We were lucky enough to have the time, energy, fitness, and wellness (which I never take for granted these days!) to go on three backpacking trips this summer together; Zach also went on several backcountry trail work trips with Washington Trails Association (WTA).
Jennifer wanted to make sure all of her backpacking gear and body parts were in good working order before our second trip (see below), so we did a short overnight trip to Blossom Lake in mid-August. Blossom Lake is near Thompson Pass on the Idaho-Montana border, which (although we had been there before) we chose mostly because it was short and nearby. It was pleasant, and we enjoyed many huckleberries along the way.
Our second trip was a 6-day, roughly 65-mile stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in the vicinity of Mt. Adams, which we did in late August. We did this trip with our friends Jim, Mary Beth, and Belinda, whom we know from trail work with the WTA, so we were able to leave one car at the start point and another at the end point and hike through. We had perfect weather, found lots of huckleberries, and were bothered by only a couple of mosquitos — a good combination. We had many close-up views of Mt. Adams on this trip, and we could see Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens many of the days as well. There were also alpine lakes, waterfalls, and wildflowers to gaze at. Jennifer got some foot blisters on day 4, but she was able to tape up her feet and make it through the rest of the trip. The PCT is very popular, so we were always being passed by the much faster thruhikers, and most nights there were other people sharing our campsites. But of course they are all friendly backpackers, so it was fine; Jim and Mary Beth had fun asking all the thruhikers what their “trail names” were, and they gave Jennifer a trail name of “Story Time” because she was often relating stories of her many past adventures.
Our third trip was a loop in the Cabinet Mountains near Libby, Montana. Unlike the PCT, this area is not heavily traveled — we saw a total of 3 people in three days. The trail was much steeper than the PCT (Jennifer’s Achilles tendon didn’t like that too much), and the scenery was different — no volcanoes to see, but there were many beautiful rocky peaks, alpine meadows, streams, forests, and lakes. As we went in late September, the huckleberries were past their prime, but Jennifer still enjoyed a few. This may have been a good a thing actually, because this area is grizzly bear country, and they might have been enjoying the berries along with us if we’d been there in August! As it was, we saw a few elk way off in the distance, as well as one very distant mountain sheep or goat that we watched for about an hour, and on the third day we also heard some elk bugling.
