September 5th, 2022 by Jon
We woke up on our little ridge above the river, and after getting Griff out so he could pee, we took turns watching him while we packed up our stuff. Soon we were out and eating breakfast, watching other hikers get ready at the nearby tent sites. It seems like everyone is getting up slightly later these days. We hit the trail just after 7:00, and we walked down off our rock and along a flat forest trail among the trees. We walked along a gentle slope. Down the slope was the edge of Waptus Lake, which we couldn’t see through the trees. Uphill was the side of the mountain we were skirting around. We walked over a number of streams that crossed the trail before turning more steeply up and to the left, so we could enter a large valley with a stream running through the bottom.
We hiked more steeply here, gaining elevation to get on the western wall of the valley and continue climbing both along and up it. The switchbacks were numerous, and there was a good number of just straight-up steep sections as well. We saw 3 different dogs at different times during the morning, all of them with people who were headed south. One of the dogs looked so much like Griff; the other owners, Singsong, and I all oogled at them in disbelief and just laughed at how crazy it was. I’m sad that I forgot to ask for a picture. We continued hiking and eventually reached the top of the mountain, where we took a short break. We had great views of the surrounding peaks and sat admiring them and eating lunch for a while before descending. Lying in the sun also helped all of us take a quick 5 or 10-minute catnap that was extremely enjoyable.
The trail warned people traveling with stock animals to use an alternate trail since this one would cross a body of water marked on our maps as “cascading steam”. We haven’t seen that title before, so we’re a bit suspicious of what we would find. We switchbacked down the mountain through thick pine trees and dense green brush that covered the side of the trail before dropping down to the opening where a thin slot canyon opened up into the valley. From it, a raging creek tumbled down the rocks. So here was our cascading stream. The actual trail led us to a part of the stream that was completely impassable, so we looked upstream and found a spot where it was a little less raging, with some great logs and stones to get over. I held onto Griff’s leash, but he followed my exact footsteps, and we made it over just fine.
After a small break there, we hiked up the other side of the canyon and trudged up a forest-covered hillside, making our way towards a small low spot on the ridge above us. There was more water and mud on the trail in this section than there has been in a long time. When we got to the low spot, we walked through relatively flat forest for a while, passing streams, tent sites, and small sun-filled clearings along the way. Eventually, we reached one last large stream and then began an uphill ascent towards the top of a pass. The climb was tough, especially since it was at the end of the day.
We came to a small rise, and once over it, we walked along the side of Lower Deception Lake. We reached the connecting stream where Upper Deception Lake flowed into the lower lake. We crossed it and found ourselves a great little flat sandy patch of ground where we made camp. We were joined by Peter and Pippin, a human and a dog we have been seeing all day, and Griff seemed to like them both. We admired the lake, had dinner, and found a nice pit toilet in the woods up the hill a little ways away before getting in our tent by 7:20. Tomorrow we have just under 18 miles to get to Steven’s Pass where we will meet my mom who will take us down into Skycomish so we can meet Biscuit who is there waiting for us, get Missile’s package, sleep in a hotel, do all the town chores, and make a plan for how we want to end this thing. Griff continues to absolutely crush these miles and then crash hard each night.
Beautiful place!