If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes

Day 139-August 30th
Destination: MM 2370ish
Miles: 27 (plus 0.4 off trail miles)
Cumulative Miles: 2046

A cold day indeed.

We're tired, and most of the scenery today was of clear cut forest (or lack of forest), so the blog post will be short.

By some good fortune, the sky was reasonably clear this morning. Then that changed. We took lunch at the Urich Camp Shelter. There was a bit of sun, but that changed. Thirty minutes after we started hiking, we got rained on. Then the weather changed again.

Temperature changes matched our grade changes, up and down, but mostly down. In the end the clouds cleared, making way for a very cold night.

On the bright side, at one moment the sky was clear and we were able to see Mt. Rainier. It was far off in the distance. It would seem that we walked all the way along its side without ever seeing it... Except for a few days before, and a few days after.

On a side note:
By luck, our phone had reception, so Psycho was able to call his father and wish him a happy birthday. Post blog comments to wish him a happy birthday....Psycho's mothers birthday is the day after tomorrow.

Oh, and we saw two elk.
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Back to Foggy Washington

Day 138-August 29th
Destination: Crown Basin Shelter
Miles: 10.5 (plus 0.3 off trail miles)
Cumulative Miles: 2019

After pulling a late night catching up with old trail friends, we crashed in our tent only to wake just before 8am. PseudoGnome joined us for a walk over to the room Uncle Tom got. We hung around with him saying our goodbyes. It was kind of difficult. How does one say goodbye to someone they hiked for two months with and now knows that they probably won't see them on the trail again, perhaps never again.

It was great to see MeGaTex, and sad to say goodbye. Good luck guys. In the morning madness, we missed a few friends, but we had to get back to the trail. We packed up while PseudoGnome ran to the store and picked up a few groceries for us. Then we hopped in the truck and made the long drive back to the trail, arriving just before 4pm. He's a trooper, doing whatever he can to help us, and for that we are very thankful.

We left him to his 3 hour drive home, and hit the trail. Very quickly we climbed up into the fog. At times it was so thick, we could only see 100 feet ahead of us, if that. The air was very damp and chilly, leaving moisture on the plants. Our pant legs did a good job at grabbing said moisture.

At one point Psycho was sure he saw a bear, and certainly heard it. He backed down the trail to a reasonable distance and started yelling to scare the bear. It did not run away, so we were rather concerned. As we started making more noise, we heard the "bear" talk. Oops, the bear was actually some campers.

We chatted with the campers who told us that we were going to be getting showers tomorrow, but the worst of the weather should pass after that. We didn't like that news, but we more or less expect rain up here. We made the final two miles towards camp, wandering off trail a few yards to grab water. We then put on our head lamps and hiked another quarter mile to a shelter.

The shelter is more of a lean-to than a cabin, and we put our tent up under it, but we'll be very appreciative of it if it does rain tonight. We are bundled in our bags, hoping tomorrow is warmer, but we doubt it will be.

We wonder what magnificent views were hidden by the fog. We're in Mt. Rainier National Park, but we have yet to see the mountain.
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PCT Days

Day 137-August 28th
Destination: Cascade Locks (via Chinook Pass)
Miles: 0
Cumulative Miles: 2008.5

It was nice to have a zero day that wasn't cluttered with necessary chores, a day about relaxing and socializing. At the last minute, we were able to figure out a way to get back to Cascade Locks, but were sorely disappointed to know that none of our old hiking mates were going to make it.

As the day unfolded, more and more thru-hikers showed up. Before we knew it, we had re-connected with Golden Child, SlimJim, Train, Uncle Tom, Axilla, Richard Wizard, and Duff, as well as several other hikers we have known, but not really hiked that much with.

The event was fun. It is a fund-raiser for the PCT Assoc. Started about five years ago as more or less a gathering of ten people BBQing and hiking, it has grown into an event of 300-400 people with several gear vendors. This year they roughly tripled the amount of money raised for the PCTA, in comparison to last year.

We bought some raffle tickets, but sadly did not win anything. PseudoGnome, our traveling trail angel super hero, did won some Backcountry Pantry meals. The evening was spent watching a movie put together by a past thru-hiker called "Wizards of The PCT", very funny. It is available online for purchase, so go get it.

Tomorrow PseudoGnome will take us back to the trail. Only about 330 miles left of Washington, then we head back down to crank out the last 300 of the Sierras we missed. The end is close enough to see.

What then??
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2000 Miles, Baby!!

