The Search For Water

8/8/13

PCT mile. 2363.75 - 2379.75  16 mi

Elev @5000-@4700

After gunshots last night we approached the road cautiously but didn't see anyone. We'd situated ourselves for a big climb this morning, we were rested and fresh with a cool morning that would help keep us from overheating, chugging water that was scarce. We were climbing about 900 ft in 1.5 miles to the top of Blowout Mt. where there was a 360 view if you wanted to do an easy off trail climb. We chose to do it.  There was Mt Rainier and all the mountains and hills in between that we'd climbed and to the north what we think are the Cascade Range that we'll be hiking into next.

Downhill for 4 miles we found a stream off the trail that we had to listen for,  it was running well and we each filled a liter planning on getting more at another water source later on.  As we made our way down through a shady forest I checked my GPS for the milepost and found I had 3G service! We took 30 minutes to call family and do some chores on the phone. I always think it's odd to be sitting in the middle of nowhere and get cell service. 

Some strange markings on trees!

We passed through open sunny tracts, thankful when we were in the cool forest again, 2 water sources were nasty and unusable so we rationed our small amount of water. We marched up and around 2 buttes, not much to look at. Around one rocky outcropping  a chipmunk came out of a stump, saw me in front of him, turned tail shooting dirt from his back feet as he leaped back into his stump.  I caught sight of his tail & legs disappearing into the depths as I trudged by. It happened so fast I laughed,  glad for the distraction. We also spooked 2 grouse one that flew into a tree where Peggy could zoom in for a photo.  It looked the size of a small chicken!

We met a young guy who'd started 2 days before from Snoqualmie Pass going to Tuolome Meadows in Ca.  We asked him if he'd noticed the spring in a boggy meadow that we were hoping to find and he said no. He was carrying 3 liters and probably didn't feel the need to be looking.  We warned him of the 2 unusable water sources and left him to study his maps. In 1.5 miles we found our boggy meadow, squished down among the moss and eventually did get nice cool water out of it.  We went about 50 yards more and found an unused road that we set up camp on.  We had lots of elevation gain today and our feet are sore, but also lots of elevation loss, the usual for Washington.