The beasts have woken. They haven’t gotten insanely bloodthirsty yet, but with each hot summer minute, more and more mosquitos hatch and hone in.

We picked an extremely scenic yet windy spot for our tent last night. Once the sun went down, the winds picked up and started splashing up a fine volcanic sand into the air. We were already dozing by this time, and the increasingly gritty air roused Kirk. He got up to put the fly on the tent, but everything was already covered in sand. In the morning, piles of sand were in every little crevice, even our eyes.

First creek of the day: fash wash.

The trail around Mt Adams is blissfully graded. Even though we hadn’t met up with the PCT yet (we would get there about mid-day), the trail followed the contour lines of elevation most delightfully. The walking was wonderful. Of course, this was early season, so numerous blow-downs created tree gauntlets.

But now: the aches. My hip still hurt. But it was more like a dull ache today. I must have pulled a muscle climbing over one of the first fallen trees. It wasn’t debilitating, but I slowed my roll anyway. Oh, my hips!

The snow drifts increased in number and size as we worked our way to the western side of the mountain. Kirk put on his gortex socks, and I put on my chacos. We had two different strategies for dealing with the slushy snow.

PCT!!

The trail’s character didn’t change much when we reached the PCT; we were half expecting a wide superhighway of a trail, but it stayed 12″ and moderate. We did see many more footprints, though, and one woman with a tiny dog on a tiny leash.

Our goal was a high alpine lake. One map I had showed a trail to Crystal Lake, the other one didn’t. Then we missed the trail junction…the sign could have been under snow…but we found our way up, and faint traces of a trail disappeared under snow drifts and trees that had shattered in 200 pieces when they hit the ground.

Ironically, we started to see footprints, and when getting to the little aquamarine blue lake, met the two other backpackers (there have been very few people up here). There was room for all, so we hiked up past the lake to find the perfect nook with a view. This spot had trees for hammock time and enough shelter from the wind that we expect to be sand-in-the-face-free in the morning.

Except the lack of wind meant the beasts were out. And they were thirsty.