Miles Hiked 126.3
PCT Mile 156.8
Elevation 5,433 feet
Miles Hiked Today 11.0
I slept in. When I woke this morning it was already quite bright. Usually it’s still semi dark. When I checked my watch it was 6:00 a.m. . That was certainly a good night’s sleep. Probably something that I’ve needed for some time.
So now I have to rush to close up camp and get on the move. I needed to make some miles today and getting a late start does not help. Unfortunately, nothing ever goes quickly, and I wasn’t ready to go until 8:00 a.m. . The thing that really slowed me down was my backpack was in disarray in the tent. I had rushed the day before to get everything in and out of the rain. It was all wet, and that does not make it easy to pack things up.
When I exited the tent, I was pleased to see that the puddle under my tent was gone. My little engineering project the day before to remove the water under the tent was successful.
So the last thing to pack up was my wet tent. Want a mess. And then I was off. The trail continued its ascent through out the morning. While it is never easy for me to go up, the trail was pleasantly clear of big blowdown trees and overgrown trail.
The trail opened up into a valley, and I was hiking without the benefit of tree cover, which afforded a beautiful view of the valley. It was quite striking. There was also a small traverse of snow. This is one of the areas in which I had been warned I would need spikes. It seems that the snow for the most part has melted and crossing in hiking boots was easy.
Around noon time, I reached the summit after a long climb upwards. The trail continued with some small ascents, but for the most part was much easier than parts of the trail in previous days. There was almost no overgrowth on the trail, and there were no large blowdown trees.
Due to lack of trees on the trail, I had a really beautiful view of the Northern Cascade mountains. Continuing on, I started to think about where I was going to stop for the night. The goal was a campsite that was about 3 miles ahead. That would be easy to reach and so it became my goal to finish out the day.
Just about a mile and a half from my intended campsite, I came upon a flat grassy spot with a small pond. I couldn’t resist. It was the perfect campsite. I stopped there and pitched my tent, and used the pond to wash out my socks. They’ll probably still be wet tomorrow but at least they won’t be as gross as they are today.
It wasn’t a bad day today. I would have liked to have gone further. My average day’s mileage is dropping from years before. However, this is a lot more comfortable, and I am enjoying myself more with the less mileage. Leavenworth, Washington is now 2 days away if I hike 15 miles a day or 3 days if I’m slower. I’ll get there in 3 days. Once in Leavenworth, I’ll try to get a hotel room and spend two nights in town. The town is very expensive for hotels, and I’m not sure I want to spend the money given that I still have to make my way to Trout Lake to pick up the next section of trail that I missed last year due to wildfires.
