The PCT goes down the W side of the divide, largely through a long cathedral of trees – very soothing, easy hiking.
I didn’t do it this time, but taking Tr 107 (which parallels the PCT) would have taken me up past Sawtooth Mtn and provided some views. I did manage to catch a glimpse of Adams, with its first snow of the winter.
It was cold enough for water puddles on the trail to have frozen into mush and for skims of ice to have formed at the edges of some of the smaller lakes,
but the bigger lakes, like Junction, were still ice-free and amazing in the bright sunlight. Peder and I passed each other just N of Junction.
I was planning on lunch here but, just as I got out my sandwich, a bunch of noisy people with unleashed dogs came up the trail and settled around me. The dogs, who weren’t paying much attention to their owners, WERE paying a great deal of attention to my sandwich – so I moved on and ate it while hiking. Fortunately, I soon came to Blue Lake, the last of the larger lakes along the PCT in the wilderness and one of the most beautiful.
South of Blue, I crossed the spine of Berry Mtn, with its views of St. Helens (the black specks are crows),
and Hood.
After that, it was pretty much a straight shot S through meadows,
past Green Lake,
past the Sheep Lakes with their skim of ice,
to the end of trail at Crest Horse Camp.
All told, an easy, gentle, beautiful 16.8 mi with 1800’ gain on excellent trail. A great way to tie together the several hikes I’ve done in Indian Heaven this year. I hope Peder had a good time too. These maps are 100K versions that show the divergence in places between the older alignment of the PCT (some of which was the even older CCT) and its current alignment (my track in yellow).
