Mile 2,199 – Brisk walking in chilly Washington

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Mile 2,199 – August 26, 2010

Our introduction into Washington has followed the same trend of atypical weather we have seen throughout our entire hike. This time it the came in the way of an unusually hot day. We climbed nearly 3,300 feet from Cascade Locks in over 92 degree heat, which is not normal for Southern Washington.  The dense and lush forests are quite a contrast from the high desert we walked through in Oregon.   I got a laugh when Melissa chirped up out of a silent afternoon of walking, “Did you know we have been hiking ALL summer?” I replied, “Did you just realize this after nearly 2,200 miles?” With a beautiful view of the orange sunset over the Columbia Gorge, we now lay down to sleep after a day of steep climbing.

~Swift

Mile 2,228 – August 27, 2010

Woke up to an incredible view of the north face of Mt. Hood painted red from the sunrise. The air was a bit chilly this morning, which is a great motivator to hike quickly so that we can warm up. We originally believed that we were going to have to detour into Trout Lake because we did not expect to have enough food to make it six days to our next resupply at White Pass.

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We were pleasantly surprised when trail magic changed our plans.  A section hiker, Hoosierdaddy, provided us with all of his leftover backpacking food, as he was headed into town.  On top of that good news, the highlight of the day was a fully stocked PCT “magic bucket” that sat beneath a tree waiting for hungry hikers to open it and enjoy Snickers, Baby Ruths, cookies, chips and candy!

~Swift

Mile 2,258 – August 28, 2009

Gorgeous views of Mt. Adams throughout the day were our treat, as we hike along green meadows covered in wildflowers.  Mt. Adams is the third largest volcano peak in the Cascades with Shasta being the first and Rainier second.

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As we crossed a back road highway, we were greeted by a gentleman, Serpent Slayer, and his son, William the Wildabeast who were performing trail magic from a campsite along the trail. William makes the best smores and is also a terrific magician!

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Swift and William exchanged magic tricks as we gathered around a warm campfire before setting out for 23 more miles for the day.

~ Buckeye

Mile 2,302.8 – August 30, 2010

White Pass

We have made it through the longest stretch between town stops in Washington. The past two days have been filled with storytelling and laughing as we are hiking with another young couple from New York.

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We first met Milk Sheikh and Cliff Hanger at mile 700, Kennedy Meadows, and didn’t get the pleasure of hiking together until now. Yesterday we passed through the Goat Rocks Wilderness which is famous for it’s towering rock spires and colored cliff faces.

We had planned a 30 mile day to campsites that had a great view of Mt. Rainier. We knew the final 3 miles of the day would be the toughest as we navigated over the ‘knifes edge,” a steep mountain ridge with sheer 1,000+ feet drops on either side. What made it even more exciting when we arrived to the cliffedge around 6:30pm was the dense fog that surrounded us.

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Our visibility varied to around 5 to 10 feet and we had about 2.5 miles to camp. The wind howled from the west and icicles started to gather on our faces – the best was Milk Sheikh’s cloud beard!

We made it to camp around 8:00 and hunkered down for the night, hiding along some bushes from the wind. When we awoke in the morning and slowly crawled out of our tents, we were blessed with a magnificent view of Mt Rainier to our southwest.

Now we eat eat eat in warm shelter before heading out for a four day section to Snowqualmie pass with a few rainy days forecasted.

~ Buckeye