On the third day of our backpacking trek we continued north on the Pacific Crest Trail, hiking from Holman Pass to Woody Pass, by way of Rock Pass, climbing a total of 2300 feet over a distance of six miles, on a gray, rainy day in August.
As planned, we woke up about 3:30am and started getting dressed and packed in the dark, using our headlamps. It was quite cool that morning, which is just the way Vicki liked it. We decided to have a “bug out” breakfast (non-cooked) and eat it on the trail. We also did our best to stay quiet, as there were several neighbors in the campsite. Once we were ready, we put on our backpacks, turned our headlamps down low, and tip-toed out of camp toward the PCT itself. Then we turned up the lights and started hiking. On this first stage of the hike, we had about 1500 feet and 3.5 miles of uphill trail to climb. Time to get it done!
After dawn had broken, we started feeling some small drops on our faces. The skies were gray and gloomy. This sort of drizzle was typical of the Pacific North West. It came and went depending on the thickness of the cloud layers above us. But it wasn’t much of a rain. Not yet, anyway. It should be noted that we chose mid-August for this trek on purpose, as it is the driest time in the PNW. But on a nine day trip, we expected to get at least one rainstorm. Would today be that day?
Eventually, the trail broke out of the trees and the world opened up around us. There was a huge meadow up there! It was green and grassy and full of flowers. We were truly entranced, as we weren’t expecting such a treat. Not at all. Even under dull gray skies it was beautiful. Vicki really hates hiking uphill, but even she was feeling happy with such an abundance of wildflowers. This sort of thing is what makes the Cascades so wonderful.
The trail continued climbing through the meadow, and the land got drier as we neared Rock Pass. We were thankful for the clouds as it would have been a hot climb without them. Vicki was already feeling a bit tired, but I convinced her to make it the rest of the way to the summit before taking a break. She trudged on, and so did I.
We got to the summit and found a nice spot for a break. It was still well before noon, but since we woke up so early I got out the lunches anyway. And it was a fine spot for dining. People would pay money for a view like that!
We could see Woody Pass, our day’s destination, across the valley to the north. It was roughly the same elevation that we were at right then. I also saw an old trail that led directly there, traversing along a scree slope. I checked along the trail and there was a wooden “Trail Abandoned” sign nailed to a pine tree. Hmmm… We decided to follow that advice, even though Vicki didn’t like the idea of dropping 700 feet only to climb back up all over again.
After dropping down on the switchbacks, we began to feel the rain start up again. This time the drops were a bit larger, but they still weren’t bad enough for us to put on our raingear. That would soon change. The air was warm enough, but the drizzle got heavier, and we began to get wet. Vicki put on her raingear, while I merely got out my cheap poncho. It wasn’t windy, so it worked OK. By that time we were climbing again, and I liked the airflow. The energy output kept my core temperature high, and I don’t like sweating inside raingear.
The rain stopped after a while, and we kept climbing. We took a break at one campsite, but Vicki wasn’t sure if she liked it. My PCT phone app said that there was another site right at the top of the pass, and she wanted to move on. So up we climbed, and almost crossed the pass. We set up the tent right away, because we figured that it might rain some more. And it did! We threw everything inside and crawled in after it.
But the rain was yet another false start. I eventually decided to go get some drinking water from a creek I’d found down below. It turned out that the side trail to the water used to be the “abandoned” trail we’d seen on Rock Pass. Further on, you could see that it was completely washed out. The new, lower trail was the only viable path now.
When I got back to the tent it truly began to rain, a continuous drenching onslaught of tiny drops. We hunkered down inside and put on some warmer clothing. It was chilly out there! We read our books and talked about things. We checked out the map for tomorrow’s hike. There was a bit of climbing but mostly it was flat or downhill. This made Vicki happy again.
When the rain finally stopped, the sky got lighter. Maybe a front of some sort had passed on through? We hoped so. Vicki got out the cooking gear and made some freeze-dried dinner, then we ate it while looking south toward Rock Pass. It was the best view we’d had in camp thus far on this trek.
But it was still cloudy, and now the air was colder. We got back inside the tent and into the sleeping bag. That was the best place to be on a rainy day, snug and warm in a dry tent. It doesn’t get much better than that.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
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