Pacific Crest Trail - Day 177 - Piper Pass

Start: Mile 2430.9
End: Mile 2453.0 - Glacier Lake

I wasn’t able to quite to capture it, but we could see flames leaping above the ridge in the distance. At this point we were probably ~7-8 miles away from the fire, and while we never felt threatened, were happy to be beyond it on trail and putting distance between us and the flames.

We heard various aircraft and helicopters flying overhead towards the fire but weren’t able to see any of them directly.

ALL CAPS!

That must be a problem.

At the Southern Terminus, 2500 or so miles ago, Stoke handed us black ziploc bags to carry out our toilet paper. Packing out toilet paper for dozens of miles isn’t glamorous, and if I’m honest, it’s somewhat inconvenient and pretty disgusting, but it is far, far less disgusting than seeing toilet paper littered on or around the trail or designated campsites.

I feel like the dilemma apparently raised by the relatively minor inconvenience of packing out your own feces so it doesn’t impact others‘ experience effectively approximates the current American political landscape.

Hyas Lake. The aquamarine color of these alpine Washington lakes is amazing.

We climbed up and over Piper Pass into a valley containing Glacier Lake with views of Glacier Peak in the distance. The temperatures dropped rapidly as the sun went down and we descended through a Pika filled rock fall towards the camping spots near the lake. At this point, we can feel each day becoming shorter and the temperatures dropping with the arrival of autumn in the mountains. We’re enjoying our time out here more than ever but are feeling a strong sense that our weather window isn’t going to last much longer.

Our target date to reach the Canadian border when we began Washington was September 30, which we’re on track to hit if we keep up our current pace.

Wanting to avoid waking up to a wet condensation soaked tent (we’re learning!) we opted to avoid some waterfront sites and set up for the night in a spot a few hundred feet above the Glacier Lake. We found a wooded area with a few sites that proved surprisingly difficult to find a suitable pad to pitch the tent on as the primary spots were well suited for small free-standing tents, but weren’t big or level enough to accommodate a decent pitch with our larger tent with a hexagonal footprint. We eventually figured out a pitch on a decently level root-free spot with light from our headlamps and crashed after a big day spent climbing and pushing towards a day off at Stevens Pass / Leavenworth.