast morning hike. Fortunately, I crossed a large area of the forest which was burned which gave me an hour of bug-free bliss. Surprising how little of Washington is burned compared to Oregon. There seems to be a lot more moisture up here.

Then the burned area turned back into old-growth forest. Then I get some of these

Then a few snow blobs

Then my insect friends show up for their morning feast. They stay with me most of the day. The only spot I find that is relatively bug free is a well traveled dirt road. I setup there to cook some breakfast when Papa and John show up followed by Patches.

Patches is anxious to get to the highway into Trout Lake at 2229. Apparently he went swimming with his mobile phone a couple days ago with the expected result. Honestly, I’d get lost all the time without my smartphone maps, so I get his anxiety. He splits shortly after while Papa and John take a break with me.

While I’m hanging out, a car pulls up and out jumps an older couple looking for huckleberries. They plan to hike in a few days and want to time their start with the huckleberry season at this altitude. Spent some time chatting with them about the various berries. They show me various types of blueberries and others whose names I forgot. The guy hiked most of the California PCT back in the 90’s. He said his pack weighed around 50 to 60 pounds and didn’t meet another thru-hiker until around the 400 mile mark. Amazing how times have changed. If I had to lug a pack that big, I would have quit after the first 100 miles.

So that gal starts rumaging through her trunk offering me this and that. Unfortunately, nothing sounds that good, so I pack up and bid them goodbye.

Back on the trail, I’m running into a virtual tidal wave of SOBO’s. I counted 24 of them in groups of twos and threes. With these SOBO’s comes rumors of trail magic a few miles up. Apparently Mama Rose has setup shop and is making burritos. Well I want one! I step up my pace and hit the spot at 2222 only to find….well nothing. Mama has left me burrito-less. Really striking out on the trail magic these days.

By now it is 1:30 or so and hot. I’m at the nadir of this bug filled stretch and got another 1.5k climb coming up. So after crossing this bridge I take stock.

I’ve covered almost 20 miles at this point due to a combination of an early start and the broken promises of trail magic, so I throw my tent up next to the river and take a nap. Papa and John come by for a chat before heading up the hill.

I sleep through the afternoon heat, wash my socks and feet, then pack up for an afternoon climb.

It was a good call. I ran into Papa and John again later in the day and they approved of my timing. The climb was relatively cool and bug free. I setup my tent next to a creek, made some delicious spaghetti and crashed. Did a 25 miler today.

Man, I sleep so well on the trail. I don’t know if it is the exhaustion, cool air, or what. I am practically unconscious by 9 and only wake up when the dawn light is hitting me at 6. Today’s objective is Blue Lake. Reports are that it is a really good spot and this time I’m beating the other folks to it.

I strapped in early today, hitting the trial before 6. I want to finish this climb early in the morning while it is cool and have some breakfast on the peak. I forgot the one downside of being the first on the trail in the morning. Spiderwebs. Overnight, our spidery friends try to start webs across the trail and the first one through gets covered in them. That would be me. Eventually I pass a SOBO and we joke together that the trail is now clear in both directions.
I reached the top, took a picture and had breakfast. While I’m finishing up Papa and John cruise by all sweaty. Glad I got some of this work in last night.

There are some experiments going on up here. Seen half-dozen of these signs.

As usual my mind starts wandering. Let’s have a peak inside Salty J’s head for the next hour or two.

So I’m thinking experimental area. You know Bigfoot is supposed to be running around here. During my hike in 2017, my foot grew from size 10.5 / 11 to 12+. We all get real shaggy on the trail. Maybe at this point some hikers just throw off their packs and run off into the experimental area, eat some special berries, and complete the transformation. A Salty Bigfoot.

The government would have all sorts of uses for a few Bigfoot.   Sent some of them to Siberia to collect intel.  Drop a few in Tibet to stir things up.   Maybe they do some trail maintenance when they are not working covert Ops.  

I break the pull of the Bigfoot berries and head downhill.

First I start slappng bugs then I see this

By now I’m under an Oregon style mosquito assault. But Washington doesn’t stop there. How about mixing in some biting black flies? Then some tiny little shit’s that I can hardly see but love to chomp on my exposed legs. Cap that off with a bunch of horse flies constantly circling and that completes the picture. I’m practically jogging through some of the worse areas until I finally get to Blue lake at 4 or so.

Blue lake is a deep one that is a popular swimming hole for the locals. It is also popular with all of Washington’s insect horrors. I find this choice spot on a pennisula, throw up the inner layer of my tent, and dive in with my pack. Then I go to work on my unwanted  housemates in a thrashing, slapping frenzy. After 10 minutes my tent is a bug graveyard and I lay back to enjoy the view.

While I’m laying there chilling, a group of 6 teenage boys show up and jump off the ledge just to the left of my feet. Fun watching them doing flips. Wish I would have caught one on camera. A little later the bugs die down and I venture outside to setup my rainfly. Took another pic in the morning while I was packing up.

This place is definitely a 10. Even the lake water tastes pretty good. I did another 20 today. That’s ok mileage, but I need to step it up if I want to make the next resupply before I’m empty.

Got up early and headed out around 6:30. Was hoping to slip by dog lady undetected and almost made it. Her “Service Dogs” chased me up the hill.

I want to make some extra miles today, so resigned myself limit my stops. The trail drops to 1k, then there is a long climb back up to almost 5k. It turned out to be a pleasant, shady day and few bugs.

I’m switching up my routine a little, taking a page from a German hiker I walked with in 2017 through the Desolation Wilderness. He liked to get an early start, do a couple hours of hiking, then stop for breakfast somewhere.

Sitting there eating my instant oatmeal, I was watching the behavior of the horse flies. When I’m walking, I keep running into them. They start buzzing around me in tighter and tighter circles until I smack them with my hand, they lose interest, or land on me and start biting. Well it turns out these things know where the trail is and hover at about 4 feet for hours. When something walks by, the fun begins. Stupid bugs.

Aside from the horse flies, it was mostly a bug free day. I don’t have anyone to talk to, so my mind starts wandering. Today’s topic is the Washington trail designer who is clearly a different breed from his Oregon counterpart. Let’s call him “The Lumberjack”.
Whereas the Oregon designer seemed to go around the hills, The Lumberjack chooses to go over them. His trails are wide and steep. The Lumberjack doesn’t take shortcuts. I imagine he was a cigar chomping, brute of man. Get your ass up this hill, boy. I feel him shaking his head over my pathetic pace. Nobody is worthy of his praise as we all fall short of his expectations. I spend hours thinking about this character and how pissed he is about these pansies hiking HIS trail.

In forested sections of the PCT you will occasionally see metal plates nailed into the trees to mark the official trail. We call them blazes. Here in Washington they are everywhere. Clearly a sign that The Lumberjack had low expectations of our navigational acumen. It seems that one of my hiker brethren has taken to writing inspirational messages.

I hike over a 2k climb, then drop into a long valley. Like yesterday, the prime camping spots at the lower elevations near the large creeks are occupied.   

While I was looking around for a spot, I spent a little time talking to the 3 ladies hiking together.  They are 50 somethings who started at the midpoint and plan to hike to the Canadian border, then bounce back to the midpoint in Chester and hike South.   Their combined trail name is Wander Women.

This time I’m a little better prepared for a full campsite. I loaded up with water around 5 and decide to take a bite out of the next 3k climb I have ahead of me. I reach the half-way point and setup on a nice little spot next to the trail.

A few SOBO’s walk by after 8, hungry for my spot. Sorry boys and girls.  Salty J is on his game today.