Mon. July 18    Miles today: 26.7     Total so far: 1,218.5

It was a very warm morning when we got up at 5:00 am–55 degrees already!  Wow!  We walked a little while along Blowout Mountain before reaching a ridge with great views in both directions–on one side, Mt. Rainier, and on the other side a large, beautiful valley.  We had a nice breakfast break there, enjoying the views and the morning breeze.  After breakfast, Bill spent some time doing stretches.  He is still battling with plantar fasciitis, which makes his feet really hurt until he can get them stretched and warmed up.  His favorite stretch is to stand on slanted ground (no shortage of that around here!) and lean forward on his trek poles, while keeping his heels down.

Finally we headed on, often hiking through former clearcuts in various “regrowth stages”.  At Tacoma Pass, we met two nice older guys–NoboSteve and his 74-year-old friend, “Plodder.”  Plodder had been hiking with NoboSteve since Chinook Pass, but had simply “run out of steam” and now they were waiting for “Mrs. Plodder” to come pick him up.  We thought it was great that a 74 year old could go that far!  We hurried on for two more miles, aiming for a creek that would be our first water source in 14 miles.  but what a disappointment!  The creek was muddy and yucky.  Sigh.  Out came the water filter, and Bill patiently pumped.  Packs back on, we headed out, and just around the next bend of trail was THE CREEK we’d been looking for, with lots of nice, clear, clean water.  GRRRR! 

Now we were headed for Stampede Pass weather station (our next water source) where we’d also get to see a real “weather array.”  We were not disappointed.  Jacque, the weather technician lady who runs the place, wasn’t home, but there was her cute house with a faucet by the back door where thru-hikers are welcome to her cold, delicious well water.  She has a box near the faucet with a hiker register, information about life at Stampede Pass (deep snow in winter–she gets in and out of her house through the second story window) and a copy of a longdistance hiker newsletter that made for interesting reading as we sat in the shade of the house eating Snickers and drinking cold well water.  Before we left, we looked at the weather array and wondered what all those instruments were.

On we went into a very hot afternoon, through alternate clearcut and forest, for 8 more miles to where there was a pretty cascade right by the trail, where we got more water and washed ourselves, too!  When we stopped for our peanut butter and cracker supper, NoboSteve passed by with a cheery hello.  A couple of hours later, when we reached Twilight Lake (where we’d planned to camp), we found there was no way to get to the lake.  The shoreline all the way around was either dense bushes or swamp.  So we mushed on for another half mile or so to where the PCT crossed a dirt/gravel road and camped there.  We were so tired that all we wanted to do was crash, but the mosquitoes were out in force, which meant having to set up the net tent.  A gentle wind began to blow as we crawled into our sleeping bags, grateful to God for helping us pass the 1,200 mile mark today!  And I continue to be grateful that my shoulder feels fine!

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!