Today’s goal is to hike to a campsite near Reflection Pond, get water there and decide if I want to hike to dry campsite a few miles beyond that. I caught a nice glimpse of Pear Lake in the morning sunrise as I climbed out of the valley.
A nice thing I found about hiking in Washington is that the governing agency (National Forest, County, etc) erect and maintain pit toilets. While many of you may cringe at the thought of using one, they are a much better solution than letting people poop where they will. There’s a TON of visible, unburied TP and poop on the trail, and this solution helps alleviate that. Some of them even have really nice views!
More great views – it is nice to be generally traversing along ridges rather than climbing and descending them.
I ate lunch at a nice lake. There were a fair number of trout here.
I passed the 2,500 mile mark on the PCT! Only about 150 miles left!
I saw my last view of Mt. Rainier today too:
I started to feel pain in my right shin and worried that my shin splints were returning. I donned my compression sock to help provide support and hopefully prevent the injury that ended last years PCT hike. I decided to camp at Reflection Pond, and arrived there around 3pm. It was early to set up camp, but I did not want to push it and aggravate my shin.
The problem with camping at sites with water is that they tend to be the more popular sites. By sunset, this site had 5 other campers here, and they were noisy. I had to sleep with earplugs :(. It just does not feel right to be 2-days away from the nearest road and have to sleep with earplugs. Welcome to the PCT.
Thanks for reading!
Dale's Pacific Crest Trail hike -- 2019 