The weather was all over the place today. From cold fog to warm sun. It never really rained but we got a bit wet from hiking through the clouds at the end of the day.

Sunrise from camp.

The clouds rolling in…

and unfortunately, obscuring our views.

Lots of marmots and pikas (no pics) playing in the rocks. Can you find the two marmots?

Glacier Peak peeking out of the clouds.

DV about to get eaten by a giant boulder.

We had a relaxing lunch break at Sally Anne Lake.

Here I am hiking into the mist.
The clouds lifted with incredible views of the green valley below.

Then we were back in the clouds for the rest of the day.

Some last remaining snowfields as we descended off the ridge toward camp.

Hopefully, the clouds will lift by morning because we are basically staring at Glacier Peak but see nothing.

There was a fair amount of climbing today… ~6500′ most of it was well graded which made it manageable. Tomorrow will be about 9000′ of climbing…we’ll see how it goes 🙂

It was kind of an odd day. We hiked 15 miles without stopping because DV and I both had resupply boxes waiting at he Stevens Pass ski area and we excited for some food/drink at the grill. After a 3.5 hour break we did another 11 miles without stopping to our camp. Somehow we climbed 6500′ in the middle of all that. We hiked through both misty clouds and bright sunshine…a bit of everything today except rain 🙂

DV enjoying the view of one of the many alpine lake with the clouds rolling up the valley.

Washington has had a number of these signs in random places in the woods. Might have to check that out tomorrow.

The emerald color of these lakes is stunning.

We got to the Stevens Pass ski area just before noon.

This side route off the PCT ( to the lodge) is known as the Hamburger Trail.

We had a beautiful evening hike but were a bit jealous of this campsite several hours before we were ready to end our day.

Our site wasn’t so bad though 😉

It always makes me sad as daylight hours start to get noticeably shorter. There’s not much light by 5:20am and it’s almost dark at 8:30pm. Needless to say we take advantage of all of them!

The Sunrise hiking out of camp.

The view over our campsite.

We had a relaxing mid-morning siesta at the Waptus River.

Here is DV hiking through some thick brush. Tons of huckleberries and thimble berries along the trail.

Some afternoon clouds rolled in and we got spit on just a bit.

We “only” did 6500′ of climbing today. The final decent was through this giant scree field.

After a couple miles we finally hit smooth ground again.

We rolled into camp at 7:45 on the shores of Glacier Lake. Flat campsites were at a premium but we managed to squeeze in.

Darth Vada’s dad and stepmom picked me up on the way back up to Snoqualmie Pass and we were on the trail by 8:30. Not all miles are created equal…today’s 27mi included 9300′ of climbing. With the later than normal start it turned into a marathon day. We got into camp at 8:15 with a grand total of 30 minutes (for lunch) with our packs off.

Riding in style back to the trail.

An incredibly clear day to see Mt. Rainier.

Lots of alpine lakes…

and deep valleys.

Hiking across many talus slopes today created some extra fatigue in the feet.

We climbed over the saddle and then did a high traverse around the lake.

Enjoying the waterfalls.

One of the many glacier filled peaks in the area.

A spectacular campsite to end the day. Unfortunately, we only had about 30 minutes of daylight remaining after we arrived.

In true Zero Day fashion I tried to minimize activities for the day (I’m not very good at this). I had gotten laundry and some other chores done yesterday which helped, but somehow by the end of the day my fitness tracker said I’d walked 10 miles ! Still, it was a relaxing day and I feel well rested 🙂

Stopped by the local favorite, XXX Rootbeer Diner
My favorite license plate hanging at the diner.

The Sunset over Lake Sammamish

It rained a bit last night and our 6am departure was cool and damp.

It didn’t really rain this morning, mostly just mist. Although, we did get wet from all the brush.
This is our final descent under the ski lifts to Snoqualmie Pass.
Darth Vada’s Mom and Dad who live in the Seattle area met her at the Pass and treated us all (Hot Fudge) to breakfast at the Summit Pancake house!

