Today’s plan was to get within a couple miles of White Pass and camp there. That would allow us to head in to White Pass in the morning and get our resupply done without having to pay for expensive town accommodation. With rumors of a party at the brewery in Packwood for Spider’s Birthday, it only made sense to abandon that plan and push. I followed the trail around the head of Cowlitz River, past Tieton Pass and up to a ridge above Shoe Lake. From there, we descended past Hogsback Mountain and next to the White Pass ski area to highway 12. By the time we’d reached the store there, we had covered 15.5 miles, 24.9 km.

I woke up this morning early enough to catch the sunrise with breakfast and hang out with the others while packing up camp. The sun came up quickly and I spent the morning walking around warm hills with great views into the valley below.

I descended into the forest and walked through the trees to Tieton Pass. The forest provided a soft surface to walk on, very welcome after walking on sharp rocks all day yesterday.

After a couple of hours, I climbed up to the ridge above Shoe Lake. I was tired from yesterday and this climb took a lot of effort to finish, but the view was worth it. To my west was Rainier, and just below me to my east, I could see Shoe Lake. I had lunch up here and met Wow who was also talking about the party in Packwood, we were both keen to push past camp.

On the way down, we saw the White Pass ski area, there was no chairlift down for us, but work had begun to prepare for the ski season. We made it down the slope in just over an hour, and soon got to the Kracker Barrel just in time for a beer from the fridge before they closed.

One of the people working at the store saw us walking out to the road to hitch, and offered us a ride to Packwood. They took us in to town and even drove around a little to show us the spots before dropping us at Packwood Brewing Co. When we got there, we found a table around the back with about a dozen hikers hanging out, the rumours of a party were true!