We did a 4-day, 3-night backpack on a sub-section of Section H of the PCT, starting at White Pass and exiting via the Nannie Ridge trail to Walupt Lake.
Day 1 - White Pass to Ginnette Lake. This day was spent dropping a car off at Walupt Lake Campground and then heading back to White Pass to park the other car at the southbound PCT trailhead. This is a small lot with only room for maybe 8 cars. There is more parking available at the PCT trailhead lot on the north side of highway 12 if this lot is full. We got on the trail at 6:15PM and climbed the 2.2 miles/1000ft up to Ginnette Lake for our first night's camp. Mosquitos were quite annoying, and we broke out our head nets. Ginnette lake is not a very appealing water source. There is a creek on the way up that was much better.
Day 2 - Ginnette Lake to McCall Basin. 13 miles/1675ft gain. The trail is in good shape, but there are no water sources from Ginnette Lake all the way to Hidden Springs (a little over 6 miles), unless you opt to take the side trail down to Shoe Lake. We took the side trail down to Hidden Springs camp to re-supply on water. The spring lived up to it's name as it took us a little while to find it. When you reach the first campsite, the trail goes right through it, but don't make our mistake and follow the trail. Instead, drop down into the lower of the two camp areas, and follow one of the two small trails going down out of that site. You will hear the running water of the spring as you get close. There were literally hundreds of PCT through hikers on the trail, as many had to skip ahead to Washington due to the fires in Northern California and Oregon, and this made for some crowding at campsites. We opted to go down into McCall Basin to camp, and there were ample open campsites there. Bugs were intermittently bad on this section, so the head nets were on and off quite a bit.
Day 3 - McCall Basin to the PCT junction with the Snowgrass Flats trail. 7.5 miles/2914 ft gain. Just wow. The climb up to Elk Pass and then out over the Knife's Edge to Old Snowy is amazingly beautiful and occasionally terrifying. So glad I got to check it off my hiking bucket list. The hordes of through hikers continued today, and many who crossed the Knife earlier said it was engulfed in clouds. Our timing was great and we had clear skies and incredible views on our crossing. We took the snow-free PCT Alternate trail up to the base of Old Snowy. The lower PCT horse route had one steep snow field to cross, but many people were crossing it OK using just hiking poles. We met our friend on the far side of Old Snowy, and she had secured the campsite right at the junction of the PCT and the Snowgrass Flats trail. We spent the late afternoon chatting with through hikers as they came by. Today the bugs were only bad at our campsite, they were not bad at all on the high exposed ridges.
Day 4 - Snowgrass Trail junction to Sheep Lake on PCT, then Nannie Ridge trail to Walupt Lake. 10.8 miles/744 ft gain (-3072 ft loss). Another beautiful bluebird day for the trip through Cispus Basin. The trail is again in good shape, and still full of northbound PCT through hikers. Bugs were intermittently annoying. We arrived at the trail head around 3pm, and stopped at the Packwood Brewery for an early dinner before retrieving the other car from White Pass. Finally, we did our trail angel duty and gave a through hiker a ride from White Pass down to Packwood. Could not have asked for a better trip.
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