PCT Washington Day 21: South Fork Milk Creek to Suiattle Pass

There is something altogether uneasy about being asleep in a tent and hearing the sound of raindrops hit the tent. Even if the rainfly is working sufficiently and the gear and the people are staying dry, there is still the feeling that it is only a matter of time before the morning will come and the weather will be upon you. That in all your efforts to keep yourself clean and dry, you shall be thwarted and the day will be spent with soggy feet and damp clothing. 

That was today whether I liked it or not. Getting out of the tent at 5:00 in the morning, I could see the European couple near me finishing their packing. I would see them not far down the trail. The weather was not particularly horrible, it was just wet enough to make everything just a little bit miserable. The rain was coming down, though lightly, it was enough to make things rough. The worst part about it, though, was that I was going right by the junction for Grassy Point Trail. The terrain was such that each step that I took made my shoes just about as saturated as they could possibly be. There is nothing you dread more in rainy conditions than a meadow because there is no tree cover to protect you or the ground either. Though beautiful on a sunny day, meadows make conditions much more challenging. On the bright side of things, though, since I had camped at high elevation, this gave me an easy morning. I would be spending the next nine miles dropping elevation down to the Suiattle River and then I would spend most of my day walking next to it. This meant that my grassy meadow would begin to turn into thick bushes again. These thick bushes were just as rich with salmon berries as the bushes yesterday and I made sure to get my fill of fresh morning fruit. Then it would go downhill some more until I was in thick forest. 

This would be great if it wasn't for the blowdowns. This is the northwestern portion of Washington, so these blowdowns were not small trees. Sometimes it would take a lot of energy to get up, over, or around these trees and then hidden behind the first was just another and another to climb over. With a big pack on and a sore foot, this was a task that I was starting to get frustrated with. I would estimate that I had gone through hundreds of blowdowns when at 10:30 AM, the suddenly stopped. It was like a miracle, but really it was just the upper limit of where the trail crew had reached. I spent the next several hours walking by the Suiattle River feeling like I was making incredible time. 

As I continued to lose elevation, the forest definitely changed quite dramatically. I would go from 6000 feet in the morning to below 3000 feet when I crossed the Suiattle River at noon. Though the weather was still wet, it was definitely a bit warmer and the morning had been relatively easy compared to my big day the previous day. I was hoping that the rain would stop, but I was ungraciously rewarded each time I thought this could be it with a stronger shower that would refreshen the dampness through my body. Crossing the Suiattle River was a big deal though, because this meant that the trail was going to lead me away from Glacier Peak and toward the Stehekin area which I was excited to see tomorrow. 

For now though, a beautiful bridge took me across the large glacier charged river and now I would be walking uphill again. At first, this was not much as the trail was sort of up and down and mainly by the river. I was surprised today how very quiet the trail was. I was barely seeing a soul out here. I knew the rain would detract from people coming in from other places, but even PCT hikers may have been hiding out on this day. When I talked to some people about this day later on, many of them did spend the day in their tent. I couldn't imagine doing that just to stay dry. I was still enjoying this day, but it was definitely one that I was happy to put some miles behind me as I continued up the river.

After about 14 miles hiking on the day, I came to Miners Creek where there was a very detailed and fantastically created bridge. This sort of marked the end of my flat hiking and was the unofficial end of the clear trail. After this the blowdowns were back to make the end of my hiking day a workout. Instead of following the Suiattle River, I was now following the uphill path of Miner's Creek. This would take through many switchbacks and even a burned out area from a recent fire, probably only last year. The forest just felt so dark and cold. It was a little lonely and ominous at this point too and with more blowdowns to go over, resulted in what felt like an almost melancholy type mood for the day. Still I continued on uphill.

The goal for the day was to make it to Suiattle Pass. It felt like I was going to make it there, but how was it going to be once I made it there? Would I just spend a night in the wet and cold. As I walked through the clouds, I began to notice a shift in the weather. Climbing uphill, the temperature was dropping, but I was also starting to come out of the wet, damp, fog of a cloudy day and the sun was beginning to peak its head through the clouds. I hoped for some excellent scenery as if it was going to be a rainy day, at least I wasn't missing out on the mountains that are around me since I was in the forest anyway. I came to the second junction of Miner's Creek where I saw a very nice campsite. It was still early in the day and I just could not get myself to give it up here. There would be sufficient water, but it just felt like I needed to get to Suiattle Pass to feel like I was making it out of the valley surrounding the Suiattle River. After leaving Miner's Creek, the trail became much steeper with switchbacks frequently. After passing another opportunity to camp with the junction of the Miner's Ridge Trail, the views really opened up and I even experienced something that I had not seen all day. Sunshine! From someone who had been outside for many days in a row now, this was the most that I appreciated it on the whole trail. 

