The morning started with the disappointment that the clothes that I washed the night before were not going to be dry. That was okay because tonight would be my last night on the trail before having a break. This was a big day because I was going to get to go through Goat Rocks. I got up at the usual time of 6 AM. I started moving by 6:45 AM and almost immediately I got big views in all directions. With only 2.4 miles to Cispus Pass from Sheep Lake, I knew that I was in for a show. I hiked around the lake and there were many people camped there. Then I hit the meadows. I had views south to Mt. Adams and to the north there were many small peaks. As I came around a corner, I saw a big drainage from the Klickitat River on the Yakima Indian Reservation.
Here many peaks rose up in front of me and the marmots came out on the rocks to greet me. I moved slowly as usual, but steadily and soon I was at Cispus Pass. I took a break here because this was one place I was getting service. I checked my phone and found out how the Mariners were doing. I refueled and before I was gone from the pass, I spoke to quite a few people including Sam and Patrick from the first night on the trail. They seemed to be the only people that I saw more than once. I asked about Cispus Camp since I knew Sam grew up in Washington. She said that she had actually been a counselor there. I left them and dropping down from Cispus Pass is where the big views really started.
There were big snowy mountain peaks with their snowfields and glaciers melting down to create streams and waterfalls through lovely green flowery meadows. Coming around the corner on the pass, you could see the whole route curving around the valley crossing streams and meadows. I hiked around really soaking it all in because this place really was quite amazing. I came around the corner, crossing the Cispus River, before I ended up at Snowgrass Flat. Here the terrain became slightly different. It was rockier with more fragile alpine plants. There were snowfields in some places and smaller streams. Here the trail climbed to over 7000'. There seemed to be more people around on the trail then had been there so far.
They also seemed to be moving much slower than me as I was passing people all over the place. I was good with that, though, as each corner and curve produced a new view of a hanging valley, a snowfield, a distant mountain. I started to get my first views of Mt. Rainier in this section which was sort of like coming home having grown up near there. Goat Rocks was truly spectacular, but by 10:30, I was now approaching what a lot of people were talking about, having to cross the snow. Luckily, I was wise enough to bring yaktrax with me, so I had a traction device. I wondered if I should wear them. There was a small snowfield before the big snowfield, so I tried crossing it without the yaktrax. It was difficult, so I thought when I got to the big snowfield, I would wear them.
I could see the first of the big snowfields in front of me and there were definitely some people taking their time crossing it. You could see that each step was deliberate. You could also tell that a fall, while not life threatening, would be embarrassing and a little bit scary. So the goal was to cross the snowfield without falling. I got to the edge and quickly put my yaktrax on. They were very helpful and even though they were not as nice as crampons, they did provide additional traction. I still spent some time on the crossing kicking steps for my feet to have more purchase. This seemed to help quite a bit. The interesting thing was that going up was the easiest, but going down was challenging.
This was because gravity was pulling down on my heavy pack and trying to make me go the easiest way. Well, I took my time and I crossed the multiple snowfields until I was safely on solid ground happy that I had carried the yaktrax for the last week just for the 10 minutes that they were a necessary item in my backpack. The big day was not done at this point and for the next mile or so, I got to be on what was called the Knife's Edge. Having hiked in many places all around the U.S. and the the world, this knife's edge was not so bad compared to hikes I had done in Zion or Grand Canyon. Still, the feats of engineering to build this section of trail were impressive and I was really enjoying being here.
It is kind of funny how your anticipation of a section of trail is often way different than the reality. Having treacherous snowfields and an area known as the Knife's Edge sounds like a potential trip ruiner. When you are there, though, it is not much different than the usual of putting in the miles and soaking in the views. As I picked my way through the Knife's Edge, the number of hikers began to dwindle away. By the time I made it to Elk Pass, I actually felt quite alone out there. I think people were really taking their time through the big views. I was more interested at this point in trying to pick up the Mariners game, which I succeeded in doing first on my mp3 player that had a FM radio on it.
It would cut in and out with a radio station playing music in Spanish. After a while, I gave up and tried my cell phone which actually had some service. It had been spotty at best so far, but today I was getting good service. I listened to the game, but the Mariners disappointed me with a loss. From here the big mountains and large snowfields disappeared and it was more large meadows with bubbling brooks running through them. I stopped for a while to fill up some water at one of these and then the trail continued going downhill into the forest. Here I was surprised to see just how quiet the trail could be with barely a soul to keep me company. It was such a different than up in the peaks of Goat Rocks that I often checked to make sure I was still on the PCT.
The views were unspectacular for a while as I went downhill into the forest. At Tieton Pass, it switched over and soon I was going uphill through the forest again. There were a few more PCTers here and one warned me that there was no water up ahead. So I decided I would leave the trail and go to Shoe Lake to get water. When I did Oregon, there were a lot of talk about blue liners and red liners. Red liners stayed on the official trail and blue liners picked their own path. I was somewhere in the middle preferring to stay on the red line unless the blue line turned out to be a preferred alternative. In this case, there was access to water and a lake to swim in to cool down and get clean for the evening, so I chose to take the slightly longer route to Sheep Lake.
I got my water and took a dip in the nice cool lake. I would have probably chosen to stay at Sheep Lake, but there were signs all around that said it was day use only. It looked like an ideal place to camp, so I could see that it probably had a bunch of impact at some point. I enjoyed the cool lake, but it was already getting late. I packed up and headed back up the trail to reconvene with the PCT. I found a campsite not too far from the junction. There were the usual mosquitoes there, which had been absent for most of the day, but no water. I made a quick dinner and still got to bed by 8. When I was drifting off, I heard another camper make camp. I decided I would visit with them in the morning and enjoyed the blissful sleep after a very full day.
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