July 12, Tues.–24.9 miles–Washington H

Tuesday, July 12th, 2005

Tues. July 12    Miles today: 24.9       Total so far: 1,100.1         Washington Section H

We woke up to gray clouds, cloud drip, and dew, but NO mosquitoes!  And since we were headed for a whole series of glacier-melt creek and river fords, I was glad to be on the trail by 5:30 am.  The earlier the better, with that type of fording!  We came to a lava flow, and I was very happy to see the fine trail going through it.  Some of the PCT footway through lava flows has been pretty bad.  we came to Mutton Creek first, where the roaring water was WHITE with glacial “flour”.   The water looked like nonfat milk.  We crossed it on a handy log.  The next creek was smaller and also had “nonfat milk” water.  Inbetween creeks, we enjoyed gorgeous early morning views of Mt. Adams, once the rising sun broke through the clouds.

We stopped to eat breakfast in a “sun-patch” sheltered by a grove of trees, when we heard a dog barking–or as it turned out, THREE dogs!  They belonged to an older couple who were camped in a meadow below the trail.  Fortunately, all they did was bark–we didn’t have to defend ourselves from indignant dogs. 

Then came more river crossings, one of which I had been worried about–the Adams River, which comes off the main glacier.  Its huge, bouldery river bed showed that it was obviously capable of going on a rampage, and from the wet sand/mud evidence we saw as we went across it, we could tell that yesterday afternoon it had been three times wider and much higher than it was when we crossed it in the early morning, on a single log.  I mention that log crossing very casually, but I still STRONGLY dislike walking across logs; Bill helps me a lot, and I am slowly getting better at it.

After that, the trail started going downhill and away from Mt. Adams.  The wildflowers–oh wow, here I go again–lupines everywhere, and buttercups, paintbrush and many others.  They brightened every turn of the trail as we wound down the mountain.  We were just coming down one wildflowery hillside, when Bill stopped in his tracks.  “Look!  Elk!” and sure enough, in a green meadow far below the trail, were some elk–but they had spotted us, too, and began to run.  But it wasn’t just a few–it was a whole HERD of elk!  We stood and watched them and I fervently wished I could get a picture, but the elk were too far away, even with the camera set to “zoom”.  We continued down the trail, which took a wide left turn, right across the direction that the elf herd had gone.  And when we got down to where the elk had been, boy, could you tell where they had run across the trail!  What a mess!  The trail was thrashed, and that wasn’t the only part the elk had messed up.  All through that “high meadow” section, elk hoofprints and elk damage were everywhere.  How about a hunter or so to thin them out?  Where we come from, the rangers at Point Reyes National Seashore thin the elk herds regularly.  We’ve watched them “at work” when we’re out hiking there.

Anyway, eventually we reached a pretty little lake with a view of Mt. Adams, followed by several miles of travelling through forest where part of it was recovering from a fire, and finally reached the famous Lava Spring, which gushes right out of a huge lava flow.  The water is very good and very cold.  We drank a lot of it and filled our water bottles before going on.  At Midway Creek, appropriately, we stopped to cook our noon dinner and air our gear.  Some SOBOs came by and we had a good chat.  We quiz all the SOBOs now regarding their experience of the PCT alternate route farther on (the PCT itself is closed there because of washed out bridges)–did they do the HIKER trail (steep, brushy, two bad river crossings) or the EQUESTRIAN trail (Forest Service roads and almost a day shorter)?  Many of the SOBOs had done the hiker trail, and said the river crossings were no worse than the Whitewater River in Southern California.  Bill and I discussed (again) what to do when we reach that part of the PCT.  We have not decided what to do.

After lunch, we began a long but gentle climb, including meeting a couple with a supercute, well-mannered little black Boston-terrier-type dog. What a hiker that little dog was on such stubby little legs!  At last we reached the ridgecrest, with a view of Goat Rocks where we will be tomorrow.  It was hard to enjoy the view, though, because we were back in the swarms of mosquitoes.  And as we went down from the ridge, the trail took us into a boggy, brushy, jungly valley, where the mossies were so bad that to eat our cracker and peanut butter supper in peace, Bill retreated into the net tent (just draped over him) and I got into “full mossie gear”.  Then we put in another couple of miles before setting up camp early near a trail junction.  We would have gone farther, but the map showed the next 4 miles contouring on a steep hillside with no place to camp, and we didn’t want to tackle that much so late in the day.  We were both very tired, and an early bedtime was very appealing to our two pairs of aching feet!  We set up the net tent under the tarp and enjoyed watching a pretty sunset through the trees in a forest full of the sweet smell of lupines.  And we cheered when we did our mileage math and discovered we’d crossed the 1,100 mile mark!

 

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