Last night, I woke up to a bunch of condensation in the tent. I opened up the vestibule to help, and 20 minutes later, it started to rain, so I had to close it and deal with the wetness.
In the morning, the alarm went off at 5 and we were on trail just after 6 in order to make it 5 miles to the road to make the 8:30 shuttle to the town of Trout Lake. We had a pretty big climb and a nice descent and arrived at the road just before 8:00.
Mosey and Aria, the hikers that we met last night were there along with Voodoo and Princess North Star. We hung out and Aria sang for us briefly before the shuttle turned up. Sisyphus was in the back. How he got to town before us is an impressive feat because he left a day after us and somehow beat us here.
We got in the car and local Trail Angel Gary drove us to the tiny town of Trout Lake. We immediately went to the grocery and resupplied. Frank went across the street and got us some huckleberry cinnamon rolls which were really good. We charged our devices and waited for the 10:30 am return shuttle. We're trying bigger miles and wanted to just do a quick in and out of town. The shuttle pulled up and it was an old school bus.
We (18 of us hikers) all piled on and rode back to trail. We've caught up with the bubble and faster than I'd expected. We set off and did a 2000 foot climb up the slopes of Mt. Adams and into a burned area.
At one point, we had a view through the trees and could see Adams to the east, Hood to the south, Mt. St. Helens to the west (partially obscured by clouds) and the tip of Mt. Rainier (just above the clouds) to the north.
We stopped for lunch with a great view of Adams and then continued around the slopes with multiple great views as we crossed several streams and had to do a sketchy log crossing over a glacial creek.
From here, it was 5 miles all downhill to camp at a spring which flows directly out of the lava field that we're camping on the edge of.
There were already quite a few hikers here and Frank and I managed to find a spot right near Rally. We chatted with her for a bit and then got in the tent for what will likely be a very cold night. Forecast is for the 30s here tonight.
So many thoughtful and helpful trail angels! You all have had some amazing food while on the trail- I’d like to try a huckleberry cinnamon roll! I bet any hikers heading south will see a lot more burned areas than you all have hiked through, still hard to see. That’s amazing that you had famous mountains in all directions!
ReplyDeleteI can’t imagine crossing a creek on a log with a backpack on! You all have good balance!
ReplyDeleteAmazing that you can see all those mountains at the same time! What a neat place. River crossing looks slightly treacherous but you all got over it alright...
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