My oldest son suggested a backpacking adventure for after he took his Bar exam, so we'd been planning one for about 9 months. Our original plan was the Wonderland Trail which circumnavigates Mt Rainier, but that is on a lottery for the most part, and we didn't get drawn. Our plan B was Section J of the Pacific Crest Trail which has been on my bucket list for quite awhile. It is the stretch of the PCT between Snoqualmie and Stevens Passes, and we planned to do it northbound taking 7 days and averaging about 11 miles a day. We ended up doing about 54 of the planned 75 miles and ascended a cumulative total of over 11,000 ft in 5 days.
Day 1, we weighed our packs in at 36 and 38 lbs, and my husband drove us up to Snoqualmie Pass in the morning so we could get a nice early start. It was a misty, cloudy day, and a perfect temperature to hoist our backpacks onto our backs and head up the trail.
This stretch wound through the woods at a gradual climb up to end up hiking along a ridge, still gradually climbing, winding past Red Mountain and to Kendall Katwalk. I have hiked to the Katwalk quite a few times and love this part.
We saw quite a few marmots and pikas, a profusion of wildflowers, and beautiful teal blue alpine lakes far below the ridge we were staying on. This day I saw the only deer of the trip, and it was across a valley on a neighboring slope of wildflowers.
We camped that night at Joe Lake. Usually there is a water source near the campsites marked on the map, but this time the lake was at an inaccessible 400 ft below the ridge we were camped on. The pools that we could see might normally be there this time of year were dry, and we had to filter water from what was left of one. Amazing what a filter can do.
We were a bit sore, but expected that, and turned in for the night in good spirits.
Day 2 carried us up onto Chikamin Ridge and around the crest to stun with views of Parkland Lakes, the large Spectacle Lake, and a beautiful waterfall.
Most of the day was in the sun, which had warmed considerably, and there were long stretches of loose rock. The last part of the day was a seemingly never-ending descent through an old burn. It was beautiful with fireweed and some other wildflowers blooming among the stark charred white tree trunks. It was also hot and the descent confirmed our suspicion that while our broken-in hiking boots and tested socks with liners had passed our long day hike tests, they were not working well for this longer trek. Ouch!
We also had learned a lesson with water, having camped with a less than ideal water source that first night, and not passing much accessible water the first half of the 2nd day. After that we stayed much more alert to how much water we had, how much we would need, and made sure we got it when we could.
There was a pass (I think this was the 2nd day) from which we could see Mt Baker to the north and Mt Rainier to the south. Beautiful!
We met a lot of nice people on the trail throughout - section hikers, day hikers and several through hikers heading southbound from Canada to Mexico. Almost everyone was eager to stop and say hi, find out about where each other were heading from and to, where they might find water in the direction they were going, good campsites, bug conditions, etc. We camped that night at Lemah Meadow. There was a river running through and we totally scored with some makeshift benches in the campsite we found.
Day 3 found us hiking along nicely graded, long switchbacks up through the woods, then the subalpine, and then along the Escondido Ridge. The views were sublime, and we saw more pikas, marmots, ground squirrels and chipmunks. The wildflowers varied depending on the ecosystem and elevation we were walking through and it was just beautiful. We also talked about the possibility of ending our section early - both our feet were looking pretty bad. Blisters were not as much of a problem for me, but my pinky toenails were both purple and the sides of my big toes were a combination of pain and numbness.
This was the longest day, switchbacking the 2nd half of the day down off of Escondido Ridge and into the Waptus River valley for a total of just under 14 miles. We camped near the Waptus River, and we were both more interested in getting into our tents than we were in eating dinner to replace the calories we'd burned. We did a good job of encouraging each other to make sure no one missed meals and stayed hydrated though. Two more separate hikers moved into the space adjoining ours at different points as we were zipping in for the night and they broke firewood and chatted loudly into the darkness. Their headlamps kept lighting up the tents so finally Bradley asked them to please quit strobe-lighting his tent and keep it down a little.
We had agreed that Day 3 we could pick trail names for each other and we were both allowed one veto. My trailname is Waterstop, as I used getting a sip of water as a nice reason to pause my sore feet on the trail, and also I was always nervous about finding water sources where we would need them. Bradley is Storytime because he kept me entertained with stories of his classes, things he learned, the book he was reading, and even fables he made up on the spot.
Credit to Bradley for almost all the pics of me and the two of us together! : )
