It’s been said not to put all your eggs in one basket, but that’s exactly what Bunny and I set out to do. We’re from the country and know that little brown eggs are the best. Charcoal B was out firing blanks before we left camp, so he decided to add a few more eggs to the basket when we got to it (assuming it wasn’t already overflowing).
It rained almost all night long. A French couple came in after we had already moved inside the tent for supper. I felt sorry for them having to set up in the rain. They also packed up in the rain this morning. I got a chance to talk with them. They had gotten off the trail in June and decided to go hike the Tour du Mont Blanc. Last year, they hiked the GR20 on Corsica (which is still on our list). Once they get to Canada, they are going to head down to South Lake Tahoe and go sobo to Walker Pass to finish their hike. They’re doing 20-25 mile days.
We could hear Charcoal B and Struggles start moving around before 6. Since it was raining, we weren’t in a big hurry. It’s no fun packing all your gear up in the rain. Bunny decided we should wait out the rain. She demonstrated this by clenching her eyes shut and ignoring me whenever I tried to talk to her. I expected CB and Struggles to be all packed up and ready to go, but Struggles was pulling a Bunny and refusing to get out of her bag. They even ate breakfast inside their brand new tent.
Leaving camp as a foursome at a little past 9 wasn’t too bad considering the way the day had started. We could see blue sky above so things were looking up. As a group, we pulled the 2.5 mile walk to the next camp off in less than an hour and a half. Struggles was leading for a while, but Charcoal B jumped out front to pick up the pace a bit. It seemed like he had a sense of urgency in his step.
Pass Creek Tentsite is popular with the backcountry crowd. It’s got a good campsite, a reliable water source, and an open air pit latrine. We got there after the first wave had departed, but the second wave was forming. There were already 3 people sitting around. Bunny broke out into a sweat thinking she was going to be 4th in line, but they had already taken care of business and were getting ready to head on.
This was the place we had decided to say goodbye, once again, to Struggles and Charcoal B. They came out of Stevens Pass with at least 10 days of food, while we were only packing, at most, 8 days of food. We need to kick up our daily average miles to 15 to make it to Stehekin by Saturday. We will see each other at least once more in Stehekin since they have to pick up a resupply package on Monday morning. We’re already planning a zero on Sunday.
The sky was almost completely clear when we left Pass Creek at 11. We still had a minimum of 13 miles to go today and I was hoping to squeeze 16 out of Bunny. Unfortunately, either way started with a 1700’ climb with the sun coming out full force. It had the makings of turning into a very humid day with the fresh rain. Sweat was pouring out of me and my glasses were fogging up. By the time we made the top, though, the humidity had dropped and it had turned out to be a Goldilocks day for hiking—not too hot, not too humid, not too buggy, just right.
Numbers, who we had hitched into Leavenworth with, passed us just before the top. We passed her again since she had decided to dry out all of her gear as soon as she had found a spot in the full sun. We decided to push on until we were hungry enough to stop for lunch. With the biggest climb of the day out of the way, we were in heaven hiking. Washington is trying to worm its way back onto our finalist list. Today may have been the day to put her back in contention. We passed by several lakes and ponds with the mosquitoes noticeably absent. A real good sign.
At 2, we decided we were hungry enough to stop. Our tent was just slightly wet, as was out tyvek, but our boots and socks were still soaking wet from walking in the rain all day, yesterday. There wasn’t any point of putting dry socks on this morning with our boots oozing water. The sun dried out our gear and mostly dried our boots and socks back to a normal sweaty day’s worth of moisture. It had only taken us an hour.
It was an ewwing and ahhing day. The hiking was glorious. We entered Glacier Mountain Wilderness area and were just blown away by the beauty and majesty of the mountains. Today was a day that gives us our reason to hike. We saw lots of animals…a marmot family standing watch over their territory, chipmunks trying to beg food from us, and even a deer on the side of the trail that didn’t seem too bothered by us.
We settled on a little over 15 miles because we didn’t want to end the day with another 800’ climb. We made it to White Pass and were looking for a place to camp, and, more importantly, some water nearby. The signs for camping directed us back off the pass. Bunny spotted a tent next to what looked like a little trickle of a stream. We went up to the tent to discover Numbers already in bed. We got 4 liters of water and continued on down the side trail to the camping area.
We’ve got our camp routine down solid. We should after having hiked more than 5000 miles since we got married two and a half years ago. We saw Harry Potter (he hit his head on a granite out cropping—the trail marked him) who told us he had lost his phone charging cable. I offered him ours, but he had located his. We set up next to him and an Aussie (they sure love their vacations down under).
The minute the sun set, the temperature plummeted. We are above 6000’ tonight. This is also the first night we haven’t had thick clouds overhead. I can actually read by moonlight, but the fact that I’m reading on an iPad might have something to do with it as well.
EFG