Dishpan Gap
Distance (mi)
Vertical (ft)
22.5
5,000'
Year Total
91.4
32,780'
Year Goal
200.0
75,000'
August 11-12 - We went for an overnight trip along the Pacific Crest Trail south of Glacier Peak. The weather was only semi-cooperative: on Saturday it was mostly fair, it rained a little overnight and was cloudy (but dry) on Sunday. This was mostly a loop hike - which I'm all about these days. After a nice hike up Cady Ridge, with ever-increasing views, we arrived at the junction with the PCT and headed north towards Dishpan Gap. I had read that there were decent campsites in that area, but on arriving at the Gap (a saddle point on the crest where four trails radiate out in all directions) we found a few reasonable spots to set up camp but only a stale melt pond for water. Easy access to clear water being a prime consideration when choosing a campsite, we kept going beyond the Gap towards Blue Lake a little ways to see if there was anything better to be found in that direction, but there was not. We returned to the Gap and headed north on the PCT instead to see what was to be found there. This time we hit paydirt - a campsite directly on the crest, with running water close by from a melting snow patch, and an awesome view north towards Glacier Peak and south towards the Little Wenatchee River valley. A work party from the Washington Trails Association set up camp here later in the afternoon as well - they would spend a week doing trail maintenance along the PCT.
After setting up camp and napping a while, we hiked farther north along the PCT and took a side trail up to the summit of aptly-named Kodak Peak. The views from there were indeed fantastic but the mosquitoes were out of this world. Summits tend to be calmer than ridges, so there wasn't a breeze to keep them at bay and they just congregated around us in a huge cloud. Needless to say we didn't dally at the summit for very long - a few photos and we were out of there.
Back at camp we watched the weather slowly move in. The clouds started pouring over nearby ridges around sunset. After a somewhat rainy and chilly night (sleeping in late, not being terribly eager to face the dreary weather outside), we awoke to clouds hanging above us. But the rain had stopped, fortunately. We packed up and hiked out south on the PCT, passing Lake Sally Ann and traversing along the side of Skykomish Peak. Despite the less than amazing weather, the views were still quite good and the walking enjoyable. As we dropped down from the PCT and headed back towards the car on the Cady Creek trail, we passed a meadow filled with moths and butterflies.
All in all a pretty decent trip, in relative solitude - apart from the ten or so people in the WTA party, we saw maybe half a dozen other people all weekend.
