A very cold 38 degree morning, but clear skies! It was “walk through the huckleberry bushes day” all day— tall ones, short ones, green ones, turning-red ones and still NO berries! First thing in the morning, we had a couple of river crossings of glacier melt off Mt. Adams. One was an easy rockhop, but the Adams River was trickier and I got one foot wet in the icy water. Ow! The poor foot (which had already been stuck into cold wet socks and shoes earlier in the morning) was not happy!

But at breakfast we found a big glacier-polished rock in full sun with an awesome view of Mt. Adams, and all of me (including the foot) felt much better! Down from Mt. Adams we went, enjoying views of Mt. Rainier as well (a special privilege–Rainier is so often shrouded in clouds).  But we had to keep moving–it was still cold, and in the shade the ground was frozen, with frost still white on the plants and ice crystals in every puddle.  It was so cold that when we reached the famous Lava Spring, we didn’t stop for a drink as we did in 2005–it was just too cold to be drinking icy spring water.  Brrrr!

We finally got to a road, and I admit to fervently hoping there might be a trail angel food cache there, because we are on short rations right now.  In an effort to save on pack weight for this long stretch, I cut our food to a minimum– but then we didn’t make as many miles as we’d planned on.  Now we are definitely running low!  But bummer–no cache!   Oh well.  We hurried through a “lake district” full of pretty little ponds and lakes, but well-populated with mosquitoes, before beginning a long climb up to the top of a ridge where the PCT then circumnavigates a huge valley. Much of this part of the trail involved pushing through knee and thigh-high huckleberry bushes hanging over the trail.  And some of it was down IN the valley, which was very boggy and mosquitoe-y.  We turned on the afterburners to get out of there as fast as we could.

But we still had nice views of Mt. Adams, and across the valley, we could see the mountains of Goat Rocks!  The afternoon turned out very warm (Ahhh! It sure felt good!) and we made it all the way to Walupt Creek and found a nice campsite on a knoll. The wind was picking up and clouds were rolling in, so we set up the tarp carefully.  Looks like it will be another cold night, but Goat Rocks tomorrow!

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: In a valley near the Anduin and Gilrain rivers

Tags: Adams River, Goat Rocks, Mt. Adams, Potato Butte, Walupt Creek