Panic_manic - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2011

Washington

Olive Oil wasn't feeling well, so they stayed behind as I hiked on. I was only planning another 14 miles, since it was already 2pm, but the terrain was easy and I wanted to push myself. I made it another 17.6 to Crag Lake. I arrived right before dusk and ran into three horses. At first I thought they were elk. I was so excited! But no. I made my way closer to the lake to look for a spot and found their owners: Diane and Becky. They invited me to camp with them when they found out I was alone. I learned alot about horse that night and they learned alot about thru hiking! It amazed them that I only needed 45 minutes to eat and go the next morning when they said it would be an almost 3 hour ordeal for them. I told them they could make it up by running the horses. They thought that was funny.
I had a 31 mile day planned and I left at 7am so I had to keep up a good pace to make it. I couldn't believe how many people were out near Chinook Pass. If I had to guess I would say I passed 150-200 people out on the trail. And this was a Tuesday afternoon! I guess it's nice to see people out using the trail, but I was in a hurry! Once to the other side and over the next ridge the crowd began to thin. I ran over to Sheep Lake and filled up a water bottle and threw my pack back on. Some nosy guy sitting next to the lake yelled out to me "Are you gonna drink that?" I wanted to say, Isn't that what you normally do with water?, but instead I said, "After 5,000 trail miles, so far so good!" Then he kinda grumbled, "Well. I guess if you have the experience." Not to say that drinking untreated water is for everyone, but keep your nose out of my business, thank you very much. I got into the groove as I had 16 more miles to go before bed. I scared the crap out of a bear as I rounded a corner in the trail. I was glad I still had miles between the bear and my planned camp. The trails were strangely mislabeled or missing signs in this section. I had learned to carry more water than I thought I needed, which would be helpful in the days to come.
I filled up the next morning at Meadow Creek not realizing that I wouldn't find water for over 17 miles. I saw a side trail for Pyramid Peak. I looked at the map and noticed it went up and over it and hit the PCT on the other side. So I decided, why not? The PCT rarely hits the high points of off ridge peaks, so I figured this may be one of my last chances, plus I wouldn't be losing any mileage once on the other side. The .7 miles to the top was brutal. Switchback after blowdown after more blowdowns in switchbacks sometimes causing you to climb over a tree twice! I made it to the top sweating my ass off and thirsty, but it was worth it! 360 degree views! I headed north to pick up the descent trail and found a large plywood board covering a side of the trail. Being my curious self I lifted it up and found a metal box. I tried to open it, but it was tricky and had multiple latches and such. It was labeled as a geocache box. The only other times I have run into geocache boxes they contained puzzles or picturres so I wasn't too disappointed that I couldn't get inside. I placed it back in the earten hole I dug it out of and covered it back up with the wood. I turned to continue down the trail but it had disappeared. I retrced my way back up to the top to see if I had somehow missed the turn off, but this apparently was it.
I got so

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