September 4th, 2022 by Jon
When we woke up, it was sooo cold. The wind died down for the most part, thankfully, so we didn’t have as much dust in our tents as we thought we would. It also got much colder than we expected, though. We got dressed and started our usual routine of packing up while Griff sat nearby stoutly, watching us as we got everything done. Soon, we were ready to go, and right when we started, Griff was right on my heels.
We climbed out of the basin and began up a small ridge so we could drop into the next valley. The trees here were small pines, and the ground was mostly covered in brush. There were small huckleberry plants everywhere. We climbed as the morning light was still stuck behind the mountains to the east, everything lit from the glow of the sky. Soon we reached the top and had amazing views of Spectacle Lake and the surrounding valley. We began a long descent down the ridge on the other side and probably took about 30 switchbacks to get all the way down.
About halfway there, we passed a hiker who told us that new fires near the Canadian border have closed the last bit of trail, including the northern terminus. This is just about the worst news we could get at this point, and frankly, it takes away a lot of motivation that we have to finish. Without being able to get to the monument, there really isn’t a meaningful closure to this adventure, so we feel extremely disappointed. We plan to take some time in Skycomish to resupply, grieve, and come up with a new plan for how we want to finish this adventure.
We took a break at a waterfall before finishing the rest of the descent through a burn zone. When we reached the bottom, we found that the bridge going over a large creek was totally gone. We walked a bit downstream and, thankfully, found a fallen tree that spanned the entire stream, so we used that instead. We took a break on the other side of the trail before continuing. We passed by a nice meadow that was next to the stream before beginning the switchbacks that would take us about 6 miles uphill. We stopped a little ways up for some water, and then again about 2/3 of the way up to eat some lunch on a log that was precariously wedged in place against a few trees.
When we finally reached the top, we would see snow-filled basins at the very tops of the cliffs that surrounded the valley we had just climbed out of, and snow cascaded down the mountainsides. It was absolutely gorgeous. We walked along a flat section at the top of the mountain briefly before getting off the trail to go sit by a small alpine lake about 100 yards away. We sat there for a solid 45 minutes, half-dosing in the grass, half-chatting with some other hikers. When we finally roused ourselves to move again, we had another 7 miles to go down the ridge we were on, so we could camp.
The trail switchbacked down the other side of the mountain, and we had more great views. The trail also overlooked Waptus Lake, which was really cool to see from such a high elevation. We took a break on a rock to admire the view before pushing the last 3 miles to camp. They went quickly, and after crossing a bridge over the river, we found a nice couple of tent sites to make camp near a cliff overlooking the water. We ate dinner and headed to bed, feeling tired and proud of our dog Griff, who did really well. Today was a beautiful day, made even better by the fact that Singsong and I celebrated our 7-year wedding anniversary! I love her more today than the day we got married, and can’t wait for the next 7 years! She is the light of my life.
