MossReport

Back on the PCT at the Killeen Tr. Jcn. Today was a fairly leisurely day for a 15mile day. I kept moving all day because there were few views and lots of bugs. I cut the day short when I passed a small lake at about 3:30pm. Ten hours of hiking was long enough and this camp turned out to be one of my favorite camps of the entire trip. The day started out very scenic as I descended from Adams High Camp. Once I completed the steep descent back to the PCT, it was an all day cruise with mostly gentle ups and downs or generally flat terrain. The early morning was entirely in shadow of the trees and mountain. I reached Lava Spring by about 8am. Icy cold water gushes out from beneath a lava flow. People say this is the freshest, cleanest water on the entire PCT. It was quite cold and totally refreshing. Again, I did not pass many northbounders, was only passed by one northbounder, and saw about two dozen southbounders. After Lava Spring, it was about 5 miles or so throug...

I had the best night of sleep and got up around 5:45 with the intent of beating the heat. I again hit the trail around 6:30 and hiked in the shadow of Mt. Adams for the first 1.5 miles or so. I was soon on the PCT. It was a very easy day of only 10 miles or so. I took two long breaks, first on a lava flow looking out toward Rainier (until the flies started buzzing around). The second break was at a stream where I chatted for awhile with two southbound hikers. The woman was pretty young and fit and was going southbound after hiking northbound the previous year. The gentleman was older and it sounded like they had met along the way and teamed up. They were travelling very light and did not look like they had tents. They described how they were seldom more than a day or so from a resupply and were only eating bars and trail mix and not cooking. The trail was not that crowded and I saw more southbounders than northbounders. Perhaps I was ahead of the n...

Camp 2, daybreak Looking down the Hellroaring Valley Looking toward Hellroaring Falls and Adams The previous evening, I went to bed at around 7:30 and got up on day 3 at about 5:45. I was on the trail by 6:30. I decided not to use GPS today and thought I could sniff out the main trail once I reached the popular viewpoint. Perhaps my sniffing abilities are not that great as I followed a trail along the ridge above Hellroaring valley. The trail got smaller and smaller until it entered a burned forest and disappeared. I backtracked a little and hunted around finally popped out on a road in the Yakima Reservation. I guess I was taking the long way this day. It probably added about 1.5-2miles extra and I missed the trail through Bird Meadows. I shrugged and walked on, finally back on the map and following known trails. It was very quiet. Several fallen logs had prevented the ATVs from going further on the road and it turned into a footpath. Eventually I reached the Bird Cree...