A beautiful evening / Trout Lake
In the 66 miles that took us from White Pass to Trout lake, we walked through Goat Rocks Wilderness. People rate this area amongst the top 2 on the PCT, and we agree!
The afternoon started with an ascent from the green tunnels south of Snoqualmie Pass to the Goat Rocks, with beautiful alpine meadows, wildflowers and snowmelt streams. The PCT winds its way through these alpine valleys, gaining altitude to approach Mount Adams and Trout Lake, our next anticipated town stop. Departing the forest, now the trail extends ahead in view, not just to the next bend or hill, but flows for miles and miles. The immediacy of distance, the proximate view of things far away brings feelings of grandeur, serenity, and almost security in where our feet will step for the next hours, sometimes even days. As we crest up the goat rocks and gain our first views of Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Saint Hellens, the distances grow even more expansive, knowing we will hiked mountain to mountain, horizon to horizon.
We climbed higher into the jagged rocks, where the winters snow hasn’t yet melted off, and formidable deep gray clouds began to spill over the nearby crags, flowing over the peaks effortlessly, like an ocean wave over pebbles. Before we knew it, we were socked in completely. Towards the top of the goat rocks, the PCT splits into two routes, a lower traverse, known for treacherous scree slide off, and a high route, requiring a significant climb, and leading to the top of “Old Snowy”. Our visibility reduced to 20-30 feet, views were out of the question, but we’d heard too many warnings of the low traverse to test our luck, so up we climbed! At the end of a long day already, the extreme climb felt even steeper, but we pushed ahead, making surf to stay well within eye and earshot of each other, as the clouds quickly obscured our surroundings. At each turn, it felt like the trail couldn’t possibly climb any higher, but the next switchback would emerge from the cloud, drawing us up and up. Finally we reached the top.
Without a view or reward to greet us, we set our poles downhill, and set towards camp, with the light beginning to fade around us. After about 10 minutes of down climbing, trail magic struck! Glancing upwards, we saw a hole appear in the clouds, just big enough to expose Mt. Adams basked in a maroon-purple glow from the setting sun, and the view was instantly worth all our climbing, all the wind and weather. Within moments, the clouds covered the horizon again, but we knew She was there! Miraculously, as we came upon a potential camp site, one final gust of wind blew hard at our backs, sending the last of the clouds from our peak, unveiling the trio of mountains Rainier to the north, St. Helens to the west, and Adams to the south. In Awe, we couldn’t imagine a more picturesque camp, so we nestled our little orange PCT home between the three as the last rays of sunset cast their glow to illuminate mountains all around, dined with our best views on trail yet, and slept.
PS: We made it to Trout lake, found some strawberries on the way and ate good town food 😊 now we’re headed to Cascade Locks, where we’ll cross into Oregon!
Happy trails!
