Day 3
Day 3
For day 3 we planned an early start for our hike down. We were both awake at 5:15 am and were soon out of our tents. It always takes longer to eat and break camp than it seems it should. This day was no different. We were packed and ready to start hiking at 6:42 am. That is an early start. The mosquitoes were still awful and my windshirt and head net were the last things I packed away. It would be a mostly downhill day. We dropped to the Lake Michael Trail and followed it down. It has a lot of loose rocky spots and that slowed us down. The cool morning was refreshing. We took a break at the Trail Creek Trail junction. That trail was much nicer. Over about 2.8 miles up to the Cathedral Pass Trail we would gain less than 400' net. The trail is mostly smooth. Best of all, other than a crossing of Trail Creek, the trail sits well above the creek. It was a humid morning but it was much better above the creek level. We made surprisingly good time on this section.
Gary noticed that a side trail goes to Squitch Lake. We missed it on the way out but with the help of the GPS we found it on the way back. We later saw on an old map that the Cascade Crest Trail used to follow that section of trail. We had not interest in going by a marshy bug infested pond/lake this day. We just cruised on by. We reached the Cathedral Pass Trail at 9:03 am. We just had two more miles to go. We saw a group of four or five climbers who went by before we arrived at the junction. They all had ice axes on their packs. It was early on Sunday morning but we were not surprised to finally see other hikers again. The Cathedral Pass Trail is popular. We saw groups occasionally coming up the rest of our way down. The Cathedral Pass Trail is much rockier than the Trail Creek Trail. It was much harder on my feet too. I was on the lookout again for the wintergreen plants and saw quite a few of them. It looked like we would be down by just a little after 10:00 am when we passed two guys heading up.
Gary asked them where they were going. They said to Moonshine Lake. That was a surprise. It turned out that they were among the guys who put up the trip report just a week earlier. They ran out of time getting to Goat Mountain and were back for some unfinished business. The chance that we would see them a week later and talk enough to find out it was them was very low. Strange things do happen in the mountains. I was glad to see the bridge over the Cle Elum River come into sight. It was 10:19 am when we reached my car. The lot was full and 21 cars were parked along the road heading out. More were parked up the road to the end. The forecast after noon high was 77 when we left Seattle. At 10:19 it was already 80F and warming. I was glad we came down early. A farmers market had the main side road in Roslyn closed with cars parked everywhere. We chose to head into Cle Elum for a post hike milkshake.
This trip was really a of fun. We had not been on the Cathedral Lake Trail for 23 years. Neither of us had been on any of the other trails we hiked. Neither of us had heard of Moonshine Lake just a week earlier. We had amazing solitude starting out from a very popular trailhead. The weather was clear and hot but not too hot. The mosquitoes were bad when sitting still but we came prepared with head nets, long sleeves and pants, and bug spray. It was bad but not awful. The wildflower display was not close to the fantastic show I had a week earlier on the Esmerelda Loop but it was still very good. It was also nice to get off trail on our two scrambles. The views up high were great. Best of all, it was really nice to get out on a backpacking trip after a rare year without any. For the weekend we hiked over 25 miles with 6600' of elevation gain.
For day 3 we planned an early start for our hike down. We were both awake at 5:15 am and were soon out of our tents. It always takes longer to eat and break camp than it seems it should. This day was no different. We were packed and ready to start hiking at 6:42 am. That is an early start. The mosquitoes were still awful and my windshirt and head net were the last things I packed away. It would be a mostly downhill day. We dropped to the Lake Michael Trail and followed it down. It has a lot of loose rocky spots and that slowed us down. The cool morning was refreshing. We took a break at the Trail Creek Trail junction. That trail was much nicer. Over about 2.8 miles up to the Cathedral Pass Trail we would gain less than 400' net. The trail is mostly smooth. Best of all, other than a crossing of Trail Creek, the trail sits well above the creek. It was a humid morning but it was much better above the creek level. We made surprisingly good time on this section.
Gary noticed that a side trail goes to Squitch Lake. We missed it on the way out but with the help of the GPS we found it on the way back. We later saw on an old map that the Cascade Crest Trail used to follow that section of trail. We had not interest in going by a marshy bug infested pond/lake this day. We just cruised on by. We reached the Cathedral Pass Trail at 9:03 am. We just had two more miles to go. We saw a group of four or five climbers who went by before we arrived at the junction. They all had ice axes on their packs. It was early on Sunday morning but we were not surprised to finally see other hikers again. The Cathedral Pass Trail is popular. We saw groups occasionally coming up the rest of our way down. The Cathedral Pass Trail is much rockier than the Trail Creek Trail. It was much harder on my feet too. I was on the lookout again for the wintergreen plants and saw quite a few of them. It looked like we would be down by just a little after 10:00 am when we passed two guys heading up.
Gary asked them where they were going. They said to Moonshine Lake. That was a surprise. It turned out that they were among the guys who put up the trip report just a week earlier. They ran out of time getting to Goat Mountain and were back for some unfinished business. The chance that we would see them a week later and talk enough to find out it was them was very low. Strange things do happen in the mountains. I was glad to see the bridge over the Cle Elum River come into sight. It was 10:19 am when we reached my car. The lot was full and 21 cars were parked along the road heading out. More were parked up the road to the end. The forecast after noon high was 77 when we left Seattle. At 10:19 it was already 80F and warming. I was glad we came down early. A farmers market had the main side road in Roslyn closed with cars parked everywhere. We chose to head into Cle Elum for a post hike milkshake.
This trip was really a of fun. We had not been on the Cathedral Lake Trail for 23 years. Neither of us had been on any of the other trails we hiked. Neither of us had heard of Moonshine Lake just a week earlier. We had amazing solitude starting out from a very popular trailhead. The weather was clear and hot but not too hot. The mosquitoes were bad when sitting still but we came prepared with head nets, long sleeves and pants, and bug spray. It was bad but not awful. The wildflower display was not close to the fantastic show I had a week earlier on the Esmerelda Loop but it was still very good. It was also nice to get off trail on our two scrambles. The views up high were great. Best of all, it was really nice to get out on a backpacking trip after a rare year without any. For the weekend we hiked over 25 miles with 6600' of elevation gain.
 Morning At Moonshine |
 On The Trail |
 Lots Of Vanilla Leaf |
 Another Columbine |
 Meadow |
 Arnica & Columbine |
 Crossing Trail Creek |
 Lit Up Lupine |
 Heading Uphill |
 Nearing Trail Junction |
 More Queen's Cup |
 Gary & Big Tree |
 Coralroot |
 Back To Wintergreen |
 A Nice Wintergreen |
 Bunchberry Flower |
 Twinflowers |
 On The Flats |
 Back To The Bridge |
 Looking Downstream |
 Last Water Crossing |
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