Day 2
17.1 miles, 3180ft gain/3180ft loss, fitbit steps: 40,416. Man, did we sleep hard! Don’t usually sleep like that; sleep is usually fitful, restless, and short. We slept until 6 or 7 and didn’t roll out until close to 8, a rarity! Pretty beat up…From the slog the day before on no sleep, I guess…
After taking care of breakfast, we head out north on the PCT, with Red Pass as our destination, we’re using the lake as our base camp, and so this will be a light pack day, a welcome relief to weary backs. The trail stays out in the open for awhile, giving us some peek-a-boo sights of Glacier Peak, and some snow-capped mountains to the west of us, which I believe are Monte Cristo and Columbia peaks region. The day is sunny with an occasional cloud drifting by, so much more pleasant than the full-on heat from the day before. We’re going up and over ridges, coming to an occasional trail junction here and there, and after some time, it just kind of blends all together.
“…take this quiet reverence by the neck and toss it abruptly out a 3rd story window…”
Steep mountainside meadows, an occasional stand of timber to walk through, then more meadows…It heads gradually up, the grade at which the trail is cut, along with the switchbacks, really helps to take a lot of the steeps out…Just before we reach the Little Wenatchee trail, #1525, there is an incredibly loud, booming report from an explosion, making both of us jump right out of our skin!!! Walking along, in the peaceful quiet of the mountains alone in our thoughts, the only sounds to accompany us are the birds chirping, click of trekking poles hitting rock, and the crunch of bootsteps to the backdrop of silence, then an earth shattering blast to take this quiet reverence by the neck and abruptly toss it out a 3rd story window, really almost makes your heart stop!!! We would hear it 2 more times during the day, signs that the trail crews are hard at work, both repairing trails and rattling nerves unprepared for the dose of explosives…
Still, it took several minutes for our hearts to quit pounding…
From the trail junction of the Little Wenatchee trail at 2.79 miles, it’s more of the same, open meadows, filled with white, yellow, and the splash of bright pink heather dotting the vibrant green grasses and low growing huckleberry brush. This trail leads down into Meander Meadows, which you can look down into further up the trail. Continuing on the trail we come to the junction of the PCT, at mile 3.5, just a little under a mile from this junction. From here, it’s another quick downhill for about 1.2 miles to the junction with Indian Pass, and a small meadow where we see some tents set up in the grassy fields, and I remember looking around trying to figure out where their water source is. There must be one close by somewhere, but it’s not readily evident.
From the meadows here at 3.5 miles in, the trail continues upward for another 3 miles, gaining about 1000ft of elevation, before topping out on a ridge at 7.78 miles. We follow the ridge for about 1.8 miles through open meadows again with wide open views through the open fields. I kind of lose track after awhile, of just how many ridges we go up and over, back up, down, or around…
“…and get some edible, consumable, and digestive contents into our growling tanks…”
Feet and legs begin to get tired again, and we decide that once we reach White Pass, having already travelled for about 3 ½ hours that it’ll be time to turn around. We arrive at White Pass, at mile 8.6, around 12:45pm, a good turnaround time. There is a campsite here with toilet, but we don’t spend much time looking around, instead find a place to sit and get some edible, consumable, and digestive contents into our growling tanks…The peak that blocks our view stands directly north in front of us, called White Mountain, and it blocks our view of Glacier Peak.
The ridge here is unremarkable for features, open, barren with patches of green growing up the slopes over the red and brown rock.
After our quick snack, we head back to the lake, only stopping here and there for more video and pictures.
When we get to a small snow bank that covers a portion of trail, we stop long enough to play around, Greg makes a snow angel while I “glissade” a short distance, enjoying the cooling the wet snow brings.
“I say welcome, for it keeps the little biting bloodsuckers at bay…”
Getting back to the lake around 4, and it’s time to strip down and jump in the lake. It’s cold and refreshing at the same time, but colder still once out of the water, for the welcome wind is blowing hard. I say welcome, for it keeps the little biting bloodsuckers at bay.
There are quite a few more people here at the lake, all basking in the retreating sun’s rays. By 5, all those that aren’t staying here for the night have moved on, and after drying off and putting on fresh, stink-free clothes (nothing like the rejuvenating effects of a splash in the lake) we head down to the outlet stream to pump water, and we notice a very strange effect from the howling wind…
As we’re pumping water, we hear and odd noise, as if we were at the ocean. The little stream ebbs and flows like a tide, suddenly there would be a rush of water, gurgling over the rocks, then the flow would suddenly wane to almost a trickle, then rise again, as much as 3 or 4 inches, the high point marked on the rocks in the stream. Amazing! We can’t help but grin every time it does it, for we’ve never seen this before, where the wind blows so hard across the lake, that it actually makes the water slosh back and forth…
After a great dinner, another cool concoction by Greg prepped at home in a baggie (with Pine nuts, wouldn’t Euell Gibbons be proud!), we stay up later, talking and sipping on Fireball, doing a little reminiscing about hikes already taken, and the funny thinks that happened during them…