August 7 - 11, 2024 - Lafe and Faith's Odyssey

Beautiful Views and Boundless Blisters

I awoke rather groggily to my alarm blaring in the airport at about 4:45 AM. We got up and wandered down to our gate, boarded our flight, and sat in our separate seats. All of the Frontier flights we had been on had empty seats, so we were hoping to be able to sit together. My row of three was full, but Faith’s was empty. She asked a flight attendant if I could move up there, and the attendant replied that we had to wait until after the plane had taken off and they could check weight and balance. So, after the plane took off, I wandered up to Faith’s row to sit with her and ran into an attendant on the way.

Attendant: “Did you ask if you could move up here?”
Me: “Yes.” I (okay, Faith) had asked “if I could move up here”. The flight attendant did not ask if I had gotten permission to move up there.
Attendant: “Okay”

So, I sat down and promptly fell asleep. A few moments later the attendant poked me awake and asked if I had gotten explicit permission from an attendant. I stared blankly and let out an “uhhhh” for a moment as my brain started working again.

Attendant: “The attendant said you needed to wait to check weight and balance, right?”
Me: “Yes, but that’s not what you asked…”
Attendant: “You should have waited for permission.”

I thought she was going to boot me back to my seat, but she graciously let us stay there for the remainder of the flight. We arrived in Seattle to a beautiful sunrise and an awe-inspiring view of Mt. Rainier through our window. We descended through the clouds, landed, deplaned, hopped into our chauffeured ride (my aunt), and headed back to my aunt and uncle’s house. Once there, I worked for a while while Faith hung out and took a walk with Liberty, my aunt. Scott, my uncle, got home later and brought a dinner of lobster rolls, dungeness crab, crab cakes, and a variety of raw oysters. We had a delectable meal that evening and prepared ourselves for the four days of backpacking ahead.

The next morning we awoke at a reasonable hour and quickly collected and packed gear for our weekend adventure. We were going on a four-day, three-night hike through the Cascades to see some spectacular vistas and gorgeous lakes. We started by dropping off one car at a trailhead and driving another up to Stevens Pass, the end and start of our hike. Once at the pass, we taped our feet to prevent blisters, put on our boots, set our poles, and began hiking south along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). It was an awesome time to be hiking, as the blueberries that coat the mountains were fully ripe and begging to be eaten. Over the course of the next few days, we frequently stopped to pick blueberries of several varieties and many flavors: the berries that grew in the sun were far superior to those that grew in the shade. We hiked up across the skiing area at Stevens Pass, down the backside, and up to Trap Pass where we left the PCT and took a route (non-official trail) to Thunder Lakes between Thunder and Thor mountains. Upper Thunder Lake is about as close as you get to the peak and provides spectacular views of the north Cascades including Mt. Daniel, Mt. Hinman, Glacier Peak, and Mt. Stuart. We stopped here for the night as we were pretty tuckered from all the climbing. Thanks to the protective tape, my feet were fine, but Faith’s were a mess. She had several gnarly blisters on her toes from her new boots. She put some stuff on them to help overnight, we ate dinner, and fell asleep quickly.

The next morning, we got up and walked around to the other side of the lake to get some different views and watch a mother and kid mountain goat poke around the rocks. Today, Faith opted for wearing sandals and socks instead of boots. I was skeptical that it would work, but Faith had no problem keeping up as we hiked back to Trap Pass, down across the valley, and up to Pieper Pass. We continued on down to Deception Lake to pause for lunch and catch tadpoles (at least for Faith). Our next leg was around the back of the valley and up it to Marmot Lake, our next camp for the night. However, inclement weather had a different idea, and we soon found ourselves dodging misting rain and downpours under trees. We agreed to press on to the lake and made our way down the valley and back up to its edge to a campsite just above the lake. Fortunately, we were out of the rain by this point, but most of the plants were still covered in rain, so we got wet anyway. We made dinner and passed out after discovering that Faith’s feet were even worse.

The next morning we left our camp set up and hiked up a steep rock scramble to Jade Lake, a lake that was part of a glacier seemingly a few decades ago. Rock flour from the glacier has made the lake a beautiful solid teal-ish color, quite the contrast of the deep blue of all the other alpine lakes we had passed. We hiked back down to our camp, broke it, then walked back down to the back of the valley to take another trail that went down the center of the valley to the ending trailhead of our hike. We made it most of the way down, but Faith’s knee was bothering her and descending caused the most pain. We still had several miles left, so we called it a night at a lovely camp by a stream and gave Faith’s knee and my now-blistered feet a few hours of rest.

The next day was light work, we hiked about five miles down the valley and to the car, loaded up, picked up the other car, then got stuck in at least an hour of traffic on the way home thanks to a pair of stoplights in a tiny town a ways down the highway. But, we made it home eventually to unpack our bags, do some laundry, take a shower, put a new belt in the van (old one was getting worn out), and start packing up our van for the next day. We had an excellent dinner of sous vide steak, morels, and baked potatoes that pleased the taste buds and helped us pass out soon after thanks to a tiring but rewarding backpacking trip.