Sun. July 17     Miles today: 23.8    Total so far: 1,191.8

Well, the Lord wasted no time in answering my query about my sore shoulder!  We woke up to a brrr, cold!!but cloudless morning, and as I was shivering quickly out of the silk longjohns I sleep in, the thought occurred to me that I have lost so much weight tht even when I cinch up the waistbelt on my pack as tight as it will go, it’s still too loose…hmmm!  Once I was dressed and packed up, I checked to be sure, and yes indeed, my waistband was so loose that the packweight was hanging off my shoulders instead of being transferred to my hips.  The tough ol’ left shoulder didn’t care–it was all muscled up from years of carrying a purse strap, but the right shoulder was screaming in pain.  The obvious solution was to make myself artificially “fatter” by tying something (jacket, whatever) around my waist, and cinch waistbelt over THAT.

And it worked!  I had NO pain in my shoulder from that time on!  As we hiked off into the cloudless morning, circumnavigating Norse Peak, I was busy THANKING God for helping me (duh!) to see the solution to my shoulder problem.  With the Peak behind us, we headed down into Big Crow Basin, keeping an eye out for a spring below the trail.  Hurray, we spotted it–and it was well worth looking for–cold, pure, delicious water for breakfast and for hiking on.  After breakfast at the spring, the PCT took us back up on a ridge again, and we could just see Mt. Rainier peeking out from behind another mountain.  The trail here literally weaves along the crests of ridges–first one side, then the other.  Mostly this meant we were either contouring or climbing on a very steep mountainside with views of a vast valley system below, and lots of pretty forested saddles.  And to the north, on the horizon, we could see the jagged, dramatic looking peaks that would be our next destination.

I must say that one of the things I really appreciated about the trail so far in this section is that there were no fallen trees lying across the trail that we had to climb over or go around.  And somebody–a modern Paul Bunyan??–has been clearing trees off the trail not with the usual chain saw, but with an AXE!  I took a picture of one of the large logs he “axed” to clear it off our pathway.  I just wished that he’d had a buddy with him to put up more PCT logos at all the trail junctions.  The SOBOs we met warned us that often in Washington, the PCT is poorly marked.  Well, they weren’t kidding.  From about 11:00 am this morning and for several hours after that, I was very anxious about whether we were on or off the PCT.  We wasted a LOT of time at “mystery trail junction”, reading the guidebook and studying maps, puzzled over which trail was which.  Twice we ended up having to backtrack and try again.  Oh well, at least we had a VERY PRETTY forest to be confused in!

Our goal was to have lunch at the Mike Urich Cabin in Government Meadow, but it ended up being a very late lunch because we’d lost so much time wandering in the woods.  And besides the “Which trail is the PCT?” problem, the trail itself turned into a miles-long mudhole, from horses walking on a very wet surface, that slowed us down some more and made our shoes absolutely filthy.  We were SO glad to see the big green meadow and welcoming cabin!

The Mike Urich Cabin was built as a labor of love in memory of Mike (1888-1957) by his friends.  Apparently he used to take care of the trails and forest in the area.  The workmanship on the cabin is awesome–every log was so perfectly fitted that no chinking was needed.  Inside, there are benches, a comfortable sleeping loft, and a nice woodstove.  I was very happy to cook dinner on top of that stove!  From the PCT register on the windowsill, we learned that Pika was just ahead of us, and he spent the night here and loved the place.  Well, we did, too!  After eating our hot meal on the porch with a beautiful meadow view, Bill washed the dishes while I swept the cabin (it needed it!).

Back on the PCT, we spent a little more time walking through the “government forest” ( which I would describe as “dark and deep”) before coming out into sunny, privately owned tree farms.  The tree farm area reminded me of a patchwork quilt of former clearcuts, all in various stages of regrowing, and I must say, regrowing beautifully.  The young trees looked shining, vigorous and healthy.  We enjoyed the “patchwork views” and the happy young trees as we climbed up and around Pyramid Peak.

Then we came to a sorry sight.  Ahead of us lay a large, very dead, very barren former forest.  Afew scraggly little bushes were the only sign of life.  Obviously there’d been a fire.  “When was the fire?” we wondered, and a little while later we found the answer on a large sign put up by the Boy Scouts.  Turned out that the fire was in 1988–SEVENTEEN YEARS ago!  And the forest still consisted of deathly gray tree skeletons and a couple of struggling bushes.  We were outraged.  After walking through the vigorous and lively young  forests in the tree farms, this was just awful to see.  I just do NOT “get it” with the environmentalists who think that dead forest is good and clearcuts are bad.  Bill and I are conservationists–we think the dead forest should have been replanted and lovingly cared for, to protect the soil and water.  Bill commented that probably this forest was one of those that had a sign “No picking up down wood” and that the dead wood load on the forest floor had built up to the point where when the fire came through it created such an inferno that the soil was sterilized and all life was destroyed.  We chalked this up to “another evidence for the blind foolishness of the environmentalists.”

