Day 3 50-Miler

Day 3 11.37 miles, 4:11 hiking time, One of  the steepest downhill trails I’ve encountered!

Day 3 was kind of unique.

The first 7 miles of the day’s hike was on a paved road.  This was a little hard on the feet but it made the miles pass pretty quickly.

We had some beautiful roadside waterfall sightings.

And we saw some little critters that seemed to move faster than some of the weary travelers.

We had a great stopping place for lunch, a bridge over the Lewis River.

We did a little resourceful fishing for water.

Just a mile or so up road 88, we ran into road 90 and headed west.  There we found the Summit Meadow Trail.

Our support pair had already gone up the trail, it was uphill from the start with a fairly steep incline. The hearts were pumping as we passed beautiful waterfalls and lush scenery.  We got close to the top of the hill and met our support team.  Another half-mile up the trail and we found their tent set up on a gravel clearing.

It was fairly early in the afternoon so, we discussed whether to set up camp or head down the other side of the hill to find a camp along Quartz Creek.  We headed down, and down, and down!  The trail was steep but just beautiful.

There were several trees down across the trail.  We had to crawl under on our hands and knees and pass our backpacks over the top.

The downhill was so grueling, I knew my knees would feel it for days (or weeks).

The trail was narrow, overgrown and a little difficult to follow.  It was apparent that not many people use this trail.  I usually enjoy downhills as a break from the exertion (even though my knees don’t appreciate downhills), but this downhill was a workout.  I was dripping with sweat when I finally reached the bottom.

We all took advantage of the large log at the bottom of the hill to take a breather.  Quartz Creek was flowing past us high, fast and cold.  Not a candidate for a wade across.  Fortunately, a large pine tree had fallen just 50 feet downstream and made for a perfect crossing bridge.

We all got across the log without any problems.

We weren’t sure where we would camp on night 3, what a great blessing and an answer to prayers as we got off the log and started hiking downstream.  Not more than 50 feet away was a camp site!  It was quite small but it had a fire ring and everyone was ready to stop for the day.  It was probably our most scenic site with the huge, old-growth trees, creek-side camp with rain-forest like greenery surrounding us.

We packed in the tents and got set up for dinner with more MREs.

Some of the scouts caught fish in the creek and promptly set them free.

We had a nice scoutmaster minute

and a few skits including a memorable rendition of the “ultimate rap battle”.

Day 3 was a super day, I got to take a little splash bath in chilly Quartz Creek.  That helped me feel refreshed and ready for my best nights sleep so far on the trip!