A Cold Wet Night

Trail mile 2325.7 - 2344.4 = 18.7 trail miles 

Elevation 5755- 4812

I am greeted by a buck deer as I crawled out of my tent this morning. He doesn't move away as I crossed his small meadow to retrieve my bear vault. He must be used to campers in the area.  Hikers this far north must be getting weary or lazy. I sleep in and don't leave camp until after 7am, but I am still one of the first ones on the trail. Some were just crawling out of their tents as I hit the trail, and I wave as I hike past. The morning started with a steep climb up to the ridge from the lake. It was about 48 degrees, perfect for climbing without over heating. It was a beautiful morning with great views of Mt Rainier.  Later, I will have a long downhill section, ending up the day at a lower elevation than where I started.

Fog settled on Sheep Lake as I hike out in the morning.

Good morning as the sun comes up.

Wildflowers along the trail.

I'm actually looking down on the clouds as I hike up.

At the top of one pass near Crystal Ski Resort, I had cell service, so I gave Marv a call. 

Looking back at the trail I just climbed up.

I turned around to see Mt. Rainier behind me again.

I feel like I'm on top of the world.

Getting even higher.

Looking down at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort

I stop in a shady area for lunch.  A few minutes later, a hiker I met yesterday, "Mama Bear" plots down to join me.  She tells me she is from a very small town in northern Idaho near Lewiston.  As an Idaho native, it is nice to meet another Idahoan.  Shortly after, another hiker, "Boombox" joins us.  He owns a construction company and is from Mount Lake Terrace, a Seattle suburb next to the one we lived in before heading out in our RV.  He is hiking with his younger brother, "Cans". We discuss all the elk tracks on the trail, plus there was fresh urine you could smell long before you got to it. Mama Bear asks if I had run into some hunters earlier, who were doing research for hunting season.  They have a scope and had seen some bull elk earlier that morning. With all the signs that were in the area, I was hoping for a sighting, but I didn’t see any. We headed out together, but as usually happens, we get spread out according to our different hiking paces (I get passed and take up the rear position, as usual).  We then meet up again at a spring as we all filled up with water. I plan to go to a tent site area near a spring 16.9 miles from where I camped last night. As we swap trail information with several hikers going south, they tell us that the place were Mama Bear and I planned to camp was in a bad burn area. I figured I would have to camp before or after the burn. Turns out that I hiked through burn area all afternoon. It was spooky and depressing, not to mention that the trail was black burned ash and sand.  With every step the black powder puffed up, covering my shoes.  I had to crawl over, or hike around fallen trees that were black. I passed the tenting area where I had planned to stay the night. I didn’t want to put down my pack or pitch my tent on the black soot. The fog was so bad that I couldn't see more than 5-10 feet in front of me most of the time.

Saw several old burn areas during the day, where new growth was coming back.

My favorite meal - crackers and tuna or salmon.  On the left are my solar panels getting full sun while I eat.

Downhill hike after lunch, ahead of me are Mama Bear, Boombox and further down
the trail (at the far right of this pic) is Cans.

Burn area before the fog rolled in.

I hiked an additional 2 miles more than planned to get out of the burn area and camped in an undesignated area. I knew several hikers were hiking to a cabin used by snowmobile riders in the winter. However, it was 2.6 miles further and I was getting cold and rained on. I decided it would be better to stop for the night and get in my tent to warm up. Now I remember why we moved out of Washington.  It is a damp, cold state.

Storm clouds gathering.

Getting very foggy, cold and damp.

Foggier still.  I didn't get pictures in the real black burn area. Too busy hiking fast to get out of there.

Made my own camp spot by clearing sticks and stones before I got completely drenched.  This was taken in the morning before I broke camp, right after I retrieved my food from 200 feet away.  Everything is soak n' wet!