miles: 15.5
Leaving Trout Lake was hard. Leaving towns is always hard for me. I never want to start hiking again, and I drag my feet. It was extra hard to leave this morning because It was the most wonderful place! Kittens, the coziest bed, so much friendliness....
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| BEN BOTTLE FEEDING KITTENS. |
After devouring a delicious breakfast at the one local cafe, we packed up and went out back and found a play pen filled with kittens!
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| The kitten arena. |
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| A kitten with a full belly |
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| pals |
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| Pepperflake, Shotput and gearing up to hike and Kitten arriving and ready to relax |
There are lots of trail angels in Trout Lake, so it wasn't hard for us to find a ride back to the trail.
It was such a sunny day! So hard to leave! Washington has been pleasant so far, but I can tell it's about to get much, much harder based on our maps and it is scaring me.
OH! BY THE WAY: FOOT UPDATE. My feet are feeling much better! I realized that I just need to stay on a constant dose of 600mg IBUprofen and I will be fine! Pain free! I know this isn't good for me, but in the short term... it should be okay, right? If it means I stay on the trail, it's a good thing. It's only temporary.
Anyways, we got back on the trail at 11:30, much later than we had wanted to get out, but we had enjoyed breakfast with Muk Muk, Shotput and Pepperflake, hung out with a bundle of kittens, and got much needed foot elevation time in.
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| Left to right: Muk Muk, Pepperflake, Shotput, me, Rocky |
I have been looking forward to this section all year: Trout Lake --> White Pass, because it holds Mt. Adams, Mt. Adams Wilderness, and Goat Rocks Wilderness within it. I haven't hiked much of Washington, but know and hear that the Mt. Adams area is wild and beautiful. And that Goat Rocks is one of the most magical sections of the trail. SO EXCITED! So excited to be pain free for once!
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| Onward! Let's see Mt. Adams up close already... |
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| Burn zone |
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| Mt. Adams can't hide. |
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| Mt. Adams. |
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| Mt. Rainier in the distance, growing closer and closer every day. |
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| Mt. Adams. |
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| Mt. Rainier in the distance. |
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| Mt. Rainier National Park is up next. |
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| Mt. Adams. |
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| Mt. Adams. |
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| Pepperflakes lunch break. |
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| Pepperflake. |
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| Hiker still life. |
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| Shotput and Rocky. |
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| Evening hiking. |
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| Riverbed walking. |
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| Lava fields to traverse. |
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| Shotput crossing a creek. |
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| Mt. Adams and the moon. |
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| Mt. Adams "Creek" and Pepperflake trying to find the best spot to cross. |
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| Mt. Adams Creek - a terrifying experience for me. Also the coldest water I've ever encountered. Like... is it possible for water to be colder than freezing? |
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| Shotput crossing the freezing Mt. Adams Creek. I hate crossings where you can't see the bottom, when the water is too milky/silty to see through. Terrifying. |
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| Pepperflake, Shotput, Rocky and the moon on the right. Waiting for the feeling to come back in our feet after that crossing. |
Hiked with Shotput and Pepperflake this evening. Crossed many rushing creeks and rivers, some dangerous and freezing, some easy. Watched as the sun set and cast a rich alpenglow over the landscape. It was a gorgeous night. We finally arrived at Killen Creek by dusk and we shared probably one of our best campsites - on an island surrounded by creeks, on soft sand and by a rushing waterfall! Didn't get a photo of it because we arrived in the near dark and got up before sunrise.... Biggest regret.
2 comments:
That first photo is amazing. It definitely deserves to become a canvas print you can hang on your wall and lose yourself in when "real life" takes over again.
You camped here where Rocket Llama was stuck for a week in multiple feet of snow. Hard to believe it's the same place! Thanks for SO many pictures. That's my favorite part of your blog, you take so many that it really captures the trail instead of just the standard shots that most hikers repeat.
-GoalTech
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