PCT Washington Day 8: Hogback Mt. to White Pass

 I awoke at 6:00 AM like normal. I had heard another hiker camp next to me after I was in bed and he was already up before me. When I finally got myself together and emerged from my tent, it was a guy from Oregon I talked to the previous day. He seemed like he was a bit of a mess with a bulky camera and some large hiking boots. When I talked to him yesterday, he said he was doing 30 miles a day. I didn't think he would be able to keep up that pace given the amount of gear that he was carrying. It took me a while to get out of the tent, so he and I were both nearly packed up. I got most things packed early because the mosquitoes were so bad. The trail today was not going to be very tough. It was nearly all downhill and it was only about 5 miles to White Pass. The terrain was rather easy and my pack was the lightest that it had been. Still I took my time because I had a ride arranged. My mom and her husband were going to pick me up and drive me 2.5 hours to Lacey where they lived. I was looking forward to a home cooked meal and a chance to repack some gear. Even taking my time, I got to the trailhead at 8:45. I used the last of my cell phone battery and I was picked up at 9:22 AM. I got my clothes washed and was able to repack all my gear. I made a few changes. I changed out shoes, but kept my same insoles. I noticed that my right foot was experiencing some numbness, now that I had my shoes off, but I was not worrying about it too much. I had some issues with my chargers as it took for ever for my power bank to recharge. I had pizza for lunch, chicken for dinner, and stayed up just late enough to watch the Mariners defeat the Angels. The next day I would be on the trail again, but for the night I could stretch out and sleep in a nice warm bed after a much needed shower. 

PCT Washington Day 7: Sheep Lake to Hogback Mountain (via Goat Rocks)

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.

PCT Washington Day 6: Lava Spring to Sheep Lake

I could hear it raining during the night off and on, so I procrastinated getting up. There were plenty of people camped around me that got an earlier start, so I let them clear off all the bushes of their accumulated precipitation from the night before. The trail was mostly flat in this section with lots of forest. The weather was damp, but not wet. The clouds were low and the fog made for an eerie feeling even in the middle of summer. I felt pretty strong when I woke up and it seemed like each day it was getting easier to move. This day, though, I had to deal with the uncomfortable feeling of having wet feet. Even though the branches were fairly dry, my feet were still in recovery mode from the day before. 

I spent a little time on the trail talking to people. Richard, who was a former heart surgeon from Seattle, and I talked for quite a while. Then at a junction I talked to a young German woman who was hiking with her mother. There were also many people going by who were heading south and I was even able to see a woman whose blog Jacqueline and I had been following before we left. The flatness of the forest did not help the bugs for sure and soon there were a lot of small ponds showing up. This was a sure sign of mosquitoes, but we got the bonus today because not only were there mosquitoes, but biting flies also. I put on bug spray, but after a while, it did not seem to help as much as it should. 

So, needless to say, I took short breaks because every time I stopped it gave the mosquitoes a chance to feast. I also spent a lot more time listening to music or books while hiking because the buzzing of the mosquitoes often bothered me more than the biting and blood sucking. I think this was the worst section of trail I had the whole trip for bugs and it was confirmed with the conversations I had with other hikers on the trail. I seemed to fly to the Walupt Lake trail junction. I am sure this was a wonderful place to spend some time once the mosquitoes left the area, but I could not imagine how miserable it would be to camp here. I hoped it would get better and that all of Goat Rocks would not be spoiled with mosquitoes. After the junction for Walupt Lake, it did better. The trail started to gain elevation. Here I was on an open exposed slope and it seemed like with every hundred feet of elevation gained, the mosquitoes began dropping like flies. I was getting excited because the terrain was getting so much more interesting as I climbed also. The views were bigger and the trail was becoming more like the visions that one has of the Pacific Crest Trail. There were mountains in the distance, lakes below me, and a precipitous drop off falling off to my left.

Soon I was approaching Sheep Lake and even though it was only 4 pm, I was thinking this was my stopping point for the night. Given that I had put in 20 miles to get here, I felt like that was okay to stop. I quickly perused the available campsites and took the one on the highest hill. When Richard came through later, he called it the penthouse. It was an awesome sight out in the warm sun overlooking the lake. I got my tent up and decided to give washing clothes a try. I had made one major mistake so far and that was in only bringing 3 pairs of socks. I thought that a good washing would do me well. I put my dirty clothes in a dry bag with a little soap, shook it up pretty good, and then hung them on a line. 

The problem with that is that it never ended up being warm enough to dry the clothing. So it hung on the line, often in the sun, but never actually got dry. Oh well, I still had one more dry clean pair of socks left that would have to last me for the last couple of days before I got to White Pass. I think that Sheep Lake was my favorite campsite on the whole trail. I took a short dip in the lake and really just had a very relaxing evening. A guy named Lou came over and chatted for 15 minutes. He was hiking the PCT by car. He would drive to the more exciting places on the trail and hike around those areas rather than doing the whole thing. I thought that was pretty creative. I enjoyed a good night of sleep and prepared for tomorrow. Many people I talked to going south had said that Goat Rocks was the best area that they had hiked in thus far.