10/2/2023
Section: Milepost 2282.6 to 2297.6
Total Trail Miles: 2295.5 Miles
Distance: 15.6 Miles
Moving Time: 06:24 Hrs
Elevation Gain: 2392 ft
I slept well last night. Turns out terror takes a lot out of a person so when my brain finally got somewhere it felt safe it was ready to zone out! We woke in the cold and took some time once we finally stepped out of the tent in all our puffy warmth to look back up at the knife edge in the early morning. It didn’t look any different, but some time to distance ourselves seemed to make it look a little less…intimidating, or maybe it’s just that things are a lot less scary after a good night’s rest.
I made us coffee and tea while Amanda got things packed up in the tent. That’s usually the way it goes since I'm usually the first out. After coffee and a breakfast puck, we got the last few things organized away in our packs and did our warm-ups. Finally, with one last look up at the Knife Edge, and promises that we would come back and do it in more optimal conditions to get a more “normal” experience on it, we headed off north.
Today’s stage is a shorter one. We are just a few miles from the boundary to the White Pass Ski resort and only about 15 miles from the pass. The day starts with a descent, heading due east for almost 2 miles, before turning north and continuing downhill. The descent bottoms out at Tieton pass and stays low for another mile before beginning a 3-mile climb to just over 6500’ at Shoe Lake and Hogback Mountain. Hogback Mountain marks the farthest southern boundary of White Pass Ski resort and, from here, the trail makes a steady, 6-mile descent to White Pass, skirting the eastern boundary of the White Pass Ski Resort. The day ends just north of White Pass at Leech Lake and the White Pass campground.
We walked quickly today. We were just 15 miles from a full week off and we had been running ourselves ragged so were excited about the opportunity for a break. I was also mildly concerned because we had another high section to go over, though the topographical maps suggested that there would be almost no exposure but… after last night, any ridges over 6000’ were a little worrisome. We sped down to Tieton Pass and quickly began our ascent after meandering through the low section for a bit. We climbed, going past a small pond. The day was partly cloudy and we occasionally got some sun breaks and vantages.
The climb was a bit heavy handed but consistent and we made good time. Towards the top, we broke out of the treeline, into jumbled lava rock and I quickly looked up the trail to see if we would have any more snow traverses but snow had not accumulated here above 6000’ and we were on clean trail most of the time. We cleared two smaller passes near Hogback Mountain, which I think is like the 10th mountain of that same name that I have come across in my life, and the ski resort started to come into view shortly after that. Just beyond, we actually crossed over a ski run and walked nearly under the Basin Quad, rain beginning to fall on us intermittently. 90 minutes or so of descent brought us down close enough to the pass that we could catch the sound of an occasional truck on its way to the summit. Soon after we were down to a trailhead parking lot. We smiled as we got down and then crossed over the highway, starting to look for our beloved black van. We reached White Pass Campground but did not find the van in any of the obvious places. We called Josh and he told us that they had parked Toothless in an overnight spot because they were worried about it getting towed in the day area. We went further into the campground and quickly found it sitting comfortably in a camping spot waiting for us. Excitedly, we punched in the door code and unlocked it, quickly finding the keys. Then we engaged in that happiest of activities at the end of a day of hiking - kicking off the shoes - and tossed them in the back along with our backpacks.
After taking a few minutes to relax and inspect some of the beautifully crafted stick figure drawings Josh had left taped to the underside of our cabinets, we got in the front seats and headed out. We stopped briefly at the gas station, called the Kracker Barrel, and filled up on snacks and gas before continuing to progress west on Highway 12. We turned south at I-5 and briefly stopped at an Oregon favorite, Burgerville, for a late lunch before continuing on South.
About 4 hours of driving brought us over to Bend, where my sister was getting married. We had a room in a large place my parents were renting near the wedding venue and everyone was excited to see us when we got there. We unloaded our things and got a chance to wash everything that was really starting to stink, despite getting a chance to dry out in Trout Lake. We had a great time with the fam before finally turning in, looking forward to a fun filled week!
