Day 136: Crazy Stunning Landscape

Date: Fri 8/31

PCT Start Mile: 2393.1

PCT End Mile: 2407.8

PCT Mileage for Day: 14.7

Total PCT Mileage: 2407.8

The Highlights: foggy views and stunning views

Today we slept in, planning to only hike a half day. This left the opportunity for both hot breakfast AND lunch in town, which was very nice. For breakfast, we went to the restaurant attached to the hotel – Summit Pancake House – which had standard breakfast fare. They must have been really attached to the “pancake” portion of their name, because even the French toast looked like pancakes. Definitely bread dipped in pancake batter. LOL. Naturally, this did not stop us from eating it.

Around 11:30am, we checked out of the hotel and headed back across the street to The Commonwealth for lunch. We’d gotten tasty burgers here yesterday, so decided to go back. There are also only two or three places to eat at Snoqualmie Pass, so there’s that. This time I went with brisket tacos.

Bellies full, it was time to hit the trail. Unfortunately the sunshine that was originally in the forecast for noon had been pushed back, the sky still heavy with fog and spitting a light rain. We layered in our rain gear before setting out.

Back on the trail, the rain seemed to disappear and we were quickly warm, stripping off our rain layers. The hike began with a six mile climb up the opposite side of the pass we had descended yesterday. It was mostly gradual though and not a bad climb at all. The sun was peaking through the trees and it looked like the fog might clear after all.

Shawn had hiked ahead to meet me just after the top of the climb at the 2400 mile mark. Not seeing a very good marker, he made one himself while waiting for me. Much better than the smaller ones we saw. 2400 miles! Also, as he finished making the 2400 from rocks, a couple came along. “What’s this say?”, they asked him. “Two thousand four hundred,” Shawn said. “Is that how many miles you’ve done?”, the guy asked. Shawn said yes and said we had about 250 to go. The guy was hugely complimentary, congratulating Shawn and wishing him luck on the rest of the journey. As the couple was walking away, Shawn heard the man say to the woman, “And I thought the eight mile hike up here was a lot of work!”

Continuing on, the route undulated up and down and included a considerable amount of very rocky trail. Views were sometimes obscured by fog, but when the sky was clear, the landscape was stunning. Craggy peaks, bright deep clear blue alpine lakes, and verdant green pines, bright from recent rain. With each clear view so spectacular, I couldn’t imagine what we were missing in the directions that were obscured by a wall of fog.

With four miles to go, Shawn hiked ahead to claim a tentsite. The trail was practically all rocks at this point, and the going was slow for me. The great views were a worthy silver lining, though. Between the rocks and stopping to take pictures, the miles definitely took longer than usual and the day had grown cold.

At the tent site, I hurried into my warm layers and started cooking my dinner, a Knorr pasta side that I poured boiling water into to let it cook in the bag while I finished setting up my sleep stuffs. Unfortunately the bag tipped over at some point, spilling most of the liquid, but luckily most of the pasta still cooked fine. Only a few crunchy noodles.

The evening growing colder by the minute, I hurried to finish dinner and get into my warm sleeping bag. My happy orange cocoon. Snug like a bug in a rug. Time for sleep.

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