The Pacific Crest Trail is really a journey from one mountain to the next along much of the section that I have travelled. Today I would leave the confines of Mount Hood and start heading toward Mt. Adams. This section also felt like a continuation of Oregon as Mt. Hood loomed over me. It was becoming further and further away with each hill that I climbed and today, I was climbing often. As soon as I awoke at 6 am, I was on the trail and going uphill. Given that there was no water for quite some time and I had a dry camp the night before, my pack was a little lighter. Also, the weather was cooling down and it was a much more comfortable day then the one that I started with. This was very different from Oregon because even though there was a significant distance to get water, I was not incredibly worried about running out.
The trail had been pretty quiet. Here and there were hikers to chat with. One of them gave me the good advice on how to find the spring. When I got there, I took her advice and sure enough, there was the water. I filled up and continued along my way. An hour here, more fuel. Another hour, more fuel. I had a pretty good routine and diet. For breakfast, it was a Clif Bar. First break, I usually just had some water. Second break, trail mix. Third break, I would have some Liquid IV. Lemon-lime was my favorite. For lunch, it was beef jerky and dried mango. Then I would finish my Liquid IV at the next break. The following two breaks, I would finish off the trail mix and for my last break, I would have a protein bar. After that, it was usually time to camp and I would finish it off with a freeze dried meal.
This routine would power me all the way through on the PCT. It was not a lot of food, but it was packed with enough energy to keep me going for an hour or so. There was just something so empowering about using food as fuel rather than entertainment. Speaking of food, the place where I was hiking today was called Big Huckleberry Mountain. There were some huckleberries and the nice part was that I would follow the berries north, so I got a bit of extra calories just as I was hiking along the trail. After this I got to go downhill again and really the trail was mostly flat. I came to another spring that was piped. So far everyone on the trail had been really friendly, but the woman here was sort of standoffish. I just tried to make friendly conversation with her but she seemed like she was not having a good day.
After this, though, the trail became a little bit busier. I went slightly downhill to a big campsite area by the road called Crest Camp. This seemed like an easy access area to the PCT because there were quite a few cars parked here. Not many of them were heading my direction, though, so I assumed the next section was both more scenic and more populated. I was correct and soon the problem of wondering where the water was would disappear because there were lots of little lakes. With lots of little lakes comes lots of little bugs and the mosquitoes were out for the first time. Luckily I was well equipped with bug spray and I was not afraid to use it. I ran into Sam and Patrick again. They were definitely the people I saw the most on the trail so far.
After seeing them, the trail began to climb. There were so many more people in this section both going south and north. I talked to quite a lot of through hikers who were south bound, but there were also day hikers, overnighters, and section hikers. It seemed this was a much more popular section. All of them seemed to be somewhat faster than me, though, because I was on day three and day three always seems to be the worst. Every hour was like a countdown and I was happy to have my break. As we approached Blue Lake, I even let a middle age dad and his daughter pass me. I ended up chatting with them for a while and even awkwardly followed them into their campsite after hiking and talking with them for a bit. I thought there was more than one campsite at each spot, but they pointed me in the right direction and I found a killer spot at the top of the hill. Here I would just have to go down the hill to the lake to enjoy it. Enjoy it I did. Blue Lake was the first truly remarkable spot along the PCT in Washington. It was a beautiful lake and it would be the spot of my second bath along the trail. I made sure to really enjoy it as Washington seemed to have less lakes than Oregon to enjoy.
The funny thing about it, though, was that I really had to get the courage up to get into the lake. It was actually pretty chilly out and the lake would get me clean, but unlike Oregon, I did not need the lake to cool me down. It was actually rather cool outside. It was a quick dip in the lake and then a quick turnaround to get my camp clothes on. I really had a good system of having a set of smelly hiking clothes to put on, but also a set of comfortable camp clothes to give me the illusion of having clean clothes in the evening. Tonight I used everything including the poofy because not only would it keep me warm, it would help to keep the mosquitoes away. I had quite a bit of time at camp because today was only about 20 miles of hiking and it was not too hard.
I wandered around to see the lake from another side and even chatted for a few minutes while I was filtering water with a couple hanging out by the lake. It was a lot of spare time, but I was still in bed early enough to get a great night of sleep. I did have a bit of a fright in the middle of the night when I found my sleeping pad flat. This made me think that there was a hole in it, but once I pumped it back up again, it was fine for the rest of the night. The truth was that I probably just opened the valve on accident. I was sleeping so well on this trip.
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