Hiking With Gadget Girl

This section hike has been on the calendar for almost a year. Vicki is slowly section hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and I thought I'd tag along for the fun of it, plus the last time I hiked from Potato Hill to White Pass was 10 years ago. The trail mileage from Forest Road 23 near Trout Lake to White Pass is 60 miles.

08-17-20 Mt Adams to White Pass PCT Section Hike, 1st day:
6 miles, 1,841 ft elevation gain, 98 ft elevation loss
We decided to get an early start and hit the trail at 5pm Monday evening (original plan was to leave Tues morning).

The Columbia River Gorge was scorching hot but once we started up the trail, the sun was heading towards sunset and what little tree coverage was available, was enough to keep those sunbeams off us and lower the temperature to the 70's.

I was hoping that the creek at our destination for the night at Horseshoe Meadows was going to be running clear, but alas, it was a beautiful milky chocolate color and running strong. Luckily both of us had enough water for dinner and did not require water for breakfast in the morning. The sunset was beautiful.

We also caught the back end of a large deer checking us out. A bat flittered back and forth chasing bugs. Thanks to the bat, the mosquitoes were few and far between. An easy six mile uphill with 1,841 elevation gain.

08-18-20 Mt Adams to White Pass PCT Section Hike, 2nd day:
14 miles, 1,293 ft elevation gain, 2,572 ft elevation loss
Because the sun is rising later in the morning, we decided to "sleep in" until 6am and then hit the trail around 7:30am. It was a cool, refreshing night thanks to the cold stream flowing past us. Once we returned to the PCT, the the heat hit us like a jack hammer and we shed long sleeves and leggings quickly.

According to our navigation maps, we had 3.8 miles to the next water source which was Riley Creek. Boy were we disappointed to find out that it too was white glacier water, too silty for our filters. We finally found clear running water another 2.2 miles up the trail where we filtered and filled our water bottles. We passed more silty white water running in creeks. We hiked through a large lava field and arrived at the Lewis River where we rock hopped (okay, leaped) over.

We finally arrived at the big creek crossing and was thankful that previous hikers had dragged small logs over most of the creek so we could cross it. This can be a dicy crossing when the water is running strong.

The wildflowers are still very pretty in the shady areas but are quickly finishing up for the season. We stopped at Killen Creek that has a beautiful waterfall (has several in the area) for lunch and were overwhelmed with black flies. Three women horseback riders splashed through the lower part of the creek and swung their horses around just below the waterfall tearing up the tender meadow and wildflowers for picture taking. I wanted to say something in the worst way, but didn't want to ruin the day.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with a long downhill to Lava Spring where we would spend the night. Lava Spring gushes out from underneath a huge rock face and was the best tasting water on the trip.

After setting up the tents, I crawled into mine and immediately fell asleep for a solid two hour nap. Woke up at 6pm, ate dinner, and fell back to sleep at 8pm and slept until 5:45am. I was one tired puppy.

08-19-20 Mt Adams to White Pass PCT Section Hike, 3rd day:
15.5 miles, 2,028 ft elevation gain, 1,617 ft elevation loss
Today was an easy hike mostly in the forest with few views. It was a day where we were simply putting the miles in to get from the Mt Adams section to the Goat Rocks Wilderness. Wooohoo!

Water sources were few and far between and we were grateful to run across a small stream that wasn't marked on either the PCT Water Report or on our navigation app to fill our water bottles. The trail was so dry and dusty that it was difficult to hike together. Even the huckleberry bushes were covered in dust/silt. We stayed spread out so that the person behind wasn't constantly covered in stirred up dust floating in the air. Weirdly enough, this is when I started dreaming about backcountry skiing and can't wait for winter.

We arrived at the Walupt Trail and had to make the go/no go decision if we should continue for another few miles. We had already hiked 15.5 miles with a 2,028 elevation gain, and what was coming up was even more elevation. I have camped here before as there are spots 1/10th of a mile down the Walupt Trail with a pretty clear pond. We decided to stay, which was a good decision as we found out the next day that the spot we thought of pushing on for, had no water. Streambed was dry.

08-20-20 Mt Adams to White Pass PCT Section Hike, 4th day:
15.6 miles, 4,026 ft elevation gain, and 2,999 ft elevation loss
We woke up at 4:30am with the pitter patter of light rain against the tents. It only lasted 30 minutes but it was enough that we had to pack up slightly wet tents. We had a big uphill to do today, plus had to make the decision whether we should cross the Knife's Edge today or hold up short and wait for tomorrow. We started up the long uphill to Cispus Pass and the higher we went, the nicer the wildflowers became.

We bumped up right against the fog that was hanging low against the mountain tops but we still had nice views of small lakes and ponds below us and could see Walupt Lake in the distance. Just before Cispus Pass, the trail had been washed out in one section. The dryness of the soil caused our shoes to slip and slid as we baby-stepped down and up the wash. As I was standing on the other side happy that my shoes kept me upright, all of a sudden the ground below me gave way and down I went, sliding down toward the ravine. I was able to barely stop and I yelled for Vicki to grab my hand and she pulled me back up to safety. This little mishap scared the crap out of me because if I hadn't been able to stop, it was a long slide to the bottom.

