Windy to Mirror

Molly Happy
ready to go!

Saturday September 3rd after returning to the car from Mt Catherine Molly and I spent a couple hours resting enjoying the sun while I made up my mind as to the condition of my ankle.  It was tender but not all that bad in my book.  I didn't feel that I needed any meds to take care of any pain and there was no swelling to be noted at that time.

PCT tail Head Windy Pass

Off came the day pack and on went the old Kelty Frame pack for me and Molly doned her own pack and we were off to the trail head at Windy Pass for the PCT which we would follow the 3.5 miles to Mirror lake and spend the night.  I was hoping that come morning that my ankle would be just fine and that we would be able to climb Silver Peak as that was my goal for the weekend.

Mt Catherine OUCH!

The trail starts off at National Forest Development Road 2236 and heads up through a not to long ago clear cut that is filled with blue berry bushes and Hukle berry bushes.  Over a small bridge past a pond and on into some older growth and pass the camp site that we spent the previous night at.  Most of the hike is in the trees with sections of the trail coming out into rocky clearings where the trees have not had a chance to take over.  From one of these such spots I was able to look back at and enjoy a the sight of Mt Catherine were we had had our lunch and  I had so much fun on the way down.

Mirror Lake camp site.

We made it to Mirror Lake about 6pm and made camp on the north end of the lake so that we would be able to take advantage of the early morning sun.  It was still warm and Molly first headed for some wading as she still will not go swimming to this day unless she has no other choice.  I on the other hand was glad to remove the old pack from my sore back now and got at setting up camp.  Across the lake on the west side was a family and their girls were trying to go swimming I had a good chuckle as I could hear there screams of joy and shock at how cold the water was as the splashed around.

View of Mirror Lake from my camp site.

Once the tent was set up Molly came up and found a spot to lie down and rest and I got around to making dinner for the both of us.  I set out kibbles for Molly which she ignored and for wanting to get into the tent as she had had enough of all the buzzing friends that she had made.  So I dried her off as best as possible and placed her blanket down in the tent and in she went to her relief.  She just crashed and only lifted up her head to look at me when I had my dinner of Beef Stroganoff.

Soon the evening breeze died down to nothing and Mirror lived up to it's name.  I sat there enjoying the last of the sun listening to the buzz of the insects and bits of conversation that traveled across the lake from other campers.  I enjoyed a fire that evening and Molly enjoyed staying in the tent and snoozing till I came and joined her for the night.  I was tiered, sore but quite content with all that the day had brought.  One that I will not forget.

Got up shortly after sun rise Sunday morning. Molly was all rested and ready to have another day of hiking.  She had slept though most of the night with one exception I am not sure what it was that she had heard but she made sure that what ever it was that we where there and not to be messed with. I am sure that her barking got the attention of everyone around the lake as there is a great echo there.  Never did find out what it was but made me sure glad to have my little girl with me.

I made myself some coffee and went and sat on a rock at the lake side and spent the early hours watching the fish feed on the marid of mosquito's and flies that where every where to be seen.  I even got to watch blue dragon fly's do a mating dance along the shore.

Silver Peak

Well I made the choice not to climb Silver Peak that morning as the ankle was stiff, a bit sore and was starting to show a bit of swelling. So, thinking it best I packed up and decided to just head back to Windy pass.  Molly and I headed out up the 1/2 mile of switch backs to the ridge above the lake where you can find the Cold Creek trail that leads down to Twin Lakes form which you can loop back up to Windy pass on another trail that you find there.  But I was thinking that down and then up again was not for me plus I had heard that there were a few blow downs on that trail and I had had enough of those up on Catherine the day before.

As we descended the ridge I got a great view of Silver Peak and knew that I would be back as soon as I could.  The view from the top just had to be way to good to pass up.

Molly and I meet quite a few hikers on the trail both two legs and four.  I was so proud of Molly she was well behaved with all. We only had one blow down on the PCT that Molly was able to jump up and the down to get over.  The rest of the trail was in great shape and mostly down hill to the pass which we arived at about 2pm which gave us just enough time to make it down to Seattle and to a friends house for a Labor Day BBQ.  Didn't have to do any cooking that evening just a long shower to get clean and a soft bed to sleep in of which Molly had to join me in.

Bellow is a slide shoe of all my Picture enjoy!

Windy Pass To Mirror Lake

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Mt. Catherine and the Ouch part 2

So there we stat on top of Mt Catherine enjoying our lunch and me enjoying the view while eating our lunch until it was time to head down.

Down we plunged the first bit as it is almost straight down me holding onto the cables and Molly making a mad dash of it to where the trail leveled off to a more reasonable grade.  The top half of the trail was in a good state with only a couple of blow downs that were easy to traverse.  But it was not long before we where once again faced with the Mess.

The one difference I noticed right off was that some one had left ribbons marking the way through. Over under and around we went always spotting the next ribbon to  head for.  Some of the trees were just to big for my little girl so I would lift her up on top and have her wait as I climbed over then help her down on the other side.

We came to on spot were I had to drop though the branches of a tree.  The hole that I dropped through was not much larger then me and it was about 3 feet down before you reached the ground.  I went first and looked back up at Molly looking at me not wanting to budge.  So I coxed her to the edge and took her front paws and  helped her come on though.  Ok yes I had to pull her a bit as she didn't want to do it but I caught her and brought her down safely.

The next barrier was logs and a big root ball  so we had to traverse through were the roots had been ripped out of the ground.  All that was left was a big hole that went all the way down to the rock of the mountain.  Molly hopped down no problem.  I was not as lucky.  It was just a little bit down like 2 feet that I had to jump with what appeared to be solid rock to land on.  But the rock my right foot landed on decided that it didn't like all my weight on it and rolled to the right forcing all my weight onto the side of my right ankle.

So there I sat in the middle of this depression left from this huge tree that had been blown over in the middle of the mess.  First thought get Molly back on the leash so she doesn't wonder off. Done!  Next ok well did I break it or what.  Ok how much food and water do I have.  Yep I have the whistle to call for help.  Nope didn't even look at the cell to see if it could be of use.  That all went through my head in about a second flat.

Well I was not in all that much pain after sitting for a minute and checking things out so I frigged that I didn't break anything but it was tender.  Time to stand up and see if I could put any weight on it.  To my surprise I was able to with out much difficulty at all. Molly and I started off once again always keeping an eye out for the next ribbon.

At the next ribbon there were two of them tied to the branch of one of these great big trees and I recognized that this is the first one that I had spotted on my way up and looking south there was the trail once again.  We had no problems getting back to Windy Pass and the car.  Despite the turning of my ankle I really enjoyed this hike.  Yes it was extremely difficult but I got to put all my skills to work and had a wonderful time doing it.

This is how it looked two days later.