August 16, 2016

Glacier Lake (mile 2447.7) to bushcamp (mile 2464.1)

Miles: 16.4

Our total miles: 2057.8

You can probably guess what happened this morning, but we will tell you anyway. Laurie turned off the alarm and kept sleeping. Andy sleeps with ear plugs and was dead to the world. When Andy shook Laurie awake at 5:45 he didn’t even bother asking if the alarm had gone off.

Andy started packing up while Laurie slowly opened her eyes. We packed up our things while chatting with Janet – our tentsite neighbor, until we left. 

We climbed the steep use trail back to the PCT and were heading north again around 6:45am.

The trail meandered through large boulder fields and soft forests. We crossed some streams and began to climb steeply up toward an unnamed pass.

The switchbacks were tight and narrow, partially occluded by overgrown bushes. It was hard to imagine horses negotiating those turns. Overgrown bushes hid rocks and roots, leading both of us to stumble over them on numerous occasions.

We crested the top of the climb drenched in sweat and gazed down at Trap Lake. It would have been amazing to have a zip line down into the cool waters of the turquoise lake.

We hiked down, using our poles to support the majority of the weight of each step. The trail was a deep rut, somewhat like what we assume the AT looks like. At least from the description we’ve heard from other hikers. 

The trail crossed some nice meadows and we walked past a few lakes before climbing again. Small bushes filled with purple berries lined the trail. Laurie stopped to pick and sample. 

These looked and tasted like the blueberries she was used to. But after so many hikers telling us different things, we don’t know what is a huckleberry and what is a blueberry. Really though, it doesn’t matter – they are both delicious and so far haven’t killed us 🙂

We hiked up and down about 500 feet two more times before topping out at the top of a ski lift at Stevens Pass. 

We stopped to make some phone calls before walking down to the ski resort.

Andy chatted with a 90 something year old man who was out hiking and “altitude training” for his marathon the following week. He mentioned he usually wins his age group and recently does better than the 80 year olds as well. It makes both of us happy to see people still out enjoying nature late in their lives.

The hike down to Stevens Pass wasn’t spectacular or wilderness-like at all. Construction and highway noise made it feel like an urban hike. 

And since we were in an urban environment Laurie chatted on the phone most of the way down. 

When we finally reached Stevens Pass Laurie called her godmother while Andy picked up our boxes. 

We then started all our town chores- charging electronics, throwing away grabage, creating a tentative plan for the next section to determine how much food to bring, and eating.

For us, food is not usually the first thing we do in town. We call our family, shower and then go about filling our stomachs.

Sometimes this doesn’t end well because we get hangry but this afternoon we were ok.

We ordered sandwiches and asked for as many veggies as possible. Laurie had never eaten a sandwich with olives but today it tasted delicious.

We chatted with other hikers as we attempted to sort our food. Laurie tried to give away trail mix but everyone politely declined. 

Three road cyclists came through and gladly took some of our extra food. They were amazed when we told them where we had come from and they asked to take a picture with us. 

We donated a lot of food to the hiker box, more than we ever had. So much in fact that another hiker thought our donation pile was the hiker box. We tried really hard to have variety in each box but after 5 months, things become a lot less palatable.

Laurie did laundry in the bathroom. She was happy to find soap, although using the automatic dispenser was a bit tedious. 

Just before the lodge closed Laurie had a big cup of ice cream. She is getting tired of our trail food and always seems to look forward to ice cream in town. 

Ice cream and a fuzzy beverage.

At 4:30 the lodge closed and we continued to charge outside. We edited, added pictures and uploaded our blog posts. We had originally hoped to hike out around 5 pm but didn’t actually leave until a little after 7 pm.

We crossed over the pedestrian bridge over the highway at Stevens Pass and walked past a construction site to the trail head. The first mile was flat. It was like walking on a paved path. It was wide in some sections, then narrow because of overgrown brush but flat!

We enjoyed feeling our legs move themselves effortlessly.

Since we left so late and were in the trees it got dark around 8 pm. We hadn’t made it as far as we would have liked but so be it. We found a tentsite between 2 creeks and set up camp. 

We will sleep well on the soft earth to the sound of running water.

Tonight we are grateful for easy access to outlets and soap in bathrooms.