DAY 1
. 3 days. That’s all, just 3 little ol’ days. That’s what we planned to use, to cover the 30 miles, or so, to make a loop around Walupt Lake, through the Coleman Weedpatch, along the Pacific Crest Trail, hike beside the Goat Rocks, cross Cispus Pass, journey through Snowgrass flats, and end up back where we started, at Walupt Lake…Just 3 days.
We started early on Friday morning, July 15, around 6:30 from my house. Russ was driving, so he stopped to pick me up. Both of us must have went to sleep Thursday night with visions of the hike in our heads, as neither one of us got much sleep. Too excited, I guess…
We reached Walupt lake around 9, or so, and before we even got out of the parking lot, I had our first equipment failure! Earlier in the week, I thought it a good idea to mount a ¼ x 20 screw into my trekking pole, so that I could mount my camera on the end of it, thus eliminating a need for a tripod. Well, a fine idea, but you really have to have enough brains to remember to EXTEND your telescoping trekking pole BEFORE doing any drilling. Yep, the threaded hanger bolt threaded right into the telescoping part, basically ending it’s career as a telescoping pole. We were lucky to get it to release. So, good ol’ duct tape came in handy, a few strips wrapped tightly around the top of the middle section, and it kept it from sliding back into the main handle, and then we were ready to go at around 9:20am.
Our spirits are high, as this is what we’ve been planning for months!! It takes me almost half a day for it to really sink in that we’re finally doing it. Just ask my wife, it takes a long time for me to wake up in the morning…
Aren’t on the trail long, and I find a really nice pair of Bolle’ sun glasses. I’m to find out later, that I too, will leave something valuable on the trail.
The trail that we start our adventure on is trail 121, and it starts with a general uphill slope, smooth dirt and sand, nice gradual climb through the forest, thought it was a pretty trail. Right before we reached the PCT junction, the trail starts up and up. By 11:40, we hit the junction to the PCT. Took some pictures here, it was the first time that I had ever been on the PCT, Russ’s second time. A watershed moment for me. We are to hike on this section of the PCT for the rest of this day, and most of the second day. I am excited to be here. Within a half hour or so, we are beginning to walk through meadows filled with purple Lupine flowers, which give off a very nice sweet smell. Very fragrant. We will continue to walk through meadows, surrounded by sub-alpine firs, making it all look very park-like. For the next three days, too, we will continue to trek through meadows filled with flowers that smell like expensive perfume, and with practically every color of the rainbow represented.
By 12:30, we stop to eat and take in the view. The trail tarries on a ridgeline with an elevation of 5680 ft, and the views here are expansive. To the Northwest, you can see the Mountain, (Mount Rainier), directly in front of us, and below, at 4000 ft elevation, is Walupt lake, and before us are the foothills to the Goat Rocks, and jutting out on the opposite side of the lake from us, is Nannie Ridge. Great place to stop and rest. By 2:15pm, we found our first fresh water for the day, a small stream that crossed the trail. Russ filled up, I thought that I could wait until we got to our first camp site, as, according to the map, there was another stream close by…Wish I would have filled up here!
We finally reach the Coleman Weedpatch area. Everywhere there isn’t a tree, there is meadow, and, it’s usually filled with blueberries, Azaleas, and Lupine. Everywhere. Sometimes up to your waist. At first, it was so beautiful, but, by the time we got to camp, I was relieved to be done wading through it. The trail is very narrow singletrack, and because of all the brush on either side, there is really no way to make good use of the trekking poles, in fact, it seems that most of the walk, I had resigned myself to just kind of listlessly dragging the poles behind me…
Finally, we reach the junction to trail 101, which leads back to Walupt lake. This is the place that we had planned to make our camp for the night, and according to the map, there is supposed to be a stream nearby…It was nothing but a stream of dry rocks. Well, that was rather unfortunate, where were we supposed to get water? Looking at the map, we decide to head down trail 101, as it shows some small lakes close to the trail, what looked to be less than ½ a mile from our current location. Sure enough, we didn’t have long to walk, and we ran across a small lake. Did I say lake? More like a pond, than a lake. Still, we were tired, hungry, and thirsty, so decided to camp nearby. We were pretty hesitant about drinking out of that “body of water”…It seemed to be only about 2 feet deep at the deepest section, and there were some ducks swimming nearby. And this is to be our drinking water??? As thirst outweighed further debate, we took the plunge, using the filter to filter out one Nalgene bottle’s worth. Not only was it filtered, but all of the water we took out of this pond, we also boiled to use in our dehydrated meals. Very leery of this water. The following day, we hear from some hikers, that these are called the “Beaver ponds”. We wonder as to the naming of said ponds, as we saw no sign of any beavers…We wondered if perhaps, it was short for “Beaver Fever ponds”, and begin to question any rumblings of our stomachs….
