300 Mile Mark

8/16/13

PCT mile 2453.5 - 2467.5 - 15 miles

Elev 4400-4424

We slept in til 6:15 and were on the trail in clear skies by 8:15 having to wipe down my tent with a microfiber towel so I don't have to carry water weight. Everything was wet, so we put on cold wet clothes, socks&  shoes. Brrr, it was bracing and then we warmed up walking. We knew within the next 1.5 miles we'd pass our 300 mile mark so we planned a small snack celebration.

We waited until we found a sunny spot to stop and wrote it in the sand on the trail. Later a hiker named told us we'd overshot it by a mile or two but who cared as long as we were in the sun?

As we climbed out of the valley and over the pass we could look back and view  the back side of Cathedral Peak and count the last two valleys we'd hiked through including that tricky crossing, we could even see more of the snowfield that fed the river.

That pyramid shaped mountain is Cathedral Peak.

We crossed some pretty creeks as we came out to Deception Lakes, two aqua blue lakes with lots of campers. These are popular trails and we pass many section hikers who love it that we're hiking all of Washington.  You can see their minds turning over possibilities for themselves. I hope we inspire some to try a long adventure for themselves. 

This is one of the smaller Deception Lakes.

We passed through a boulder field some the size of trucks or small houses.

As we continued to climb up this one long mountainside we could look across the wide valley to the peaks on the other side and see high blue lakes just below sharp rugged peaks, it's so starkly beautiful.

There's a deep blue lake in the bowl below that peak.

We were passed by a thru hiker named Uphill who wanted to chat but couldn't stop so he asked us to hike with him. I couldn't keep up so told him to go on, we'd see him at the top where he was going to lay out his gear to dry.  He was wearing tiny shorts, the only dry clothes he had!  We got to the top and there he was everything out to dry, chatting with a hiking couple from Bellingham who we ended up talking to later on.  They offered to host us after we get to Canada on our way home,  a very nice offer but we have our own trail angel named Robin who will meet us at the border as we hike over.

We ended up at this spot above the lakes drying our stuff from the rain last night. This is Glacier Lake, what a great color!  We stayed about an hour and everything dried out. We had a snack and moved on. All the lakes in this basin are this glorious color, backed by white granite with sandy soil that's actually ground up granite rock from glacial activity.  It reminds me of the soil Robin and I had at our house in Juneau, Alaska when we lived near Mendenhall Glacier.

This was our path to Glacier Lake through the granite rocks.

This is Glacier Lake through the trees from the PCT.  We'd spent all our time drying stuff so we couldn't stop and linger like we wanted.

To get out of this basin we had to do a huge climb over many granite rock fields along this wall and over the saddle. We were captivated by these clouds over the peak.  

Many switchbacks later we crossed over the saddle and looked down on another aqua gem called Trap Lake. It was later afternoon and we hoped to make 15 miles today but the climbs were killing. 

The late sun washed out the detail but you can see switchbacks on our trail below the summit as we made our way past Trap Lake. See the PCT stretched out along the mountainside?

We both would have loved to stay here but didn't want the climb back out and it would have made our last day really long and hard.  It's so sad not to be able to linger in the most beautiful places. 

We stopped at Hope Lake, a small little pond, because we couldn't go any further.  We were 3/4 of a mile shy of our goal but we were done. Tomorrow we have 8 miles to Steven's Pass and our resupply/ rest.