- gspencer16
Day 94: CS2251 to Tieton Pass (29.8 miles - 2280.8)
Updated: Sep 17, 2019
August 9, 2016 - Just as I thought it was clearing up last night it rained again while I was sleeping. Really wasn’t looking forward to packing up wet gear again. I ended up sleeping until 6:30am where I had planned on 5:30am. I figured I would let the morning fog burn off because I knew I was getting close to leaving the woods and entering the Goat Rocks which is suppose to have some of the best views of Washington.
Took forever to pack up but was on trail by 7:30am. The first 9 miles were in the foggy woods and luckily it didn’t rain but it seemed like it was going to at any moment. The worst part about the morning hike was brushing up on all the overgrown plants because they were covered in water so it soaked my legs then soaked my socks and shoes. Every time my shoes would dry out I would get another big batch of overgrowth.
Then things turned around as I left the woods and finally got to see some views and the skies slowly started to clear. The clouds were slowly moving away and seeing more blue skies as the day went on. I had a long climb but it didn’t matter as I finally got the views I was waiting for and my feet were drying out.
I got to my lunch spot that had lots of sunshine so I took everything out of my bag to dry out. Didn’t take that long to dry as it was getting warmer with the sun hitting it.
After lunch it was lots and lots of blue skies with some amazing views. However, I could see some grey clouds coming over the mountains. I was getting close to hiking the Knife’s Edge which suppose to have the best views but probable wouldn't get to see any with all the fog.
The closer I got to Knife’s Edge the more cloudy it got. I started off hiking on snow then soon got to the split in the trail, high and low routes. At first I was going to take the low route since I couldn’t see much but then at the last second I decided to go high, maybe get above the clouds. Well it turns out the high route was a waste and very scary heading down to meet the low route, slipped and fell once. The trail was lots of loose rocks, got lucky I didn’t slip off the mountain.
Back on the main trail it was 2.5 miles of cold, cloudy, windy and narrow rocky trail. One slippy and it would be all over but really it was so cloudy I had no idea how far down it went. I came across some guys on horses that did it, not sure how.
As I was leaving Knife’s Edge and heading back down into the woods the weather was starting to clear up and got a few views of where I had hiked.
Off to bed and an early start in the morning as I’m only 12 miles out of Whites Pass to where I’ll resupply. Should be an easy hike as its all downhill.