We hiked over Cispus Pass into the Cispus Basin where an amazing flower show was happening. We stopped at a snow patch so I could wash off the blood my lower leg. I was slightly stunned on how many people were on this section of the trail, the most we have seen the whole trip. Only the thru hikers weren't wearing face coverings.

We continued around the basin and entered an area called Snowgrass Flats, a hugely popular area for backpackers doing the Goat Rocks/Lake Loop. The sky was looking a bit darker and it was getting colder as we continued upwards. We decided to look at the last campsite and figure out about crossing the Knife's Edge today. It was still pretty early so we decided to go for it.

As we approached the Packwood Glacier, two horseback riders were returning over the snow. That's the first time I've seen horses up in the Goat Rocks.

We came to the intersection where the alternate trail went upwards. Most hikers/backpackers take the alternate trail because of the icky terrain and of the slanted snowfield one has to cross on the original PCT. We had just had a discussion with a backpacker who had crossed it so we decided to go for it.

We had to slowly stomp each step into the snow and reposition our poles each time. I was super wishing I had my microspikes on! I did not look down the slope while we crossed. Once over, Vicki remarked, "my mouth is so dry!" We continued on the trail hoping there were no more snow crossings on this steep rocky slope. We reached the other side where the Knife's Edge starts and let a handful of thru hikers go past (they took the alternate route). Again, the soil was so dry it was like walking on ballbearings.

Partway down I heard rocks jumbling down and turned to see Vicki on her bum trying to get her legs back under her. Yep, she fell in a scary place. By this time I just wanted to be done with this part. We came across two Forest Service Rangers working on a portion of the trail. They had nice sturdy boots on, probably with lugs on the soles, I was sure wishing I was wearing a pair right now. We continued up and then the trail went down against the side of the mountain. It would be fine if the trail was flat, but noooo, it was slanted and super slippery. Baby steps again. A thru hiker watched and waited for us to make sure we made it across safely. He said that there wasn't much he could have done to help if something had happened except to take pictures and do an SOS on his Delorme/Garmin unit. It was nice though, for him to wait and I thanked him. Althought the Knife's Edge was down right scary, it didn't stop us from taking massive amount of pictures.

We finally got down and hiked down about 1.2 miles into another basin where we would spend the night. We were going off our navigation app that has comments from thru hikers from previous years and I had hoped that we were low enough not to have extreme weather. Boy, was I wrong. We settled in for the evening and about 8pm, raindrops started smacking against the tent. Then the wind started blowing. I got out of the tent and set some big rocks on the tent stakes and poles. As the evening progressed, the storm got worse. The gusts were so strong, I was afraid it would snap the ridge pole. I held my arms up and held the roof of my tent steady when I could hear the gust roaring up the canyon. I had two movies I had loaded onto my phone so decided that if I was going to be in this position for any length of time, I might as well watch them. I finished the second movie at 1am and it seemed like the wind was starting to die down. I snuggled in for the rest of the night and was rudely awoken an hour later with even stronger wind. The tent was looking a little kittywompus so I donned the raingear and had to reset the rocks to hold the tent steady. Another backpacker was also out of his tent attempting to find more rocks to hold down his tent. He was also up all night (and so was Vicki) as I could see his headlamp on much of the night. The day's stats - 15.6 miles, 4,026 elevation gain, and 2,999 descent. A big day and a crazy wind blown rainy night....

08-21-20 Mt Adams to White Pass PCT Section Hike, 5th and last day:
15 miles, 2,395 ft elevation gain, and 3,947 ft elevation loss.
After a sleepless night with howling wind and rain, the rain finally stopped but the wind continued to create havoc while we packed up our gear for the 15 mile trek to White Pass. We were so glad that we went over the Knife's Edge yesterday instead of waiting for today. There was no way we would have been able to stay on the trail with that wind. We finally got out of the major wind 2.4 miles down the hill and over a ridge when we dropped down into the Lutz Lake area.

We were hoping to make it to White Pass without having to don raingear, but alas, as we approached Shoe Lake, the wind was pushing the clouds and rain over the ridge and we had to suit up. It drizzled almost the whole way down as we passed through a burned forest and the top ski chairs of the White Pass Ski Area.

In one way, it was refreshing to feel rain as it has been so long since we've had some. It definitely kept the dust down. There were multiple piles of fresh bear scat loaded with huckleberries around the ski area. We arrived at White Pass Hwy 12 just before 3pm. Dave and our dog Bella arrived shortly after for our ride home. As we passed Packwood, traffic came to a standstill as we all watched a gorgeous elk mosey across the highway. It rained until we reached Trout Lake. Final daily stats: 15 miles, 2,395 elevation gain, and 3,947 elevation loss.