Returning to Washington again after some family obligations called us home, we planned to spend the balance of July getting at least 100 miles in the southern half of our home state. Since we had planned to be hiking during mid July with 14 year old Whitney, we planned to do a gear and fitness test run in a place where we could fairly easily set two cars and chose the 30 mile stretch between White Pass and Chinook Pass, where the trail skirts (and briefly enters) the SE corner of Mt. Rainier National Park.
We were not really in a hurry, fine to go 5 or 6 miles after starting at 2pm but Whitney was on fire out of the gate! We made 10 miles in just that afternoon, camping by the shore of one of the many ‘Snow Lakes’ that dot the Cascade range, and our 2nd camp out of 3 previous nights. The mosquitoes were in full force during this stretch however, which may or may not have been connected to a fabulous array of birds that blessed our camp when the sun first rose. Whitney is a full fledged junior ornithologist and we spent 30 minutes watching the birds from our rain-fly-less tent before we started moving. Her knowledge just awe-inspiring, pointing out a red-breasted nuthatch here and a chickadee there. With the smart but trouble-making Whisky Jack/Gray Jay/Camp Robber always lingering and looking to steal some food…
We left this camp in a hurry once outside our tent but decided to push for a second breakfast along the banks of the Bumping River, heretofore unbeknownst to me, despite being so close to my home backcountry! We took a leisurely 90 minutes and chatted with another family passing through, coincidentally a Dad with his twin 14 year old boys. As would be normal operating protocol, the 14 year olds didn’t socialize much during the break :). However, Whitney took a sneaking bit of pride as we were on mission for 16 miles today (and she could have pushed through 20), while the boys were going at a mellow (but still no walk in the park!) 8 miles per day, doing this route over 4 days. I loved seeing Whitney’s smile and confidence, especially as we were hiking at a great clip, even with some elevation, a bit ahead of 20 min per mile/3mph, and she kept having to wait for Ashley and I with possibly lighter packs and a lot of conditioning under our belt – WOW!
We made our way to Big Dewey Lake, a fairly popular 3.5 mile (each way) day hike from Chinook Pass. But it was quite as a mouse when we arrived around 7pm, the beautiful evening light and some alpenglow on the rocks above the lake. The mosquitos were a bit more modest, so we could enjoy dinner by the lake shore, a full fledged sandy beach of clean alpine water! We shared camp with just one other, a South Bound (SoBo) thru hiker, who had done a NoBo PCT thru hike in 2016 and just couldn’t stay away, flipping the direction and doing it again. He said he was hoping to get a little further, but the lakeshore looked nice. He had, after all, “only” gone 32 miles today. HA. Such a range of experiences on this trail. The 16 miles we did today was pretty dang amazing if you ask me.
We decided we wanted lunch and beverages back in Packwood, so got an early start and were back to our other car by 10:30am, just as hordes of dayhikers were heading up the trail. Whitney got her first fun dose of traipisng among the daily visitors having come off a 3 day section hike, feeling strong and filled with joy and accomplishment! In just 3 weeks, the three of us will head back to Oregon and do a >100 mile stretch all together – she’s going to have no problem knocking this out and likely will beat us into the ground (in the very best way!)
But before we get to that, I have one more stretch to do solo into Washington, a 70 mile part coming up next…