Day 145 - Snoqualamie Pass to Lemah Meadow

After a very good night’s sleep, I got up at 6:00 and packed my stuff. Dima was up as well, and was ready to get me back up to the trail by 7:00.

I said goodbye to Yulia and Nick, and we started our drive to the pass. The weather was grim and cold outside, and as we neared the pass it was also raining a bit. We got to the pass at 8:00, and it was not raining there, but seemed like it might at any moment. I said goodbye to Dima and thanked him. I am sure getting up at 6:00 and driving for two hours in the morning was not his favorite pass time, so thanks again for the going out of your way to help me.

At the pass, I met Lighthouse. We went over to the diner and met a lot of other hikers who zeroed at the pass, or came in last night. Nobody was rushing out in this miserable weather. After a short while we went out, at around 8:45. The climb started immediately on the other side of the interstate.

We had half of our daily climb, about 3000 feet, in the first 7 miles. We were a bit slow getting there, but with the cold weather and the fog we only made a short snack stop there. We couldn’t see any views so far.

Hiking further on, we had an 11 miles of waterless stretch. Only there was water everywhere, gushing out on every little creek. I’m sure yesterday’s rains helped a bit.

We ran into Sizzler, who started hiking from the pass at about 8:00. We were talking about how far we’d go today - there is a campsite 21 miles from the pass, which is a bit too close, and another at 28 miles, after another tough climb. That’s a bit too far and hard. In between - a steep climb which probably didn’t offer any camp spots. We agreed we’d aim for a short day.

Lighthouse and I were still hiking not too fast, but we didn’t care on such a short day. The day started clearing a bit, and we got some nice views, for a change. We also met some hikers doing short sections, mostly trying to get their gear dry from yesterday’s storm.

Near the end of the day, we crossed Lemah Creek, which once had a bridge that was washed off recently. We just went through the water with our shoes. I how they’ll dry tomorrow. Shortly after we reached a big campsite, and set up our tents and made dinner.

After a while Sizzler and Banjo came over as well. I thought more hikers will come around. Maybe a few took the shorter alternate, that also goes by some hot springs.