Yesterday I had told Frank to let me sleep in, even if I was still asleep when she left. She took this to mean "make sure I stay in bed until you leave, even if I'm wide awake." I was wide awake but she threatened to withhold her towel from me, so I stayed in bed until right after she left. I needed her towel to wipe the condensation off my tent and did so before packing up and hiking up to Piper Pass.
The climb wasn't too difficult and there were some views along the way. Apparently today's theme is unexpectedness : After Deception Lake, I saw a sign for Surprise Pass and Surprise Lake.
I started down and saw Frank down below as she was navigating the long series of switchbacks.
I followed and met her at a stream shortly after. Here, we finally figured out a mystery that had been bugging us since our first morning in Washington. There was something up in the trees throwing things to the ground. We finally realized it was a squirrel dropping pine cones. After dropping two dozen or so, it would come down the tree and eat the cones, leaving the leftovers in a scattered pile. After solving this mystery, we hiked on through some marshlands, but with the tread of the trail getting slightly better all the time.
We stopped for a short lunch beside a lake and then quickly got moving again, climbing through an area with great fall colors and up to a ski lift.
The trail wove through the ski slopes and eventually we ended up at Stevens Pass - where we found trail magic to boot. It wasn't super organized and was done by a hiker, but we got some lemonade and a cookie before hiking on the bridge over the road and starting our next section of trail. This section couldn't be more different from the last one. It was slightly downhill, even grade, and great tread.
This lasted for about three miles, but even after the tread got worse, it was still better than what we've had the past few days. We hiked up for a while and then down to Janus Lake where we squeezed into a couple spots near an older couple. We got here just after 7:30 - the first time in days that it's still been light out when we arrived at camp. We ate and went to bed.
Beautiful fall foliage, and a gorgeous HEART shaped lake!! Thank you xo
ReplyDeleteI saw that view and HAD to take that picture for you :)
DeleteThe fall colors are truly beautiful! Not fall here yet but I bet we won’t have colors like that.
ReplyDeleteHallelujah for no night hiking!
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