After setting up camp, we try out our air mattresses, to make sure that they are comfortable enough. They are, as we quickly drift off to sleep. We decide, after an hour, that it’s time for dinner. Once dinner is over, we hang our food for the night, turn in and play dice before settling in to sleep around 10:30pm.

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                 DAY 2.
The next morning, we awake around 6:00am, and can hear an elk bugling. We can also hear light sprinkles on the tent, and worry that we may have to contend with getting wet…The skies are grey, with a low cloud cover, and it’s a little chilly. We break camp at 8:30am, keeping our eyes to the sky, trying to feel optimistic. Trail begins with a gradual uphill, not bad hiking, and the grey skies are starting to lift and break up some. It’s actually nice to have it a little cooler today, as we’ll be doing some uphill, and I’d rather do it in cool weather, than grind you into the ground heat. Actually, in my instance, it’s more like melt you down into a little puddle, so that you can seep between the cracks in the parched ground! Hope that wasn’t too optimistic for you…Russ spots an elk, a cow, and as soon as she realizes that she’s been spotted by the humans, she bolts uphill…Sigh…Wish I had her energy to sprint uphill like that…We see lots and lots of elk sign, as many small trees are de-barked from the bulls sharpening their horns. At this point, we are still side-hilling, and it gives us commanding views of the valley below us, lots of forest and meadow views, as well as a couple small lakes. As we near Nannie Ridge, some cool looking rock formations appear, just a small glimpse of what is to come, and above the trees on the ridgeline, you can see the top spires of Goat Rocks. By now, we are starting to see a few hikers…We pass two guys that had started in Canada three days before, and are planning on doing the whole PCT in 5 months. They said that they were headed for Timberline…Not in one day, obviously…Still, to do the whole PCT…Wow…And here, I thought doing the whole Wonderland was a big objective!!! As we begin to approach Walupt Creek, we are besieged by the dazzling array of wildflowers, it’s a veritable riot of color!! These meadows, so far, have the most brilliant colors, as each different variety tries to outdo the other, by pumping up the color volume. It’s an “Ooh, Aah!” moment for me, as I feel obligated to stop and document the color explosion with my camera…By 11:30am, we reach Walupt creek. Yay!! Fresh clean drinking water! I dump out the “pond water” that I had before, to fill my bottles with nice, clean, cold, running, water…Ahhh…It’s also very pretty here, a very scenic creek. Took several pictures. Here we also run into (ok, not “run into” as no one around here is running…This is walking at its best, man!) a couple of women and their dog. They ask us if we have any water purification tablets, as they seem to have misplaced theirs. We give them some, talk for a couple of minutes, and then we head out. The oldest woman seems to be in her late forties, early fifties maybe, and her companion doesn’t seem to be any older than 20. I notice that she has a blue glitter fingernail polish on, something that you would see a teen wear, I notice because it’s to her that I hand the purification tablets to…She never says a word, very quiet.
