White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass

White Pass:

We were both excited to get to White Pass. It had been 8 days since we had laundry or a shower. We were disappointed to find there was only laundry, but we took what we could get. 

White Pass is a small ski area in the winter. There is a hotel and the Cracker Barrel store and gas station where we picked up our resupply box. Thank you to our trail angels from Colorado for our surprise care packages. They made our day after the shower let down!

Back on trail:

From White Pass we headed up above treeline. It was fun to walk the high ridge line, the true crest. We had a great view of Crystal basin and the ski area there. Made me want to come back in the winter time.

We had a couple days of good weather before the rains and wet weather hit us. Although we would have preferred no clouds or rain at all, it was good timing for our views to be clouded. For two days the trail winds through clear cuts and logging roads.

Big Booms and Bangs:

On September 3rd at 9:40am we heard a very large boom. The noise was so loud and deep it made us pause and look around. There were no clouds in the sky big enough or dark enough for it to be thunder. It is a little unnerving to seemingly be in the middle of nowhere and hear this. Having no idea what it was I time stamped the incident. Maybe we would find out later what it was. We were at least happy that we both agreed that the noise seem to come from a South easterly direction. This was the opposite direction we were headed. So we continued on our way. As we walked we came up with a load of theories as to what we could have heard, some a bit more wild than practical.

We knew exactly where our second round of booms came from; thunder! We had a pretty gloomy day coming into Tacoma Pass. Our spirits were lifted by some trail magic hosted by "Not Phil's Dad". He had canopies with camp chairs set up for hikers. We chatted with Red and Andy DuFresne while we were served hot chili dogs. When it started to rain again we decided not to leave the comfort of the dry cover. We set up our tent in the area. When we went to bed the rain picked up and the thunder clouds rolled in. We had thunder and lightening for about an hour. Then the storm moved over the pass. I have heard thunderstorms referred to as bowling matches between the gods. If this is true, then I think all were out to play.  They were throwing fire balls down the lanes, maybe playing for believers. A couple of times we didn't have a chance to count a second between lightening and thunder and the thunder was so loud it seem to shake the ground and reverberate between the ridges on either side of the pass. This was accompanied by hard rains that created a waterbed under the floor of the tent until the ground had enough time to absorb all the water falling from the sky. All in all, we survived the night. We woke up a little wet, but not soaked. Washington was proving to be as wet as I remembered.

Snoqualmie Pass!

Yay! After 14 days without a shower, 5 days since our last laundry, and wet from multiple days of rain we were so happy to see the Summit Inn from the top of the ski slopes.

Trail Statistics:

Days:143

Miles: 2,402

Showers: 29

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