I don’t really know why I did such a long day. I had my plan all laid out to finish my hike at the 15th, and that plan included an easy day today, a bit harder tomorrow, and then only 5 miles into highway 20 and a day of resting at the Dinsmores. Instead, I did a really long day today, just so I can get to the highway tomorrow after noon, sleep at the Dinsmores and head out on the next day. So I’ll be done one day earlier, I guess.

The morning was really cold, and my tent was damp inside. I dried as much as I could with the towel, and started hiking with Lighthouse at 7:30. We had a climb ahead of us first thing in the morning, and our feet and hands were frozen. But after some hiking we warmed up. The skies were finally clear, and on top of the ridge we got some sun. We had a nice breakfast break, and Lighthouse dried his stuff in the sunlight. I was too lazy to spread my tent.

We hiked on, covering another 7 miles. Lighthouse was planning on making an even bigger day than me, so he can sort out some business he has in Seattle. So he just had a short break and headed out. Banjo caught up to us, and I hiked the second half of the day with him.

Climbing up from Waptus River we met some southbounders that Banjo knew from Oregon. They flip flopped from Sisters up to the border and started hiking south. We learned from them that the spot we were hoping to camp at didn’t have any good sites, but a bit further on we can find some. Oh well.

We hiked on and over another ridge, and reached Deep Lake. That was the spot I originally planned on staying on. Sizzler will be coming here tonight, since he needs to get to Skykomish only on Saturday morning, to get his package from the post office. We had some 7 more miles to do.

Another climb up a ridge, near Cathedral Rock, and then a long hike down to fording a creek that goes into Hyas Lake. We filled our water there, and started climbing up, looking for a spot to camp.

We found a half decent site about 0.7 miles later. I managed to set my tent on a not too slanted spot, and Banjo hung his hammock between two trees.

After we both finished dinner, other hikers started appearing. We were very surprised, since we have hiked almost 30 miles to get here, but Dewey, Tick Tock and Ball Buster came from the alternate, which means they did a bit less than us. What really surprised us was that Seamstress did hike the official PCT, and did about 35 miles today. Crazy.

Cathedral Rock
Cathedral Rock
Creek fording. We remained dry.
Creek fording. We remained dry.