Around noon, we reach Sheep Lake, and continue on. Lots of meadows surround the lake. No views of the big mountains, as we are still under cloud cover. Close to 12:45pm, or so, we reach the spectacle of Goat Rocks…We finally crest a no-name ridge laying in next to Nannie Ridge, the trail just kind of pops up over a small ridge, around a copse of trees, and “Bam!”, it just hit’s you. You are standing on the edge of the Klickitat River valley, with the Goat Rocks on the opposite ridge, facing you, Gilbert Peak being the prominent peak here. It is breathtaking…The ridge on our side is covered in bright red Indian Paintbrush, and small clumps of pink flowers, growing so thick as to give a pinkish to reddish hue to the surrounding landscape. Goat Rocks, in a word, is…Intense. The jagged peaks soar into the sky, trying to block out the sky, like ancient cathedral spires, they grow up and up…Against their massive bases, there is a scattering of snow fields, which feed the beginnings of the Klickitat River, which flows off to the east, through the Yakima Indian Reservation. I wish I had a better command of the English language to adequately describe the beauty of the landscape, but I do not. I felt, as I stood there, very insignificant, like a mote of dust, next to these massive columns. But, I also felt uplifted, inspired, and excited about what I was seeing. Suddenly, the aches and pains of the trail were forgotten as I stood here on this ridge. The next 2 hours were to be filled with “big views”. After several pictures, and time spent gawking, we continued along the ridge line, skirting the edge of the valley, and the ridge to our left was built mostly out of Andesite columns, volcanic lava flows that cooled in long columns, similar in appearance to a stack of new pencils, wrapped in bunches, and then these bunches stacked on top of and next to each other, a fascinating sight. Chunks of these columns have broken off over the centuries, and left a huge pile of scree to walk over. After an hour, we reach Cispus Pass, high point on the PCT for Washington State, at 6400 ft. Another big view here, huge, actually, as it is doubly impressive as the last. From here, we can see to the west side, and the Cispus River basin. You can see the headwaters of the Cispus River, branches of it starting from the snowfields of Old Snowy, and the Northern most sections of the Goat Rocks. Just think, from this high point, you can see the beginnings of an East side river, and a West side river. I take as much video and pictures as I can, and part of me doesn’t want to leave, I could stay here for quite awhile, just taking it all in. Here on the west side, you can see the trail winding it’s way along the opposite side of the valley, as thin as a thread, and you can see that it crosses paths with a waterfall on the Cispus. The trail beckons, and we wind our way down from the pass…As we do, we are greeted by another surprise view, one not seen from the pass. The trail bends to the right, around a ridge, and heads back up to the beginning of the valley, and there, you see another incredible sight! It’s like staring at a smaller version of the Rocky Mountains! This is the Northern flank of the Goat Rocks, and they are just as magnificent as the other spires! Get some good pictures here, as well…The views just seem to keep coming! You end up running out of adjectives to describe! If one has been there, one knows how difficult it is to describe. We stop at the waterfall, and fill up. After being exposed to the sun for hours, the spray coming off of the falls is refreshing.
Hiking becomes easier from here, as we slowly descend. I no longer look as longingly at the views of the valley as I did earlier, it’s as if I have reached a visual critical overload, and my brain simply cannot process all of the input anymore…What would have wowed me on day 1, simply gets an exhausted yawn now. It’s like eating your favorite ice cream for three days in a row, until you’re tired of it, and don’t want anymore…Well, kind of like that, anyway…
By now, my feet are getting sore, and I don’t know it yet, but I am developing a rather large blister on my heel, which I won’t discover until we get to camp. I thought I was just developing a “hot spot”, as it feels similar to previous experiences. Russ, too, is experiencing some blistering, on his big toes. He gets a gnarly one, that starts on the bottom, and actually starts to come around to the top of his toe!!! He remains positive, however, and it doesn’t seem to bother him too much.
We reach the turn-off for trail 97 around 3:30pm, and we say good-bye to the PCT. It’s been an awesome trail, and I feel a bit sad to be leaving it. On to Snowgrass Flats, our destination for tonight. We travel through more meadows, interspersed with alpine firs, and lots more lupine. It seems wherever there is an open patch of ground, there is lupine, sometimes growing so dense, that a purple patch can be seen on the ground from miles away. There’s lot’s of fresh water here, several little rivulets running through the meadows, and we come to a large stream that appears on the map as a tributary to the Cispus river, which we will call Snowgrass creek. Very scenic little stream, rushing down over moss covered rocks, and on the opposite bank sitting about 5 feet above the water, is a nice level spot under some large trees. It’s an ideal spot, and we decide to camp here for the night. It’s at this point, that I discover that I’ve lost my nice DeerSlayer knife!!! Oh, woe is me! I’ve had that knife since 1981!!! Very depressing, and worse still, we now have no knife. I mean, what am I to do if I break my pencil lead? Gnaw on the end like some kind of woodchuck? Oh, the horror…Sigh…I’ll miss that knife. I can only hope that someone who really needs one, will find it. We reach this spot around 4:20pm, and after setting up camp, decide to hike up the hill to Alpine camp, and a higher spot of Snowgrass flats. It’s also very beautiful up here, too, alpine trees and meadows spread out, with several nice campspots. Good views of Mount Adams. Very scenic area, Russ and I decide that someday it would be nice to come back and do more exploring.
