I woke up with the campsite all to myself this morning. I had seen no hikers on the trail since I left the PCT and it really felt like I was in the wilderness. I left camp and hiked down Deception Creek, crossing Sawyer Creek on the way. I reached the trailhead around 1 pm Read more

Another late start – early finish day, it seems as if I’m building up some fatigue by now. On reflection, I had been pushing since trail days without an awful lot of rest. I had needed to push a bit if I was going to see the end of California, most of Oregon, and still Read more

I had a late start and early finish today, out of camp just before 9 am, then into camp just before 5 pm. I started out on a gentle climb above the northern shores of Waptus Lake, the trail turned up Spinola Creek and began to get steeper. After passing Deep Lake, the trail climbed Read more

The rain stopped today and the sun mostly came out, it was only blocked by smoke which filled the air, even up on top of the ridges. Today was another big elevation day, I began by climbing for hours up to a small lake near Escondido Ridge, then walking around a high shelf covered in Read more

Another cold and wet day today, I could definitely feel the seasons changing. Overnight the wind picked up a lot, and early in the morning heavy rain began. There was no rush to pack up in the rain, in fact we were prepared to do a trail zero if it kept up. It rained constantly Read more

The landscape around me had dramatically changed since leaving Snoqualmie. I climbed steeply up the side of Kendall Peak, then crossed the Kendall Katwalk and traversed Collar Mountain to Ridge Lake for lunch. After lunch, I walked around high above Alaska Lake and crossed over a ridge near the top of Alaska Mountain. The trail Read more

This morning when we woke up, we didn’t have much of a plan for getting back to trail. About half a dozen hikers were looking to get from Packwood to Snoqualmie, a significant skip but also avoiding a fire closure within the next section. A lot of us were also concerned about making it to Read more

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 Read more

I hiked through Goat Rocks Wilderness today. The trail wrapped around the ridge we climbed yesterday and then up to a vantage of Gilbert Peak. I walked around the Cispus Riverhead and then began the climb up to Old Snowy Mountain. I made it to the summit with a bit of scrambling and took in Read more

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 Read more