But we had to push on, because we were headed for a spring which would be our last chance at water for the next 14 miles.  The spring turned out to be wonderful–a five inch wide, vigorous flow of ice cold, delicious water.  We drank a lot, filled our water bottles, and washed OURSELVES, too!  From there, the PCT travelled along a ridge for many miles, occasionally crossing dirt or gravel roads. These crossings were often marked with a rock duck, hooray!  We also got to walk through a recent clearcut that was still pretty messy, but it was full of life!  No dead forest here–it will regrow quickly.

As the sun went lower and lower, though, we became a bit concerned about where to camp.  There were just no flat places!  It took us till 8:00 pm to find a tiny level spot under some trees.  No tarp or net tent tonight–it was clear, warm, and NO mosquitoes!  Best of all, my shoulder did not hurt all day, and for that I am very grateful to God for helping me see what  to do!

St. July 16    Miles today: 22.8        Total so far: 1,168         Washington Section I

We woke up to gray skies and 50 degrees, very grateful that it was not raining!  The day’s hike began with more climbing up to another very pretty meadowed area.  (Sounds like I’m getting blase about “pretty meadows.”  No way!  I love these open areas where we can see views and flowers!)  Then it was MORE uphill, right up into the clouds, and we couldn’t see much, which was a bummer because we were supposed to be getting gorgeous closeup views of Mt. Rainier.  Oh well, at least there were lots of flowers right by the trail!

We met “Ruquito” and “Squirrel”, a 64 and 63 year old couple who are also thru-hiking the PCT.  They did the Mexican border to Walker Pass, then went to Canada and were hiking south to Seiad Valley, CA, before going back to the High Sierra and north back to Seiad.  They were a lot of fun to talk to.  We all wondered together, “At our age, are we crazy to be doing this?  Will our poor old 60-plus year old bodies hold up under the strain?”  We found that “R & S” have also discovered we can do similar miles-per-day as the “kids” (20-something year old thru-hikers) by starting VERY early and putting in a very long day.  And both R & S and ourselves are grateful to our VERY patient children who take mom and dad’s handwritten journals and patiently transcribe them for the Internet! 

Shortly after we said goodbye, it DID begin to rain, but only for a couple of hours.  We reached Anderson Lake and got wonderful, delicious Washington water from a creek a little while later.  Then to our great delight, the clouds began to lift, and we could see SCENERY!  And it was awesome scenery!  Our lunch break was at Dewey Lake, on the beach.  Wish I could have gone swimming, but it was still windy and cold, while the sky was swirling with clouds that looked like more rain. 

As we hiked out from the lake, we began to meet crowds of weekend backpackers and dayhikers, since we were only three miles from Highway 410.  Two of those miles were a long uphill, and at the top of  the hill was a viewing area–well worth stopping at!  We could see Dewey Lake WAY down below, and joined a big group of excited Japanese tourists who were also oohing, aahing, and taking pictures! The last mile before the highway was a wildflower “heaven”–just gorgeous.  And at the highway was a fun surprise–the impressive log footbridge over the roadway also doubles as the entrance sign for Mt. Rainier National Park!

The PCT then began a climb up the north side of impressive Chinook Pass, following the footsteps of the gold and silver prospectors who were headed for Sourdough Pass.  At the top we were greeted with blasts of wind and an impressive view of a whole vast valley below.  Coming down through the rocks, we spotted a fat marmot, the first we’ve seen on this trip!  

The rest of the afternoon we spent going up and down to one pass after another–Bear Gap, Blue Bell Pass, and Bullion Pass.  Adding to the fun was we could finally SEE  Mt. Rainier in all its glory!  At sundown, we stopped to camp just short of Scout Pass.  It had been a very tough day hiking-wise, with so much uphill going, but my biggest problem was that my right shoulder REALLY was hurting.  It had been bothering me more and more for several days, but today I could not go for more than 45 minutes or an hour before having to apologetically ask Bill, “Could we stop for a few minutes?  My shoulder really hurts.”  I would take my pack off, wait 10 minutes or so till the pain went away, then go on till I had to stop again because the pain was just too much.  Motrin did  not help at all.  We could have done more miles today if I didn’t have to keep stopping so much.  So added to my “evening prayer list” as the golden light of a beautiful sunset was pouring over our campsite was, “Please, Lord,  show me what to do about my shoulder.”  Went to sleep listening to the wind rustling the branches of the little grove of trees overhead, and trusting that God did indeed have an answer for me.