Day 161 Alpine Lakes Desert

19 miles
From trail camp (mile 2400.7, elev 4854)
To camp along the creek (mile 2418.1, elevation 3347)
Upload 3945
Descend 5491

I had heard many times that the North Cascades are one of the most beautiful sections of the PCT. Not being from the Pacific Northwest, I don’t know the area very well. Knowing that the trail is located primarily east of North Cascades National Park, I wondered what defined the North Cascades. People gave me different descriptions of where the North Cascades began: White Pass, Snowqualmie Pass, Stephens Pass, but they didn’t describe what was special about them. Finally, David, a PNW geology student and friend of Firefly, gave me a good definition. In his mind, David defined the North Cascades as that area sculpted by glaciers. He seemed to think that line went around Snoqualmie Pass.

Given David’s definition, I knew that if the weather kept me from making it all the way to Canada, I at least wanted to experience some of the northern Cascades.

Following a ridge

This morning’s trail mostly followed a ridge. While that ridge mostly ran through the end of a valley and over some alpine lakes, there were also plenty of climbs and descents. The valley below descended to Snoqualmie Pass and provided occasional views of the pass and the ski area there.

One thing about the whole day is that the mountains and views were beautiful. I felt like I was in glacial terrain and kept stopping to take pictures.

Clouds hovering over the valley we were in yesterday.

The morning sun finds some breaks in the clouds.

More morning sun after reaching the top of the ridge at an elevation where there were clouds

Approaching a narrow stretch of trail along the ridge.

rocky traverse

The trail then traversed some peaks for a couple of miles. This stretch was very rocky and required careful foot placement with each step. Despite being fairly level, I was only averaging just over 1 mph.

Looking down the valley toward Snoqualmie Pass

As soon as I entered this section, I saw that someone had written a message on the trail with their trekking pole. I couldn’t figure out the first letter, but the rest were «OAT» with an arrow pointing forward. Wondering if it meant «goat,» I looked in the direction of the arrow. The message could be old, the goats could have moved, or the message/arrow could simply mean «goats ahead.» So I kept looking as I walked. As the trail took a curve, I saw mountain goats ahead and above the trail. It turns out that AKA and Mirthful, who were a little ahead of me, wrote the message.

mountain goats

Looking back at the trail and the hill where the mountain goats were. I kept looking, but I didn’t see any more goats.

Looking ahead to the path of this journey

Just before beginning our final descent

Halfway down. Overlooking Spectacle Lake.

In addition to the mountain goats, there were pikas everywhere, standing on the rocks and warning each other of dangers with their “meep” calls.

pika

Descent, meadow and camping

The trail then descended a few thousand feet to a meadow for the next two miles and crossed that meadow for a few miles. We camped there, just before another big climb. There were no good camping spots between here and the summit and it definitely would have been dark when we got to the top. But we still have 19 miles left, which I’m very happy about, given the difficult terrain in the morning. I’m also glad my Achilles tendon didn’t bother me.

Delate Creek. This is the exit from Spectacle Lake (we had descended quite a bit since that last photo)

Approaching the end of the descent

Our campsite (the photo is actually from the next morning when we finished packing)

At one point, Mirthful and I were walking together and had a good chat. I was conflicted between wanting to help others and going on a hike, which is very personal. I think she knew this on some level, but I tried to reinforce that her experiences from this trip will help her work with youth in the future. As I get to know this group better, I like them more and more. They are all attentive and caring people.

Tomorrow is more likely to be wet. There is a 30% chance of rain from 2 a.m. to 10 p.m.

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