We got back to the store just in time to catch the 8:00am shuttle back to the trailhead! We sat inside the cab this time, knowing how cold it would be in the back of the truck on this chilly morning. At the top we got out and thanked the shuttle driver before he took off back down towards Trout Lake again. There was a person named Roger at the trailhead who was waiting for his son to come through on trail, and in the meantime he was doing some trail magic for us! I had two big slices of cantaloupe, yummm!!!
When we were finally ready to start hiking, Manza realized he had left his trekking poles in the truck shuttle, oh no!! We decided to wait for the next shuttle to come by, and about an hour later a DIFFERENT shuttle came by! We were told that the poles were brought into the general store for lost and found, so Manza caught a ride in with the current shuttle.
The trailhead was super cold, but I stayed with our packs while he took the ~25 minute ride back into town to grab the poles and then wait for a ride back out. I stayed with Roger and ate more cantaloupe and chatted with the other hikers that came and went. Manza finally got a ride back out, and we were able to hit the trail by 10:30am, two hours after we had initially got to the trailhead!
I know he would’ve been fine with me going ahead, but since we were going to meet Caleb tonight and we only have to go 22 miles, I wanted to wait so we could hike together. We started up a long ~8 mile climb, but at least it wasn’t too steep. As I said the temp out was cold cold COLD!! Colder than we’ve seen for awhile! Even in the trees it was chilly, and on the exposed open areas it was freezing!
Here we go!
Pretty flowers in an old burn
The clouds and most rolled out at one point and we started getting seriously awesome views of Mt. Adams. It was a dry cold front that had swooped in which meant sunny/cold weather and cloudy/cold weather on and off all day. We caught up with a bunch of other hikers at lunch time, and then continued on our rollercoaster of a day.
Manza and Adams
Giant mushrooms!
Beautiful lava fields
Thar she is!!
We got pretty close to Adams and crossed many small water sources including one large semi-sketchy one.the scenery was super pretty today, and although it was at times biting cold, I still preferred it over sweltering hot.. At times I was just in my t-shirt (most of the day), but a few times I decided to hike with the puffy. Close to the end of our day we came across Lava Spring!
A sketchy water crossing
Manza being a champ
Top of a waterfall
Lava Spring! This beautiful crystal clear water was coming straight from the lava rock pile. Favorite spring so far on trail!
About 1.5 miles past the spring we came up on the road where we were meeting Caleb. He was already there! He had made it straight from work and was almost waiting two hours for us! Sorry brah!! It still worked out well and I was glad he came out from Portland to see us!
Caleb, Sailor Jerry, and Manza
Tomorrow we take a chill day and just hike a few miles with Caleb. Hopefully we’ll get some cool views of Mt. Adams!!
Thanks for reading!
Nice to see the blue skies again! I hope you had don’t have too many cold nights in Washington.
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