Washington PCT 2015: Day 22

Cool changing area near the spring

Day 22 began wonderfully. We had slept right next to a fast running river and it helped us sleep soundly. We got up, ate, puttered around, and headed up to relax in the hot spring waters. Nobody was around on a Monday morning so we had the place to ourselves! I went up to the back of the cave where the water was hottest... it was super steamy! Then, when I couldn't stand it, I would go cool off in a cooler pool.

This is the actual spring area

The cave where it's really hot!

View from the changing area

After soaking for quite some time, we decided to hit the trail. So we packed up camp and said goodbye to the caretakers. We stayed for a while with them and chatted about what their job is like and how they got it. They were a really interesting couple! After a nice chat over coffee, Laura and I took off down the trail. It was well established for quite a few miles. We passed a few really strange springs on our way up into the mountains. We also crossed the middle fork of the Snoqualmie river quite a few times.

The caretaker cabin

Weird natural spring

Middle fork of Snoqualmie river

Pretty colors of rock and water

We will basically follow this to its source!

About 5 or 6 miles into our day, we followed a road up to a cool horse camp on a bluff. From there, the trail was much less maintained. There were large sections of trail in which you could not see the ground through all of the underbrush... a great way to trip, stub a toe, or twist an ankle. That slowed us down a lot.

Mountain road leading to horse camp

Trees getting small again

As we climb, the walls of the valley get more rocky

Despite the slower pace, we still made a fair number of miles and the scenery kept getting grander and grander! We finally arrived after about 10.5 miles at a really cool campsite in a mountain valley just below dutch miller's gap. It was definitely the most remote a feeling we had at a campsite so far. We had seen absolutely nobody since leaving the spring and everything was overgrown. In addition, the scenery was like something out of the TV series "Wild America". It felt like we could run into a bear around any corner. After a nice meal, which we ate away from our campsite, we settled down to rest. We would hike over the pass the next day!

"Wild America" field

Goodnight, Alpine Lakes!