Start: Snoqualmie Pass
Finish: Kendall Peak
Daily Mileage: 4.4
PCT Mile: 2400.2
We had the option to go back to the trail first thing this morning or later in the day. We opted for later in the day since yesterday seemed so rushed and we could spend more time finishing our chores we didn’t get to.
I researched ways to get through the Flat Creek and Pioneer Fires without success, and others experienced in the areas verified it was just all closed with no legal way through. We will still be walking towards the last closure for another week, so if something miraculous happens we would be positioned to continue, but most likely we will go as far as we can and bail to Holden and take the ferry down Lake Chelan. Then hitch around to Mazama and Heart’s Pass. It will be skipping a good amount of trail, but there is really nothing we can do.
We each had a large pizza for early dinner before Kate whisked us back to the trail. It was late in the day and we only planned to go a few miles in, but it is so much easier to get an early start from the trail in the morning than starting out in town.
We first crossed under I-90, our last interstate crossing of the trail. As always, the trail ascended from the pass, but the grade was good and we flew up it. It’s only 71 miles to the next stop, so our food loads were relatively small.
All the way from the pass, the trail gave signs that the mountains were finally changing to the rugged, bare masses of rock that I had been expecting and waiting for in Washington. There has been way more boring trail so far in the state than I had been expecting, but I’ve hiked much more in these northern areas and I think there should be much more rugged and scenic terrain ahead.
Newer forest gave way to old growth and we entered the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. So close to a major city, and so beautiful. Many trail runners were out, somehow not eating it on all the rocks and roots.
It was a short 4 miles uphill before we stopped for the night in great forest. It seems like we killed a lot of time today after our race north against the fires, but I think it was good to get some more rest in before the final stretch of the trail. Our bodies were holding up, but they did need some rest.