Mon. Aug. 1      Miles today: 26.1        Total so far: 1,473.5             Washington Section L

There were lots of clouds this morning, which made for a beautiful sunrise, and I had a bit of fun taking pictures of it!  But the lovely clouds also boded rain, so we made sure to pack our rainjackets where we could easily grab them!

The first project of the day was “get water!”  We didn’t even have enough for breakfast!  So we contoured on the PCT around Tatie Peak, with scary dropoffs at times, but a great view, then through a gap and down a side trail to Meadow Campground, where there were supposed to be a couple of creeks, and there were–but barely running.  It was hard to collect water from such tiny trickles.  Once we had enough water, we ate breakfast, and quickly–it was cloudy, windy and chilly.  What a switch from yesterday!

For the last several days, Bill has been having real problems with one foot.  As far as we could tell, it was from the roughness of the trail, and/or maybe the hot weather. It was swollen and sore.  But today it was a lot better, so Bill retied his shoes a bit tighter before we left the campground.

Back to the PCT we went and on to Harts Pass, stopping to sign the trail register at the little ranger station.  All the Nobo’s like us had signed with some variation on “Canada, here I come!”  Next came a very long but fairly level mountainside contour–it was really nice to have less up ‘n down!  Then came a whole succession of passes–Buffalo Pass, wide Windy Pass, around Tamarack Peak, then to Foggy Pass and Jim Pass.  We met a couple out backpacking with two sweet Labrador dogs, and leapfrogged with them through much of the day.  At Shaw Creek, one dog ws lyng IN the creek, soaking its paws!

Meanwhile, the sky grew cloudier and darker, and looked more and more like rain.  As I was cooking dinner at noontime, it actually did rain for a little while.  No problem–that’s what umbrellas are for!  After dinner came a long downhill (with views) to Holman Pass, followed by a long uphill (with flowers!) to Woody Pass.  When we stopped to rest at a big trail camp along the way, some horse packers went by.  From there we climbed steadily higher and higher, till suddenly the trail switchbacked down into a valley.  The former PCT route in this section contoured over to the pass, but to do that it had to go across almost entirely talus/scree steep slopes, and was very hard to maintain plus dangerous in early season.  But the “new” trail is VERY rocky, so rocky that Bill’s foot began to hurt so badly that he could barely walk.  Taking a supper break and lots of Motrin did not help much, and he was still hobbling when we tried to go on.

Things did not look good.  So close to Canada, and now this!  But we came to a small creek, where Bill soaked his foot and cut up the empty cardboard box from our supper crackers to make himself more arch support and foot protection inside his shoe.  He decided that he could make it to the top of the pass.  Then at the top, he felt he could go on, so we ended up doing two more miles and camped in a flat meadow area  way below the trail, with a gorgeous sunset view.  Finding that campsite was a bit of an answer to prayer–there were nothing but steep mountainsides everywhere.  It ws very windy and cold, but the clouds were clearing.