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| View across Diamond lake |
We got a slow start on day 9. That is a difficulty about hiking with a large group. As a solo hiker, I was up and hiking in well under 30 minutes but the others were not so driven to hike major miles. That is the trade-off for many a solo hiker: Company is good to have but then you usually have to wait for someone else at some point, which is a little lame. I struggles a little with being grumpy about this but I simply didn't have the gear or GPS capabilities to be hiking solo.
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| Diamond lake resort |
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| Relaxing beside the lake |
After hiking a few miles through many campgrounds along the lakeside, we arrived at the Diamond Lake resort at its north end. Here we bought snacks, ate food, rested, and talked with other hikers.n After resting as long as we dared, the four of us hiked to the Howlock Mountain trail and headed back toward the PCT.
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| On the road again... |
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| Trail Head |
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| Dusty hot trail |
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| Lots of dust |
The Howlock Mountain trail was hot and dusty, except for a nice break near Thielsen creek. However, as we gained elevation and traveled around the north side of Thielsen Mountain, the snow returned. Hannah, being new to this type of terrain, was a little worried at first but soon came around.
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Hiking in the snow
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| It's pretty steep |
We did not have any GPS coordinates for the Howlock mountain trail, only for the PCT. So we eventually just gave up and cut straight across the snow in the direction we knew the PCT would pass. After climbing a few thousand feet, we took a lunch break in the shade below a large snowfield. Being out in the middle of nowhere hiking across snow looking for our trail was invigorating in a group of four in a way that was a lot of fun.
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| Howlock Mountain |
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| Mount Thielsen |
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| Lots more snow and Howlock Mountain |
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| Found the trail! |
We found the trail about 20 minutes after leaving our lunch spot and started our way around Howlock Mountain to the highest point in the Oregon and Washington sections of the trail! There were a few pretty steep hills to traverse but we continued in our excitement to reach the top. There were great views of the surrounding mountains and our feet were mostly dry!
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| Must be on-trail! |
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| A last look at Thielsen |
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| Rather steep traverse |
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| Nice view to the west |
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| Resting in a bare spot |
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| Having fun! |
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| More snow |
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| That is an old sign |
Finally, after hours of snow hiking, we arrived at the high-point of our trail! We cheered, sang, danced, took selfies, and ate food at this point. We had to sit on our sleeping pads because there was snow everywhere but that certainly didn't dampen our spirits!
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| Getting to the saddle! |
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| View from our high point on the trail |
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| High point marker |
Now the trail passed over a saddle and down the east side of the next ridge. We quickly became aware that the sun was gone for the day. It started feeling very late and we did not want to set up camp in the snow so we spread out a bit as we loosely followed the trail on GPS, looking for possible sites not covered with snow. It was a bit of a worrisome search but we soon arrived at the perfect location!
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| Sun is getting low |
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| Getting shady |
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| Dorito sliding down a slope |
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| Hannah sliding down a slope |
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| Lots of snow over here |
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| Where to camp?... |
Our campsite was a plateau looking out miles to the east. We had a wonderful dinner and watched a magnificent sunset from our perch. It was a great end to our long day. We didn't make many miles, probably between 10 and 15. But we fit a lot of adventure into those miles!
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| Our camp site |
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| View to the south toward Howlock Mountain |
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| Sunset beginning |
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| Beautiful end of the day |
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