03 Aug Day 100 – Miriam Fire

At mile 2300.9. Hiked 21.4 miles today. 

Today was a short day into White Pass where I resupplied with a package sent to Kracker Barrell. I barely beat the Miriam Fire trail closure south of White Pass. In fact, it was officially reported at 11 AM and I was hiking through that area around noon. 

After spending most of the day at Kracker Barrel, I started hiking again at 6:20 pm and hiked into the dark some time after 9 pm. The area full of scum ponds and  was infested with mosquitoes. To make matters worse, my GPS stopped working and indicated that I had hiked off map. I backtracked a mile before I encountered a trail junction sign that indicated I was indeed on the PCT all along.  Don’t always trust your GPS! The GPS continued to give false readings into the next day.

Amazon has delivered a Thermocell to me at Kracker Barrel and I tried it out while I cooked dinner. I sat outside the tent completely mosquito free while cooking, wearing shorts, no headnet, and tent door wide open. This was at Busch Lake where there are hordes of mosquitoes. Thermocell kept them 15 feet away.

Hiking out of camp the early morning light hit the mountains.

After a long climb., I crossed a ridge and could view Mt Ranier through a smoky haze.

After a tough climb the trail as traverses a long slope before descending to White Pass.

A large plane is dive bombing a fire near the area I had just passed through. At the time we were hiking near the fire, we noticed strange orange tinted sunlight filtering through branches overhead.

Smoke plume seen from Kracker Barrel. There was a big show of assorted helicopters and planes of all sizes responding to the blaze.