Today was a cool and misty morning. Wolf Bird stopped to use the bathroom early on so Tofu and I walked together for a couple hours. It was a nice change to walk together–usually we all walk near each other but don’t necessarily talk while walking. But this morning Tofu and I had nice conversation as we walked a long uphill to Grizzly Peak. This is one of the few actual peaks that the PCT goes over–often it skirts around peaks– and we talked about that of course we don’t get a view due to being completely in a cloud. Time seemed to really fly, I think a combination of talking with Tofu making it pass quickly and the fact that my watch had broken so I was less aware of how much time had passed (I had to pull out my phone to check the time).
After Grizzly Peak, I let Tofu go ahead of me since she’s faster on the downhill. Soon after, Wolf Bird caught up to me and we walked together for a bit.
In the afternoon, we entered Glacier Peak Wilderness, another notoriously beautiful section of trail. We had some views of the surrounding mountains in all directions as we climbed in elevation, but soon clouds started blowing in. It was fairly windy, so the clouds were blowing quickly all around us making for a surreal experience alternating walking through mist and clear sections.
We planned to camp at Reflection Pond tonight. According to Guthook, our PCT app, it sounded like the water in the pond was rather stagnant, so we decided to fill up on water at a stream about 1.5 miles before camp. I carried about 3 liters of water and behind my knee immediately started aching from the extra weight. I discovered that if I bent over at the waist, with my pack resting more on my back than on my hip belt, the pain was dramatically reduced. So, for the final mile and a half of the day I walked like a crazy bent over ogre. It is surprisingly tough to walk uphill like this and I was very glad to finally arrive at camp.
We arrived at the pond to discover a few tents set up on the left side of the pond and only one on the right side. Wolf Bird and I went to the right side and started setting up to the tent that was already there (the hiker was inside their tent already). This area was super windy and also in a cloud, which resulted in the wind causing moisture to drop from the trees above and get us and our tent quite wet. Not the most ideal campsite.
Eventually Tofu arrived after having an emergency bathroom break on the side of the trail. It happens even to the best of us. She set up next to us and we chatted with her and the other hiker next to us who was just out for a section, but planned to hike the PCT next year. He hiked the AT previously and for some reason felt the need to tell us all these ‘tips’ about thru hiking that are common knowledge, especially to everyone who has made it so far along the PCT at this point.
We went to bed after eating dinner in the chilly windy weather, and were lulled to sleep by the sound of the large drops of water falling from the trees and hitting our tent all night.
