Another camp that I will never forget was in the Northern Cascades in Washington State. I was in the last week of my PCT hike, on 16 Sept 2018, and during the day I had run into the first blizzard of the season. It was a complete white-out, just when I was on the top of a mountain pass. But fortunately it didn't last long. After a while the snow just turned into miserable rain. At least I could see the trail again and where I was heading!
Just when it was getting dark, I found rare dry ground under some trees and pitched my tent. But then I discovered that close to my tent the ground was smouldering! How fire could have started there, I have no idea. Anyway, I was afraid that it could turn into a fire overnight while I was sleeping, which would be extremely dangerous. So I made a few sorties to a nearby 'stream' that had formed because of the rain to fetch water to properly extinguish it. Not much fun because I was very tired after a long hiking day with lots of climbing and descending and it was almost dark, but it had to be done.
During the night there was lots of rain that froze on my tent. No problem, I was warm and dry and really enjoyed the night in my cosy little tent! Gradually the rain turned into snow again. The next morning I woke up with a blue sky and sunshine! What a change from the miserable rain for days on end! But when I wanted to exit my tent, I couldn't because the zippers had frozen! I had to wait for the sun to thaw it (actually I could have got out of my tent if I really wanted to, by pulling out a peg and crawl under the flysheet).
When I got out of my tent, I was stunned by the beautiful winter wonderland!
The sun shines! And along the trail I saw a deer jumping around in the snow.Starting the descend, it's a bit tricky because the steep switchbacks are still covered by virgin snow. But soon at lower elevation the snow gets thinner. Eventually I enter a wonderful fairy-tale forest!
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The snow melts and evaporates quickly in the sun. “Steam” is coming from the trees, which leads to this beautiful play of light!When I pitch my tent at Cloudy Pass at the end of the day, I realise that I haven't seen a single person the entire day. I had all this beauty all for myself! And I felt so happy. It was wonderful!
