PCT: Indian Heaven Wilderness – Blue Lizard

With Waterboy being able to hike 30 mile days, he was able to convince Matt to hike some PCT sections on the weekend. Typically Jessi and I drop them off or pick them up. This time Jessi and I decided to backpack the same stretch as them, but in the opposite direction over 3 days. This allowed us to leave a car at each end. We took the direction with more climb since we had more days to cover it. The kids all stayed home with the biggest kid of them all, the General, in charge.

We headed out after Jessi got off work or maybe after a doctor’s appointment. I can’t remember which… it’s been too long. We started at Panther Creek and hiked a few uphill miles before camping for the night. The trail passed through beautiful Washington forests along a smooth dirt trail. I struggled with calf cramps up the steep climb, but luckily Jessi was patient and loves being in the woods. We camped near two other PCT hikers and hung out with them in the evening.

The next day started off cool, wet, and cloudy. At one point we were reconsidering our plans as we had packed as light as possible and weren’t sure we’d be warm enough if it stayed cold. The clouds cleared up and we got good views of Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens. Huckleberries were plentiful which kept Jessi busy during my many uphill breaks. We ran into Matt and Waterboy mid-day as they headed south. We ran into trail magic afterwards and came across PCT hikers we had met a week earlier near Mt. Hood.

We continued on and decided to stop short of Blue Lake. The “fun” for the night was when Jessi went to hang the food bag but then went running by stating she had to leave. It turned out the hang site was on a hornets nest and she is allergic. I had to retrieve the bag but escaped getting stung. The night was colder than forecasted. Jessi wore all of her layers to bed and we resorted to snuggling to stay warm.

We got up the next morning and passed lakes that we brought intertubes for, assuming the forecast was correct. It was way too cold for this. We took a side trail to Deep Lake at Matt’s recommendation. I pushed the last downhill before the car. My knees didn’t hyperextend like they did before, but they still hurt. We stopped in Trout Lake on the way back to get huckleberry shakes and picked up a couple pies to go with dinner. All in all it was a good backpacking trip.