Day 136-August 27th
Destination: Chinook Pass
Miles: 13
Cumulative Miles: 2008.5

As if to signify the fact that we would be entering into Mt. Rainier National Park today, it got rainier last night. Around 3am, the sound of rain started beating on our tent. While the pitter patter of the rain was soothing to Apricots, it woke Psycho up enough that he had trouble falling back asleep.

We had 13 miles to cover today, so we were not in a real hurry to get moving. We laid in the tent, listening to the rain die down. Fortunately it pretty much stopped by the time we were out and moving. The collected rain on the undergrowth did a fair job at wetting our boots and pant legs, but the afternoon sun prevailed and we did not end our day wet.

Taking a short break early in the day, Psycho noticed a small animal scurrying up a tree. After talking with others, and researching it a bit, we believe it was a Pine Marten, a very rare sighting from what we're told.

The day, though cloudy and foggy, was fairly nice. The rain was scattered in mercurial drops on the vegetation. Psycho was repeatedly stopping to attempt to photograph the perfect dew crystal, while Apricots urged him to move faster as it was cold outside. The thick fog limited our visibility to no more than 100 yards.

As the day wore on the sun cooked off the fog, and we found our shadows which seemed to forget to wake up with us. The grade allowed us to move with relative ease, and the tread was only rocky in a few places.

About two hours into the day, Psycho turned around and screamed "Two thousand miles, baby!!!" This gave Apricots quite the scare, as it was completely peaceful and quiet otherwise.

When we arrived at Chinook Pass, we hitched our way back to the town of Packwood, where PseudoGnome agreed to meet us. He is driving the long leg up here, just so we can go to PCT Days in Cascade Locks. What a rockstar!



Hiking for Cherryville Heartsongs.
Visit our blog to find out how to donate.
http://northboundheartsong.blogspot.com


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Day 135-August 26th
Destination: MM 2319ish
Miles: 16 (plus 0.5 off trail miles)
Cumulative Miles: 1995.5

It was a fairly simple day, mostly uneventful. After our late night last night we chose to sleep in a bit. Our plans only called for 29 miles over two days, so it was not too important to get an early start on the day. As we haven't been making our desired miles as of late, we have been fortunate enough to be arriving close to a road for an easy out to town. This enables us to make the trip back down to Cascade Locks for PCT Days, an event that has grown over the years. It should give us an opportunity to catch a few of our old friends from earlier on in the trail, as well as help generate income for the PCT Association. (More on the event later, when we get there)

Psycho went down to the Kracker Barrel store to pick up the resupply boxes this morning. He ran into Kern, another thru-hiker who had just pulled into town. One of his resupply boxes had not yet arrived, so he was waiting out the time until the daily mail came. Since he had an hour to kill, Psycho offered up a shower to him. Like any thru-hiker, he was happy to come up to our hotel room and get a shower in before we checked out.

After packing most our gear, we wandered down to the store for some breakfast before heading back to the trail. A giant cinnamon roll, two sausage and egg muffin, one bacon and egg muffin, two americanos, and some candy sufficed. Once refueled, we finished packing and went to the trail.

The hike was pleasant, mostly green corridor, but several lakes dotted the landscape making it easy to enjoy. Furthermore, the grade of the trail was easy and the tread was mostly smooth. This allowed us to pull 16 miles, despite not starting until 1pm.

The overcast sky led to a very chilly walk, at times downright cold. In the evening the sun had set, and the clouds hid any early evening twilight. Slipping into the forested overgrowth presented the feeling of arriving at camp well past dark, which it nearly was. The days are getting shorter, and we both sense it.

Shorter days, and closer final day.

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A Good Treat to a Bad End to a Great Day

Day 134-August 25th
Destination: White Pass
Miles: 22.5 (plus 2.5 off trail miles)
Cumulative Miles: 1979.5

Some days are hard to put to words, because they are just so breathtakingly beautiful. Today is one of those days, easily making the top ten for the whole trail, except the tail end of the day which falls into the bottom ten.

After rising later than we wished, we began our hike with a nice walk out of the valley we were camped at. We climbed up to the Packwood Glacier. Crossing a couple small snow fields, we arrived at the glacier which sloped dramatically down off of Old Snowy peak. Rather than facing the dangers of following the official PCT across the glacier, we chose to climb up and over Old Snowy as the guidebook suggested.

From the top of a steep rocky climb we were offered views of the entirety of the Goat Rocks Wilderness. We made the descent down the mountain, which was even steeper, and more difficult to hold secure footing on. The clinking rocks sounded like someone putting ceramic dishes away in the cupboard.

