PCT Day 17&18: Rest Day in Cashmere before Stevens Pass to Saddle Gap

 I spent the day in Cashmere. I did laundry at the laundromat. I had breakfast with my dad and Laura at a cafe. Mostly what I did was stay off of my injured foot. As I did not use it, I felt the feeling slowly return. It did not get back to normal, but it improved. I had the other insoles for my shoes, so I was going to give those a try. It may put more pressure on my Achilles, but I had to return the circulation to the right side of my right foot. So much for thinking ahead. I got to watch the Mariners game, only for them to lose. The main goal was rest and recovery and I felt bad for my company. They had nothing to do in Cashmere. We had dinner and then got to bed early. Part of the day was spent talking to my wife. 

She was insistent once again that there was imminent danger ahead that I would have no way of avoiding my untimely death. This time it was fire starts from the previous thunderstorms. I looked on the Watch Duty app and there were a couple right in the direction that I was headed. I could not believe that these fires that had been listed as 0.1 acres could really impact my trip. I checked the PCT closures app and it did not have anything about them. Consulting with everyone again, I decided to continue my journey and gain more information while hiking. So when the morning came around, we were up early and on our way to Stevens Pass. Dad hiked with me for the first couple of miles. The trail was flat in this section and it was good to have company for a little bit.

After he left, I realized how good I was feeling. It is amazing how much a day of rest can rejuvenate your body. Even though my pack was quite heavy, I was feeling really good. Maybe because this was my last section, I was feeling the excitement of each mile that I put away behind me. The weather was great being a little cool and a little overcast. A few miles after my dad left, I realized that I did not have my mp3 player. This was not that big of a deal, I just would not have any music for the next week. The people I talked to along the way seemed to not have had any issues with fire, except there was an unreported blaze occurring in a valley near the trail. I could see it, but within minutes, I had passed it by. 

This part of the trail was quite woody. There was a lake about 6 miles in, Lake Valhalla which had a slew of campers about it, which broke up that woodiness. There were also some high peaks to gaze upon, but for most of the day, I was in the forest. Having left a pass, it meant that I would need to do quite a bit of uphill on this day. It really was just a lot of up and down between elevations of 4000 feet and 6000 feet. Up to Lake Valhalla. Down to Lake Janus. Up to Grizzly Peak and down to Pear Lake. I talked to everyone I saw and they all just seemed so pleasant. They warned me of what was to come with the deadfalls around Glacier Peak.

I talked to one guy who had hiked most of Washington, but had actually turned around at the deadfalls because he did not want to go through it with his injuries. I felt bad for him, but he seemed in a good mood about it, so that was good. Mostly it was just a really pleasant day on the trail, pretty quiet, with lots of friendly people. I was feeling so good, too, that it didn't feel like work on this day. The views from Grizzly Peak were the best. I had enjoyed such great weather on this trip that it just felt so pleasant. Seeing Glacier Peak out in the distance made me realize the thing I liked most about the PCT. It was seeing a far off peak or area knowing that in a day or two, I would be there with just the effort in my legs. 

The meadows were amazing, though, not as many berries on this day. Around Pear Lake, I actually got lost for a little bit, which was rare. Usually the PCT is the most dominant trail in the area, but so many people had camped down at Pear Lake, that I just followed a trail to its shores. When I looked on the map on my watch, I realized that the PCT was actually above me. I chose to bushwhack rather than backtrack. This worked out okay with a little bit of fight through the forest going uphill. It wasn't long before I was right back on the trail continuing on my way. I thought when planning the PCT, that I would always want to stay at a lake. Given the chance to stay at Pear Lake, though, I continued because moving north became just so much more important.

On this evening, I made it to a campsite near Saddle Gap. There was a really nice campsite there with running water and I was in a very good mood. I had a great day. My legs felt loose, my pack felt light, the sun was out and everything seemed to be coming up aces. The terrain was starting to open up more with big sweeping views. My foot was feeling numb, still, but it was working just fine. It did not seem to be getting much worse with my original insoles in. I was looking forward to another big day tomorrow having packed in 22 miles or so on this day. But for the night, I was in a great camping spot and was ready for a full night of rest. A few people wandered by after I had set up camp, but no one else camped beside me.

PCT Washington Day 16: Deception Pass to Stevens Pass

I got an early start even though I did not to. Having tuned my body into the schedule of waking up early, I was now on that schedule for good or for bad. My foot was pretty sore still, but I was going to use a routine of taking it out of my shoe each chance I could to massage it. I was still kind of worried about it. It was now August 1st and I had been on the trail for 16 days. This was going to be my chance to escape for the day, though, because my dad and his wife Laura were meeting me at Stevens Pass. It was hard not to get too excited for a chance to sleep in a bed and relax for a little bit. I couldn't get too relaxed, yet, though because with a sore foot, I still had 21 miles to hike through difficult terrain. 

The trail went uphill right from the start. There were lots of mosquitoes around to keep me company and unfortunately, many of my electronics were on the edge of dying. My inReach was dead, so my wife could not track my every move today. My cell phone still had about 60% charge left and my mp3 player was down to its last bar. That was okay, though, as being out here was what I enjoyed. The trail climbed toward Pieper Pass with the Deception Lakes coming into view to provide a break from the big views of far away mountains. I seemed to be moving pretty well on this day with a lighter pack than usual and the mosquitoes to motivate me to not stop for very long. 

I gained over 1500 feet to get up to Pieper Pass, then quickly lost it. The trail seemed rather quiet for being so near to a major road, but maybe not as many people came this way from Stevens Pass. I am not sure why not, though, because there were lots of interesting mountains to climb and amazing looking lakes. I talked to a few people, but mostly it was me out there putting in the miles. The trail seemed to either be going up or down on this day. There was no long stretches of flat terrain. I spent a lot of the day on ridges with large sweeping views that I thoroughly enjoyed. One of the best views of the day was Trap Lake. It seemed like an awesome place to spend some time with large mountains all around it. 

It was properly named as the water seemed to be trapped right on the edge of a big valley below it. The trail was even more quiet after this lake as there was an easier way in to this area than hiking the PCT. I wondered if the blue liners all went out that other way and only red liners were out here with me. After Trap Lake, it was downhill to Hope Lake, which wasn't much. Then back uphill. It didn't seem like much when looking at the map, but it felt like I was going over three passes today even though officially there was only one. There were soon salmon berries along the trail and they were getting bigger and redder as I hiked further north. The trail seemed to want to avoid Stevens Pass as it came ever so close to the road, but seemed to hook around to avoid it.

Soon I found myself in the ski area. It kind of wound around the power lines and chair lifts through open meadows filled with berries. There were a few people out here picking huckleberries and a lady laden with a large pack started to chat with me. She asked if I was Peter. I knew then that my dad was not too far away. It was only a few more bends in the trail before I ran into him. He offered to take my pack, but we walked the 2 miles back to the parking at Stevens Pass together. It was good to catch him up on all the happenings on the trail and I really appreciated the lift. This was not a short trip for him because it was 4 or 5 hours from his house to get to Stevens Pass. From there, we drove past the expensive tourist town of Leavenworth to the much warmer town of Cashmere. Here we had a hotel room for two nights. We got ourselves some pizza and had some ice cream and I settled in to catch up on the Mariners games and get some rest.