Mon. July 11     Miles today: 25.4      Total so far: 1,075.2             Washington Section H

It rained off and on all night, but we were fine under our tarp and comfortable on the soft hay.  Just as we were preparing to get up, it stopped raining, and a nearby coyote started making some very weird howls.  Was he sad or glad??  No way to tell.  But we felt GLAD, because it was so much easier to pack up with no rain!

As we started out at 5:30, the clouds were very dark and gloomy, but low on the horizon we could see a gleam of sunrise!  That was VERY encouraging to us thru-hikers who had just put on our last pair of DRY socks!  We still had to do a lot of walking through wet huckleberry bushes hanging over the trail (and some drippy hazelnuts, too),  but we were wearing rainpants, so we didn’t care.

All during the morning, the clouds were still very gray, but there was no more rain.  We passed various lakes and roads, with an occasional gleam of sun into the forest.  We cheered for each gleam, even though at first they faded quickly.  By noon,  the sun was definitely having fun playing peek-a-boo with the clouds, and we finally got a glimpse of Mt. Adams, wreathed in clouds.  We stopped to cook, and most important, to dry our gear, at the junction of Road 23 and the PCT.  Some SOBOs were there, too, waiting for a ride to town.  They said a lot of hikers hitch a ride into town here, to save carrying so much food.  Hmmm!  Maybe we should have planned for that, too.  Oh, well.

While WE were enjoying our mochas and freezedried turkey tetrazzini, the BEES were enjoying the clover flowers all around us, and the pretty BUTTERFLIES were enjoying….our wet, stinky socks we’d hung up to dry.  Pheeeeew!  Those socks smelled awful to us–did they smell sweet to a thirsty butterfly?  Meanwhile, the SOBOs got a ride to town.

After lunch we began the long climb up into Mt. Adams Wilderness, and met some Forest Service trailworkers.  They were trying to create more water drainage channels.  Needless to say, we thanked them “MUCHLY”!  Gradually the trail became less steep, and more alpine-looking, and finally, there it was–Mt. Adams!  The PCT joins the “Round the Mountain” trail here, and we spent the rest of the afternoon doing just that.  We loved the ever-changing views of Mt. Adams and the huge, interesting rock formations by the trail, plus wildflowers, of course.  No matter where we looked, it was beautiful.  The only problem was–mossies.  Arrrgh!  I had to put on “full mossie gear” in order to eat supper.

At sunset, we found a nice campsite on soft grass in a stunted gove of mountain hemlocks.  Needless to say, we put up the net tent under the tarp!  Bill was very tired because of so much uphill today.  He is not able to hike at his usual speed, and his feet are aching.  He finally decided that the ache in his feet was plantar fasciitis, which means he needs to really stretch his feet and lower legs, and he figured out a trick to help with this.  He took one of my trek poles (he doesn’t have any of his own), put his foot in the loop on the handle, and pulled on the pole to stretch his foot.  It seemed to really help.

The sun went down, and I was almost finished writing up my notes for the day, when suddenly something crashed into the net tent right next to me. It was a tiny, brown, furry creature, a bit bigger than a mouse, and it looked quite shocked, for a second, before it recovered itself and went BOUNDING (not running) away across the grass.  I had no idea what it was.  (Found out later that it was a kangaroo rat.  They usually live on the OTHER side of Mt. Adams, where it’s much drier.  I guess this one was lost??).  Anyway, I finished up and snuggled into the sleeping bag.  Bill was already zonked out.  I really prayed that he would feel better soon.  We are not able to hike as fast, because he is so tired all the time and doesn’t feel like himself.

Sun. July 10    Miles today: 23:7       Total so far: 1,-49.8        Washington Section H

The rain began in earnest a little while after we went to bed last night.  I was so tired that I just conked out, but Bill got up in the middle of the night in the rain to tighten the guy lines of the tarp because it had started  sagging.  What a hero!

We packed up and headed out in the dark gray morning as the rain fell steadily, and soon passed several SOBO thru-hikers who were just starting to get up.  “Nice damp morning!” was their cheery greeting.  It seemed like the woods were full of PCT SOBOs.  Well, damp it was–actually WET–all the many bushes along the trail were soaking wet, so very quickly my pants were, too.  Brrrr!  I was cold, and with a 45 degree temperature, that was not good.  I belatedly put on my rain pants before we stopped and scarffed down our cold granola breakfast.  Even though I ate as fast as I could, by the time I finished the last bit, I was starting to shiver. Time to hike on and get warm!

