Day One:
We started this trip with a few worries. As for me, I injured my knee two months ago in a fall through snow while getting to a cliff. It's recovered, but it took fully six weeks before I was able to use it fairly normally. So, to say the least, I was out of condition when we started hiking. For her part, Tricia's rowing hasn't conditioned her to hiking. She did co-lead a group of 11 twelve year old girls on their first backpacking trip ever (she's now, at age 19, a trip leader at Girl Scout Camp Two Sentinels), but their longest hike in any day was five miles. More critically, Tricia's had a lingering low back pain and stomach/digestive issues. She was game to make some miles, but worried about eating trail foods and about her back.
So we both felt at least a little out of shape. But off we went.
We started with full packs and 800 feet of uphill. In some of the most humid conditions I've experienced in the western part of our country:
We felt the hot hike up to the PCT at Union Gap:
Even more we felt the flies. That’s right, flies, not mosquitos. In all the time I’ve spent outdoors I’ve never experienced flies like this. Swarming, biting, persistent bastards. They made the mere act of resting miserable.
So we kept on, starting with forest marching for a few miles, past a cascade to Lake Janus:
Skies were smokey and so the view of this area’s “biggie,” Glacier Peak, was fairly obscure today (interesting that this huge peak is not visible from any major road):
After the tough first miles we enjoyed some ridge hiking on gorgeous terrain (the third shot is down to oddly named Glasses Lake):
Toward the end of the day our view of the peak was clearer:
Moving past Grizzly Peak we noticed that the skies were turning grey (from clouds, not smoke):
Finally it started to sprinkle (lightly, off and on). At 5:00, we reached Wenatchee Pass, a mile and a half before our intended end point at Pear Lake. By this point the skies weren't grey, they were black. We had another big uphill to the lake and the thought of that climb and the additional mile and a half was too much. Tricia suggested maybe staying for the night at Wenatchee Pass. It had an adequate flat spot, but what about water? Tricia dropped her pack and looked around. She found both a much nicer camp site and, nearby, water. We decided to cut the day short.
I got water while Tricia set up the tent. It started to sprinkle (now non-stop). We got in the tent and gathered our packs and gear up under the tent vestibule. And then it began to pound. Sheets of rain were falling, and, within a few minutes, lightening and thunder. Nice call on stopping here "T!"
Water ran in streams around the tent while we stayed dry and comfortable. The lightning continued, as did thunder. It all seemed to get closer until one massive flash was followed less than half a second later by huge pounding rolls of thunder. These rolls were so massive that we physically felt them! Hard. I thought to myself: "wow, that was certainly close... and man am I glad I'm not still hiking to Pear Lake! Really, really nice call Tricia!"
Although we were safe and dry, the downside was our girl Halifax, who was terrified. I don't know that I've ever seen a dog's eyes so big. All we could do was keep her between us in the tent and comfort her. It seemed to work, and after 20 minutes the lightning and thunder started to move off to the east.
We spent a not-wet, slightly damp, and mostly comfortable night.
