“I see dead people.” It was pitch dark out and I had just gotten back into the tent after my second excursion for the night. Pam had my attention.
“What are they doing?”
“Who?”
“The dead people you see.”
“What are you talking about? I said ‘I’m cold, hold me.’ ”
It was a relief that she wasn’t going sixth sense on me, but my adrenaline rush ensured that sleep was going to be a while returning now. I usually try not to open my eyes fully or look at a clock when I get up to do the inevitable so I can fall back to sleep quickly, but when your girlfriend sees dead people, that will wake you up.
We got up at 7:30 when we heard other people moving around camp. We saw John and Jenny head out as we were eating breakfast. By the time we got packed up and performed our morning constitutionals, it was 9:30. Once again, we were the last to leave camp. Not that it really matters much, we have less than 5 miles to go today.
Once again, the trail started out easy as we hiked down to a washout from massive floods that hit the park in 2006. After we navigated through this moonscape, we walked along the Winthrop Glacier for a while. Like the Carbon Glacier, we could stop and hear falling rocks as this river of ice slowly moves down the mountain.
While we were listening to the glacier, a couple about our age came by. They had just finished the PCT and had some time to kill so they came over to do the Wonderland Trail on a six day permit. They were thru-hiking the PCT last year but were forced to skip a couple hundred miles because of a forest fire. They have also hiked the AT. I asked when they were going to finish the Triple Crown and he said they had no desire to hike the CDT. They had hiked the Colorado Trail and that was enough of it for them. Pam and I have been talking about taking a few years and doing the Triple Crown and more. It’s starting to look pretty promising for next year. As they were heading away, I noticed their camp shoes and started a whole new conversation with them. They were carrying Vivo Barefeet. I’ve been debating about switching out the Crocs we carry. They are lightweight, but I worry about them slipping off my feet in water crossings.
We got to Granite Creek a little before 1p. As we came into camp, we saw Jenny relaxing by the creek and reading a book. She said John had gone on another hike already. We went to find the other camp and set up but someone was already there. We thought there were only 2 camp sites and a group camp; but there are actually three. After a little confusion, we found the hidden trail to the third site. It was almost ½ mile back to the site. Every time we rounded a curve or came to another grove of trees, we thought we were there, and we were always wrong. Finally we got to the site. This site had the most spectacular view of any camp we have stayed in. We were on a high bald spot and it felt like we were directly across from the north face of Mt Rainier. We decided to set up the camp without the fly tonight to enjoy the sunrise in the morning.
We agreed to modify the food situation once again. After making the trek back down to the creek and apologizing to the family we thought had stolen our site (and bragging about the mystery site that everyone had left us), we cooked a hot lunch and took sponge baths. This would allow us to take our lunch up to Skyscraper Mountain to have a picnic supper and watch the sunset. While we were getting organized, John and Jenny came up to camp as well as the mother and one of the daughters from the other camp. Everyone was duly impressed with campsite #3.
Pam wanted to take a nap and I tried (for about 5 minutes). It’s amazing how easy it is to get your way if you are amazingly annoying—a lesson I learned from Pam’s son. We packed up our food, water, jackets, cameras, and headlamps in my removable daypack from my Gregory Baltoro backpack. (It’s amazing, all these equipment plugs I’m giving for free!). We stopped by and talked to John and Jenny on the way out. This is the hike John was on when we arrived at camp. It’s about 2 miles, all uphill, to Skyscraper Mountain.
We got to the top of the mountain (at least I did) about an hour before sunset. Pam stopped about 50’ from the top because, get this, “the view is good enough from here.” It really had more to do with the narrow ledge with the 80’ drop we had to pass. We had the mountain and views all to ourselves for sunset. Below, to the east, was a huge herd of mountain goats in Berkley Park. I lost count at 52 because they were moving around so much. This setting rivaled Plateau Point in the Grand Canyon for best supper spots we’ve eaten at.
We hiked back down to camp in the dark. This was our first significant night hiking experience. It was exhilarating. I think I would like to do some ‘real’ night hiking in the future, but only in an area where we wouldn’t miss any great views or have to worry about hiking off the side of a cliff. On the way down, Pam saw some eyes off to the side of the trail—just a couple of deer, and no bears.
By the time we got back to camp and got settled, it was 10:30—way past hiker midnight and the latest we’ve stayed up in a long time. It was already pretty cold and it would definitely get colder since we were sleeping without the fly on the tent.