Once back in camp, we take stock of our feet. Russ now has 3 blisters on his feet, and I discover that I’ve got a good one on the back of my heel. We patch them up with moleskin, and hope for the best. After dinner, we’re in bed by 9:00pm, and play dice again for about an hour and a half before turning in…Say, what’s the final score, Russ?
Gets cold tonight, I have to get up and put on my thermals, and really zip myself up in the bag. I notice in the morning, that Russ is also similarly zipped in. I guess that can be expected, as we’re at 5800 feet here…
 

                DAY 3.
 Wake up at 6:00am, and around 6:30, we decide to get up, breakfast, and break camp. By 9:00, we’re on the trail, and when we first start, I’m a little sore, but shortly out of camp, we settle into the routine of hiking, and the soreness fades. There’s quite a bit of Downhill for awhile, and as we reach the ravine where we are approaching Goat Creek, the bottom here is marshy, and naturally, it’s a haven for mosquitoes!!! We do no stopping here, for fear of being drained dry of our lifeblood. Couldn’t wait to get through here…Even as I write this, I get the urge to start scratching at imagined bites.
The bridge crossing for Goat Creek is a very nice, sturdy log bridge, with a cascading stream running under it. On this day, one of the last nice views we will see.
Trail continues through forest, and we reach the Snowgrass Trailhead. Lots and lots of cars parked here. Now, the trail continues along the road for a short ways, before we reach the entrance to trail 7A. Trail 7A is not maintained by the Forest Service, and it shows. I believe that a private group maintains this trail, maybe a group with horses, and it’s called the Klickitat loop trail. It uses sections of old abandoned logging roads, and occasionally, winds through clearcut. It is not clearly marked, and, I do not strongly suggest using this route. It’s mostly through forest, with no views, and the highpoint of this trail, other than the Cispus River crossing, was reaching the end of it. There is a point, at the beginning, when you come out into a clearcut, that you get a great view of Mount Adams, and the valley stretching to Walupt Lake, but that’s the only good viewing area. Crossing the Cispus, at least at this time of the year, was actually therapeutic! As there is no bridge here, simply a rock cairn on the NW side of the river marking the shallow crossing point, we were forced to put on our sandals to make the wade! And, boy, did our feet appreciate the cool water!!! I just wanted to stand in it for awhile, and let my burning feet cool off. Once on the other side, we picked up the trail again, (which was not clearly marked, either), and made our way up the river bank. This ended up being pretty steep, about 400ft up in about a half mile. After walking on the road for 15 minutes, we reach the car at around 2:50pm. We made it!!! We made the final 10 miles, in about 5 ½ hours. Much better than our first day, but most of this day was downhill…
I feel as if we visited another world this weekend, with everything that we got to see and experience crammed into these 3 days. It took a lot of effort to get there, but it was worth it. We also learned a lot from this excursion, and I hope they are all lessons that I will be able to apply on our sojourn around Mount Rainier. I still need to concentrate on lightening the load. The powdered drink, which weighed around a pound, will get left behind, as will the larger fuel canister. Thankfully, I have much smaller one, that will work for 3 day jaunts. I only used about 1/16 of the large canister, so I was uselessly lugging around way too much fuel. Russ has a Jetboil, which works awesome for a trip like this, when most everything you do, just needs boiled water. It was easy, quick, efficient, and light, much better than my fuel stove for this kind of thing…Also, I think I took too many clothes. I ended up wearing the same pair of shorts for all three days! I know that sounds gross, but hey…When you’re out in the woods doing what we were doing, the height of fashion we were not. Would I do this again? Sure, you bet! In fact, while I’m writing this, thoughts are constantly swirling in my mind, what was the best?, the worst, what did I learn, how much pain was involved, did we take enough pictures, did we take too many? All kinds of images flashing back and forth, of everything we saw, as if my brain has still not figured out how to catalog them all, making this blur of color, thoughts, and ideas into my very own mental kaleidoscope of the Goat Rocks Wilderness. The hand of the Master Landscaper was very busy, and intimately involved in creating this wonderful part of the Pacific Northwest.