A bit later, we reached a landmark–the “Big Lava Flow.”  Interesting!  All the lava flows we’ve seen so far are barren except for a few “bonsai-ed” tres.  This one was very mossy, ferny, and huckleberried.  I guess we really are in Washington!  Big Lava Flow was a lot of fun to walk through, even in the rain, and eventually we arrived at Crest Campground, which had the most AMAZING picnic tables I have ever laid eyes on.  They were entirely made of split LOGS and I think I can say that they are the STRONGEST tables I’ve ever seen! 

Lovely Washington view

As the rain continued, the PCT got more and more muddy and puddly–we had to be careful not to slip and fall.  All morning we were meeting SOBOs and even some “regular” backpackers.  We were determined to eat lunch at Blue Lake, but the climb up and over Berry Mountain took a lot longer than we expected.  At the top were supposed to be “great views”.  Yeah, right!  Our view was “trees in cloud”–no Mt. Adams or Mt. Rainier.  Just clouds.  We finally reached Blue Lake, very hungry and very ready for our late hot lunch.  Even though we were right by the lake, clouds and rain made visibility so poor that sometimes we couldn’t even see the other side! 

But we needed that midday break.  My shoulders and hips were really tired from a pack heavy with so much food.  Bill was also groaning about his heavy pack.  Problem: if I skimp on food, our packs are lighter and we go faster, but on a long haul like this one (6 days), soon poor Bill is slowing down and saying he’s so tired he can hardly lift his legs, and I am feeling hungry all the time, which is no fun.  But if I bring plenty of food (as I did for this part of the trail), Bill is much more lively, and I’m not so hungry, but we’re both miserable from the packweight.  I don’t know what to do about this, except to console myself with thinking, “Hang in there!  With every meal, the pack gets lighter!” 

Into the afternoon we went, on through still rainy but very pretty Indian Heaven Wilderness.  Besides all the lakes, what I liked best about it were all the open green meadows we walked through, after going through so much forest.  Of course there are lots of huckleberry bushes, and berry-picking trails are everywhere, but no ripe huckleberries yet.  In the afternoon we met two large groups of backpackers, and one group AMAZED me–it contained six grownups, two kids, and two BABIES–one in a jogging stroller covered with plastic, and one tiny baby in a “front pack” draped with plastic.  They were moving steadily along the trail in the continuing RAIN.  Wow, those folks were brave.  We didn’t take our kids on a backpack trip till they were three years old and could at least carry their own tiny pack (with snacks and a stuffed animal!).

Finally it was 5:30 and time for our tortilla and cheese supper.  While we were eating, suddenly the rain stopped, then the sun shone for about 30 seconds.  We were cheering and yelling, “More sun, Lord, more, more!”  However, it turned out God’s answer was “Hang on, be patient”, because the clouds came right back again, and so did the rain, though it was much lighter.

As we pushed on after supper, we met a SOBO who said that Search & Rescue were out looking for a lost hiker, and that they were parked at a road up ahead.  But when we got to the road, we saw no sign of search staff vehicles.  We hoped and prayed that they had found the hiker they were looking for.  However, soon it was time for US to be searching for a campsite.  We didn’t figure it would be a problem–we were in Sawtooth Huckleberry FLAT.  According to the rules in the guidebook, to the EAST of the road, the berries are for for Indians ONLY, and west is for the rest of us. 

 Well, after looking around, we ended up camped on the Indian side in what we called a “car pow-wow circle.”  There was a huge rock campfire circle in the middle of a large flat area, with tire tracks that seemed to indicate sort of a “tailgate party ’round the campfire”.  It also seems that the Indians must enjoy dirtbiking/motocross–there were a lot of those tracks, too. 

But best of all was that somebody had spread a lot of nice clean hay over in one corner.  The rain had stopped, and clouds were starting to clear in the east.  We set up our tarp and groundcloth on the hay.  Oh boy, did it feel good–soft and comfortable!  We had a great night’s sleep!