Day 178&179 Miles 2521-2565

Day 178

Start: 2521 End: 2543 Total: 22.7

We woke up and somehow had an even smokier day than the day before. We drank some coffee, something that had become more of a rarity, and then headed up the last of the climb. It was a long steep, sweaty start to the day. 

Again all the close mountains were covered in a dense haze. You couldn’t see any of the further mountains.  We crested over the peak and down into a different valley. It was such a large, wide open valley, surrounded by enormous peaks but still covered in a layer of smoke. 

We had a steep descent to Mika Lake and took a dip. It was a crystal clear , blue lake and so cold but refreshing to swim in. It definitely landed itself on the top 3 prettiest lakes to swim in.

After, we continued the long decent , got water and then went further and further down towards Milk Creek. This is a notoriously overgrown, hazardous area. It lies in a deep v, hikers must decend 5 miles and 3000 feet, then cross the river and ascend 3000 feet over another 5 miles. Hikers must fight through overgrown brush and wind their way over, under, and through fallen trees. All while remaining on the steep , dirt trail that can be very washed out in places. It’s a challenging section to say the least. 

We got down to the bridge that marks the end of the descent and the start of the ascent. We stopped and took another coffee break on the bridge overlooking the muddy river. It is really hard spot for trail crews to get to to do maintence because it is so remote and the trail is in such bad condition that you can’t bring horses or mules in. 

Not to mention the river down there is glacier run off, making it that silky grey color due to all the sediment in it. So it’s not wise to filter it because all the tiny sediment will get stuck in your filter and clog it. Theres no other water down there so even if crews were to go camp down there it’d be a hassle to get water. 

Someone, however, had left a machete down by the bridge, asking any southbounder to take it up a bit and help cut back some of the brush as it was the most dense on the south side of the river. 

After our coffee break we began the climb up. I like the challenge of a big, steep climb and maintaining a good pace throughout. I listened to some music and did my best to cruise up the next 5 miles and 3000 feet of climbing. 

The bottom of the trail was steep, sandy switchbacks up and had been quite washed out by weather and downed trees. Next to the trail was a steeper and steeper drop off as I went higher and higher. I eventually fell into a good pace as the trail started to get better as I kept going. It felt good to be so strong that something this challenging didn’t really phase me. 

It started raining near the top and I stopped to put on my rain cover for my pack. Luckily the rain didn’t last long. I passed Potato Couch and Jubilee sitting at a view point near the top and kept going as the actual top was still ahead, I wanted to keep my momentum! 

I cruised over the top and went down to the stream we agreed to have lunch at. I sat down for a moment and Mantis was soon too coming over the other side. We had lunch, enjoying the views then kept hiking downhill for the rest of the day. We went though more patches of huckleberries and made sure to take our fill!

We made our way down into the most magical, mossy, fairytale woodland. There were many many downed trees. Some were so huge, had to be hundreds and hundreds of years old. You had to go up, over, under, around, and through some of them. It was quite the obstacle course. 

We were now a few days in from any sort of civilization, with very few trails leading to this place. It had been untouched by humans as it’s a really difficult place to access. We found the biggest trees I’ve ever seen there and winded our way through the moss covered rocks and trees. 

We stopped at a very clear stream shortly before camp. The larger stream up ahead that we’d sleep at was largely glacier run off, making it that gray color that’s full of sediment. 

After we got our water, we then camped next to that river with Potato Couch and Jubilee.

Day 179

Start:2543 End: 2565.5 Total:22

We woke up in the middle of the night to a gentle sprinkle. I hurried to bring in the stuff I left out and shut my vestibule. Seconds later, the heaviest and hardest rain I’ve ever experienced hit us. We stayed nice and dry in our tent, and our new tent stood up to the test which is great. The rain lasted a couple hours, it was hard to go right back to sleep after that though.

Luckily, it stopped by morning and all that was left was the constant trickle coming from the trees above us. Mantis had left his shirt out and not tucked his backpack in enough so a lot of his stuff was pretty soaked. 

It was finally not smokey though and it felt good to walk through the misty, grey, wet morning in such a green, mossy forest. It felt nice to have mist and clouds over smoke for once. We started our day with a 10 mile and 3000 foot climb. We stopped 7 miles up and had a coffee break next to a stream. 

We kept going up and got glimpes of the surround clouds moving with the wind, giving brief peaks to the mountains they were hiding. We picked some huckleberries near the top and went a bit lower, finally exiting the cloud. 

We finally got some clear views of the surrounding mountains, they were so incredible, such big, majestic, huge granite mountains. There was no smoke just a bit of mist and clouds. It was the first time this stretch we had clear views. 

We stopped in a big boulder field for lunch and dried some of our gear out in the shy sun and constant breeze. After lunch we had a small last climb before the long descent into Stehikin.

We made our way down the valley through some more annoying and overgrown bushes. We set up camp next to a river and there were a handful of other hikers scattered around in various nearby spots.