It still was not warm, but at least it was not wet. I continued to climb on and on until finally reaching Suiattle Pass. Here, I looked for a campsite and there was one right at the pass, but there was no water. So I continued further. I had already hiked around 21 miles and 22 seemed to be my daily average. There was one marked on the map and sure enough when I got there, there was even a sign saying camp this way. I followed it and there was a nice big open site for me and me alone. I quickly settled in, set the tent up, and got my wet clothes hanging up on the clothes line. I was pretty doubtful that anything was going to completely dry in this weather, because although it was sunny, it was still cold and rather humid. 

I was fortunate to have water at my campsite, but I was also unfortunate to have mosquitoes. All day long I had battled the rain, which at time dumped torrents upon my head. Now that I was in camp, the mosquitoes did not allow me a great amount of time to enjoy the sunny conditions and after doing my camp chores, I was soon hiding away in my tent. There was not anyone to talk to on this day anyway except I could have had a conversation with the unhappy hiker who had to look for another site after wandering into mine looking for a place for himself for the night. When I heard him, I was unaware if it was an animal, so I got out to see a human with a backpack scampering away. I was happy to have my nice dry tent, but I knew that tomorrow would be spent with more wet feet as the sun quickly sank below the level of my campsite, so it was not out long enough for me to enjoy it or for it to get any of my gear dry. Oh well, I will continue on regardless. 

PCT Washington Day 20: Baekos Creek to South Fork Milk Creek

I slept very peacefully and almost through the entire night. The temperature was perfect. My campsite was quiet and I just slept like a log. I was waking up now and moving pretty early, so that was not a bad thing. The weather was still overcast and the thought of fires being on the trail was now a thing of the past. This was going to be the day of the worst blowdowns, so I was prepared for a long one. It started almost immediately. There were constantly big trees to get around. The trail was downhill for the first mile to get to Chetwot Creek. It just felt so dark and ominous, but it wasn't quite wet yet. I crossed Chetwot Creek on an old bridge and then there was a fairly easy ford around Sitkum Creek. It was Kennedy Creek that I was worried about as the footbridge was broken likely to never be replaced. 

It looked like a large drainage on the map and when I got there it felt even bigger. You could tell that a large glacier used to make its home here which now had turned it into a large river. Whatever bridge used to be here was probably broken beyond recognition never to be seen again. The lucky part was that once I got there I quickly found some logs to cross. It is sort of a funny decision though because either it goes smoothly or my whole trip could be ruined pretty rapidly. I got myself together and made the crossing. Even on my numb foot I could still be very careful. I balanced the logs and soon found myself on the other side of the river with all of me and my belongings dry. My reward for that was a trip uphill in the woods through the pouring rain crossing many deadfall trees. These weren't just little guys either. These were old growth forest with massive logs coming down. 

When I wasn't crossing blowdowns, I was dealing with huckleberries growing right over the trail. Huckleberries, especially the blue kind, have the ability to retain a lot of moisture until you brush up against them with your leg. As soon as you do, though, it goes rushing down your pants and into the top of your socks and shoes quickly making damp feet into wet feet. There was no avoiding it on this day. I was just going to have to accept the wetness and keep plodding along uphill. The goal today was to make it up to Fire Creek Pass. Once I made it there, I knew I was going to be able to go downhill after that. I sure had to work for it though as the trail seemed steeper uphill than most of the rest of the PCT had been in Washington. I kept myself entertained and luckily I had a lot of energy for it. After a while I started to find my way out of the forest and into some more open meadows. It still seemed pretty brushy and the wildflowers were very thick. This portion of the trail traversed around the slopes of Glacier Peak and what was unique about today was that I would be spending the entire day on one section of my National Geographic map. Usually I would cover one, two, or three map sections in a day. But this was so much of an around the mountain trail, that I would never leave page 10 at all today. 

Every little piece was a win, though. When I got to Glacier Creek the trail continued to climb until I reached Pumice Creek. Then the trail sort of flattened out in the way that it went downhill, then uphill again, so not really flat, but more evenly distributed. It opened up in places and eventually the rain stopped and revealed some pretty nice landscapes. The weather got significantly better as the day went on, but since I started the day with wet feet, that was how I traveled through it. Pass Pumice Creek, the next big landmark was Fire Creek. This announced to me that I would be going uphill again. At the morning, I started at around 4000 feet. Fire Creek pass was at 6300 feet, so I was going to have to work for it. I put in the miles and was rewarded with some amazing views.

Getting on top of the pass was pretty monumental. There were 360 degree views. There were mountains to the north, mountains to the west, and Glacier Peak to the east. Behind me to the south was the journey I had taken to make it to this point. The sun even made its appearance and I felt new life return to me. There were times where I was even able to sneak peaks of Glacier Peak showing its face. From what I had heard, it was not the most difficult mountain to climb, just difficult to reach. I truly appreciated the pleasure of being out here where not many people would actually go. This area was just as breathtaking as any other National Park, but since it was so hard to get to, not many people got to experience it.

