more rain, but so much beauty: days 138-141

Day 138: Snoqualamie Pass to PCT mile 2405.3, 15 miles
Day 139: PCT mile 2405.3 to Waptus River, 20 miles
Day 140: Waptus River to PCT mile 2440.1, 14.8 miles
Day 141: PCT mile 2440.1 to Stevens Pass, 21.6 miles

We had a hearty pancake breakfast in Snoqualamie Pass before packing-up and managing to make it out of town a bit before 10AM. We walked the short distance back to the trail, and immediately started a long climb back up to the mountains. We entered the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, and were rewarded with wonderful views for most of the day.

The weather is getting chillier, motivating us to get to the border before it gets much colder.

It rained briefly overnight, and then we were awoken by what we think was a Western Screech Owl cackling and hooting; making for an unusually eventful night!

We had a day of a big downhill, followed by a long uphill, and capped off with another long downhill. As a result, we just barely made it to 20 miles to camp before it got too dark to see. We also passed by this raging waterfall!

We keep talking about waking up earlier, which is getting harder and harder to do as it becomes lighter later. Today we were unsuccessful again, and didn’t rise until 6:30am. We may have to start setting the alarm, but our sleeping bags are so warm and the outside is so cold! To make matters worse, as we were eating breakfast in the tent it started to sprinkle, and then rain. At least we were dry for a bit, but we then had to break down the tent in the rain. The rain continued for the entire day, and as we climbed higher up it rained harder and we became cold and wet (despite out rain gear). As we started descending down off the ridge, the rain seemed to ease, and it became a bit warmer. We had a tricky creek crossing, you can see it from above in the video below (along with Garrett’s narration of the weather and me giggling). Shortly after we decided we were done for the day, and took out chances setting up the tent during a short break from the rain.

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The following day the weather cleared, and we were happy to see the sun again. We hiked up and down most of the day, and made it to the ski lodge in the pass to pick-up our package. While we were eating dinner, we ran into our trail angel friend Legend. He offered us, and another thru-hiker Dirty Gil, a spot to sleep in his RV for the night and breakfast the next morning. We welcomed the chance to dry out a bit after the rain the previous day, spend time with friends, and rest-up before our next 107 mile stretch. Less than 200 miles to go!