We made several steep climbs and descents along a razor-edge ridge, where the rocky slopes dropped off to our sides at 70-80 degrees. One false step could have fatal consequences. The first six miles of our day took just over four hours, because the terrain caused serious slowdown, and the views were so amazing, we were constantly stopping to admire them or take pictures. At times we wished others were here to see what we were seeing, but in the end we were both glad that we had only each other to share it with.

We dropped down into the forest just before lunch, and had a brief forested walk afterwards before climbing 1500 feet back up to open landscape. The day was nearing it's end and we were hurrying to make it to White Pass. We saw the occasional marmot, with their white backed coats and monkey-like demeanor.

As we were running out of daylight, we took a recommended shortcut. This trail would drop us right at the store, and not require us to do the road walk. It also trimmed about 2 miles from the distance. All of that sounded great, as the day was late. We took the "Chairlift Trail" which was simple to follow for a quarter mile. Then it ran into a road and disappeared. Any way we looked at it on the map and GPS, this road would not be shorter than the trail, and would not drop us at the store.

We wandered around, backtracking a couple times, looking for this elusive trail which promised to be better than the PCT, and never found it. Eventually we resigned ourselves to not searching anymore, and followed one of the roads until it was close to the PCT, where we cut cross country back to the official route. Just before we arrived back on the PCT, we heard loud crashes in the forest and Psycho caught the tail end of what appeared to be a couple Elk running off.

Back on the official PCT, the sunlight was gone, the mosquitoes were fierce, and we still had 2.5 miles to go. We put on our head lamps and started cruising, as fast we could while preserving our ankles in the dim light. We talked the whole way down, on the off chance that we might cross paths with a bear. About 100 yards before reaching the trail head, we spooked up some sort of large animal. Given the sound and size of the sound, we figured it was another Elk, but we never saw it. The loud crashes startled us enough to double our heart rates, and give us enough energy to make the final half mile to the tiny community of White Pass.

It was nearly 10pm when we arrived, and everything was closed. The office at the hotel was vacant. We were destined to camp, which made the push to town annoying. At the last moment, we found the door to the assistant manager. We knocked a few times but to no avail. As we walked away, sad and angry, Apricots heard a shuffle behind us. She looked back and saw the manager feeding the office cat. We were able to get a room, and so ended the bad end to our good day with a good treat.

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The Midday Turn Around

Day 133-August 24th
Destination: Cispus River
Miles: 22.5 (plus 0.6 off trail miles)
Cumulative Miles: 1957

Our hike started this morning with your typical green corridor, which we would like to call our northwestern friend. We, however, tend to look at it as a guest which has over stayed their welcome. Fortunately the sky was blue, the temperature was about perfect, and the grade was undeniably easy.

When we arrived at our lunch spot, we passed up a murky pond for a stream about a quarter mile further. It turned out to be a dry creek bed, as was the one just past that. So we were forced to turn back to the murky pond. Knowing the mosquitoes would be in full force down at the water, we left our packs in a shady patch and grabbed water from the pond. When we returned, the wiley sun had moved (or rather the earth rotated) and our shaded lunch spot was no longer.

After fussing with three trees to find an adequate place to hang our gravity filter, we sat down in a new shaded patch to go about making lunch. Before lunch was done being made, we found ourselves in the sun again. Oh well, we were hungry, no moving now despite the cramped dining quarters.

Apricots had mixed the salmon with some water and powdered cheese. When she went to add the macaroni noodles, she kicked a whole bunch of dirt into our cheesy mix. After carefully spooning the dirt out, thereby diminishing our cheese supply, she carefully added the noodles. This time we were relatively free of nature's gritty untasty pepper.

Picking up our bowels, to scoop said lunch onto tortillas, Apricots noticed dirt on the bottom of her bowel. Brushing it off she managed to bump her spoon and fling a cheesy macaroni morsel onto Psycho's arm. All the while, the absence of mosquitoes was replaced with an abundance of flies, which were annoying but fortunately did not bite. As abundant as the flies were the swear words being thrown out of Apricots mouth like some sort of Truckers Convention. We agreed that this was perhaps the worst lunch we have had on the entirety of the trail.

As we readied ourselves to leave, Apricots shook her sun screen bottle to apply some. The white paste shot out, missing her hand, landing in an unusable clump in the dust at her feet. Five minutes later, we were hiking. Fifteen minutes later, we crossed a creek which would have served as a nice lunch spot, had we only but walked another quarter mile.

