PCT Day 92

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PCT Day 92, 12 August 2022 (Friday)

“Nothing Is Free”

Start Location:	Sand Lake, North of White Pass	Destination:	Wilderness Campsite South of Chinook Pass
PCT Miles Day 92:	24.9	Cum PCT Miles:	1,677.4
Non-PCT Miles Day 92:	0.3	Cum All Miles:	1781.1
PCT Miles Remaining:	975.4
Elevation Gain Day 92:	3,912	Cum Elevation Gain:	288,919

I woke up to everything being very damp, even more so than usual for Washington.  Today was also a very cool day, so I did not get a chance to dry things out during the middle of the day.  Like many of the days in Washington, there’s not a lot to write about.  A lot of the day was just spent walking in green tunnels.  But today, there were periodically spectacular views of Mount Rainier.

One good thing, is that the mosquitoes were not too bad during the day.  I decided to stop a bit earlier than usual today to ensure I would get a good tentsite and have a little bit of time to try to dry things out somewhat before going to bed for the night.  I did end up with another good, scenic tent site. However, Washington doesn’t give you anything for free; the campsite was swarming with mosquitoes.

Finally, my back seems back to normal.  Today is the first day in a while that I didn’t even think about my back because I didn’t feel anything in my back.  Also, my feet are doing as well as can be expected.  So, stopping in Trout Lake and adding some padding to the bottom of my insoles was a good move.

Bumping River log crossing, trickier than it looks

 

Entering Mt. Rainier National Park

Getting closer to Mt. Rainier

Large Dewey Lake

Right Outside My Tentsite

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PCT Day 91

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PCT Day 91, 11 August 2022 (Thursday)

“Get Ready To Be Blown Away”

Start Location:	Wilderness Campsite	Destination:	Sand Lake, North of White Pass
PCT Miles Day 91:	18.2	Cum PCT Miles:	1,652.5
Non-PCT Miles Day 91:	0.1	Cum All Miles:	1755.9
PCT Miles Remaining:	1,000.3
Elevation Gain Day 91:	3,202	Cum Elevation Gain:	285,007

It was very windy last night, and my tent was not in the right spot to handle it.  I almost had my tent, and everything inside, blow away when I left the tent to restake it after the wind caused all the stakes to pull out of the ground (the ground was not firm enough for the stakes to get a good hold).  I spent at least a half-hour walking around in the dark trying to find rocks heavy enough to hold down the stakes.  Since this is a volcanic area, a lot of the rocks are lighter in weight than they look.

I completed the Goat Rocks section later in the morning.  Next up is White Pass, a small ski area.  About a half mile walk down Hwy 12 from the trail is the Kracker Barrel Store (not to be confused with the Kracker Barrel restaurant).  This place is very hiker friendly, and very well liked by hikers.

I was originally going to spend the night in White Pass, but all the lodging was full, and there were just too many hikers in town.  So, I thought it would be better to go back to the trail and get a few miles in before the end of the day.  This was a good move as I ended up with a good, scenic tentsite, and I got in a few bonus miles.

Leaving Goat Rocks

A great view of Mt. Rainier

Tentsite at Sand Lake

 

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PCT Day 90

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PCT Day 90, 10 August 2022 (Wednesday)

“The Goat”

Start Location:	Wilderness Campsite	Destination:	Wilderness Campsite
PCT Miles Day 90:	23.8	Cum PCT Miles:	1,634.3
Non-PCT Miles Day 90:	0.5	Cum All Miles:	1737.6
PCT Miles Remaining:	1,018.5
Elevation Gain Day 90:	5,234	Cum Elevation Gain:	281,805

The first few miles this morning were a continuation of the Washington obstacle course.  But there was the added bonus of the Washington car wash, which is when you’re walking through overgrown wet vegetation and get soaked in the process.  But the second half of the day promised to be much better as the section would be done in the Goat Rocks Wilderness.

Many hikers consider this to be one of the most scenic parts of the PCT, and, therefore, it is much anticipated.  This section also includes the very iconic Knifes Edge, a narrow trail running for several miles along a steep ridge with drop offs on both sides.  The Knifes Edge might be the most photographed part of the entire PCT.

Well, as much frustration as Washington has caused me, I have to admit Goat Rocks was indeed incredibly scenic.  And, the Knife’s Edge, especially approached from the Old Snowy alternate, was quite an experience.  The Old Snowy alternate is one of the official alternates on the PCT.

The last seven or eight miles today took longer than I originally anticipated, so, I didn’t get in quite as many miles as I had wanted today.  The good news is my back continues to feel better, and my feet are still doing well with the added padding on the bottom of my insoles.

I have a scenic, but not ideal tentsite.  It’s cold, and starting to get windy.  There are dramatic clouds pouring over the mountains and cliffs like water flowing over the rim of a bucket.  It could be an interesting night.

