With only 18 miles to White Pass, we decided to sleep in and enjoy the sunrise. We would start the day by climbing Old Snowy Mountain, the highest section of trail in Washington.
Immediately after our campsite was a large snowfield. It seems that Old Snowy is appropriately named. This was mile 2274.
The route up Old Snowy is actually a PCT alternate, since horses can’t do the rock scrambling. Most hikers opt for the ridge climb up to Old Snowy and then descend down what’s known as the knife edge. Getting to the summit required some class 3 scrambling, but nothing too crazy. It was worth it and gave us 360 views of the southern Cascades and some huge volcanoes.
You can see the ridge behind me that the trail follows for a few miles. It was strenuous hiking, but really fun.
The north side of Old Snowy still has a lot of snow. You can see the tiny little summit block on top. There were a couple campsites tucked into the rocks that would have made for some fun camping.
After descending down the ridge into the trees, we hiked to White Pass. After 144 miles, I was ready for some hot food. The gas station at White Pass doesn’t have much, but the turkey and Swiss croissant was just what I needed. I took my phone off airplane mode and I got a text saying my friend Seth was on his way to pick me up. Meghan was in town and her family was having a BBQ for her and I was going to be a surprise guest.
I hadn’t showered in 9 days, but everyone still wanted to hug me. It was fun seeing everyone and Meghan was so surprised! I spent the rest of the night eating and drinking before finally cleaning up and going to bed. I’ll be taking a few days off the trail to go hiking with Meghan and some friends in the Enchantments.