Well, that sucked. The fact that I never even turned my phone on, let alone used it to take a single picture, tells the story of the day about as well as I can. From the moment I began hiking to the moment I stopped, the rain was unrelenting and the path that it left in its wake was one that looked more like a water slide than a hiking trail.
Crimson and Gold
When I think back on the 12 or 13 hours between the start and end of hiking each day, it's remarkable how many different phases it can take on. Like a play in multiple acts, there are often high points and low points, internal conflicts and resolutions. Today began with tired legs and a tired mind as I hauled myself up and over the first long climb of the day…
Riding the Roller Coaster
If we weren't climbing, we were descending. That sounds obvious enough, but there are many days on the PCT where at least a few miles are reasonably level with little to no elevation gain or loss. Today was not one of them. With nearly 20 miles to make to pick up the next resupply before 5pm, it was another early start…
Forward Progress
The old PCT we'd been following since Snoqualmie Pass yesterday came to an end only 6.5 miles into the morning, but not before we'd been treated to seeing the first rays of sun warm the very tips of the summits far above us. The price of this beautifully clear morning was the clear and cold starry sky of the preceding night…
Final Alternate
Leaving the hotel at Snoqualmie Pass, the sky was blue in every direction and the night's cold had coated low-lying pockets of vegetation with a fine frost. We had decided to take one last alternate, and like a couple of the others we've taken, we'd again follow the course of what was once the original PCT, this time detouring towards Goldmyer Hot Springs.
54 Miles East of Seattle
All morning it was thoughts of a bed and our first day off in over 600 miles that propelled us on. The return of the sun a day before had morphed into cloud cover this morning and by the time we had our first view of the I-90 interstate, the rain had begun to fall yet again. With only a handful of miles remaining to get to Snoqualmie Pass, it hardly mattered.
Country Roads, Take Me Home
From a distance, the mountains are beginning to show the early signs of autumn. Mixed amid the pervasive evergreens, the leaves of the huckleberry bushes are now mostly bright red with the occasional tinge of yellow, giving the forest a prototypical pop of fall color. Not only that, but each time we think we've seen the last of the berries, we're proven wrong yet again.