Well, that weather report for “nice” turned out to be wrong.  Good thing we rigged the tarp last night hoping it would help me be warmer, because it began to rain!  (Note: I was indeed much warmer–putting the pack liner inside my sleeping bag to keep my feet warm did the trick!)  It was so cold (38 degrees) at get-up time that we decided to eat breakfast in bed!  When I sat up and started pulling the food bag next to me, out popped a mouse!   Fortunately it didn’t get much–just nibbled a corner of a Snickers bar.  The rain continued off and on all morning as we did a big climb (pushing through wet plants) up from Bumping River. We could not see anything except near the trail. But in some places, that meant fabulous wildflowers, especially on the hill above Dewey Lake.

There were a lot of dayhikers at the lake, despite the wet, cold weather. These Washington people are tough!  The clouds were so thick that we couldn’t even see the other side of the lake.  We did stop there in a dry area under some trees and cooked a hot dinner.  While we were busy with this, along came a family who stopped to talk–they were fascinated by our tiny “kitchen”.

It was 40 degrees, with some wind, and we were in thick clouds as we climbed up from the lake to the road.  When we got there, we were shocked.  The footbridge over the road, with its “Rainier National Park” sign was all smashed .  Did some big RV crash into it?  We headed up past Sheep Lake, where a little bit of sun finally broke through–enough for us to see that the clouds were just “locals.”  We kept on meeting lots of dayhikers and backpackers.  At Sheep Lake, there were a lot of people just lounging around as if it were a warm summer day.  Like I said, these Washington people are TOUGH!  We also met another PCT SOBO–he said that Billy Goat and WS Monty had advised him to flip up to Canada and hike south to finish the PCT.   Considering that it’s September now, that was very good advice.  (Though the only real sign of fall at this point is that a few plants are turning yellow, and we found a few ripe huckleberries!)

The PCT takes you from the highway at Chinook Pass up to Sourdough Pass, which is one of my favourite places on the trail. It’s like a very narrow, rocky gap with two different “worlds”, one on each side. Very dramatic and very beautiful!  After that, the trail is basically a crest walk, with the trail flipping back and forth from one side of the crest to the other.  Love the views–but brrr! We didn’t linger long in the wind and cold (the high today was 42 degrees) before heading down to Little Crow Basin where we camped in a grove of trees.  We were warm in our sleeping bags when Happy Camper and Trashbucket passed by, hiking by headlamp at 8:30 pm.   They had said something back at White Pass about needing to finish up soon, so I guess they are on a roll.

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: On the road near the River Serni.

Tags: Bumping River, Chinook Pass, Dewey Lake, Little Crow Basin, Sourdough Pass