September 15
I am up and walking on the trail at 6:45 this morning. My tent site last night was very sheltered, and although I could hear a fair amount of wind in the treetops, it did not blow on my tent at all. As I rise up out of the bowl the lake is in, and get mid slope on the mountain, I definitely feel a bit of a cool breeze. As I hike down the Narrow Trail, I pass high above another lake that sat lower than mine.
As I continue to climb this morning I’m treated to ever increasingly beautiful views in all directions. Eventually, the Trail takes me up and over a saddle between two pointed peaks and some high mountain trees.
After passing through the saddle I quickly drop down the other side of the mountain towards a Lake at the valley floor. Halfway down I look across at the opposite Mountain slope and see what looks to be a Trail And I wonder, is that where I am headed?
I soon had my answer. As I dropped down more switchbacks, and passed slightly above the end of the lake, in a heavily wooded area, I began hiking back uphill and soon found myself on the exposed patch of green slope that I had seen across the valley. I can look back at the saddle between the two peaks and the trees that I passed through just 30 minutes earlier. When I got to the end of the exposed Trail I turned around for final pictures of where I came from.
I continue to have amazing views as I walk along the side slope of the mountain side.
I soon come to another saddle and was again rewarded with amazing views of more mountains, and another beautiful lake sitting below a large cone shaped peak
I just love the pointed peaks of the Cascades. I go up and over another saddle to see a good size lake down in the valley. This one sits below the pointed of peaks of the northern cascades.
After crossing the saddle, I headed down into the valley heading closer to the lake. The silence was disturbed with the roar of fighter jets. There are three of them just over the pointed peaks. They turned in a group and one of them flew down the valley in front of me. It was too far to get a good picture, but I was able to catch a little bit of it in the frame.
As I continue down, I come to this bridge crossing a stream next to a waterfall. Nice place for a second breakfast.
As I leave the waterfall I enter a burn scar area. As I was busy preparing to take a picture again, I again heard the loud roar of fighter jets. I looked up and saw one inverted directly over me in a hard turn. I was able to get a mediocre picture.
After I dropped to the valley floor, I crossed over a Stream on this footbridge. I was able to look up the mountain and see a beautiful waterfall cascading down from the glaciers up top.
After crossing the valley floor, I went uphill, way, uphill almost at the top was this a small lake where I stopped for lunch. I came from the top of mountain shown on the other side of the valley.
I passed through this High meadow with beautiful red foliage.
Once at the top of the mountain, I crossed over and again dropped down down down into the valley. I crossed this final bridge over a stream and went slightly off Trail to my campsite.
Today’s PCT miles hiked 27.5
Total PCT Miles hiked to date 2428.9
Miles left: 224.7
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