Hmmmm. What was today like? Well, it started at 6:20am. I awoke, not hearing from Tabasco at the normal 6am wakeup call. Mornings are darker and cooler now, and neither of us wants the slumber to end before the sun’s rays find their way to our tents. We got up, nevertheless, and noted that the fire from last night still had hot coals and was still burning the organic loam underneath the surface of the ground. The heat was welcomed and I warmed myself many times while packing up damp gear and a wet tent fly. We, together, spent 20 minutes dousing the firepit, stirring up the ground, making sure the fire was completely dead before leaving camp.
The sky was mostly clear when we left camp at 7:55am to begin a long climb of about 2300 feet. We saw the sun only briefly as it rose above a high peak above us, then a cloud obscured it and the sky became noticeably more cloudy within minutes. We were soaked to the bone from the wet plants, which due to little or no trail maintenance, were overgrown and brushing up against us constantly as we plowed through on the climb. It was cold as we reached 5500 feet, 39 degrees, and by now the sky was completely grayed over and we were enveloped in low clouds and fog.
At the top of Suiattle Pass there was no view due to the clouds, very disappointing as Glacier Peak is close by (4th highest mountain/volcano in Washington State). We descended several miles in beautiful dense dark forest, blanked by moss on the ground and hanging in trees, as well as ferns and multiple varieties of mushrooms, lichens and fungi. A large owl swooped over our heads twice, flying low and ducking through the dense canopy of conifers.
Before noon we arrived at the junction where the PCT has been rerouted on a 50.5 mile detour, due to severe flooding in October 2003, which resulted in 8 bridge washouts and mudslides which wiped out sections of trail. Feeling adventuresome, Tabasco and I decided to ignore the 50.5 mile detour, instead, opting for the 45 mile miles of PCT officially closed. From Sisyphus’s comments, we will ford several rivers, none as difficult as the Sierras, and will have to do some route finding where trail is missing/washed away.
So after I left Remy, Heather and Mountain Goat a note (since we hear they’ll pass through the detour in the next couple days) we hiked on, descending another 4.4 miles to the Suiattle River. Massive destruction, hundreds of yards wide, was evident at the river crossing, with no bridge remnants remaining. We found some orange ribbon and followed it to an opening where nothing but rock and sand deposits were on the barren landscape. Finding a wide place, we forded the river of milky glacial melt, water moving rapidly, but only as high as our knees. We found a ribbon on the far side and then located the trail.
We stopped to clean our wet shoes of the sandy debris collected during the ford, and I dried my prune feet so I could recover my heel blisters with new duct tape for the afternoon hike. Climbing slightly, we continued in damp, dense forest, seeing no one on this unused trail. A little after 5pm we stopped to filter water at a campsite beside glacial runoff at Vista Creek. With a steep 2500 climb ahead, we decided to call it a day, even though we were short on mileage.
Hiking today was tough, with brushy wet, dark, cold conditions, and this section is living up to its billing as the most difficult section on the PCT, excepting the Sierras. We attempted a fire, but the wood available was both wet and green. Tabasco and I ate dinner with dry thermal layers on, then both retired to our tents by 7:30pm to escape cold and wet conditions.
The highlight of days like this is getting inside a warm, dry, or at least semi-dry sleeping bag. I am not enjoying this Washington weather and am hopeful we’ll get a sunny day tomorrow so we can warm up and dry out. Wet feet all day keep me wondering if any of the new blisters will become infected…if that happens, my PCT journey will wrap itself up and I’ll call it a year. Thankfully, no additional rain fell today. Tomorrow is a new day, time for warm, blissful sleep. Today’s weather: cloudy, foggy; low 39, high 50. Today’s mileage: 18.8; cumulative 1434.8.
