Short day equates to a late start. But let’s be honest, when it comes to Pam and me, long day equals late start; medium day equals late start; any day equals late start. We had biscuits and gravy for breakfast but didn’t have nearly enough pepper.
While I was contemplating the day on the local throne, an older couple wandered into camp looking for the trail. Pam directed them back out to the trail. Then while she was contemplating her day, another group similarly got turned around. This must be pretty common for this camp. We got on the trail by 10 and managed to stop another group from making a wrong turn into camp.
The trail up to Spray Park is a 1500’ climb up from Eagle’s Roost. There were lots of people on the trail with this being a popular day hike from Mowich Lake. Pam found a little nut on the trail and picked it up for some reason. When we stopped for a break, she showed it to me. I didn’t tell her yesterday, but I had dropped one of the mounting nuts for my GoPro and she found it! We ran into an 80 year old couple and talked with them for a bit. Once we got to the top the views were amazing. We stopped for a pleasant lunch at the pass but then the clouds rolled in quickly. As soon as the clouds arrived, everyone disappeared. We ended up crossing a snow pack with almost zero visibility.
We still got into camp by 3p even with our slow meanderings. We set up camp and started boiling some water so we could do some laundry and take a sponge bath. I am carrying my BioLite stove and Pam is carrying an alcohol stove so we can do a side by side comparison for an extended period of time. If we boil extra water for anything, it’s usually the BioLite since the fuel is free. With all the rain in the area, the sticks tend to be a little damp which causes the stove to smoke quite a bit until it gets going full throttle. The people in the group camp came over and told us that no campfires are allowed. I took my stove over and showed them that I was following the rules. I’m actually glad people keep an eye out for such things.
By the time we got done with supper and bathing, a couple of women had moved into the site next to us. This was Ginger and Chris from the Seattle area. Ginger had just recently taken up backpacking and designed a lot of her own gear because she couldn’t find things that fit her needs. She had designed a hammock with a sliding canopy that she could draw over if she got cold or it started to rain after she went to bed. Otherwise, she could go to sleep in the open air with no worries. Another thing she designed was a rain jacket with an extra flap on it that covered the pack so rain wouldn’t get down her back. She had lots of great ideas. Unfortunately, they are hiking counterclockwise so this will be the only time we get to see them.
I missed taking a picture of the latrines in Cataract Valley. This is truly a lover’s paradise with back to back solar pit latrines. This is actually a little closer than I want to be to anyone at the moment of “bombs away”.
Reading from “Hiking the Wonderland Trail” is going to be a nightly ritual for this entire trip. Once we got snuggled up into bed we read the next day’s description before falling asleep. Not too long after I fall asleep, Pam pulled back her legs and kicked me so hard I fell off the pad. “What the hell was that for?”
She started laughing saying that she was being chased and shot at so she was trying to get away. We might have to rethink this double pad. Since I was awake, I figured I might as well make my first nightly expedition.