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| Overcast weather |
Day 13, my second day going south, was a soggy one. I awoke to a muted foggy morning. It was not really that wet where I camped but as I hiked higher into the mountains, the clouds rolled in more and more.
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| Up, up, up! |
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| Misreading a sign can cost hours! |
I soon reached Wahtum lake. Taking the advice of a hiker, I turned left. Unfortunately, That was a mistake because he had not accounted for the fact that I was hiking the opposite direction on the trail. I was really supposed to turn to the right. So I ended up hiking up a steep slope and then around the lake before arriving about 30 feet from the same intersection... always double-check advice using a map, folks!
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| Wahtum Lake |
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| Just realizing I went the wrong way |
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| Big drippy trees |
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| Wahtum Lake |
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| Salamander Friend |
As I reached the top of my climb out of the gorge, my feet were soaked through. There was very little actual rain but everything was covered in condensation and the trees were dripping constantly. Just past Indian Spring, there was a cool open area. I bet the view from here would have been stunning, but I got a different c=kind of entertainment: I could see the swirling clouds rolling past me. It was like being on the beach in a storm, I could individual gusts sending bits of cloud spinning past me. While I do wish I could have seen the views promised by this terrain, I did enjoy this moment of cold grey bleakness!
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| Sweeping "view" above Indian Spring |
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| Cool cairn to mark the trail |
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| Indian Paintbrush! |
A few hours of soggy ridge-walking later, I came upon a good resting spot, ate, and called my wife. I also changed sock to combat the crazy soggy weather. I always bring three pairs of socks on a hike. Then one pair can be worn, while another is dry, while the third in dry in my pack for days like this.
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| Dry lunch spot. The trees to the right block the clouds |
In the afternoon, the clouds began breaking up a bit and I got views of the zig zag wilderness area. It was a nice sight. It was also nice that I was no longer constantly being soaked by condensation! I soon arrived at Lolo pass, where I ran into more people, leaving them behind to climb higher into the Mount Hood Wilderness!
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| Clouds lifting! |
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| Daisies! |
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| Lolo Pass |
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| Mt. Hood Wilderness! |
Once entering the Mount Hood Wilderness, the PCT followed the Timberline trail counter-clockwise about 1/3 of the way around the mountain to Timberline lodge. I would not make it all that way by dark. Instead, I hiked down countless switchbacks to the Sandy River valley. After a few more miles of hiking, I stopped at a campsite on the north end of an island below Ramona falls. I would wake in the morning, cross the south fork of the Sandy River, and climb up to the timberline again!
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| Fork of Sandy river and tree/bridge |
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| It was so sandy it felt like the beach here |
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| Looking up the valley toward Hood |
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| My campsite |
I had some cool neighbors next door who had been on the trail for some time now. They were a couple with a 12-year old kids. They looked tired. When I asked, they told me they had hiked south through most of Washington, encountering many dangerous situations and they felt tired and raw. They were excited to get to Timberline Lodge, where they would be finished and nurse their wounds. It was fun to talk with them, hearing about places that Laura and I had hiked through the previous year! I got some good rest after my 18 miles of hiking, wondering if I would see the top of the mountain the next day or if the clouds would roll back in.
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| Sunset |
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