9/29/2024
Section: Milepost 2485.3 to 2502.9
Total Trail Miles: 2533.9 Miles
Distance: 18.08 Miles
Moving Time: 07:37 Hrs
Elevation Gain: 4173 ft
Note: Strava says Day 164 because it is counting a failed attempt at this section in June. I didn’t want to write about that so i am picking up where we left off in Fall of last year, on day 161. Just FYI.
We woke in a cloud the next day on the banks of Pear Lake. No owl sighting this morning but I guess it was now her nighttime so that’s probably why. There had been limited mouse-tivity last night though, so she had obviously been busy, which we were thankful for. We rousted ourselves out of bed into the damp morning. There was no outright rain but the humidity was up. We got warmed up with some breakfast. I was just going with the breakfast pucks for this section. My pallet had recovered from the PCT last year, so I was in a place where I could enjoy some of the trail staples again. Amanda wasn’t quite there. We sipped our warm beverages for a while before committing to our warm-ups and getting underway.
Today’s stage will take us to the southern slopes of Glacier Peak. It begins with a short climb up from the lake to a ridgeline which traverses north. At the two mile mark, the trail begins a long descent, 1500’ in 4.5 miles. On its plummet, the PCT crosses Saddle Gap and bottoms out at Pass Creek. From the creek, the trail begins a consolidated, 1500’ climb out of the creek drainage. It crosses Caddy Pass, then switchbacks up the southern end of a ridgeline, running north towards Skykomish Peak. The path completes it’s climb of the day by crossing the eastern slopes of the peak before coming to a small lake, Lake Salley Anne. The stage then crosses over a small col above the Caddy Creek valley. The PCT continues along another north-running ridgeline, crossing Dishpan Gap at around 12 miles in, then crosses Sauk pass a mile later. A short distance on, the stage hits it’s high-point at 5700’ and descends to Indian Pass. The final climb of the day ends at Reflection Pond under the impressive gaze of Indian Head Peak.
The weather was looking pretty promising as we made our way out this morning. A little bit of blue sky over our heads put some extra spring in our steps. I am loving this new backpack - sometimes all the hype is warranted and, gotta say, this Hyperlight fits squarely in that category for me. I love the wide open top, the important stuff I can secure to the outside and it rolls up and down as the load warrants. I will say, I had to swap Amanda's bear-can with the one I was carrying. The old-style barrel doesn’t have the little friction bumps they put on the new style cans and, during our attempt earlier this year, it ended up sneaking out of the top straps a few times. I never lost it on a steep traverse, thank god, but the alarm I felt each time was enough to just make the switch from the start of this attempt. Amanda was still using her Gregory so she put the old style can inside her bag.
We climbed to our early high point and descended to Pass Creek. This was where we had decided to bail two months before, after slogging through snow at a mile per hour for 2 days. It’s also where Amanda had accidently thrown her shoe into the creek trying to pass it across to me. Like, no joke, she went to throw it to the other side, held on to it a little too long and sent it sailing wide left and into the creek. We had looked at each other, dumbfounded, for a split second before I had jumped in to save it.
We stopped at the creek, which was much more cross-able now, for a few minutes to take our first snack break. The weather had deteriorated on us, but the sun was making a short showing and we laid on some large rocks to soak it up a bit. The switchbacks down from Saddle Pass had been gruesome and I could hear two voices from way up and back coming down, but they were still far off. After topping up our calorie tanks we reshouldered our backpacks and, still catching snippets of conversation from up the hill, carried on. The descent had been huge, but the climb before us was 30% bigger. We put our heads down and climbed, and climbed, and climbed.
Everyone thinks climbing is the worst but, honestly, if it’s consistent, a climb isn’t that bad and this one was no exception. It’s like a nice big wheel you can turn against, constant and comforting. We climbed on. The sun fought hard but, ultimately, lost the battle and a thick cloud front set in. Towards the top we were just walking in the clouds. Within an hour long period, as the trail started to level out, we walked through rain, sleet and pellet snow. The joys of hiking in late September I guess. About an hour after the top, we reached Lake Sally Ann, which I'm sure would be a beautiful lake if it wasn’t coated in grey tones as we currently found it. We stopped and I hammered down some WINCO Chocolate Lovers Trail Mix. This shit is the best. It has little peanut butter cups in it and all sorts of other goodies. I got a little sick of it towards the end of the trail in 2023, but it’s made a solid comeback for me now. We chilled at the lake for a while but the weather being suboptimal, we weren’t interested in loitering for long. I helped Amanda put her pack on, before getting my own on and we headed out.
The rest of the afternoon passed without too much incident. We doddled along at around 5600’ for a while. The sun got progressively more social as the late afternoon wore on, which was much appreciated. We crossed under Kodiak peak and descended to Indian Pass. The wind was up, rattling the trees as we stopped to take a quick break at the intersection with Indian Creek Trail before we made a final climb to past Indian Head Peak. The skies cleared and we were treated to some beautiful views of the snow capped mountain on our right as we climbed to the tree line. We came to an unnamed saddle and climbed through high meadows before reaching a small and stark pond which we chose as our stopping point for the evening.
We made camp in a dense copse of trees on the banks of the pond. Behind us was a stunning view of Johnson Mountain and down Red Creek Valley, which we had come up 5 years before to climb Glacier Peak. Amanda and I set up the tent, bundling up as we did. Things were getting cold above the treeline, very quickly. I got some water and came back to Amanda smiling as she pointed out two very friendly grouse making their way around our tent. I grew up with chickens and they were basically our pets, beloved by the whole family. Grouse are just chickens of the forest and I always enjoy running into them, but they are usually very shy. These two were definitely not so. We sat down, wearing every layer we had packed, to make dinner, and these two stripedy birds came right up to us as if to ask, “what do you have for us?” They stuck around for a solid 10 minutes as we let our freeze-dried meals saturate until they must have realized that they weren’t going to get any hand-outs and slowly disappeared into the trees. The sun set and things got dark. It had been nice to stop before sunset, because we got some time outside the tent, but once the sun was gone we quickly packed things up. I went about 50 yards away to ditch the bear canisters. Walking back, I had a momentary panic when a sudden flurry of noise went off from my left but I quickly realized it was just our two friends flapping up to their beds for the night.
Once in the tent, Amanda and I both contributed to her trail notebook and then read for a bit. We talked some - I was excited to get to the intersection of our approach to Glacier from 5 years ago tomorrow - and then we passed out. I could still hear our birds knocking around in the branches above, but they eventually settled down and we were able to pass out, now fairly deep into the Glacier Peak wilderness.
