It was a dreary day and foggy, so we took our time getting ready. The guidebook says not to go over Panhandle Gap in bad conditions. This is the highest point on the trail and supposedly one of the most picturesque from Summerland to Indian Bar. The trail goes over snow fields between glaciers and can be treacherous in the right (aka wrong) conditions. The night had been really cold so I unrolled the tent as an additional cover for us. It worked, but there was a lot of condensation we needed to dry out.
To indicate how hungry I was, we had breakfast scramble burritos. Not only did I eat them, I liked them. I had purposely eaten at a Taco Hell so I could get some extra fiery sauce packets. And what else comes naturally after the mention of Taco Bell? Summerland has a great 2 story composting outhouse with solared power circulating fans. Summerland is a very popular day hiking destination so the park service has gone all out to make sure they can handle the loads.
As we were sweeping the shelter out, a group of rangers came by to drop their packs in the shelter so they could go patrol Panhandle Gap in case there were any problems. They checked our permit and noticed that there was a mistake on it because it indicated only 2 in our group—feigned innocence. The lead ranger had stopped by the shelter last night before we had arrived. John had told him that we had the permit and hadn’t arrived yet. I think they wanted to stay in the shelter with us because they knew there was only 2 on the permit.
We started up to Panhandle Gap in a full fog about 15 minutes after the rangers left. I was very glad to be hiking with John and Jenny on this stretch. It was very easy to lose the trail across the rocky patches between snowfields. We were all headed to Indian Bar for the night. As we neared the top, we ran into the rangers who were waiting for us to make sure we were fine. Once we got over the pass and started heading down, Pam and I dropped back to allow them space (or maybe we weren’t in as good of hiking shape and they just picked up their pace).
We stopped for lunch above Ohanapecosh Park and looked for elk. We saw plenty of evidence (read poop everywhere) and could hear them bugling, but we couldn’t catch a glimpse of them. After lunch, we crossed the ridge and dropped into Indian Bar valley. By now, the mist in the air had turned to a steady, light drizzle. That’s the price you pay for all the lush vegetation in the area—80” of rain per year means you are going to have to endure some rain. It was a little chilly, but we were handling it.
We got to camp by 2:30 and set up in the rain. I let Pam set up the sleeping system and handed in our gear while I went to filter water and start the stove for a hot supper. I also made a trek up the hill to find the latrine. The ranger had told us this was the most picturesque latrine in the park and I felt a need to confirm his assessment. It was just a box out in the open on a point at the edge of an overlook. I could see two different valleys but couldn’t really see the view because of the low clouds. It was a challenge keeping the paper dry.
I stopped by John and Jenny’s camp on the way back down (it was a good trek up the hill). John was carrying a 6’ x 10’ tarp and they were sitting under it eating supper. I am going to get something lightweight for the future because Pam and I had to huddle under some pine trees to try to keep water out of our food and off of our heads. There’s also a nice group shelter at Indian Bar which we could see on the other side of the creek but we didn’t have the desire to walk over there in the rain. It supposedly has folding down bunkbeds. We went to bed as soon as we were done eating to get out of the rain.
