Day 153 – Mile 2395.8 – 2417.3
Posted in : PCT blog on by : Nick
Snoqualmie Pass to Tentsite (4)
Miles to go: 237.9
Canada: 2655.2
Well I’m back in Washington (the Evergreen state), the final state going northbound on the PCT. If the weather forecast is correct I’m in for a cold & wet time.
After being dropped off at Snoqualmie pass I had a big climb ahead of me (6miles; 2800ft). It was 10am. There was thick low cloud but no rain, not yet. As it’s a Sunday there were lots of weekend hikers on the climb, I suspect because once you get to the top the views of the mountain range ahead of you are fantastic, there’s also ‘Ridge Lake’ with quite a few camp spots.
There are some pretty narrow ledges on the ridge you walk through the mountain on, so much so, there’s a sign asking riders to dismount and ‘proceed with caution’. At 2pm I stopped for lunch and checked on progress, nearly 10miles. I was quite happy with that considering the climb was now behind me.
I wasn’t sure how far I wanted to go, but if it started to rain I wanted to be off the ridge and lower down amongst the trees. Ideally another 11miles. After walking around the ridge for another hour it did start to rain, luckily just drizzle. It had a very British feel to it, like walking on a Lake District or Snowdonian mountain quite rocky, cold & wet. However, it didn’t dampen the vivid colours of the huckleberry bushes shining their scarlet, yellow & maroon colours at me.
I now had a goal and needed to be down & off the ridge before dark at 7pm. Descending on rocky trail is almost as difficult as going up, so I tried not to rush. It stopped raining intermittently but I got just as wet brushing past the leaves of drenched plants. I made it to my preferred tentsite at about 6:50 but still needed my head torch to pitch my tent. Once inside the rain intensified. Hopefully it’ll have stopped by the morning so I can dry out a little. Dinner; more of my lunch snacks.
Water filtered: 485.0 litres
PCT Miles hiked today: 21.5
Nights under canvas current streak: 1
Max streak: 18
Total nights under canvas: 114
Total nights in a building: 39
Lake swims: 1
Showers: 36
Trail Magic: 19
Thought for the day: “Destiny is calling me” – The Killers