Photo Friday: The Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Part 1
Way back in August (remember August, month of heat and smoke?), I spent 8 days hiking the Pacific Crest Trail through Washington's Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Last weekend, I finally finished editing the photos.
Here's Part 1 of the report, the first 2 days (and 20 miles), from my trailhead at Surprise Creek to Peggy's Pond up on the shoulder of Mt. Daniel.
I was basically picking up the PCT where I left off... in 1990. I did shorten it a bit, starting at Surprise Creek instead of climbing up the ski slopes at Stevens Pass (I hiked most if not all of that trail at one point or another back in the late '80s). This bought me a day to use later in the trip for more fun stuff.
Day 1: Surprise Creek TH to Glacier Lake
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| Loaded up and ready to go! Photo by Tom Dempsey, www.photoseek.com |
My brother- and sister-in-law drove me to the trailhead and hiked the first couple of miles with me.
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| Corn lilies along the trail. |
About 5 miles in the Surprise Creek trail intersects the PCT. The climb up the creek valley was largely cool and pleasant, aside from the part where I added a couple of miles to the day's hike by dropping my maps out of my pack and having to backtrack to find them. Yes, I have a phone with maps on it. I still carry paper maps, and was not willing either to hike without them or to leave them as litter on the trail.
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| Approaching Surprise Lake, the trail crosses a stream that should be the outlet but in fact is not, instead draining a valley that runs just parallel to the lake. |
I reached the lake in time for 2nd Lunch and relaxed in the sun by the water for a time.
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| Surprise Lake |
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| Stinklet, the Skunk Corners mascot (see The Ninja Librarian et al) hitched a ride. |
Since it was so early in the day, I decided not to stop at Surprise Lake, and figured that if I went on a little farther to Glacier Lake I had a fighting chance of making Peggy's Pond the next night. Camping at Glacier Lake is limited, but I found a spot before they were all gone. In the morning I found I could have gone on a bit farther to a beautiful non-lake campsite or two, which would have been nice, and shortened the next day's hike by another mile.
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| Glacier Lake |
Day 1 stats: roughly 7 miles, 5 1/4 of it with my pack and the other 1.75 packless trotting back down the trail for my maps. Elevation gain of something around 3200'. Pack weight at the start of the trip was 32 lbs.
Day2: Glacier Lake to Peggy's Pond
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| Morning light on Glacier Lake |
In the morning I established what proved to be my routine: up about 6 or 6:30, and on the trail in 1 1/2 to 2 hours, depending on photographic conditions (great light and reflections meant a later start, of course). The trail began at once to climb toward Pieper Pass, passing through several cool meadows before turning to climb steeply to the pass.
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| Looking up to Surprise Gap. An old trail does go through there to Deception Lake, but isn't recommended. Though tempted, I chose to stay on the PCT. Off-trail or minimal-trail "shortcuts" seldom are. |
At this point in my hike I had the chance to look north to Glacier Peak and environs, and noticed what appeared to be smoke filling the valleys. Since that was well to the north of me and not even sure it was smoke, I chose not to worry about it.
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| Glacier Peak, looking very bare of glaciers or snow in this view of the south side. The smoke was largely in valleys off to the right (east) of the mountain and not visible in this photo. |
Passing through the gap at Pieper Pass, my vistas changed to the Mt. Daniel massif, as I passed on the opposite side of the valley from one of the areas I had hiked the previous September.
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| Mt. Daniel |
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| Deception Lake--which is shallow and filling in with grass, so maybe that's the deception--that it's hardly a lake anymore? |
There wasn't a lot of wildlife, aside from birds, but I did find my favorite critters in several places--Pikas!
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| And frogs. I found frogs, too. |
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| Glad I wasn't around when this tree fell--and shattered. |
My route went through Deception Pass, then continued on a long traverse towards Cathedral Peak. Along the way I hit the one stream crossing that is a bit notorious--horses have to do a substantial detour as the gully the stream runs down is not equine-friendly, even when water levels are okay for crossing. I was a little concerned as it can be a dicey crossing for hikes, too, but the crossing proved trivial. This was my main big break for the day as I hung out for a time with all the other hikers who also gathered there.
Pushing on, I knew it was going to be a challenge to make Peggy's Pond. My map suggested two possible camps short of my goal, giving me a sense that I didn't have to commit. Both proved to be dry.
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| Cathedral Peak from Cathedral Pass |
Climbing to Cathedral Pass near the end of a long day was tough. The final 3/4 mile from the PCT to Peggy's Pond was even tougher, being rough, in some places barely a trail at all.
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| I hit the pond about 5 p.m., and still had to check out all the campsites before settling. |
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| Sunset at Peggy's Pond |
Day 2 stats: 13.4 miles. Climbed 4500' and dropped 3800'. Pack weight was about 2 lbs less than the previous day--and still less late in the day as I was running out of water.
Running low on water is always a concern. I find myself rationing it, so as to not run out completely. Most often, that turns out to be unnecessary. Other times, when I am far more certain as to how far it is to a reliable source, I just chug whatever it riding in the bottle and hope for the best. Might as well carry it in my belly as in the pack.
ReplyDeleteI didn't totally expect how dry things were this summer. A lot of small creeks were dry, and the one spot with water, it was running underground, or at least under rocks.
DeleteI may have figured out how to use the website. Peggy must have been tough to have such a remote pond.
ReplyDelete