"Oh, Discordia"

After lunch, we began our climb into the heart of the Goat Rocks Wilderness. What a significant change. The views were breathtakingly beautiful, and easily the best we have had in Washington, and some of the best we've had on the entire trail. Trees gave way to towering rock spires, and hillsides sloped steeply with rocky landslides. We found ourselves taking breaks, not because we needed them, but because we wanted to absorb our experience.

In the evening, we found ourselves cooking dinner next to a clear cascading creek running straight down the hill from snow melt. We climbed just uphill from the creek to a flat area caught in a valley that slopes downward and out towards Mt. St. Helens. We sat around watching the sun set as Crowdog and Beaker rolled in. We caught up with them while they ate dinner, before finally crawling into our tent, positioned at one of our favorite sites on the whole trail.

"Oh bliss"

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Out of the Tunnel

Day 132-August 23rd
Destination: MM 2258ish
Miles: 20.5
Cumulative Miles: 1934.5

Things work out on the trail. They always do. Ask any thru-hiker. This morning, when we discovered that the two trail angels in Trout Lake were out of town (one on a long drive for another thru-hiker), we had resigned ourselves to hitching. While grabbing a coffee at an espresso stand near a gas station, we were offered a ride back to the trail by a retired forest firefighter. It's a small bit of magic, but appreciated to the maximum, as hitching has never been fun despite the "fantastic" experiences we've had with it.

Back to the trail by 11am.

The Gray that lingered for our first three days of Washington was gone this morning. Our hike was under a blue sky, and we emerged from the seemingly endless green tunnel which had sucked the joy out of hiking. And what splendid sights were to be had as we climbed into the Mt. Adams wilderness.

The heavily glaciated Mt. Adams stood as a constant backdrop to the majority of today's hike. Psycho told Apricots the old lore of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams vying for the love of Mt. St. Helens. In a fit of rage, Hood smashed his fist on Adams. This is why the top of Adams is rounded rather than pointy. Apricots added that this kind of behavior caused Mt. St. Helens to "flip her lid" back in 1980.

When we had our backs to the mountain, we had an expansive clear view towards Mt. Rainier, and Mt. St. Helens. If the distant views of the other Cascade mountains became too much for us, we had many lupines, indian paintbrushes, and other wild flowers to look upon.

The blue gray basalt highlighted the tips of the lupines abundant throughout our day. Several small streams, glacial melt, wandered almost aimlessly through lush green meadows. Most stream crossings were done with a few rock hops, or a bridge. We did meet with one rather shallow but wide flowing stream that required us to take off our boots. The glacial water was fiercely cold, and our feet hurt after crossing. Yet once we donned our boots, they felt so refreshed, as if the last 15 miles were only 5.

Wandering off the mountain side, we dropped through a forest arriving at a lava flow with a spring percolating out of the lava rock. Crystal clear clean water for drinking. No mud or muck. We set up camp not long after sunset at this spring.

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PseudoGnome to the Rescue

Day 131-August 22nd
Destination: Trout Lake
Miles: 14.5 (plus 3 off trail miles)
Cumulative Miles: 1914

Another day in the green tunnel. It was cold, but not unbearable, and it only lightly sprinkled on us twice, for less than ten minutes.

We knew we had to drop down to Trout Lake to get our resupply box, so every road we crossed was a temptation. We scanned the maps and saw several options that would take us out of the cold and down into a warm cafe, hotel, or even grocery store. We debated hitching with each road crossing, but ultimately made it to our desired road before hitching.

We even (very reluctantly) passed up a ride offer from a gentleman out supporting a PCT thru-runner. (These facts are a little gray) the thru-runner is Bob Holtel, author of "Soul Sweat and Survival", an 80 year old man doing a two season thru-run of the PCT. His book tells the tales of his first 3-season thru-run just over two decades ago.

After passing up the offer, we hiked the final 5.5 miles to our desired road, which was dismally empty of cars. We put our rain jackets on, and started the 13.5 mile walk down to Trout Lake. After 30 minutes a car passed, but didn't stop. Another 30 minutes and we found ourselves sitting on the forest road discussing what we would do if we failed to get a ride. Before settling on a plan, a mini-van pulled over to give us a ride the rest of the way.

As we reached the road, we came across a cache of goodies put together by the kind folks at Trout Lake Abbey, a zen temple of sorts. We enjoyed fresh fruit, and new toothpaste to replace our nearly empty supply.

Our filter is toast. A new filter takes about 2-3 minutes to filter 1 liter of water. Our filter now takes nearly 30 minutes to filter one liter. This means that if we want to filter enough water for a full day, we need to filter for about 3-4 hours. Our replacement cartridge is a week or more away.

