Over I-90 to Grizzly Peak

8/18/13

PCT mile 2476-2490  - 14 mi

Elev 2476-2490

We were up at 7am & to the little cafe/post office across the street from Dinsmore's house where Mr Smith said he had coffee each morning,  if we met him there he'd take us to Steven's Pass.

When he dropped us off we walked across the walkway over I-90 and located the trail north.

Thank you, Mr Smith, for transporting hikers up and down the highway just for the joy of meeting new people! 

The walkway from Steven's Pass Ski Area to the north side of the highway that we walked over.

It was a nice level amble for about 2 miles then the trail ascended, the trail was good and well maintained and we soon turned into the valley and lost the road noise. Eventually we passed Lake Valhalla

and as we walked there was a big marmot in the trail 15 ft from us munching on flowers and greenery growing along the trail.  He wasn't concerned that we were there at all and we got to really see him close up. 

Climbing over the hill and into the next valley it began to rain so we covered our packs with our Packas and continued on.  We met lots of people out hiking, some day hikers and some partial section hikers.  We stopped at 1pm for snacks, we should have eaten more but starting late on the trail got us off schedule. We ascended 1200' then another 900' and I got tired, had to stop for breaks.  We should have eaten more for lunch.  After 500' more we came to Grizzly Peak and decided to camp there since we'd kept enough water for a dry camp we were prepared to stay there. 

Clouds were gathering but we hoped no more rain would fall.

We camped in a copse of trees with a sloped floor.  We're happy with only 14 miles today as our packs are heavier than we like.  This is my tent, pitched at 6:30 pm and dinner at 7:40 (black bean soup with noodles and rice, Parmesan cheese and hot sauce for spice).  Clouds all around, some hanging up over the north peaks. It was chilly at night but no rain!