Mile 2274 – 2295.

I was playing with the idea of doing some astrophotography in the wee hours of the morning, but when I woke up the stars were dim barely discernable dots in the sky and it smelt like a BBQ. Smoke from the fires behind us and ahead of us had moved in. This didn’t bode well for sunrise.

The winds picked up sometime overnight and the breeze woke me up occasionally, but the smoke still remained. When my alarm went off, I looked at the horizon but the oranges and reds I hoped to see weren’t there. We didn’t even rise until after the sun was up. A little disappointing  given our location with 360 degree views that included Mt. Adams, Mt. Saint Helens, and Mt. Rainier. You wouldn’t even know those three monoliths were there. We did have one consolation, though, Old Snowy was right in front of us waiting to be climbed.

We packed up and carried our packs to the base of the mountain and dropped them; taking only water and snacks. We climbed through crumbly talus fields as we made quick progress up the mountain. One thing the PCT will give you is powerful legs. A thru-hiker without a pack can run up a mountain without breaking a sweat. 

As we gained the summit ridge, we could see what must be permanent snow fields on the opposite slope of Old Snowy.

The ridge was narrow as we climbed up. When we stood on the pinnacle, we were surprised to see more snow clad mountains in front and some small bivy sites with rock walls for windbreaks below. Now those would have been truely epic campsites. Next time.

We lounged on Old Snowy and ate our snacks happy to have summited another mountain and salvaged the morning. 

As we descended, we watched as smoke started blowing in over the Knife’s Edge, perhaps one of the PCT’s best known sections of trail.
We hurried to get our packs and startes making our way along the narrow and windy ridge with drop offs to either side. It reminded me a little bit of the Angel’s Landing hike in Zion National Park, but not as extreme in terms of drop offs. I was pretty excited to finally be walking this bit of trail and ran around trying to get pictures. It felt good to be excited again.

After the Knife’s Edge, we descended into the forest of evergreen trees. Individually, we both met Ranger and asked him if he knew the whereabouts of the other. He was exasperated because everytime we have seen him over the last three days, we have been asking where each other are. It’s getting a little comical.
We covered the 18 miles after our late start by 5:00 and picked up a resupply package at White Pass. We walked another 3 miles after that and setup camp at Sand Lake. Tomorrow, we will walk 26 miles to Chinook Pass and then take a detour trail to Highway 123 since the PCT is closed due to the Norse Peak Fire. From there we will try to hitch 24 miles up the road to Forest Road 70. 

We should be able to get back to the PCT at Government Meadow, 16.5 miles up on FR 70. Let’s hope we can convince our hitch to drive up some of the forest road.