August 21st, 2022 by Jon
We woke up and it was quite dark still when our alarm went off. The trees here were very thick and that, in combination with the later sunrise, has really been making it hard to wake up recently. When we finally did get up we packed everything and then realized that unfortunately our stove was not working. There is a screw that keeps getting loose and it makes it so we can’t turn the knob that controls the gas flow. I was fortunately able to fix it using our miniature nail clippers after working at it for a while.
We got on trail around 6:30 and continued working our way up the climb we started yesterday. We had another 1.7 to the top, and then another 3 and some change of hiking across so small little flat bumps on top of the mountain before we would descend. It was mostly in the trees without real views although we did walk across one amazing ridge with great views to the south of the gorge and Mt. Hood, as well as a second ridge later on where we could see St. Helens, Rainier, and Adams. It was very cool. We took a break by a junction to a spring that was dried up and ate a snack there.
After our break, we had a 5 mile descent down to a series of creeks. We were headed to the last and smallest one that was at the base of the next climb. The trail walked along the side of a ledge basically the entire time, and we were totally socked in with trees. We switchbacked a couple of times as we worked our way down the mountain before crossing a road and entering what seemed like old growth forest. The trees became quite large and everything had an ancient look to it. Moss covered everything and the plants by the water had leaves larger than dinner plates. It was very cool walking over a bridge to get over the largest creek, stepping over some stops for the second medium sized creek, and then we came to the smallest one and stopped there. We leaned up against a tree that would take 4 people linking arms to wrap their arms around.
We stayed for a while, enjoying our snacks before deciding to begin the next climb. We knew we would hungry on the way up, so we decided to hike until a little after 12 before we found a spot just off trail to take lunch. The sunbeams shot through the forest in concentrated bursts, although the trees here were thick enough it was still pretty dark. We stayed there for 40 minutes before continuing on. The rest of the climb was somewhat monotonous through the trees, as was the downhill on the other side. After 6.5 miles we came to a small creek on the other side of the ridge we had just come down and grabbed water and took yet another small break. The creeks here have been small, but very cold and clear, with water that was tasted super good. We walked through a pretty flat section, walking through yellow grass, smaller trees, m more meadows, and even a small dirt road walk before coming out to a paved road.
When we got there, we encountered our first Washington trail magic! A hiker from 2019 and his friend had come up from Portland and had beer, soda, and watermelon. We sat around chatting for a while, enjoying the food and drinks before finally heading out about an hour later. The camp chairs are always super hard to leave because they are a complete luxury while on trail. We had a few beers each so the remaining 2.5 miles to camp was somewhat interesting. It still takes very little to get buzzed so… it was an interesting few miles. Thankfully it was quite cruisy, and the trail crossed a few creeks before finally coming to another paved road.
We walked down the road for 0.2 miles and entered Panther Creek campground. We found the camp host who told us there were some other hikers already there and we could join them to help split the cost. She gave us direction as well as pointing out water and bathrooms. We thanked her and filled up water there before finding the 3 hikers already at the site. They welcomed us and we set up our tent before cooking dinner at a picnic table which is always such a treat. We chatted for a while with the other hikers before one of them pulled out s’mores stuff. He’s a friend of a thru hiker out for the next week and they are going slow and enjoying themselves. We built a small fire and enjoyed a bunch of s’mores before finally heading to bed around 8:30.
