Dear Trail Friends,
So if anything today involved even more steep up and down than yesterday. I begin to see why this stretch of the PCT has the reputation of being the toughest except the Sierra.
Last night I had a beautiful view (just around the corner from my tent site) of Mt Baker at sunset. See photo 1.
So of course today began with an equally beautiful dawn view of the mountain as I started walking at 5:30an. (Photo 2).
I had planned to stop and rest and replenish my water supply at a lake about 4 miles north of where I slept. Unfortunately there was no nice neat path to the lake, and I didn't feel like scrambling over rocks. So I went another 4 miles to a little stream where I gathered nice cold water. A passing hiker noticed my filtration system and stopped to tell me that it is very unlikely that this mountain stream water has any contamination. I told him I always filter just to be safe. Photo 3 shows the stream and the surrounds.
That's clear flowing water in the lower center. The photo does a better job with the background.
Photo 4 shows some of today's trail that was not up and down, but winded almost level for awhile.
The mountains here are very majestic but I haven't fallen in love with them yet (Mt Baker of course excepted). I find when I gaze at a wide panorama of mountains after mountains I don't get the peaceful ocean waves feeling. If I try to see them as ocean waves then they evoke not soft rolling waves but harsh jaggedy breakers -- the ocean in a storm. I tried in photo 5, a little unsuccessfully, to convey this.
Not so much in this photo but in "person," rather than peace they evoke danger for me, as does their steepness - and when I look at how steeply the mountain falls away at the side of the trail, that feels a little dangerous too.
To be continued in Day 2, part 2
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