This is why PseudoGnome, aka DK, aka Jacob C. is our hero. He drove from Portland to Trout Lake at the last minute to bring us a new cartridge for our gravity filter. REI was all out, so he brought us his own cartridge, driving 90 minutes one way to help make our hike easier. Yay PseudoGnome!! No giardia for us, thanks to you.

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Mmm...Cheetos and Whisky

Day 130-August 21th
Destination: 0.5 North of NF RD 23
Miles: 21.5
Cumulative Miles: 1899.5

We slept in today. Yesterday's miles kicked our butts, and we found it mighty difficult to wake when our alarm went off this morning. We didn't start moving until just after 9am.

The late start affected us in the sense that we didn't have enough daylight left to make it to our goal for the day. We had to drop off trail to a tiny muddy pond to get water, as we weren't prepared for dry camping, despite our knowledge it might have happened.

Today's hike was a little better with a few lakes along the way, but both of us want some scenery, need some scenery, and need it soon. "The Long Green Tunnel" is rarely inspiring to hike in. As such the miles are harder and less enjoyable.

The highlight of our day was a PCT Hiker Stash five miles in. The bucket was filled to the brim with snickers, paydays, kitkats, starbursts, cookies, chips, and m&m's. We took a break, and enjoyed the sweet treats put there by past thru-hikers. We met a section hiker there who told us that there was a forecast of snow or rain at the very least for the coming days. By the temperature of the day and the lingering clouds, it looks daunting. It was very cold, making the hike difficult. Hopefully today's temperature is not an indication of how the rest of Washington will be. We sure are glad that our jumping has put us up here sooner than the herd of hikers who may have an early winter to face.

1900 miles. Woohoo!!
Well...almost 1900 miles, enough to call it at 1900 and enjoy the whisky that Jacob (Psycho's old boss) gave him. One mini bottle each. Today we also enjoyed many of the treats provided to us by Kristine N. Kristine is an old friend of Psycho's, he met shortly after his first thru-hike attempt. Thank you Jacob and Kristine.

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A Hard Day

Day 129-August 20th
Destination: MM 2202ish
Miles: 27.5
Cumulative Miles: 1878

Today was a very hard day.

We started with a climb of roughly 1600 feet, only to descend 2200 feet and turn around to climb 3200 feet. Oregon made us soft, and arduous climbing like this is unfamiliar to us.

We woke extra early with the intention of covering 30-32 miles, and before half the day was done we realized that would be near impossible. By four we realized we a had a "snowballs chance..."

Any way we cut it, it looks as though we won't be able to make the necessary mileage to get to a road to head back to Cascade Locks for PCT days. This is disappointing, but acceptable.

Tomorrow has some more climbs, but not nearly as bad. We did get our first view of Mt. Adams late in the day, which was pretty much the highlight of the day.

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Up Up Up into Washington

Day 128-August 19th
Destination: Rock Creek
Miles: 19.5
Cumulative Miles: 1850.5

We slept under the stars last night, and we're doing the same tonight. The lack of mosquitoes and flies is nice, but we don't fully expect it to last, as we'll be heading towards a lake basin soon enough.

After waking later and slower than desired, we drove down to Cascade Locks where we had a large breakfast at Char Burger. While there, we bumped into "The Orange Hat Crew", originally three, now two, thru-hikers noted for their orange hats. We talked briefly with them during breakfast.

Then we packed our gear into our packs, and started our walk. The Columbia Gorge is the lowest point on the entire Pacific Crest Trail, which inevitably means our hike out would be climbing. First, however, we had to walk across the Bridge of the Gods. Originally there was a land bridge across the Columbia river here, but it has since collapsed into the water, and now a massive steel bridge arcs across the water.

Unfortunately for us, there is no pedestrian walkway, so we were forced to walk in the drive aisle on steel grate which seemed to be spaced just close enough to walk across, but just far enough to give a little vertigo to the pedestrian user. Throw in a little famous Columbia Gorge wind, and passing semi's, and you have the recipe for an unnerving road walk. Fortunately, we passed over with no incident.

Our hike started off relatively flat, and in one mile we hit the official low point of the PCT before beginning our 3000 foot climb up past and around Table Mountain which from a distance looks like a layered cake dusted in cocoa and sprinkled with trees.

We took a quick lunch at a saddle before descending roughly eight miles to Rock Creek, where we chose to camp for the night. We only hike 19.5 miles, but we didn't start until after 11am. This push to Snoqualmie will be difficult.


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