10/14/2023
Section: Milepost 2360.7 to 2382.5
Total Trail Miles: 2380.4
Distance: 22.2 Miles
Moving Time: 09:17 Hrs
Elevation Gain: 3612 ft
We slept pretty well last night. The mice on the other hand… didn’t sleep at all. They were out in force all night, looking for any little scrap we might have left behind. Good thing was that we hadn’t left anything for them to find, everything had been hung up nice and high, but that didn’t stop them from looking. We were finding that Washington had a real mouse problem. On a climb up Mt. Rainier in 2019, we had experienced a “Night of the Living Mouse” which had set quite a high standard for rodent debauchery. This didn’t quite hit that standard but it came close. An owl was also out and about on her mouse duty. Glad she was out there trying to take care of them… not sure she needed to scream about it for an hour at 2 am though.
So, yea, pretty eventful night all around us. Despite that, we still managed to sleep well. We woke at our now standard time, just before 7 am, and got going. I “liberated” some of Amanda’s portion of homemade granola. I’m like the Robin Hood of granola - I steal from the rich and give to the poor. The poor, in this case, is me… because I am not being disciplined with my granola reserves. It’s just really good. We have this powdered milk too which I'm adding with hot water so it’s like warm milk and granola. Fuckin’ clutch.
We packed up after enjoying some…equitable…portions of granola. My comrade, Amanda, found that a mouse had chewed into her Khula cloth which really pissed her off. At just before 7:45 we were warmed up and ready to put some trail under our souls.
The path today starts with a 2000 ft, 6-mile descent off the shoulder of Blowout Mountain, all along a ridgeline down to Tacoma Pass, where the trail crosses FSR 4112. Along the way, the trail straddles the line between the Okanogan-Wenatchee and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National forest. From the pass, the trail climbs up to Bearpaw Butte and traverses to Snowshoe Butte before dipping down to a small, unnamed saddle, and climbing back to a similarly unnamed peak. At just under 13 miles, the trail starts a long, undulating descent down to Stampede pass, crossing through a labyrinth of forest service roads. From this pass, the trail climbs again and circles around the head of the Sunday Creek cirque, before descending the last two and a half miles to the outlet of Stirrup Lake, where the stage ends for the day.
We spent the first hour or so overheating this morning. Not sure what happened because, after that first hour we then got cold. Maybe the body just isn’t regulating like it should anymore, idk. Whatever. It could have had to do with the rain as well. It’s back. Not bad, though, just occasionally making our lives miserable, for long enough to need to put on the jackets, and then immediately stopping after and warming up so that we then have to stop again to take the jackets off. It's lovely.
At around 9:21 AM, Amanda and I noticed everything around us suddenly get dim. I looked up just as I remembered that today was going to be an annular eclipse! I looked straight at the sun, just like our Lord and Savior DJT!!! 😂 Anyway, when it happened, we both stopped to look around at the strange light that was suddenly cast over everything. Even the birds started chirping their evening songs, which I remember happening when we went to my parents in 2016 for the total eclipse in Oregon - very strange. Not that long after, the eclipse passed and we carried on down the trail.
As the morning carried on, the silence was more and more consistently broken by the sounds of gunshots. Not hunting, just a lot of shooting. In a couple places we just hoped there was a good embankment between us and them. The other thing that started to pop up everywhere, especially after Snowshoe Butte, was mushroom hunters - tons of mushroom hunters. They were everywhere! I guess it makes sense. We are close to the largest pass in Washington and there are so many access trails all around us that the appearance of mushroom hunters shouldn’t be that surprising. Many of them were running around with orange vests on so that they could be picked out by the other hunters and they often waved at us as we made our way down the trail.
We continued to bob-and-weave, up and down through these sections south of Snoqualmie Pass. The rain continued to come and go on us as we hiked through large open sections and under tall power lines. Eventually, the night came and we stopped along the banks of Stirrup River, quickly transitioning into our setup activities. We made our last Peak Refuel and followed it up with our last ramen. We planned this section out down to the wire on the calories. It rained on us as we were just starting to eat, which was lovely - this damn weather just isn’t going to give it up! Afterwards, I ran out in the rain to hang-up the bear bags before returning and diving into the tent. Amanda and I briefly talked about all the cool mushrooms we had seen before drifting off to sleep.
