On the weekend of July 16th and 17th, Rose, Monica, and I decide to do a car swap in the Goat Rocks Wilderness between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. They drive to the southern area near Potato Hill and I drive to the Berry Batch trailhead near Chambers Lake. We then met in Snowgrass Flat on Saturday night and hike up to the Packwood Glacier on Sunday morning before hiking to each others car and returning home Sunday night.
On the way back to the car I met a couple PCT hiker groups. One, a super nice couple,
Mike and Amy, know who
David Horton is, are
familiar with a calendar triple crown and
Squeaky's attempt to duplicate the feat,
curious about how David and Brian
fared in the Sierra, and I see from reading their journal, have also met
Mother Nature's Son. WOW! It was fun
chatting with them.
I don't leave Portland until 11:30am because I want to update the web site with my CDT hike from last week before I leave. I Reach the Chambers Lake trailhead at 3:00 and start climbing through woods. It is amazing how many wildflowers are still out at all elevations.
After a couple hours of hiking, the trail rises above tree line. The rugged mountains Goat Rocks Wilderness is famous for start to appear. I see many people and the weekend looks like it will be crowded but people are congregated before Goat Lake and there are few people where we camp.
At higher elevations, more colors of wildflowers appear. The flowers are thicker but closer to the ground.
Because it is still early, I decide to take a side trip up Hawkeye Point and then hike toward Heart Lake. Mount Adams is present in the distance.
Hawkeye Point looks down on Goat Lake.
The ridges up here are steep and sharp.
After climbing to Hawkeye Point, I hike toward Heart Lake. I don't get far when I come to a huge steep snowfield with no footprints over it and no easy way around it. It is much too steep to cross without an ice axe to cut steps. I must have had the camera tilted or this is not the same snow field! The snow field I couldn't cross was at a 60% angle.
I hike back to the trail and then over the pass to Goat lake. A kid on the way over bragged that it was 3/4 covered with ice and there were hundreds of mountain goat around it.
OK, I do see 6 mountain goat, including this one in the picture :). I then continue to Snowgrass Flats where Rose is supposed to be camped. On the way over I see one camp with a person that might be Rose but don't see Monica or Gracie, the dog. When I get to Snowgrass Flats, I look around and hear someone call out 'Craig'. Monica comes down to meet me.
It is really fun and wonderful to see Monica and Rose. They are also happy to see me, in part because they forgot to bring along the key to my car. I set up my Hammock and then we visit their friend Bill who is also camped in the area. We have a great view of Mount Adams.
As we are ready to go to bed, Mount St Helens lets up an ash plume which is really nice to see as the three of us climbed Mount St Helens last year before it became closed to the public.
Our camp is in a really good location. My hammock is behind Rose and Monica's tent. Rose and Monica give me some hot chocolate for breakfast, a special treat as I don't currently cook when I hike. YUM!
We say goodbye to Bill and his kids as they are hiking out early. We start climbing up to Packwood Glacier.
On the way up to Packwood Glacier, we pass by a wind shelter. Gracie the dog loves the open fields and runs around like crazy, going maybe 10 times further than we go.
We see Mount Rainier when we reach the Glacier area.
I climb down to a snowfield for a picture.
Monica and I walk over the Packwood Glacier. If there weren't steps, we never would have made it over the snow. Rose waits for us as she doesn't want Gracie to slip.
After we return to camp, Rose and Monica have lunch and I start hiking out. There are a number of meadows during the first part of the hike out, all with beautiful flowers and waterfalls.
As I reach tree line, the trail starts looking more like the PCT through Oregon. I've been on the official PCT trail since meeting Monica and Rose. Walupt Lake is shown in this picture.
The trail passes a number of small lakes. The bugs get bad. I meet some PCT hikers as mentioned in the summary. I reach Rose's Prius around 7:00 and drive home, getting lost a couple of times on the forest service roads. Dad has a message on my cell phone that he may be hurt but the number he left me doesn't patch me through to his hotel room. I look forward to getting his call tomorrow. (It is an infection and he starts taking antibiotics). Monica and Rose meet me the next day at lunch and we exchange cars back. A very enjoyable hike.