Day 130
Start: Old Snowy Mountain
Finish: Sand Lake
Daily Mileage: 21.4
PCT Mile: 2300.4
The alternate trail climbed quickly on some loose rock and one small snow field. It continued down, but we decided to bag Old Snowy Mountain. The PCT doesn’t climb any mountains. It gets close but always turns away at the last minute to avoid summiting anything. I don’t think we have fully summited any mountain on the entire 2300 miles we have hiked so far, and we decided to make Old Snowy or first and likely only conquest of the trail.
The trail up was at first normal trail, but turned to some steep scrambling at the very end. Nothing dangerous, just fun.
The view from the top was astounding, looking over many snowfields on the side of the mountain and those surrounding it. The sun was just risen and was shining through the smoky haze casting an orange light on everything including the snow. It was a surreal view, and a good choice for us to climb Old Snowy.
Leaving the summit, we rejoined the alternate trail which traveled down a fantastic knife edge on its way back to the PCT. At places there were close drop offs on either side of us. It is rare to see a real knife edge trail like this, and especially with the loose rock and snowfields on either side of us, it was a fantastic experience to traverse.
All good things must come to an end, and we quickly dropped back below treeline and got buried in forest for miles of hiking. Nothing too scenic or unique, but I think that was already well taken care of for the day.
We descended then ascended the next ridge. Most of the way up we decided to take a detour to Shoe Lake on a trail that paralleled the PCT. The lake was bright blue and just on the edge of being alpine, with mountains surrounding it. A great spot for lunch and we also took a dip to wash up since it has been a week or so.
We finished the last bit of climbing ascending from the lake, and it was a long downhill to White Pass. It started above treeline with scenic volcanic peaks, but quickly descended into forest. There were ski lifts barely visible next to us, but it was still a couple long hours until we got to the pass itself.
Just before the pass, there was the first trail magic in a while in the form of a case of Bud heavy. While warm, it was good company as we made the walk down US12 to a convenience store that caters to hikers in summer at the White Pass Ski Resort.
US12 was closed which was leading to delays in hiker packages, but thankfully mine arrived in time. The store turned out to be plenty good for a full resupply, but it is hard to get good information on stuff like that out here. There is a lot of misinformation.
We filled up on convenience store fried crap and beer while we charged and caught up with other hikers. North of here there are new federal requirements to protect food from bears in the backcountry, either with a bear can, hanging, or an Ursack. Honeybun had gotten his bear can shipped here while I was planning to hang. Some hikers told Honeybun he should just sleep with his food like they did, and the bear can wasn’t necessary. This is pretty typical of the thru-hiker entitlement I’ve seen on the trail. You don’t have to play by anyone’s rules but your own. You can try to steal services, get people to be your personal Uber for free, stay at people’s houses without offering to compensate them, etc. It is getting really tiring. A thru-hike is attempted by thousands of people a year and is not a unique or special thing that should set off the god complex many hikers have out here. What is wrong with paying for the services people provide you and following federal law? If a bear steals food from hikers, it will be relocated or killed. The rule is in place to protect the wild bears, not our food.
Anyways, the hikers did nothing to persuade us to violate federal law, and we headed out of town and did a quick few miles uphill from the pass to a mosquito filled campsite by a pond. For only the second time of the trail, I made dinner from my tent because the bugs were too bad. It happens, we are in their territory.
It was an incredible day finishing up Goat Rocks over Old Snowy with all of the bare rock, snowfields, and meadows in the area. Not the most scenic spot of the hike, but it is up there for sure.
