As we were eating breakfast 4 Vintage planes flew overhead. This was the day we would be hiking out to our car, driving to Chinook pass, throwing everything into the Van, leaving the car at Chinook pass and driving the Van to our next starting point: White pass. We would then organize our packs and hike to Chinook pass and then the "full" White pass to Snoqualmie pass Section I would be complete.
Off to Snoqualmie pass!
My husband posing with his foot on the wonderful rock chair he'd made for us the night before. Sometimes there aren't logs or rocks at a nice height to sit on, he always makes an effort to set us up something that works. He also cleared off an area for our cook-stove❤ at the "chair".
Our trail access was just steps away
Bunch-berries
Some more power-lines today
Always happy to see this
Looking at our rocky path in the distance
Our first look at I - 90, it wouldn't be a far hike out
The trail was very lush, I couldn't even see my husband in front of me.
We crossed Rock creek just before crossing the rocky trail in the photo that I'd shown above.
Here we are crossing the rocky section. One thing I've found while hiking etc. if you keep putting one foot in front of the other you'll eventually get somewhere even if it looks like it's very far away.
A view of Granite mountain again.
I - 90 again, it was sure weird to hear the cars roaring along the highway.
One of the many mushrooms we passed
2 1/2 more miles to the ski area.
Forest walking❤
Heart rock❤
We had been watching for the turn off to Lodge lake, we assumed we'd be hiking right past it. We couldn't find it but I had noticed a brown slash on a tree above my husbands head. I took a photo of it as you can see here. It's a little hard to make out in the photo since the slash is brown and the tree is brown😉. After talking with others on the trail we realized that the campsite just beyond this slash was the access to the lake. Oh well... We were interested because Lodge lake has quite the history as you can read about HERE under the "mountaineers" section of the article.
We passed Beaver lake and then we were at the Ski area.
First sighting of the ski area
We did it Chinook to Snoqualmie pass! Yes I was as happy as Patrick McManus was when we finished his "Big Trip". I had mentioned that story on my DAY FOUR post. I was soo glad we hadn't turned around on that morning.
We had parked at the next trailhead for the PCT, so we had a short road walk to get to our car.
As I said in the beginning of this post, this is where we would begin the process to shuttle to our next starting point but first stats!!!
Relive video of this hike:
Garmin stats:
total miles - 4.73
total ascent - 558 feet
total descent - 1050 feet
Trip one (Chinook pass to Snoqualmie pass) totals:
total miles - 69.28
total ascent - 11.281 feet
total descent - 13,473 feet
White Pass to Chinook (part two of our journey)
Whew after doing our shuttle driving, re-organizing our packs: adding food, throwing out garbage, packing fresh clothes etc. we were ready to begin.
Guthook screenshot of our route:
*Our "trip one" journey was done without a permit because there wasn't a sign and box like this one at Chinook pass for those going northbound. Alas this one had the box but didn't have any new forms to fill out. We wrote our info. on a sheet of paper and put it in the box.
Trip two!
I loved that the start of this section had us walk under these Tibetan Prayer flags
As quoted from Wikipedia:
"Traditionally, prayer flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The flags do not carry prayers to gods, which is a common misconception; rather, the Tibetans believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. Therefore, prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all. By hanging flags in high places the Lung ta will carry the blessings depicted on the flags to all beings. As wind passes over the surface of the flags, which are sensitive to the slightest movement of the wind, the air is purified and sanctified by the mantras. The prayers of a flag become a permanent part of the universe as the images fade from exposure to the elements. Just as life moves on and is replaced by new life, Tibetans renew their hopes for the world by continually mounting new flags alongside the old. This act symbolizes a welcoming of life's changes and an acknowledgment that all beings are part of a greater ongoing cycle."
Yay! Another opportunity to fill out a form. This one actually had forms to fill out. We happily filled out the form and my husband attached it to my pack.
What a great "Skookum" (aka strong/sturdy) bench along the trail.
We were now entering the William O Douglas Wilderness area. In one of our nightly readings we had learned about the life of William O. Douglas. After hearing his tales I was glad there was a place named after him, it gave me a feeling of gratitude for what was given to us in his name in this area. You can read about his life HERE. I enjoyed viewing him in my mind's eye exploring these same areas we were now doing
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And....yes we were on the correct trail!
We began searching for a nights' camp as we'd had a long day and had just planned to get some kind of a start on this section.
It didn't take my husband long to spot a prize space next to the trail with large logs to sit on too! There were MANY mosquitoes, so on came the mosquito head nets and a good spray of repellent. *We had heard that the mosquitoes were particularly bad in this section and onward to Chinook pass so we had stopped at a market and bought 3 more cans of spray. I'm glad we did because these mosquitoes didn't abide by the hours of effectiveness as touted on the can. They were merciless. Anyway..we had begun hiking at 7pm, we got to camp at 8:15 and we were unpacked, had the tent set up, fed and in bed by 10, not a bad day's effort.
Relive video of our route:
Garmin stats:
total miles - 1.73
total ascent - 574
total descent - 23
to be continued.....
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