I enjoyed some lunch which was still beef jerky and dried mango. I was getting really thin at the same time my beard was getting rather shaggy. Fire Creek Pass would be a fantastic campsite to spend a few days at just enjoying the peaks around it. You could climb one or two and really have a great campsite. I could not spend too long there, though, as I still had a full day ahead of me. It was time to keep going. From here, the trail went downhill. It started out incredibly open with just some fantastic views. Every few minutes it seemed like another piece of Glacier Peak would show its face and I would get excited to see it. Here I was, right on the doorstep and I could barely see the mountain because the weather had been so cool and wet.

This was obviously not something to complain about as I would take the cool weather over the 90 degree days and fire danger at any point. As I wandered on down in a round about way, the views just seemed so amazing all around me. This was definitely the day where I seemed to take the most pictures without many of them being able to be shown on this blog. The highlight of this day had to be Mica Lake, though. Here was a mountain tarn that was just about perfect. If the weather had been warmer and it would have been closer to camp time I would have taken a dip. The depth of the blue in this lake was so very striking and here I was enjoying it by my very lonesome. 

I didn't stay long, though it felt like a place I could hang for a very long time. There really were not a lot of people around on this day. I saw only a handful in this section as the south bounders were really starting to fizzle out and all that was left were section hikers like me. The trail continued going downhill and soon it would become very brushy. So on top of the downed trees to climb over frequently, the trail was now almost completely engulfed with salmon berries. The one benefit of this was definitely salmon berries as I ate like a pig. They were ripe, red, juicy monsters that provided me with a few extra calories while I walked. I met another couple that were obviously European and they were enjoying them also. I actually passed them which was strange for me because they were doing the whole thing and I passed them. That never happened.

Down and down I went until I found my way to a beautiful bridge. There is nothing like coming out of a brushy mess with slippery roots and whipping branches to an absolutely well built beautiful bridge. I was actually a little bit nervous about crossing Milk Creek as I thought the bridge was gone. What turned out happening was that the bridge was gone, but this bridge was on another trail and the PCT had been rerouted to meet up with this bridge. This put me slightly off the traditional path, which actually led to my wife contacting me on my Garmin inReach Mini to let me know I was off the trail. I assured her that was not the case as there was nowhere else to go in this sea of vegetation. 

For all my hard work finally getting across Milk Creek, my reward was to go up a massive amount of switchbacks through extremely brushy trail. There was even a set of tools left at one point that if people wanted to, they could use their energy to help brush out the trail. I was happy to leave the machete and loppers for another brave soul as I continued to fight my way up the haphazard trail. It got a little better once the reroute was accomplished, but it still took a lot of energy to force my way up those switchbacks with the occasional deadfall to keep me on my toes. The views got better and better as I got higher though and after a little while, I was lucky enough to get a full view of Glacier Peak.

This day was starting to crawl to an end. I was feeling good, though, and really I just kept going uphill. As the clock approached 5 pm, I was ready to find a place to camp. I was lucky because this area was one of the most beautiful and most peaceful of the places that I had hiked all day. There were big views including those of Glacier Peak. I needed some water, though, and when I finally found it, I was near the headwaters of the East Fork of Milk Creek. I filtered some water and then looked for a campsite. Luckily, one appeared right around the corner. It was almost on an island in the middle of this huge mountain drainage with streams flowing all around me. 

The first site I tried seemed so impacted that the soil was fluffy. As I walked on it, it poofed out in little clouds around my feet. I figured I could make it work, but when I put up my tent, I realized I would be inhaling dust all night. So I looked to the other side of the creek I was camped near and saw a less impacted site on the other side of the creek. I decided to carry my tent over there and this turned out to be a much less dusty site. My original site was taken later by the European couple I had talked to earlier. I was pretty tired, but still went through with all my camp chores. In the end, my watch said I had climbed 499 floors which is about 5000 feet in elevation. This was my biggest day so far, but my reward was this beautiful mountain meadow to spend my evening in. This was a challenging day, but I met it with excitement and this was truly a fantastic day out on the trail. 

PCT Washington Day 19: Saddle Gap to Baekos Creek

I was in the habit of waking up early, so now I felt like my body was used to it. I had a good night sleep, but my body felt tired when I woke up. That was interesting because I felt so good the previous day and today I was feeling kind of flat. When I got out of the tent, I was greeted with foggy conditions. Up here in the mountains, it really just felt like I was right in the middle of a cloud. I left my beautiful camp site and headed uphill for a short distance before I made it to Saddle Gap. From there, it was downhill to Pass Creek. So far, I had run into a few blowdowns, but the trail was in very good shape. I was a little concerned about it, but had only had to deal with a handful of blowdowns so far. Most of the time, though, the trail was in very good shape.

