Day 7 - Lost Sheep

walkingpeopleoutofpoverty.ca is the personal blog of Peter Thorpe, long-time Opportunity International Canada supporter and Walking People Out of Poverty founder. For Dan Murray’s blog and information on OIC, please click here.

Start Time: 7:30 am
End Time: 5:30 pm
Start Mileage: 2317.20
End Mileage: 2330.50
Distance Walked: 13.30 miles 
Elevation Gain: 2800 feet 

I lay in my tent at around 5:00 am and could hear the gentle pitter-patter of rain hitting the tent. It's the worst nightmare of a hiker having to cook breakfast, clean up, and break camp in wet weather.

As per what seems to be a familiar pattern, we started with a climb, which kept on going, although it was not as severe as some of the climbs we'd experienced earlier in our journey. Interestingly, with the rain this morning, we saw a lot of low clouds or mist, but either way, it kept rolling in and out all morning.

Close to the top of our climb, we bumped into a hiker coming the other way, and he said we were close to the top and said we had a glorious view coming up. As promised, the view was spectacular, and it was of our old friend Mt. Rainier. The trail suddenly stopped its ascent, and we were now on the descent and eventually reached Lake Dewey. It was as though we had reached an ocean as the mist had settled on the water, and all you could see were waves rolling in. You couldn't even see the other side of the lake! The trail led along the shoreline, and some beautiful open areas were exposed to the full sun with a light breeze.

It was about 11:30 am and a little early for lunch, but I thought the area would be perfect for drying out our tents and footprints, so we decided to do so and have an early lunch. It took a little longer for the tents to dry, but we were eventually on our way by about 12:45 pm. About an hour or so before lunch, we bumped into a fellow hiker named Payday, from Reno. We were having a break, and we invited Payday to join us, and he extolled the virtues of the bar he was eating, which just happened to bear the same name. I asked Payday if he would like to trade for a Lara Bar, and he agreed. We both feel we contributed to improving the International Relations between Canada and the good old USA.

Payday is also going to make a donation to the Walking People out of Poverty initiative. This is very kind of him, and we greatly appreciate his kindness. It is yet another example of PCT Trail Magic.

As my tent was taking a little longer to dry than everyone else's, I was a little later in getting away. John decided he would go ahead to get some photos and left just after Payday. Myself and Dan were about 10 to 15 minutes behind, and we were greeted with a severe climb.

The weather up to now had been very favourable, but suddenly, the sun appeared in all its glory, and the heat turned up. It was hard work reaching the summit. Finally, we crested, and the view down was spectacular. There were also many people on the trail, and Dan and I realized it was a long weekend. We thought if it were busy trying to get up the trail with everyone coming down, it would be doubly busy going down.

It was a glorious downhill run, and we eventually spilled out to a beautiful bridge that took us over the highway. We walked straight, but I asked Dan to check his app as it did not appear correct. Dan checked, and sure enough, we should have turned right on a sandy track that ran parallel to the highway and continued to climb gradually up the further we went.

We were now on the up and up and slowing down as the hill got steeper and steeper. We should have camped at the lake we arrived at, which had the peculiar name of Sheep Lake. We didn't see one sheep; I doubt anyone else has either.

We stopped to pick up water before setting off on our way again, and this time we had the climb of climbs. Up and up we went, and it was tough going. We eventually reached the summit, started down into the next valley, and were greeted with the whistles of Marmots. With whistles like that, they would make great shepherds!

I went a little ahead and finally caught up to Payday just before heading into the marmot's valley. He had made great time since leaving us at lunch.

We hustled down the hill, and after a brutal 30-minute slog, we eventually found our campground. Dan arrived with the news that the lost sheep had been found. John, who set off at lunchtime ahead of us, had made the same mistake we had after crossing the highway. All's well that end's well.

Here are some pictures.

Instead of the pristine trail photos, showing how dry it was, this is the first picture I remember posting that shows a thoroughly soggy, wet path ahead.

Mt. Rainer

Rainier looking mighty impressive this morning.

A beautiful stand of evergreens.

Rainier looks even more impressive in this shot.

The mist starting to roll in.

A stunning example of a typical Old Growth forest tree.

Looks like the ocean but it’s actually Lake Dewey.

A grouse headed for cover.

Dan winding his way along the trail.

Another view of Dewey Lake, this time as we are climbing away from the shoreline.

One last look at Dewey Lake.

An example of the views that rise up as you wend your way along the trail.

This is a highway that we are working our way towards.

Large PCT sign showing Southbound PCT’ers the route.

Beautifully crafted bridge created from wood and stone. I imagine it was all picked from blowdown’s and rock taken from the forest.

Something tells me we will be heading up close to that small mountain.

Looking across the highway and down the valley.

Another glorious view of the wonder that is Washington State.

It gets prettier and prettier.

The last stunning view of a glorious Day 7.