August 31st, 2022 by Jon
When we woke up, it actually felt fairly warm. We had camped on a saddle, and I guess instead of being down in a pocket of cold air, we were on top of a hill in a way. We packed and got ready, but had already planned on a fairly short day given how we were feeling. To make matters even more difficult, Singsong tweaked her back while lifting her pack after lunch a few days ago, and it’s been bothering her a lot lately. As a result, we’re headed for a lake today that’s right next to a forest road that we will use to walk into town on Thursday. In doing so, we will cut about 4 miles from this section and a bit of elevation as well. We could absolutely do the hike, but we want to feel like we can slow down, and this will help us with that.
We left around 7:15 after eating the last of our muffins, which we bought in Packwood. I swear they taste just like the Costco ones, and if you grew up like I did, eating those all the time, you know those are the best kind. We hiked up out of the saddle and climbed a ridge. We switchbacked through the pine forest, and soon we reached the top, where we walked along a ridge for a while with sweeping views of the surrounding mountains. The sun was covered by a big cloud, and so everything was illuminated in a strange way. We hiked along the ridge before descending the other side.
We hiked through a forest of cedar trees, and after many miles, we came to the end of one switchback and stopped there. A side trail led away from the PCT and brought us to a small stream where we collected cold, fresh water. We’ve been drinking tons of fluids; it feels like we’ve both been so thirsty lately. We sat there for a while before heading on. We reached the bottom of the hill and crossed a well-traveled gravel road labeled Tacoma Pass before heading back up the hill on the other side. We had a steep 3-mile climb up the other side, and much of it was among rocky trail without tree cover. At midday, the sun was high in the sky, and it felt like a magnifying glass was burning our skin. When you don’t feel great anytime the trail feels especially hard, it feels extra difficult, more than it does usually. So a sunny climb was pretty rough.
Eventually, we reached the top and had a pretty nice view of Mt. Rainier in the distance, with rows and rows of mountains in various shades of blue. We took our sweaty shirts off and hung them on some tree branches to dry in the sun, then pretty much sat in a bush in the shade while we ate lunch. We were for a while and did some reading on our phones. I even took a small car nap. After a little more than an hour, we decided we should probably start hiking again. The trail passed a number of overgrown forest roads as we descended off the very top of the ridge we had just climbed. We undulated up and down a few jumps on top of the ridge, walking through a logging area before going back into the trees again.
We were walking on the side of a hill when we finally came to a muddy seep in the ground that descended down below the trail. Yet another spring bubbling out of the side of the mountain, and someone had done some “leaf technology” as we’ve been calling it on the stream. That’s basically when you find a water source that’s flowing so lightly that instead of falling down a rock or over a log, it doesn’t really fall in a way that can be easily collected. It’s just running along a rock. Someone can take a large leaf and place it so that it acts as a spout. You place a rock on the leaf to keep it there, and now hopefully you have an easier time collecting. This was one such spring.
We filled up a few liters and filtered before heading out for our last push of the day. It was 4 miles, mostly downhill with some flat sections, to reach the road where we could take a tenth-mile trail to a nearby lake. The miles came easily, and the forest was interrupted 4 times by power lines running through clear-cut areas. 3 times it was high voltage power lines, and once just a regular power line. The buzzed and crackled with energy as we walked under them, and eventually we came to another well-traveled gravel road. Stampede Pass. We made it! We walked down the road to Lizard Lake, where we found a campsite a little ways off the road, about 30 feet above the water.
We set our packs down, and before doing anything, we both just jumped in the water. We both felt especially hot and sweaty today, and it felt amazing to wash off and swim a little. The water was cool but not cold, and we stayed in for a while. We got back out and found a sun latch to dry things out before putting on other clothes. We got camp set up and had ramen for dinner. We sat and watched the water for a while and then went to bed early. We plan to walk down this road, take the hiking/biking trail along the south shore of Keechelus Lake, and follow it all the way into town. For you Seattleites out there, it’s the large lake you drive right next to on I-90 right after you get on the east side of Snoqualmie Pass. We hope to get into town before too long and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day besides lie in the hotel bed or bathtub.
