Seattle Trip Part 8: Trip to Spectacle Lake Day 2

Up and at 'em. It was a chilly morning, but I was ready to go.

Here is Zee untying the food bags from the trees to keep it away from bears & other critters. Frankly, I say you don't make it a challenge for them to get the food, because then you become "plan B". Thankfully, we didn't have any problems.

Here's Grace and Rufina ready to go and in red.

So with breakfast done and the ladies ready to go that meant one last thing before we hit the trail... yes, that is what you think it is and I was very glad to have it. The other option is digging a 6 inch hole every time and covering it when you are done.

This log is what we used for TP- no, seriously, this is the log I found to cross Lemah Creek. The normal ford was too deep for our boots and the bridge would have added 1 to 1 1/2 miles to our trek.

Here are the ladies pushing onward and upward in a series of switchbacks from h_ll; there were at least 25 switchbacks! If you look just past the girls you can see a waterfall...

This is that waterfall. Actually, this is only a portion of it. There was a nice bridge here to help you cross the waterfall and continue on the trail.

This portion of the trail was part of the Pacific Crest Trail which runs from Canada to Mexico. So I can say I did the PCT and sound impressive. While we didn't do the hundreds of miles that encompass the whole trail, this hike did take us up a good bit of elevation and we put in about 10 miles of hiking.

This is Spectacle Lake. It was so beautiful; a crystal clear lake almost split in 2 down in a bowl made up of mountains.

This was the closer and smaller portion of the lake. You can see that the lake is surrounded by rock almost everywhere. The lake is a popular campsite for those that are doing the PCT. We saw several people down there camping and passed a whole bunch more headed that way on our way out.

Rufina and I after lunch overlooking Spectacle Lake.

Summit shot of the team.
It was windy and thus, cold at the top.

The hike was very painful for me, even though we had dropped our big packs and were only were day packs with water and lunch. I knew that the tops of my toes often get blisters from hiking and sports where the seam of the sock rubs, so I taped my toes for the hike and wore liners under my main hiking socks... It didn't work. I ended up with a horrible blood blister on my left foot that ranged from the underside of my little toe up to the toenail and around the inside of the nail and across the base of the nail. I also got a blister on the little toe of my right foot, but it wasn't as bad. The blister meant that I spent most of the day hobbling more than hiking. Here I was "icing" my toe in the cold waters of Pete's Lake back at camp.

We finished the day with dinner- Beef Stroganoff.


Up next: The hike out and the dash to futility.