We had a great time hiking together for the last week but now we go our separate ways… Hot Fudge (on right) was doing some more miles that afternoon. Darth Vada was taking a day off at home and I was going to take my first Zero of the trip. DV’s mom was nice enough to give me a lift into Issaquah on their way home.

Today was the first time I’d seen rain on the trail in over two months! It only lasted 20-30 minutes but the air was cool with low clouds until mid-day.

We left camp from down in the valley and climbed up through the clouds.

Huckleberries were prime picking along much of the trail today.

Darth Vada filed up half a water bottle…

 

 …then had some with crackers an PB to spice up her lunch.

After a two hour siesta at Stampede Pass with a crew of three German hikers joining us, the sun finally started to break out.

The afternoon turned into a beautiful day with temps in the upper 60’s. Hot Fudge and Darth Vada are enjoying the wildflowers and the view. 

 

Much of the trail was just as I’d expect Washington to be, lush! Here I am filling up water from a mossy cascade. Notice the giant leaves above my head…they are the size of placemats!

We called it short day after arriving at this beautiful campsite by Mirror Lake. It might look like Darth Vada is doing yoga…she’s actually holding her phone up trying to get better reception.

A solid, but uneventful, day of hiking. Although, Hot Fudge and Darth Vada did manage to get ahead of me without anyone realizing it for some time. I had been just off trail filling up water at a spring and then took a 45min siesta by the junction and was surprised they hadn’t caught up to me. A little later I stopped at a cabin and took a lunch break and another siesta…they still hadn’t caught up. Finally, in the afternoon at the last water for a 12mi stretch I saw Hot Fudge. She was as confused as I was as to how they got ahead of me. Apparently, they walked by me while I was getting water at the first spring.

A ball of fire rising above the mountains around 6am.

This public cabin was a great place for lunch and a siesta.

An odd picture I took of Hot Fudge walking away from me…her baseball hat hanging off the back kind of makes it look like she’s walking toward me.

Unfortunately, there were no lakes to swim in today 😦 but It looks like I should be able to set it up to camp near a nice looking lake tomorrow.

Another fantastic day!

There was a 2000′ climb in the AM with great views of lakes…

and the many ranges to the South we had already hiked through.

And then…Mt Rainier!

The haze and finally lifted and we were the closest we will get to this big one on the PCT, cutting through a corner of Mt Rainier National Park.

Darth Vada hiking through the wildflowers.

These remind me of Dr Seuss characters.
Hot Fudge and Darth Vada enjoying a lunch time dip and a siesta at Anderson Lake.

We ran into lots of day hikers enjoying the many lakes on our descent to Chinook Pass.

On our way up to Sheep Lake we passed by three dads with their 7 kids (ages 4-9) and grandma and grandpa doing a 2 night camping trip.

We renamed the lake Chaos Lake…it was a gear explosion with kids running everywhere.
Two of the four year olds excited to go swimming.

A very quiet campsite next to the spring.

The day started with a moonrise over Old Snowy Mtn.

After hiking up and out of the woods we had great views looking back from the direction we had come from.

To the north we had one of the clearest views yet of Mt. Rainier.

After crossing a divide we started our descent toward White Pass. You can just make out Mt. Rainier popping up on the horizon.

We made it to the highway and the Kracker Barrel convenience store by 9am. There was a small collection of hikers there. We spent half the day eating, charging batteries, organizing resupplies for the next 100 mile stretch.

This is Hot Fudge showing off her resupply goodies.

Around 3:00 we headed back out and made a short stop at Sandy Lake for a swim. The water was wonderfully warm.

This is a pic from the other day on the Knifes Edge…I’m in the front. .

We got into camp at Snow Lake around 7:00…not bad considering we hung out for 6 hours doing chores then went for a swim.

Snow Lake 🙂