PCT SOBO DAY 21 – A dip in a lake

Day 21

Start: Site Site, Mile 313.9

END: Steering site, mile 337.0

Walked miles: 23.1 miles

While I looked out of my store, I was curious to know what Rainier would like in the morning sun. It was not at all disappointed. Unlike the cold tones of yesterday’s sunset, today Rainier blushed in early morning light. I had only glimpsed the impressive Magenta phase before returning during the 15 minutes until it was time to wake up. I’m glad I got caught; 15 minutes later, Mount Rainier returned to his usual self.

The morning walk began in an area of burns. Once again, he was grateful for the cool of the morning and the less intense sun. Wild flowers came out of dry and dusty ground, demonstrating that some plants were still trying to do it in hard conditions. When I got to my first source of water of the day, my eyes could not believe what they were seeing. In front of me was a large crow basin, the most perfect meadow, full of oranges, roses, soft white, purple, whatever. After the sterility of the burn, this was an oasis welcome. Of course, the images never do justice, but it was magical; You should walk to him one day.

While I was sitting collecting water, a little annoying with the relentless flies and mosquitoes, I captured something that moved through the corner of the eye. When the deer went cautiously towards the meadow, I realized that all the impressions I had been seeing this morning that they were driving in this direction were probably his. From time to time, she turned her head towards me, making sure that I was a friend, not enemy, but otherwise I was doing her business. What a beautiful place to be a deer.

I said goodbye to my friend of the deer and went to Scout Pass, but even before I was a mile, another animal appeared in front of me. A bear! I only saw that the dark brown rear disappeared in the mountain, but I shouted, so I did not scare it with my approach. While folding the corner, Basin Lake appeared well below me. And then I saw it again. The bear ran through the valley and to the trees, when I lost it. I felt that I was in National Geographic that captured aerial images of bears running through a valley. It was great!

And just when I thought that my day could not be more incredible, I came to Scout Pass and I was completely impressed by the sight of Mount Rainier in front of me. Absolutely dominated the horizon. This was one of those moments when I only had to stop and soak everything, it was that jaw. What began as a kind of «Bla» day, had become an incredible one in the period of approximately one hour.

The rest of the morning was topped with the most magnificent crest walks. A layer after mountain layer appeared, the wild flowers continued to show and my spirit continued to raise. As I approached Chinook Pass, an important road stop point appeared, more and more hikers of a day and weekend. I even gave myself an orange in Sourdoough Gap (yes, Magic de Padreos!) In Chinook Pass, I sat in the parking lot and tried to look like a hungry and thirsty hiker (it is not difficult to do), but there was no more magic of trails. Most people were on their own walks.

I continued, I’m not sure how far it would come today. I went down to Lake Dewey and the mosquitoes were absolutely horrendous. I resigned my destiny, I put on my entire insect protection team and sat. I wanted to go to 5 more miles, but I was hungry and tired and attacked me by mosquitoes. All I could do was sit and splash.

Suddenly, the sun, the hiker had been walking in recent days, appeared. I had not seen it all day, but he did a plan with me to walk for a few miles, dinner and then walk the last miles for camping. It sounded good!

Before our agreed place, Sun had stopped in front of a lake. One thing about Sun is that he likes to take the opportunity to swim when he can. There were not too many mosquitoes around and the sun was out, so we decided to do it! The water was a bit cold, but in a refreshing way. We didn’t stay too long, but it was enough to lift our mood.

While we dried up, we had dinner on the shore, along with a hiker who camped there at night. He had made 26 miles by accident (4 additional miles), so he had decided to call him a day before. I don’t blame it!

Soon, it was time for us to leave. We take our things together during the last 4 miles and go out. While we climb, we enjoy another incredible look at Mount Rainier when we start our walk away from the huge icon. Around one mile before our planned stop, I found another camp with an incredible rainiest view. Sun was more than happy to stop early, so we install the camp and saw the sunset play Rainier while we went to bed.

And that is a day in the life of a PCT Sobo hiker!

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