We spent most of the day hiking on very smooth and gentle trail today. First we went past Potato Hill, which seems to be a very old volcanic cone. We then hiked through forest over very wide ridges which had ponds and lakes scattered over them. At the end of the day, we climbed up a long and steep ridge to find camp above Walupt Creek. Today we covered 17.7 miles, 28.5 km

I got out of camp this morning just before 8 am and the trail was smooth and fast, great way to start the day. After an early, small climb, the trail descended for several miles almost imperceptibly down Potato Hill.

We reached a junction and began to climb gradually. The trail took us up onto a very wide and flat ridge which was covered in small lakes. I spotted a familiar face near one of these lakes, it was Spider, a southbound hiker I’d met at trail days. He had flipped northbound for this section and was hiking up through Washington. It was Spider’s birthday today, and he had doughnuts and coffee to share. We joined him and some other hikers including Riff Raff who I had met back in Tehachapi.

After hanging out for a while, we decided that we’d better push a bit to reach the campsite we were interested in by sunset. We climbed over a ridge and into a huge bowl which took us across Lakeview Mountain. We had several great views of Mt Adams here, firstly from just as we rounded a ridge, and then again from a different angle as we began climbing up the further side of the valley.

Once at the top of the climb, there was a couple of miles gentle traverse to reach camp. We found a handful of tentsites on a small spur just above a creek, and set up just before 6 pm. Just as we finished eating, Spider and Riff Raff showed up and also joined us at camp.