Washington car wash…overgrown wet bushes that soak you as you walk by


Entering the scenic section of Goat Rocks


From Cispus Pass in Goat Rocks


Part of the Cispus River


More Cispus River


A fragile snow/ice bridge over the Cispus



Mt. Rainier from Goat Rocks


Frozen tarn in Goat Rocks



Knife’s Edge coming up, one of the very iconic sections of the PCT


Coming down from the Old Snowy Alternate to the Knife’s Edge was somewhat sketchy


Still large snow patches in some places


Looking back at Knife's Edge (where I came from)


Mount Adams from Knife’s Edge

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PCT Day 89

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PCT Day 89, 09 August 2022 (Tuesday)

“Improving Views And Tentsite Blues”

Start Location:	Trout Lake	Destination:	Wilderness Campsite
PCT Miles Day 89:	26.8	Cum PCT Miles:	1,610.5
Non-PCT Miles Day 89:	0.6	Cum All Miles:	1713.3
PCT Miles Remaining:	1,042.3
Elevation Gain Day 89:	4,341	Cum Elevation Gain:	276,571

I got on the earliest shuttle this morning with Dennis being the driver (Pat was the driver yesterday).  A lot of today would be in the Mt. Adams Wilderness, so it promised to have better scenery than the prior days in Washington.  Indeed that was the case.

At one point today, I could see Mount Adams, Mount Saint Helens, and Mount Rainier all from the same spot on trail.  Today is the first section of PCT in Washington that I would recommend for day hiking or an overnight backpacking trip.  Just be sure to bring your bug spray.  Mosquitoes seem to vary in aggressiveness by area, and the ones out here are pretty aggressive, they are like sharks, and you are just human chum.

Periodically throughout the day water spritzed from the sky just to remind you of what state you’re in.  Some of the spritzes were so short and sparse that they left the trail looking like leopard skin fabric, with each drop of rain representing individual spots in the pattern.  Sometimes the spritzes were persistent enough to tempt me to stop and pull my rain jacket out of my pack, but I knew once I did that, I would no longer need the jacket.

There was a little adventure today crossing Adams Creek.  It was probably the most challenging creek crossing of the entire hike, but I managed to do it with only getting my right foot wet.  It might be obvious from reading today’s post and seeing today’s photos that today was probably the best day I’ve had on trail for a couple weeks. If this keeps up, I may actually end up liking Washington.

The day ended on a sour note though.  Once again, it was challenging to find a tentsite.  I ended up hiking a couple more miles than I wanted and got to a decent site, but it was full of mosquitoes.  Despite the improving scenery, Washington continues to be frustrating.  It’s hard to give this place a passing grade when it continues to have glaring and significant failures.

Hikers on the way back to the trail heading towards Mt. Adams

Continuation of the Obstacle course

Part of the obstacle course, low hurdle, high hurdle

 

The flat top of Mount Saint Helens

There’s a reason this area is named the Mt. Adams Wilderness

First look at Mount Rainier

It might be hard to tell from the photo but the water in this stream is a little bit cloudy from the glacial silt coming off Mount Adams

Adams Glacier on Mt. Adams

Lewis River

Adams Creek, direct from the glacier, and a challenging creek to cross (harder and tricker than it looks in the photo)

What’s this? An open meadow in southern Washington, who would’ve thought?

Killen Creek

Lava Spring

 

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PCT Day 88

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PCT Day 88, 08 August 2022 (Monday)

“Feet, Heat, And Counting Sheep”

Start Location:	Mosquito Creek	Destination:	Trout Lake
PCT Miles Day 88:	9.3	Cum PCT Miles:	1,583.7
Non-PCT Miles Day 88:	0	Cum All Miles:	1685.9
PCT Miles Remaining:	1,069.1
Elevation Gain Day 88:	1,603	Cum Elevation Gain:	272,230

As of today, I do not have any future lodging reservations as I’ve had for much of this hike.  The advantage of this is that it’s much easier to change plans.   This is exactly what I did today.  And it turns out to be a good thing that I did change plans.

I knew there was going to be trail magic today after about 9 miles of hiking.  This is because the trail magic was provided by the dad of a young hiker named Shortcut, whom I’ve seen sporadically on trail since Southern California.  I ran into Shortcut the first day I started hiking out of Cascade Locks, and a couple days ago he mentioned to me that his dad was going to be set up on the road that leads to a small town called Trout Lake.  Trout Lake is a popular stopping spot for many hikers, but I had not planned on stopping there.

However, my feet have been hurting quite a bit the last few days, and it was quite hot out today, and I just was not feeling super excited about hiking a bunch of miles today.  Going into town and getting cold drinks, ice cream, and other town snacks sounded better than hiking another 15 to 20 miles.  It is also quite easy to get into town and back to the trail as there are multiple trail volunteers who provide a shuttle service.  Additionally, I wanted to see if I could find something at the general store in town to provide extra padding to the insoles in my shoes, since I don’t have my regular Superfeet insoles.

Well, I did everything I wanted to do, except cool down; it is still blazing hot and very muggy.  As far as the insoles, I did add some padding and we’ll just see how it feels when I start hiking again tomorrow.

There was one other unexpected advantage of being in town and having a lot of time on my hands.  My air pad has had a very slow leak.  It hasn’t been bothering me much, and I thought it was just a tiny pin prick of a leak.  But today my pad was deflating very quickly, so it was obvious the leak had grown in size.

Though the leak was larger, it was still very difficult to find.  If I had done my usual thing, hiked a bunch of miles and gotten into camp near dark, it would have been very, very hard to locate and repair this leak.  It’s really a good thing I wasn’t out on the trail tonight with this leaky air pad, it would have been extremely uncomfortable to sleep and been very, very frustrating.  But because I had time in town, I discovered that the leak was really a very small separation in the seam of the pad near the bottom.  We’ll see tonight how my repair holds up.

Lastly, Shortcut’s dad, Bruce, did a really nice job with the trail magic, he did a variety of homemade bagel sandwiches, fruit, cold drinks, pudding, and other snacks.

No photos today

 

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