Day 22: Sydney’s First Full Day

PCT Mile 2159 – 2183

Miles Hiked =24

Today was my first morning on trail with Sydney. I stirred her awake at 5:30am and we were hiking a little before 7:00. It always takes some time to establish a morning routine. I’m usually hiking 45-60 minutes after I start the process. Sydney was a little slow today but she’ll get faster.

We had a little rain yesterday afternoon and evening so our tents were still wet this morning. There was a bright and brilliant sunrise through the morning fog as we tore down our camp.

Most mornings on the PCT, I’ve started the day’s hike with clear skies and bright sunshine, but not on our first morning in Washington. Could this be a foretelling of things to come?

Foggy morning

An hour later the fog had lifted but we were still hiking under overcast skies.

Most of our hike today was in the green mossy Washington forest

As we hiked along through the wet and damp forest, Sydney noticed slugs along the trail.

Apparently the most common slug in Washington is the Banana Slug which range in color from banana yellow in Northern California to olive green to brownish in Washington. Slugs are like snails without a shell and are essentially decomposers that break down vegetation and turn it into the rich soil in these native forests.

Mid-morning we collected water from the stream under this bridge – it was our first water source since yesterday afternoon – 11+ miles back.

We stopped and had lunch in the afternoon and dried out some of our wet clothes.

Later in the afternoon the trail took a turn and we had a nice views

There was also a short side-trail to an even better viewpoint

There was a vertical drop at the edge of the viewpoint – about a 500 foot vertical drop – straight down!!! – notice I’m leaning back for the photo-op!

About an hour later we crossed over Trout Creek

and then walked through a brown meadow

We continued hiking for another few miles and then camped at Panther Creek Campground – picnic tables, water pump, trash cans, restrooms… life is good!

Sydney hiked 24 miles today! Pretty damn good for her first full day on the trail.

Thanks for reading!