I ran into a couple who gave me the low down. They said the trail was pretty good all the way to Red Pass, but after that, there would be lots of blowdowns. The forest was feeling a little bit more wild. 
I came to a junction for the Pass Creek Trail and after that, I spent a long time climbing uphill. The climb first started with some time in the forest, but quickly morphed into more open scenery. The day was cool and I was keeping the poofy on for longer than normal on this day. The trail zigzagged up an open bushy hill. I just kind of plodded along like usual eventually arriving at Lake Sally Ann where there was a group of people hanging out. I assumed that the trail would be rather quiet today, but I was wrong. I saw many people.

Some of the people seemed unconcerned with my presence like the guy who was probably slightly older than me that came up behind me. He seemed to pass by with barely an acknowledgement of my existence. Another group I talked to for quite a while. The guy had a PCT hat on so that helped us strike up a conversation. He seemed really interested in my hike and wanted to be out there doing it himself. I encouraged him because I was definitely enjoying myself. Those were always the people I enjoyed were the ones enthusiastic for the experience. The trail was rather flattish after Lake Sally Ann with ups and downs, but really just lots of open country with what would be big views without all of the low clouds. 

Still, I was happy that there was no rain and all I was dealing with were cooler conditions. It made the hiking easier and a bit more enjoyable. What was not enjoyable was my foot. It was getting sore again after the one day of rest. I knew it would continue to be a problem until the end. It felt like I had an extra large foot in my shoe even though my foot was not swollen at all. There was definitely some numbness, but it didn't affect me too much, so I just continued on. The ups and downs of a few hundred feet here and there continued until a downhill stretch that would take me to Indian Pass. Here was a nice big open area that met up with the Indian Creek trail. There were so many trails coming in from so many different parts, I wondered how accessible these areas were given that it really felt far away from any roads. 

Along with the groups of people to keep me company, there were also many marmots. They were here and there and everywhere. Some hid when they saw me. Some came out of their holes to squeal. Some watched as their children played in front of them. This was the day of marmots and it was definitely the right habitat. I even ran into a fellow PCT hiker who was just sitting there watching the marmots as I made the long trek up from Indian Pass to White Pass and then continued on up to Red Pass. He seemed to be 20 years older than me at least and was really just enjoying their playfulness. He told me his name was Woodchuck and he called the marmots woodchucks. I enjoyed that I actually got to pass somebody, because that was a rare occurrence for me. We talked for a bit, but I had a mission and that mission was switchbacking my way uphill. 

I would have loved to say that the clouds peeled off and I had a great day full of big views, but that would be a lie. I got a short reprieve for small sections of my afternoon where tall, scraggly peaks would show their rough edges for short periods of time. Those peaks would be enclosed within a short period of time and soon I was back in the clouds. This was ever more apparent as I closed in on Red Pass. The fog became very thick and the views which should have been fantastic were almost non-existent. Still I felt the thrill and exhilaration of having made the big climb as Red Pass was nearly 3000 feet above Pass Creek and almost 15 miles away. By the time I hit Red Pass, I had already hiked over 17 miles and it was only 3 pm. 

From here on out, it was all downhill. I was happy about that because I was foot sore, tired, and the day had been especially dark and dim. The big open views were capped with clouds, so that the alpine scenery was more shrouded than usual. Still, the trail was in great shape and those many blowdowns just had not occurred yet. I continued with my breaks every hour and sometimes I would listen to my audible account. Since I did not have any music, that made these days feel especially dimmer. There was also no cell service at all in this section as not even a check of the Mariners game was possible. Still I continued downhill as I would now be dropping all the elevation I had gained throughout the whole day. 

The trail went from nearly 7000' all the way down to close to 4000'. This took me through more open scenery until I was back in the forest. Here the trail seemed to hug the shoreline of a creek that would turn into White Chuck River after all of the forks came together. It was very peaceful and quiet. There were beginning to be a few blowdowns to negotiate, but not anything too wild and crazy. There were also the benefits including small waterfalls to enjoy and the thick, milky outflow of glacial sediment coming through the creek. For some reason, it just felt pretty comfortable in the forest. As it was approaching 5:30, I began looking for a place to camp. I was hoping to make it to Chetwot Creek, but when I got to Baekos Creek, it felt like far enough for the day. I had worked hard on this day putting in 22.5 miles in some of the hardest terrain yet with multiple passes and continuous climbs. The creek was easily crossed and there was one other group camping there. I camped across the creek from them, so we did not interact much that night only seeing each other when I went to filter water from the creek. I camped at a site only a few feet off the trail, but I never saw a soul hike by the rest of the night. I enjoyed my dinner, did all my camp chores and settled in for the best sleep I had on the entire trail.