Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) Section I - White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass — Saturday, Oct. 16, 2010

South Cascades > White Pass/Cowlitz River Valley

We drove to Stampede Pass and were on the trail by 9:00 a.m. It was cold - 29 degrees but we could tell it was going to be a beautiful day. We hiked north on the PCT for 6 miles to the point where we turned around coming from Windy Pass last time. The trail up to the intersection with the Stirrup Lake Trail and the Meadow Creek Trail was in really good shape. It might be muddy and have water running on it at other times of the year but today it was perfect. We passed a family of mushroom hunters and on the way back one bicyclist who claimed he didn't know he was on the PCT. Wonder how he missed the dozens of PCT signs we saw on that section of trail? We wore orange vests draped over our packs as a precaution due to hunting season and a group that was camped below the trail thought we were hunters and might mistake them for a bear so I let them know we were hikers. This portion of the trail crosses many logging roads - some still active and some abandoned. It has a fair bit of up and down but is easy and good tread with only a few easy water crossings. We only ran into one mudhole. A beautiful day to be out in the forest. There wasn't much fall color but we did see one stunning bush. There were some icy patches where the ground was frozen and ice crystals formed. We had planned to spend the night along the way but some of those ice patches never melted all day and it was much too cold for our little miniature dachshunds to be sleeping in a tent so we reluctantly gave up the idea of camping and returned home.