Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass via the PCT Day 2of 5

Day 2 started off with a great dry morning. No real dew to report and my muscles were a little sore from the wake up call after 15 miles on the up hill. Dicentra seemed to be feeling a little better in the morning, but was still not in tip top stomach shape. So we packed up camp and I ate a PB Crunch Wrap and we were on the road.


Is it really morning already...
Part of the awesome view I had all night! The pass we crossed the night before is just to the left and out of the picture. Did I ever mention how I love sleeping in a bivy?
Makeshift campsite above Parks Lakes.
PB Crunch Wrap
I ran up to the little stream that we got water from last night in hope of some water since I was down to just under a liter and the next "running" water was about 3.4 miles away at Delate Creek. With no avail. when I arrived at the little stream... It was running well the previous night cause the sun had been beating down on the snow pack above and overnight it became a trickle. So we headed off above Park Lakes and past some ponds that were iffy and started to climb before the bone jarring 2200' endless switchbacks all the way down to the Lemah Creek Valley. Along these switchbacks we got several great views over Spectacle Lake.

Spectacle Lake
Right before Delate Creek we ran into a girl with her not so friendly dog off of a leash. Albeit she was cute and alone she should of had better voice control over the dog, per regulations. The dog raised it's hair, came at me in a defensive and scared manner and kind nipped in my direction. Luckily after a bunch of calls from the owner the dog finally backed off before I had to introduce it to the carbide tips on my trekking poles. Up and to this point we had only ran into non-defensive and friendly dogs. All dogs per NFS regs must be under complete voice control or on a leash, friendly dogs are another story. So at Delate Creek we topped off our water, snacked on some food and headed back down the trail.

On the Delate Creek Bridge.
Getting ready to take off from Delate Creek.
We ran into what appeared to be a small boyscout troop doing a 50 miler. I really felt sorry for the last guy in the pack who was falling back and gasping for air trying to ask me how far until the lake... They were all carrying 5+ lb tents and a ton of duplicate gear, the kid's pack looked like it weighed about as much as him... After that we ran into some more hikers and slowly wound down into the Lemah Creek area. We approached the trail junction that had the "difficult" crossing reroute signs for the upper Lemah Creek bridge. We opted to not take the bypass and ford the "difficult" crossing. We did not want to add the mileage or the extra elevation loss and gain since we still had a 5 mile climb to reach the top of Escondido Ridge. On the way to the Lemah Creek crossing we stumbled across a natural burning forest fire. It was slowly burning the underbrush along the trail. Shortly after passing the fire we reached Lemah Creek. There was this huge bridge that was washed out. We got down to the creek and laughed... It was such a difficult crossing with the planks from the old bridge lain across some rocks... We didn't even get our feet wet. If the planks wouldn't have been there it was still only mid calve deep. We stopped for some more snacks/lunch and were back on the way towards Escondido Ridge.

Wildfire and Bridge out warnings...
Fire a burning alongside the trail.
Dicentra crossing the "Dangerous" Crossing at Lemah Creek.

After crossing the North Fork of the Lemah creek the trail started to climb... 5 miles of really long, barely climbing switch backs with more and more exposure as we went up, at mid day it was near torture... It was warm, the sun was beating down and we were climbing for 3 to 4 hours...





We finally crested and got on top of the ridge! What a view, craggy peaks all around and a barren terrain covered in Heather, dead trees from the Waptus Burn and Huckleberries bushes. Somewhere near the first set of tarns we ran into a couple kids that asked some odd and disheartening questions. They started out from Stevens Pass, were in all cotton, stuff was hanging precariously off of both of their packs, and the question that really shocked us... "Do you guys no where the next lake is? cause that is where we would like to camp." Uh... don't you have a map... Ah it's about 6 to 7 miles down the trail and 2200' down, mind you the sun was starting to set... You won't make it, there is some camps just over there or there is a very small camp precariously set along side the trail that will maybe fit one tent... Can we say search and rescue case in the making... After that encounter we pressed on for a ways, until we found a fairly large error in "Erik the Black"'s PCT Atlas for campsites... So we had to make a stealth camp since it was getting dark and Dicentra was not feeling well again. We set up camp, I made dinner and went to bed. Little did I know there was one rock that fell into the hole that was made when I pulled out a large rock from under my bivy... I shifted the pad to get comfortable and heard a psssssssssssss, like the valve was open on the air mattress... I yelled over to Dicentra to ask for Duct Tape and sealed the inch long gash in my $110 Neoair mattress... It held air for the most part of the rest of the trip with the same piece of Duct Tape. It deflated a little overnight, but no more than requiring a couple added breaths around 3am every night.