Day 4: Sunday, July 16 - North Puyallup to South Mowich
Foot surgery - this was the beginning of the 7-8 blisters that would eventually develop on my feet and bother me the next few days, including one the size of a quarter on my heel and one under two toenails. Day 2 and 3 definitely put the body to the test.
This was our first long day of hiking - 11 miles. The first five miles were uphill. We powered up them in three hours and felt pretty strong. We even stopped after a nice power climb and dunked our heads in a stream - nothing feels or tastes as good as mountain water. I felt my cardiovascular system finally starting to get in shape.
We stopped at Golden Lakes for a refreshingly, yet chilly, dip in the glacier-fed lake and a view of Puget Sound from its campground. We talked with Bob Schaffer, the park service guy who was on patrol. The next part of the hike was nice, about a 2-mile ridge walk along subalpine meadows, with a steep dropoff to our left. Unfortunately, our views of Rainier were minimal, as we were heading north, in the opposite direction of the peak.
The picture to the left is of Puget Sound from Golden Lakes. The picture on the right is from the trail, looking back at where we were, with Mt. Rainier peeking over the ridge.
Can you see the trail?
The trail then turned right and we descended for about four miles into the woods. It wasn't too bad on the feet and knees because it was forest floor. We had a few blow downs to climb over and under, which were pretty amazing - just the sheer immensity in size of the tree trunks that had toppled over during the winter storms. There were a couple trunks lying on the ground that were definitely taller than me and a few that rivaled Randy in height, too.
We came across this blow down mess at the South Mowich River crossing, which had taken out the main bridge. We had to negotiate our way over a new little bridge (on the far left), before crossing our daily creek bed and coming up on the best camp site in the world....
The South Mowich Trail Shelter!
No one was there, so we had it all to ourselves. Inside we found dates carved in the wood back to 1974, plus repeat visitors. It was a great place because we could pitch our tent without having to deal with stakes or putting up the rainfly and it kept us dry, plus we had a great view.
