Today we were not in a rush to get moving and leave White’s Pass. Tofu and her dad, Mike, were kind enough to let us crash in their lodge room and we all didn’t need to be out of the room until 11. Mike left around 8 or 9 and the three of us were determined to milk every minute of civilization before heading back into the woods.
11 am came sooner than we hoped and it was time to walk again. We knew that we only had a short section that was open before we would have to skip a section of trail due to the Norse Peak fire, but we were eager to get the section from Whites Pass to Chinook completed before they close it again.
The trail was beautiful all day and we had great weather. Along the route to our destination of Dewey Lake we passed several beautiful lakes, ponds, and bridges. Early in the day we were dodging lots of fresh horse droppings to the point where we were really starting to get annoyed. I saw one pile and commented that we must be right behind the offending horses and sure enough we came to a clearing and a lake where a group of beautiful ponies were tied to trees next to their owners that were lounging on the edge of the lake.
After we passed that group the horse poop was less frequent and much less fresh. Soon we were climbing a mountain and at the top of the ridge we entered Mt Rainier National Park. The three of us separated as we hiked on and I noticed that there were great plumes of smoke off to the east of the trail signaling a large fire. Luckily the wind was such that the trail was completely smoke free, even though we were less than a few miles away.
I descended to Dewey Lake and when I arrived I quickly stripped down and jumped in the water. The water was a perfect temperature for an evening dip and I tried to wash up as quickly as I could before someone showed up. Sherpa popped out of nowhere before I got my clothes back on and surprised me. I helped get her water. We had a quick argument about where the tent should go but we were able to resolve it and headed off to make camp on a nice flat spot.
Soon Tofu joined us and we hung out for a little while before turning in. Tofu also went down to the water for a dip while Sherpa and I ate dinner and got ready for bed. She came back shivering saying that the water was cold.
After getting in our tents we fell asleep quickly but Tofu and I were both woken up several times during the night to hear lots of rustling and the eerie sound of an Elk bellowing across the lake.In addition to the bazar sounds smoke started to surround us and it was stifling. It was scary because we knew that the fire was only a few miles away hours ago and we had no idea how intense it was getting. Tofu whispered to our tent that she was glad that we were here.
We eventually all settled and ignored the smoke and wrestles creatures all around and slept like little hiker babies.