GPW-Day 6-The Most Beautiful Lake, and a Fortuitous Meeting

Day 6 dawned with a wet tent for me. The previous night I had closed one side of my tent completely (both doors). It looked like some clouds were coming over the Pass, and I didn’t want to have to mess with closing both sides in the middle of the night if it started to rain. I think that restricted the airflow, but it was also quite dewey in the morning, and I was set up on grass. Regardless, my tent was soaking wet. I shook off as much water as possible, and packed it up. A bit of good news was that in looking at Gaia (another gps app), I realized we were farther than I thought. Whoop!!!

We started out the day with a nice climb to the top of Fire Creek Pass. It really was a beautiful climb, and the Pass was gorgeous as well. 

Yowza! That’s a long way straight down! Glad we are not going that way!

The view from Fire Creek Pass

That is the way down!

Annette even found some snow!

Yep, we made it to the top!

Milk Creek Glacier

The trail down was steep and rocky. We just took it slow (my mantra...going slow, being careful). 

That’s it, Annette, nice and easy. 

Next feature on the map was Mica Lake. This was another place we were supposed to stay. Sadly, we could only visit. But it was a nice visit. 

Such amazing blue water!

Oh yeah, and this little guy was enjoying the view too!

There were some great campsites, and not too far down the trail there was even this. 

Yep, there was a potty box up that trail. This is the view from the toilet. 

Not too shabby!

From Mica Lake we had about 3 miles of downhill to Milk Creek. I spied this grouse making its way across the trail. 

Hello grouse!

Can’t resist taking a photo of these strawberry shortcake mushrooms. 

We arrived at the bridge over Milk Creek. We decided it was a good place to stop for lunch. As we were fixing our lunch, a young woman, trail name Magpie, stopped to filter some water. We chatted while she was filtering. She was thru-hiking, and had started late April (skipping the Sierras like most, due to heavy snow). It was nice talking to her. She headed on, taking one last moment to warn us that the climb from Milk Creek was “bad”. Great!

In the meantime, another gal joined us. After Magpie left, Ninja (German gal dressed all in black) said she had overheard part of our conversation and was curious about our experience. She said she had had a similar experience in Yosemite while trying to take a PCT alternate (having to bushwhack). Then we told her that we had seen a bear. She said she had been on the trail for 5 months, and had not seen a single bear! Then I asked her where she was from in Germany. She said she currently lived in Berlin. I told her I had ridden in Berlin, and then to Bremen. She said she grew up in between Berlin and Bremen. I mentioned that on the way to Bremen I had ridden through Stendal. Her face lit up and she said, very excitedly, that she was from Stendal! She couldn’t believe that she met an American on the PCT that knew Stendal. I think I made her day. 

Later, as we were working our way up the 47 switchbacks out of Milk Creek we came to where the Milk Creek Trail went off the PCT (the route we were supposed to take). Here’s the sign. 

See the most important part? “No Bridge Suiattle”.

As we continued up, Ninja caught up to us. Out of curiosity, I asked if she knew how many miles it was from Mica Lake to Milk Creek (I was trying to figure out how far off the Garmin was). Turns out it was quite a bit off. She also looked to see how far it was from the bridge over the Suiattle to the Trailhead, and was able to tell us the condition of the Suiattle River Trail (she had the Guthooks app). It was great to confirm that we would be able to easily make it to meet Tim on the 18th. It was fortuitous that we met Ninja! 

Ninja motored on up the trail. We continued our slow plodding progress. I looked on Gaia and counted how many more switchbacks were left. There were 7. I counted them down as we marched on up. 

At the top, we took a break. I walked out to a nice viewpoint. 

We were both running somewhat low on water. We headed on down hoping for water soon, as well as a campsite. 

We could hear water. We stopped at the first stream and filled up. As we continued down, we crossed several streams. We spied a couple of people at a campsite on a side trail down off the PCT. It looked like there was more space, so we hiked down. Annette went up to one spot. It looked pretty sloped. I talked to the guy already camped there. He said there was a flat spot just around and across the stream. I asked Annette if she wanted to go there, but she was already setting up her tent. I went over, and found it to be a very nice spot. It was pretty open which might have been too cold for Annette anyway. For me, it was perfect. I was able to set up and dry out my wet tent. 

The views from my tent


Annette came over and we shared a mashed potatoes and chicken dinner. It was delicious! Annette wondered if I’d be able to call to her in the morning to wake her up. With the loud stream and the other people, I told her probably not. She said she would try to wake up herself. I didn’t think it was too promising...