This was my first long distance solo trip and luckily all wen’t well. Temps were definitely warmer, both night and day, then I was used to with highs close to 90 and lows in the 60s. My total pack weight was just under 20 lbs with 7 lbs of food, 2L of water and a 8.5 pound base pack weight. I averaged about 19 miles a day over 4 days and gained a lot of much needed knowledge.
July 26,
Met my first group of hikers on top of Stevens pass ski resort. One of them snapped the only picture I have of myself from the whole trip.
Very early on I was longing for a Tenkara setup with the abundance of beautiful lakes.
Spent my first night here at Deception lakes.
July 27,
The Mount Daniel stream crossing.
Cathedral rock.
Deep lake, Buggiest place I’ve ever been.
My favorite camp was at Waptus lake. I found a secluded Island camp site with beautiful views in every direction.
July 28,
I slept in and took my time at Waptus lake in the morning finally leaving around 11.
The most scenic section on the trail IMHO was Escondido ridge.
A thunder storm was rolling in and just after I took this picture a bolt of lightning struck right in my frame about a mile away.
Causing this.
On the way down I crossed paths with some backpackers going the opposite way. They warned me that the Lemah creek bridge was out but there was a short detour with a calf high ford. Shortly after I talked to them It started to rain and I could tell by the increase in mountain runoff that I was going straight to the ford.
By the time I got there it had been raining steadily for over 3 hours and the stream was now definitely deeper than calf deep. I scouted around and found the washed out bridge.
I used my brunton ADC pro to measure the now thigh high water temp and speed at 51.3F and 6.4 MPH.
Due to my late start I came into Spectacle lake at 9:30 and wen’t straight to bed.
July 29,
It was dark when I came in, so when I woke up in the morning I was stunned by the scenery around me.
From above
Looking back at Kendall catwalk
Snoqualmie pass
All in all I had a great trip. Luckily water was plentiful on the trail and I even drank some untreated water for the first time on my last day out totaling about 4 liters. I haven’t started to pee out my butt yet so thats a good sign. My only injuries were sun burned/bug bitten arms and 2 small blisters on my toes so I’m going to try some Injinji socks and a long sleeve shirt. There was a good amount of overgrowth and tons of biting bugs but only a little snow on trail and a few blowdowns.
