I started out of camp a little earlier than Steve and Kristen this morning, so I took the lead for the first couple of miles as the trail curved around the cirque that had the headwaters of the Cispus River and then climbed upward through snowy patches to snowbound Cispus Pass. Kristen took over from there following a long yet well-worn path through the snow which was still quite deep above 6,000 feet. The next two miles saw us crossing over the ridge and continuing a slow descent on the other side until we had reached the grassy shallows of Sheep Lake. This lake and several ponds in the vicinity serve as a marvellous breeding ground for mosquitoes. Needless to say, we spent the greater part of the remaining daylight hours with our bug nets protecting our face and neck from the sucking swarms. The trail itself turned dry and dusty passing close to places with names like Coleman Weedpatch, Muddy Fork and Potato Hill. Obviously the scenery was not as inspiring as the Goat Rocks. At one point the trail followed the boundary of the Yakima Indian Reservation and we all know that most lands reserved for Native
Americans by the U.S. government are no garden spots. Steve and Kristen's goal was to get to Lava Spring for dinner. They claimed that it had the best water on the entire trail and after drinking from it, it was kind of hard to disagree. Crystal clear, icy cold and sweet to the taste, the spring gushes directly from the rocks near the base of a lava flow. There is also a popular trail camp nearby which at the moment is serving as a base camp for a group of trail maintenance workers one of whom just happened to be a PCT hiker that Steve and Kristen had met last year. So, dinner was interspersed with conversation and story swapping. A nice relaxing time that allowed for a bit of foot soaking as well. By the time things wrapped up, there wasn't that much time left in the day, so we hiked a bit further up the trail and camped among the trees.
The Knife Edge and Mount Adams
Looking Back at Ranier
27 Miles
Americans by the U.S. government are no garden spots. Steve and Kristen's goal was to get to Lava Spring for dinner. They claimed that it had the best water on the entire trail and after drinking from it, it was kind of hard to disagree. Crystal clear, icy cold and sweet to the taste, the spring gushes directly from the rocks near the base of a lava flow. There is also a popular trail camp nearby which at the moment is serving as a base camp for a group of trail maintenance workers one of whom just happened to be a PCT hiker that Steve and Kristen had met last year. So, dinner was interspersed with conversation and story swapping. A nice relaxing time that allowed for a bit of foot soaking as well. By the time things wrapped up, there wasn't that much time left in the day, so we hiked a bit further up the trail and camped among the trees.
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