Day 162 (28 September) - Mile 2321.34 - 2339.31

Chinook Pass Trailhead to Small creek, campsite nearby

I woke up for the last morning in the Packwood cabin. After spending three nights here, I was kind of getting used to it. Tim was anxious to get going so he can return to the cabin before checkout after dropping us back on the trail.   By just after 9:00 AM we were in the 4Runner and on our way back to the trailhead where Tim picked us up last night. 

After a 20 minute tunnel construction wait, we arrived at the trailhead to find Aviator and KodaChrome there. Of course we invited them to our daily photo and we were ready to hike by 10:20 AM. 

Ready to hike with Aviator and KodaChrome

Today we only have 18 miles to hike since we knew we would get a later start out of the cabin. The day started with a 3 mile climb up from the road onto the ridge of the mountainside. After the climb we stopped for lunch on a saddle and think this might be our last glimpse of Mount Rainier.

Mount Rainier looking great at lunch

Color Chrome making it to lunch

Today's hike was beautiful and not too bad of elevation change. In the 18 mile hike, we gained and lost just under 3,000 feet. These are the days we can make some miles.

Beautiful scenery

Self-portrait "High up"

Check out this really nice PCT sign I saw on the trail today:

PCT sign of the day

Share Bear and I were anxious to get to camp so we hiked straight through from lunch and managed to get to camp right at 6:00 PM. This allowed me to collect/filter water, cook/eat dinner and get into my tent by 8:00 PM. It's a good thing too since it is before 9:00 PM and I am exhausted and ready to get to sleep. 

Oh, we decided to start waking up at 5:30 AM regularly now because it is getting dark by 7:20 PM so we want to be at camp by 7:00 PM. It will take me a few days to get used to the earlier start, so until then I will probably be pretty tired by the end of the day. Well...I better get to sleep now, so until tomorrow...

My home for the night