Pacific Crest Trail - Day 164 - Panther Creek
Start: Mile 2161.5
End: Mile 2185.3 - Panther Creek
We were one range/ridge away from waking up in a cloud pouring over us. Beautiful to see, not so beautiful to camp in! I’ll take it!
Birds and animals seem to love spending their mornings in these semi-recently (or perpetually, in the case of power lines) deforested areas that are growing back with all sorts of bushes and plants.
We’ve crossed a lot of roads and trailheads. This truck was the only one that put me on edge. We didn’t see the driver on the trail in either direction.
Our first sighting of Mt. Adams.
I‘m more than just the sum of my super hot legs and emotional detachment.
These signs are appreciated. I know these entire forests have been previously clear-cut - but it’s nice to have the context of how long a forest takes to come back, and what they look like after 25, 50, 75 years.
Along the time axis of the evolutionary tree of life, this guy has made it as far as I have. Cheers, buddy, let’s leave the salt off your rim.
Every few miles we get a reminder that we are still very much in the cascades.
The number of forests we’ve passed through with trees of the diameter of the stump currently hosting its own micro-ecosystem has been very few. We see huge stumps everywhere.
It’s hard to not increasingly feel like these guys are running this whole show. They must be huge reality television fans.
The projects that same from the CCC and WPA are the best thing the United States Government has ever done. Can you imagine your representative even half a mile from a trailhead?
Lush. Washington is living up to the hype.
Forbidden piñata
So cool to see clouds spilling out from valleys like liquid from a bowl.
A warm welcoming community of scared rural gun nuts. Statistically, white middle aged men are the most likely to commit suicide. Considering that the Second Amendment is about the only one that isn’t currently under siege, and social support, mental health care, and rural resources are being gutted to pay for deficit funded tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, that’s an epidemic that’s only going to get worse.
In backpacking, they say you shouldn’t pack your fears. I’d suggest we shouldn’t vote our fears either.
These trees look like they have been yarn bombed.